Comments on: Flashes: Iron Man, Politics

By: Joe

Joe — Wed, 07 May 2008 16:36:39 +0000

Because PF mentioned the Mandarin I thought I’d pass along this rumor-iest of rumors concerning Iron Man 2. The writer does make a convincing argument about how it would work with the “Ten Rings” group featured in IM 1. Enjoy.
http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Scoop-Iron-Man-2-Plot-And-Villain-Details-8736.html

By: brd

brd — Tue, 06 May 2008 14:26:31 +0000

Oh, dear, and I liked Dan in Real Life. Am I shallow? I need to dig into the deeper levels of myself and force myself to go see Iron Man. I will be deeper, I will be deeper. Maybe I liked it because my family actually did play football together on holidays, that is, until my cousin Cindy lost her engagement ring in one skirmish. After that we spent every holiday out on the field with a metal detector searching for diamonds.

But, ahem, we have been missing the Fury posts and expect more regular appearances regardless of the frequency of Gorjus’ postings!

By: Professor Fury

Professor Fury — Mon, 05 May 2008 21:31:17 +0000

Something I forgot to include in the post was to point out that it's great that Marvel has a brand new Iron Man series debuting on Wednesday, featuring a great creative team in Matt Fraction and Salvador Larocca; yes, a new Iron Man #1 might be something that lots of people who went to see the movie might be interested in, especially if they read comics as a kid and drifted away or are intrigued enough by the character to want more. So, maybe it would have made sense for Marvel to buy some ad time trumpeting this fact? If not during the previews, then during the BS promo stuff that plays before the previews? Even just an intrusive scroll across the bottom of the Mamma Mia making-of fluff piece? I don't have a degree in marketing or anything, and I know I persist in the erroneous presumption that the comics matter as much/more than the other media Marvel produces, but, you know, synergy is synergy, right? Joe, A-men to your assessment of Dan; I wanted to punch everyone in the movie but Steve Carrell, and sometimes Steve Carrell too. You know, Gilmore Girls got away with a lot of similar stuff because it wore its fable-ness, its fairy-tale-ness, on its sleeve; but Dan seemed to think it was offering clear-eyed realism. Insufferable. I don't know what I expected, except that since I didn't see Bruce Almighty I still labor under the assumption that anything Steve Carrell is in is probably good. Superhero Kim Jung Il is an awesome idea, and I don't know why I haven't seen it already.

By: gorjus

gorjus — Mon, 05 May 2008 17:33:52 +0000

I gotta go see Iron Man. Also: the Eliot R. Brown-penned entry in the OHOTMU on the Mandarin’s rings kept me wide-eyed for DAYS! Also: go Cazayoux!

By: Joe

Joe — Mon, 05 May 2008 15:44:34 +0000

1. Dan in Real Life sucked (and I don’t usually say that about films…I usually find a nice way of saying it). It should have been called “Dan and his Pretentious Family” (See: family calisthenics scene, the family variety show scene, and the daughters’ unabashed hatred of the Steve Carell character (to say nothing of this multi-million dollar cabin they’re all visiting). Is this how rich people live? And, instead of making fun of how this family lives, is the film suggesting that we should all be so lucky as to have a family like Dan’s?

2. If you’ve read Fareed Zakaria’s story on the Post-American world (this week’s Newsweek) you know that the idea of China’s rise as a superpower is economic and not martial. China has only about 20 nuclear missiles that can reach the US. By contrast, we have some 830, most with multiple warheads, that can reach China. My point being that Tony Stark will have to deal with the threat of China’s rise (Stark Industries getting undercut by low-cost weapons manufacturing?) before Iron Man will. Still, though, I think you’re right about Iron Man needing some sort of Manichean struggle. Lest we forget that, in some parts of the globe (eh hem, North Korea) the Cold War never ended. I’d pay for an issue that featured Iron Man vs. the God-King/ Fatherly Leader Kim Jung IL!

3. About Don Cazayoux. A few days before the election we received a mailer from his supporters informing us that Woody Jenkins was “shipping our jobs to a communist country that offers state sponsored abortions”.

And I had to think: well played, sir. That’s the trifecta, right there (national defense, economy, abortion) in one sentence. All to the image of Woody Jenkins framed in front of a Chinese flag.