So I just saw Iron Man (unboxed minor spoilers)

Cafe Society
#1

So I just saw **Iron Man **last night. I had to wait for it to be on DVD, since there is no english dialogue theater near me. Iron Man was always one of my favorite superheroes when I was kid, but I hate the wya they turned into a gigantic asshole in the *Civil War Storyline. *

But about the movie. I enjoyed it, I loved seeing Iron Man in live action. A few things bugged me though.

Once seeing his weapon designs in the hands of the bad guys, Iron Man flies from California to Afghanistan to deal with it. Even in the comic book I don’t think IM could fly that distance on his own power. How long would that take? He apparently can’t fly faster than a modern aircraft. (or else he would have outrun the fighters sent to intercept him when he was trying to get away.) I think once I read a comic where he traversed the globe by going into orbit and coming down at the desired location, but in the movie they established that he couldn’t maintain flight in the upper atmosphere. Sure, Tony Stark realized he’d have to deal with that issue while modifying his armor but they didn’t actually show that he had solved it by the time the flight to the mid east began. Couldn’t he just have taken a plane to the area then suited up? (Hmmm…maybe not. In the movie its more complex to don the armor than in the old comics where he basically just suited up like Batman or Spider-Man.) Still that kinda bugged me.

Secondly, I know that in the current comics (at least as current as I’ve seen) everyone knows that Stark *is *Iron Man. I never liked that. It seems downright stupid to let everyone know that you’re the guy with the most sophisticated powered suit in the world. I think it was really dumb for Stark to tell everyone he was Iron Man at the end of the movie. Isn’t that just inviting everyone to try to kidnap you or steal the suit or its specs? FTR I always hated the cover story in the comics that Iron Man was Stark’s personal bodyguard, too. Stark could have just said Iron Man is the spokesperson/PR/Rep guy for technology in his company…a corporate symbol, really. In the 80’s there was a story where he faked Iron Man’s death with a phony employee record of who was wearing the suit. Then when Iron Man resurfaced he just claimed that he had hired a new guy to be Iron Man.

Those are minor nitpicks to be sure, I’m just saying they bugged me a little bit.

After the credits though, we see Nick Fury played by Samuel Jackson tell Stark about the Avengers Initiative so I’m guessing this movie is in the “Ultimates” universe. I’ve heard rumors that there is to be an Avengers movie. I’d love to see it, I just want to know how they plan on showing several not-well-known heroes and have it make sense. Outside of Thor and Captain America none of the other Avengers were particularly famous unless you are/were a total comic book geek like myself. (Who the hell knows about Giant-Man*? Or the Wasp?)

  • I’ve always though Giant Man was one of the dumbest heroes ever created, like Ant-Man…who actually is Giant-Man in another identity.
#2

In the movie, wasn’t the armor powered by that glowy doohicky in his chest? As it was a generator rather than a battery, his range would be effectively limitless. He had trouble later in the film because he was on his older glowing doohicky which couldn’t generate the same level of power.

#3

There was actually a deleted scene where Stark threw a party at his house in Dubai as cover for his trip to Afghanistan.

Just going by what was in the final release, the top speed of an F-22 is apparently over 1600 mph. As a guess, I think you could get from the U.S. to Afghanistan in 5 hours.

He’s already the face of U.S. military technological superiority. I don’t think that finding out that he, personally, goes around blasting tanks to scrap is going to put him in much more danger.

#4

I wish they had left that scene in. But I can accept the fact that Iron Man probably could have maintained a sustained supersonic flight to Afghanistan and back given what you say.

I don’t know. If I were a supervillain, even one with no powers, but just a scheming mastermind I’d think “I must have the secrets of Iron Man’s armor for myself! Muhahahaha! I can rule the world with that technology.” Then I’d wait for a time when Stark was at one of his parties or a function and send my endless redshirt minions to snatch him. Then I’d take the power source and torture him into giving me the secrets. Or hypnotize or drug him in some way. He’s just a regular, albiet super intelligent man without the armor. (while not being stupid enough like the bad guys in the movie to let him have access to something he can make a weapon out of).

It’s easier in the comic book world! Super minions are easier to come by. Especially ones that Iron Man has defeated in the past, because they’d be like “I’ll get Stark, Jolly Roger, Scourge of all things good! Iron Man beat the crap out of me a year ago and you busted me out of prison! *Plus you placed an explosive pellet in my head that will go off if I disobey you.”

#5

I do know that I read somewhere a few months ago (not sure where, but Ain’t it Cool seems most likely) that there is supposed to be an Ant Man movie, coming out at around the same time as the Thor and Cap movies. I think this will come a long way toward eliminating confusion when the Avengers movie comes out. Wasp is easy to get, as she’s Hank’s wife.

#6

You touched on my biggest complaint - giving up your secret identity. I haven’t read the comics in years, so I’m not current. I know from here that currently he is “out” but I don’t agree with it.

#7

Is Tony just a regular, unpowered human without his suit? I mean, he still has the Arc reactor in his chest. Couldn’t he still blast anyone that tries to get him with it or does he need the suit to shoot that off?

#8

The reactor powers the weapon and propulsion systems in the suit. Outside of the suit it gives a steady and almost inexaustable power supply to keep the electromagnets running to prevent the schrapnel from dmamging his heart.

And-- exclusive Stark repulsor technology uses less power than a standard jet or rocket engine, so a small craft (such as a single human-sized power suit) can fly for very long distances at impressive speeds. I suspect, seeing the size of the Jericho Missles, that efficiency drops off rapidly with increased payload mass.

#9

I hear ya. Especially for Stark, its kinda dumb. He has the money, power and influence to create another ID for Iron Man and keeping the secret.

I wouldn’t tell anyone if I had superpowers and went out to fight crime in a guady costume. I’d never be able to relax. I’d always be worried that some maniac I put away would come after me or my friends and family. Fury told Stark at the end of the credits that he wasn’t the only superhero out there, which implies that there are other supervillains. It can really ruin your day to come home from work and find Doctor Doom sitting in your living room while his doombots are holding your family hostage.

I don’t read comics as much as I used to…I got theCivil War stories on a DVD package from Eagle One media. I think they said that once current supplies were gone Marvel has declined to produce further comics on DVD so if you are interested in getting them I’d look into it now. I bought mine months ago. (I have Spider_Man, Hulk, X-Men, Iron Man, Captain America and Fantastic Four DVD sets. The comics are in PDF format and you get every issue up to about 2004 or so depending on the comic.Its pretty cool.)

#10

Right, because that worked so well for the last guys who tried it…

This is just like why Spiderman revealed his identity to MJ in the third movie: a secret identity makes sense as a plot device so long as you’re willing to invest a lot of story time to it. If every Spiderman or Ironman movie going forward gets to carve half an hour of “must hide secret identity” plot time and instead invest it into “interesting plot time” or “explosivey goodness” time, that’s fine with me.

And there’s a logical fallacy here: There have always been superheroes who were public IDs, and they never seemed to have to worry about getting hunted down, or somebody tossing a satchel charge through their bedroom window at 3 a.m. Did they get hunted down and persecuted even a fraction of the time that Peter Parker spent getting hunted down and persecuted?

#11

Movie-Stark isn’t exactly comic-Stark. Movie Stark just couldn’t live with being quiet about it.

No, it’s in the movie continuity. Which is neither originals nor ultimates.

#12

I should have quoted that better. The movie seems to be based off of the Ultimates Universe rather than mainstream Marvel Universe. In the mainstream, Nick Fury is a WWII veteran that took some formula that makes him age slowly so he’s still a kick ass guy 60 plus years later. In the ultimate universe AFAIK he’s a kick ass black guy that wasn’t in WWII. Hence when Sam Jackson showed up thats what I thought. I’m betting most comic book fans thought that too.

#13

Actually, I really liked that he just boldly came out and announced it. It fits Stark’s personality to blatantly announce it. I love this movie all around, though.

#14

Sort of. His first suit, the monochromatic job, couldn’t handle the icing in the upper atmosphere. Afterward, he tells Jarvis to use a, what was it, gold-titanium alloy? that they use for satellites. That alloy apparently doesn’t get iced over. While working on the new suit, Stark saw the news about the party he wasn’t invited to and left Jarvis to build the new suit while he crashed the party. While there, the blonde reporter told him about Gulmira where the armaments were. He went back to the house, got his new suit, and headed out.

So ignoring the deleted Dubai scene, he could well have made the trip via LEO, as the icing problem was solved by then.

Why yes, I just watched it again recently too, why do you ask? :stuck_out_tongue: Great superhero movie.

#15

Was I the only one who thought his first suit kicked a whole lot more ass than the one he ended up with? Probably.

#16

I didn’t see the deleted scene. But I guess you’re right, he did mention fixing the icing problem to Jarvis, so I guess it happened as you say.

I still think the secret identity part was dumb for him to do. Stark seemed to be an extreme personality but not a glory hound. I would think that he would get more of a kick out of being a hero and keeping his identity secret than letting everyone know he was behind the helmet. Still, I enjoyed the movie. Iron Man was one of the first mainstream heroes (at least in Marvel) to use lethal force on purpise in the comics. Thats why I liked him as a kid. (not because he killed a few guy, but because he didn’t do the “I’ll never kill” thing and then feel guilty for 12 issues). Granted he never killed someone on purpose or in cold blood, but he didn’t seem to be too upset about it either. *

**stop me if I’m mistaken, but he killed The Titanium Man in the comics during the “Armor Wars” storyline. Again, he didn’t mean to, but he didn’t get too grief stricken either.

He also killed Count Nefario IIRC. Again, gwe didn’t want or mean to kill him, but hev did. Though I think after a time Nefario was brought back in the comic book way.

He held back on killing Justin Hammer when Hammer set him up for murder. So Iron Man doesn’t kill for revenge or general meanness. *

In the movie they never implied that he didbn’t kill those Afghani guys with his shoulder mounted guns.and he sure didn’t think those villagers were NOT gonna kill their leader when he dropped them in their midst and told them “He’s all yours”.

#17

well Stane had modified the original design to give it more power and he had the power source stolen from Stark.

The suit tark had later was far more versatile and powerful except it had an inadequate power source. So during the fight at the end Iron Man was at a disadvantage. At full power IM could have wiped the floor with “Obie”. A few repulsor blasts and it would have been game over.

#18

Did it bother anybody else that at the end the giant explosion killed the bad guy but didn’t even scratch Stark or Pepper. Wasn’t Pepper standing in the building that blew up real good?

#19

The one he built in the cave? Yeah, you probably are. :slight_smile:

#20

Stark’s coming clean about being Iron Man was one of the things I liked best about the movie. He’s the super-hero with the least to gain from a secret identity, and the scenario SHIELD set up in the movie was a bad idea for him. It was already fairly obvious that the armor was Stark tech, so he’d not gain any security by pretending someone else was in the suit; that he is brains behind teh company’s technical innovations is common knowledge, so anyone seeking to steal the suit’s secrets is going to come after him anyway. SHIELD’s cover story – that the guy in the armor was an employee – didn’t help him much from a legal standpoint, either; if someone decides to sue because of collateral damage in an Iron Man battle, Stark is going to be the primary named defendant no matter what. And being beholden to SHIELD is not in his best interest either. The only reason they would choose to “protect” him as they were proposing was to get a bit of control over him. Clearly he’s not averse to working with the government, but he wants & needs such collaboration to be on his terms. Also, the sooner he comes clean about being the man in the titanium mask, the easier it is.

And, lastly, it fit his character arc. The story is essentially about Stark manning up and taking responsibility for his actions. Lying about the way he’s doing is an essentially dickish thing to do. He’s not Peter Parker or Bruce Wayne; he’s a grown, non-insane man, and acted like one.