Iron Man in the 2000s: From D-List to A-List
The 2000s were a wild decade for Iron Man as the book made the final push into mainstream relevance. This push was completed in two ways. The first was that, for years, the series was always following behind real world technological innovations. As the writers struggled to keep up with the growing digital world, so too did it seem as though that Tony Stark himself was struggling to adapt to this new world. For a character that is supposed to a futurist (and to be fair, they didn’t start calling him that until this decade), he was sure going about the internet age backward. Stark shouldn’t be working in the technology of today, he should be developing the technology of tomorrow. That’s what writers finally got right in this decade, however we had to go through some growing pains to get there.
While this was slowly being realized near the end of the previous decade, the start of the 2000s showed a brief step backward in the evolution of the character.
The start of the decade saw the plotlines by writers Kurt Busiek, Roger Stern, and artist Sean Chen were coming to an end, issues #24 and 25 wrapping up the Ultimo storyline that capped off the 1990s. It was around this time that Joe Quesada stepped in, starting with a special ½ issue that was only available through Wizard Magazine. See kids, in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Wizard was co-produce special issues of a series and charge you something outrageous like $7 for a 12 page comic that was usually just a recap of previous storylines or a primer for an upcoming event. It was all fluff, but it was also a rare collectable guys! it’ll be worth something someday! Over 20 years later (as I write this) and a mint copy goes for $80.
Joey Q was becoming a rising star at Marvel after helping revitalize a number of their properties through the Marvel Knights imprint. Farming out titles like the Punisher, Black Widow, and Black Panther out to other creative teams outside of Marvels usual stable of creatives. Quesada’s run started with a storyline that involved a suit of Iron Man armor becoming sentient between issues #26 to 30. While this was an interesting plot, it spent an issue with a stupid fake out dream story where Tony’s true identity was revealed. By the time all of the people in his personal life were killed, we realize that it was all a dream. This some Silver Age DC Comics type of shit. Not the type of story you’d expect the company who coined the phrase “No a hoax! Not a dream!” in response to such pointless stories.
However, it was an means to an end. If you know enough about Joe Quasada, you know that he doesn’t like it when the status quo is interrupted. His idea of who these Marvel characters are and what they should be is locked in to a specific era. Look, there is no denying that he breathed new life into Marvel Comics when they really needed it, but to say his ideas were revolutionary or trend setting is a joke. I’ll respect him for saving the company, but that won’t carry over to the stories he has chosen to tell when he had the opportunity to write stories.
This run of Iron Man is a perfect example because it takes Iron Man one big step backwards. It saddled Tony Stark with heart problems (again) only this time it he now had a mechanical heart that needed to be regularly charged. Like giving a tired old storyline (Tony has heart problems) a different coat of paint will make it seem different. But putting lipstick on a pig doesn’t change the fact that it’s still a pig, you get me? Worse, Quesada decided to come up with a contrivance where Tony Stark begins wearing older suits of Iron Man armor. His conclusion was saddling him with a bout of technophobia. Tony Stark. The inventor. Afraid of technology. Oh don’t worry, things are going to get much more stupid before they get any better.
The next story arc, co-written with Frank Tieri with art by Althia Martinez for issues #26 and 27 and wrapped up in Annual 2000 with artist Dan Panosan and Paul Ryan. introduced the Sons of Yinsen. This was a group of people who worshiped Ho Yinsen, the guy who helped build the first suit of Iron Man armor. They end up fighting Wong-Chu, yeah the cookie cutter Asian stereotype that Iron Man fought in his first appearance. We then learn that Wong-Chu has been keeping Yinsen’s brain. There are some interesting ideas but a lot of contrivances to explain how two characters who are supposed to be dead are kicking around. I will admit the Sons of Yinsen idea was interesting, but don’t expect it to get much milage after this story. More on that in a second.
The next three issues (33 to 35) tie into the Maximum Security event that was happening in most other Marvel books at the time. This saw the planet Earth become a prison planet for alien criminals. This three parter acts as a prologue of sorts to that event even though it isn’t’ directly tied until the final part. It features a poorly named alien villain called — brace yourself — Max Power holding exclusive parties where the patrons are given drugs that give them superpowers for a bit. Mutant Growth Hormone becomes a Marvel drug-du-jour, and is handled a lot better as a McGuffin by more competent writers. Here, the art changes every issue from Althia Martinez in issue 33, to Paul Ryan in issue #34, back to Martinez in issue #35.
With that, Quesada departs from the book which is both a blessing and a curse. Issue #36 is a fill in issue by Chuck Dixon and penciler Paul Ryan. In it, Iron Man goes on a salvage operation for SHIELD on the bottom of the Atlantic only to discover they are trying to recover a Hydra bio-engineered creature. It’s your typical fill in issue, nothing really much to say about it.
Regular writer on the series becomes Frank Tieri and his first story line has aged poorly. It’s about the return of Tony’s old school chum, Tiberius Stone. Stone has created a new invention called Dreamvision and uses the next four issues to try and ruin Tony’s life. He smears his public image, wrecks his ability to conduct business, turns the public against Iron Man, and steals his girlfriend. The whole Dreamvision is played out as some kind of VR technology thing that a lot of writers tried to do after the Matrix became popular. The artwork takes a serious dive in quality, as though Althea Martinez couldn’t keep up with the schedule or something. Paul Ryan steps in to help issue #39, and the final issue six artists to get finished. While one of them is the legendary John Romita, Sr., six artists sounds like a book in trouble to me.
From issue #41 on a new artist steps in named Keron Grant, who was making his Marvel debut after working for various indies. While Martinez was — when given the time to work — a decent replacement after the very realism of Sean Chen, Keron Grant was a huge departure. How do I describe Grant’s work? It’s like someone trying to imitate Humberto Ramos based on someone’s elses description. It’s cartoony. People have exaggerated proportions and huge hands and feet. It is such a sharp change from the semi-realism. It’s not the worst work I’ve seen on Iron Man, but it’s not going to make my favorites list. Grant remains on the title until issue #46.
It’s part of a really dumb storyline where Tony Stark decides to give up his regular life and becomes a working stiff at a tech company under the alias Hogan Potts. This also finally gets rid of the vintage suits in favor for a new Iron Man armor, but the design looks like ass, so it’s not much of an improvement. This new direction is backpedaled pretty quick as the Tony Stark is being back pedaled into getting his own company back on top of everything else. I suspect the editorial interference of Joe Quesada, who was already Marvel’s new Editor-in-Chief for a while now.
Udon Studios was brought in to carry over the artwork from the next two issues. It wraps up the whole Sons of Yinsen storyline. TL;DR it was Ultron. It’s always Ultron. This story also saw Sons of Yinsen leader Son Tao appear to become part of the regular cast. However, he doesn’t appear again after issue #49’s ‘Nuff Said contribution.
From here the book goes off in an entirely new direction with Mike Grell as writer and artist Michael Ryan. Their first three issues try to use Iron Man as a method of social commentary. Issue #50 works, as it commends on the conflicts happening in Eastern Europe that were still on going a decade after the fall of the Soviet Union. This story also attempts to modernize Iron Man’s origins. It’s mostly the same, only adding that Tony was developing a suit of battle armor for the military. This is actually a decent addition to the origin story, since it makes it seem less like the Iron Man armor was just pulled out of his ass, or mostly the brainchild of Ho Yinsen. At least with this version of events, Stark had already been trying to develop something. Anyway, this story also focuses on the horrors of war by having Iron Man help with the resistance. Also they toss in a brand new suit of Iron Man armor at this point because, lets be honest, the SKIN suit looked like ass.
The next two issues are an odd choice, where we learn that Tony opened a halfway house for former sex workers. This story tries to humanize sex workers but the message gets lost in a whodunnit murder mystery that kind of trivializes the whole thing, I think.
Issue #53-55, artists Ryan Odagawa, Michael Ryan, and Chris Eliooulos introduces a new villain to the lore. Temugin, the son of the Mandarin. This, I think, was an effort of replacing the Mandarin with a successor that isn’t a walking Asian stereotype. The final issue has a back up story where Iron Man finally reveals his identity to the public. People often rag on this story because the big reveal being done to save a little boy’s puppy. Which, yeah, it’s not very good. But I think this story should be more criticized that for the devolution of Rumiko Fujikawa.
When she was being written by Kurt Busiek, the character used the “spoiled rich kid” as a front to hide that she was actually quite a capable person. Every successive writer went the opposite direction. She stopped being an intelligent person. She was either treated as an exotic trophy for Tony Stark, or a vapid bimbo that didn’t care about anyone but herself. She became a very unlikable character. It also got worse when Mike Grell also tried to create a love triangle between Tony, Rumiko, and Pepper Potts. Then, if that’s not complicated enough he also decided to toss in Pepper Potts having a miscarriage. Marvel really loves a miscarriage stories apparently.
Grell would continue writing the title until issue #56, while things were passed off to a new writing Robin Law in the middle of a story arc. That’s never a good sign. At any rate, issues #56-58 was wrapping up a loose with Tiberius Stone. Issues #59-61 is another “Tony goes back in time to midevil times” which has been done to death at this point. Issue #62-63 is a bizarre story where Tony is saved by an angel at Christmas time. For a character who is science base and is supposed to be athiest. Also, a Christmas miracle? Seriously? This such hack material. Issue #64 is part of a three part story that was carried on in the pages of Thor and the Avengers, where Iron Man and Thor throw down over political differences. The art is done by the legendary Alan Davis. It’s another international commentary where one hero tries to use force to change the world, another hero shows up and says “no, it can’t be done this way”, there is a throwdown, then the issue isn’t really resolved.
The final Grel storyarc is one more battle with Temguin. This is the arc where Robin Law takes over. It’s a decent “final battle” between the two. Law only does one more storyline, issues #70-72. It’s an odd non-sensical story about how Howard Hughes was protecting the world from an alien virus. The virus gets unleashed, Tony destroys it, or so he thinks. The villain at the end of the story is picked up hitchhiking, only the character (mercifully) never turns up again (knock on wood).
Issues #73-85 were by John Jackson Miller, best known for his work on Star Wars comics over at Dark Horse. Miller, taking cues from current events, decided to have Tony Stark become the Secretary of Defense and help with the War on Terror. This was one of Marvel’s many reactions to the 9/11 Terrorist Attacks. It was an interesting premise, Tony Stark was to become the Secretary of State and his goal was to revamp the military with high tech non-lethal weapons. His goals were lofty, to make sure that nobody died in war ever again. While this was an interesting premise, it suffers from that “lofty ideas, want to change the system, but never actually accomplish anything” nature of the serialized superhero tale. Only this time it was worse.
This whole new direction didn’t last longer than a year. It wasn’t given much time to really go anywhere. If this storyline had a little more room to breath, I think it could have been interesting. However, this happened just as Marvel was revamping all of their Avengers related titles with Avengers Disassembled.
Marvel brought on writer Mike Ricketts and artist Tom Harris, to do a hatched job on any unresolved Iron Man storylines and wrap things up. Iron Man loses his job. Rumiko gets fridged. And it’s all done by a brand new villain who gets just enough backstory to explain why he’s going after Iron Man. Equally one of the weakest stories of the whole Disassembled event. I don’t often talk about covers in these blerbs, but I do want to point out that issues #86 to 89 feature covers by scum bag Pat Lee. This was right about the time when Dreamwave Productions was making a killing with their Transformers revival comic but just before Lee bankrupted the company. Lee notoriously stopped paying writers and artists, spent lavishly, and when his company was going bankrupt, transferred his assets to a brand new company so he wouldn’t have to liquidate them. Lee promised to pay everyone back, but to date, it doesn’t appear he ever did. If that doesn’t give you an idea of what an utter scum bag this guy is, he’s gone on to become an Instagram artist and hawking NFTs. Since Lee tires to inflate his credentials on the internet and try to cover up his checkered past, it’s always good to talk about the shitty things he’s done.
Complaints aside, this was the end point of the “old” Iron Man. What followed is the version of the character that is the version we’ve known for the past almost-20-years. The series was then rebooted. Warren Ellis and artist Adi Granov were brought on to breath some much needed new life into the title and character. Ellis, despite his problematic private life, was the right choice for the task. At the time, Ellis had recently finished his original series Transmetropolitan over at Vertigo. The series took place in a distant future and delved into sociopolitical issues and transhumanism. Writers always struggled to keep Tony Stark with the times, and Ellis proved that Tony Stark should be outpacing technology, not the other way around.
