Metal Baby

 

There's a touch of Spring in the air. The days are lighter and milder but it's been nearly two months since I was home, entrenched as I am in Folio Hell at school.
This week, I've been listening to The Demons of Red Lodge and Other Stories, one of Big Finish's occasional multi-story releases and certainly their longest title. This one features Gravelly Davison and prim Sarah Sutton as Nyssa. The first episode is Invasion of the Body Snatchers meets Witchfinder General; the second is about killer Prog Rock, in which Nyssa pretends to be a Cockney groupie; the third blends The Shawdhank Redmption with Porridge then sets it in space; and the final, meta textual episode features the Doctor recording a dvd commentary for a Seventies horror movie.
This disc is an homage to those patchy,portmanteau movies from Amicus- Tales From The Crypt or Asylum- and the conceit extends to the stories themselves. The first episode evokes a creepy atmosphere but is disappointing because we had three discs a couple of years ago with Dr. Five and Nyssa in Mummerset. The prog story is utterly forgettable but the final two segments are more successful. Red Lodge is an undemanding, occasionally witty listen but Nyssa is such a one-dimensional Companion, she has to be distorted completely out of character to drive the plot.

 Tony Stark's armoured alter ego was one of Marvel's second-tier superheroes until the 2008 movie. While I had an aversion to mustachioed heroes as a kid (facial hair generally being the province of villains), nonetheless I read a fair few Iron Man comics:

Here are two from the 60s- the first bought for me in Strathaven, the second in East Kilbride. Debuting a few years before Ted Hughes' metal-eating giant hero, Iron Man is a fusion of chivalrous knight and living robot. Like many 60s Marvel series, there's a blatant Cold War subtext- the injured Stark is captured by Asian Communists in his origin story and the recurring supervillains- the Mandarin, the Unicorn, the Crusher- are Red Chinese, Russian and Cuban. Jon Favreau's conception of Tony Stark owes a great deal to Mark Millar's Ultimate Iron Man, however: narcissistic, self-destructive and obnoxious.
 So, about 90 minutes into Iron Man 2, I was eager for the film to end. Favreau (also doubling as Stark's chauffeur and confidant Happy Hogan, essentially a retread of Daredevil's Foggy Nelson) depicts snarky Stark as a a futurist, intuitive and inspired in his use of technology; and he also infuses Iron Man with the nerdy appeal of the Transformers. But unfortunately, like its predecessor, Iron Man 2 climaxes with a CGI version of Rock'em Sock'em Robots. Mark Millar's Ultimate Nick Fury, played by the scenery-chewing Samuel L. Jackson also turns up to ratchet the camp level up a few notches.
If it can be considered a good thing, the film is pretty faithful to several iterations of the Golden Avenger. Mickey Rourke's beefy Russian heavy is an amalgamation of this trio:

I wonder whether the cover above inspired McCartney's "Magneto and Titanium Man"?

Paul and Linda (and Erik) by the King

Iron Man 2 also incorporates elements from the 80s and 90s, principally the storylines in which Stark's pilot,Rhodey, assumes the Iron Man role (Denny O'Neil would later recycle this plot with Batman); and Rhodey's role as "War Machine" *sighs*.
Another significant new character is Natasha Romanoff (played by Scarlett Johannson). The Black Widow was a 60s Soviet femme fatale who debuted in the first Crimson Dynamo story. A sultry Sophia Loren-lookalike, I first encountered her in Don Heck-bouffant-supervillain mode with Hawkeye and then later as a defector and occasional Avengers ally:

In the very early 70s, when Wonder Woman morphed into modish Diana Rigg, the Widow emulated Modesty Blaise:

She was partnered with Daredevil and as I mentioned before, nearly 35 years ago, Angie Bowie was in the frame to precede Johansson to the (small) screen:

An uncanny resemblance,no?

While, in my eyes at least, half-a-decade too young for the Widow-lady, the efficient and deadly Johannson is the most striking and interesting new character in Iron Man 2 and seems likely to reappear in Whedon's Avengers movie. Although I still wish for this much-maligned 70s creation:

Claremont comes in for plenty of deserved criticism for his purple prose but he was a trailblazer in the 70s, giving his conflicted heroines-even, as here, the most minor of their number- a gravity and passion that seems missing in fanman-dominated comics today. Greer Grant Nelson was one of the first Marvel heroines to be launched as an independent character in her own right (as the Cat) with no male counterpart or partner- but has been portrayed as a coquette or, at worst, a liability and a victim for nearly 30 years. A sad indictment.

Iron Man 2 features a post-credits scene which gives a glimpse of the hammer of Thor- a fantasy element that speaks to me of the Marvel Kozmic of Jolly Jack Kirby; and that's the Iron Nose- sorry, Man, image I want to close with:

What If...Kirby hadn't returned to Cap for the Bicentennial?

It's powerful, exciting and colourful- everything comics should be.

Next time: Mind of a Toy
All images copyright of their respective owners, by Lenin's Ghost!