Superior Iron Man Volume 2: Stark Realities Review

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pull bag. Hello and welcome to The Pull Bag!

This is episode 355. It is June of 2019. It has

been four years since my co -host, who I will

introduce here in a moment, and I have talked

about this series. And, uh, damn, we just seem

to be finishing up stuff that has been... in

the works for years at this point we finished

up superior spider -man and now we're finishing

up superior iron man does anyone even remember

this series i love it i thought it was great

i thought it was cool and interesting at the

time i still do now i'm of course tf2 and mike

joining me is jt from saskatoon hello sir i'm

like uh -huh four years yeah jesus yeah Yeah.

Hi folks! Like... I'm looking at the post from

four years ago and like, damn, it's been four

fucking years. And the sad thing is here, folks,

I forgot to invite him this time, but Jeremy

Fain, Jeremy Jason Todd Fine Greenberg, whatever

the hell he calls himself, basically the Hunnic

Outcast guy that used to do sex criminals with

me and all that kind of stuff, he was on that

original episode. I completely forgot about that.

So sorry about that, Jeremy. We'll... Catch you

next time. Um... Superior Iron Man, I have to

do this just for my own sanity. San Francisco

to beta test his newest invention, the Extremis

3 .0 app. It can improve people's lives, making

them more attractive, smarter, and healthier.

Jamie Carlson, aka Teen Abomination, worst superhero

name ever, that's about as bad as Gotham and

Gotham Girl. I love you Tom King, I'm loving

the run, but wow. Attack the city in an effort

to get Stark's attention. He'd taken Extremis

3 .0 in the hopes of curing his hideous disposition,

but the app had no effect. Tony took him in,

under his protection, and promised to cure him.

While studying the teen's DNA, he discovered

the boy's biological father was Tony's dead friend,

Happy Hogan. This is chapter 6 in his own image,

written by Tom Taylor. Artist is Laura Braga.

Guru FX is the colorist. VC Clayton Cowles is

the letterer. Summer Lacey is the des - Iron

Man, obviously, created by Stan Lee, Don Heck,

Larry Lieber, and Jack Kirby. Holy shit, that

was a mouthful. Let it never be said that you're

not one to cover all your bases. That's true.

Hey, Ryan the Uninformed Merkley says it's a

good thing I do all the creative stuff when I...

when i read off the who's on the book as far

as you know writers and artists because he couldn't

pronounce half the stuff so there's that um...

so yeah uh... this is four issues issue six through

nine uh... i'm kind of like when i first read

this series i did read the whole nine issues

i was kind of sad that it kind of just ended

like i was glad that it ended I'm sorry, like,

I know when people talk about Tony Stark, especially

nowadays, you know, in regards to the MCU, you

know, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and they

talk about how he was like a B -grade, you know,

Marvel hero, and he's never been a B -grade.

Like, he was always, like, front -line to me.

He's one of my all -time favorite superheroes.

And as such, you know, going back and having

read through like Demon in the Bottle and like

the original run where Rhodey was Iron Man for

a few years while Tony was like drying out and

getting his shit back together. You know, I grew

to love him. And then it's one of those fanboy

rage moments where you know, he you have the

Avengers X -Men Axis event where When Mike said

that a psychic -powered supervillain, the red

skull dug up Professor Xavier's corpse and grafted

the parts of his brain that give him his mental

abilities onto his own. So let's imagine this.

One of the most asshole -ish Nazi supervillain

characters in the history of the medium now has

psychic powers. Oh, God. Yeah, that's not good.

And the sad thing is the only thing I can think

of is the man need or the skull needs psychic

powers because nobody can understand what the

hell he's saying half the time because of his

accent and the only reason why I say that is

because over the past past month or so Disney

XD has been rerunning Phineas and Ferb like the

whole series and I've seen Mission Marvel like

five times and Whomever I don't have it in front

of me right now But whomever voiced the red skull

in that basically lays on the accent so much

that they can't understand what the hell he's

saying Yeah, that's the they used all the same

voice cast from like the The the Avengers assemble

right so like Fred Tashore is the Hulk and Travis

you know william uh also known as grog strong

jaw on critical role he's one of my favorites

on that so yeah the the red skull you got into

it with like dr do and make neato and what's

called an inversion one's mental personnel their

personalities were flipped so the red skull becomes

like the white skull and he's now he's like incredibly

empathetic and it's kind of like uh Lex Luthor

in all -star Superman like once he gets Superman's

abilities and he becomes Like one with the universe

kind of and he just oh god This is how you see

the world and he just it's like instant an instant

cure to his ass already So yeah, Tony Stark goes

from being like this, you know, incredibly charismatic

slightly douchey, but He's all right kind of

guy to like just this utter bastard like In the

first half of the series, folks, which we talked

about way back when, Daredevil was paling around

San Francisco at the time. And he kind of susses

out that Tony isn't on the up and up on this.

In the course of events, in order to screw with

Daredevil, he gives him his sight back temporarily

to try and sway him to his cause. And when that

doesn't work and Daredevil actually knows how

to prove that Tony Hasn't the app doesn't do

anything the Tony has essentially poisoned the

water supply with a version of extremis and that

Now he's just like whoring it out to people,

you know 99 bucks a day gets you your six -pack

abs and your clean skin and he mind wipes daredevil

and He basically puts him like, you know, what

does he call it? One flew over the cuckoo's nest

leaks sticks him in the hospital makes it so,

you know, he's gonna be there for weeks until

his dastardly plan Has you know come to fruition

and that's where we kind of left it Yeah, and

we pick up with Tony basically trying to buy

out this media company and this boardroom meeting

with him and Teen Abomination. There's a panel

here where he says, just think of this like,

take your kid to work day. That's very much Happy

Hogan's son because even though he's got, you

know, Abomination's green giant ears and everything

else, with him in that suit it's like, damn.

Okay, and I and rereading this before we began

to record here folks I couldn't help no bear

in mind teen abomination. Yeah, he is like the

illegitimate son of happy Hogan That that much

is true. He his mom was working on some gamma

technology because you know, it's not always

Bruce Banner that works on this the kids there

Result so I couldn't help but think this guy

is like the Justin From Power Rangers turbo of

the Marvel universe He's it's literally but he's

stuck in his morphed mode for well Yeah, and

then he gets per it's never explained how cuz

then he gets stuck in his you know, I a bomb

mode later on in the second vault run of howling

commandos Where dumb dumb Dugan is revealed to

be like this Frankenstein Ian LMD that because

Nick Fury couldn't let his friend die But yeah,

so Tony's he's basically taking over Fox It's

a thinly veiled Rupert Murdoch allegory this

guy yeah, and then Tony's like Sorry, you go

Tony's basically Disney at this point It's a

good thing we were reviewing the rest of this

series of four years after we initially started

because I wouldn't have been able to make that

reference four years ago No, he is like an evil

Walt Disney. Yep, pretty much Yes, all there

all the all the people's phones this me goes

like that. I don't read you fine I'm gonna tell

you what's going on. I I leaked how much I am

offering you basically however many billion dollars

the company is actually worth Tony is offered

Twice that yeah, so literally everyone that's

got a share in the company that has a say in

the company is like Sal you silly bastard exactly

now I don't remember if we talked about this

four years ago but at one point in issues in

chapter six here the the suit comes in the symbiote

suit kind of thing what do you think of Tony

having a symbiote suit I quote Pepper Potts from

the first issue yeah that's not gonna end well

kind of yeah and we never saw what The ultimate

expression of that idea would have been because

you know as we are talking about the last four

issues a series of sadly, you know, I as Much

as I hated this version of Tony Stark. I did

want to see where the story would have gone exactly

but shortly This is in back in 2015. This isn't

that Heading up to the secret wars, you know

mega event which Because I love alternate worlds

in comics like what if in Marvel and else worlds

in DC, that's my jam I if I could get the money

together. I would buy all All the tie -in miniseries

and everything because I love that shit But sadly

we never got to see like the the suit tried to

take over Tony's mind which would have been The

second time in the history of Iron Man that his

suit has tried to take over It happened in the

Kirk Busek series post heroes reborn Where his

suit basically became hell because it was infected

with Ultron and that never ends well Yeah, but

yeah, so a bunch of like Teen a bomb. I just

can't say teen abomination teen a bomb at least

makes it palatable You know, he literally gets

he gets a Superman bullet to the face. It's like

that Superman returns where Brandon Routh took

like the one bullet to his eye And then he like

he gives that kind of sinister smile when he

looks at the guy Yeah, not so much here a bomb

gets shot right in the face He attempts to Hulk

out a whole lot more guards start losing their

shit and then yeah the End of the sim suit coming

in and like oozing around Tony and all that and

it's something we mentioned in the the first

episode way back when how when he's just in the

soup and he's not doing anything his all the

repulsor nodes glow blue and as soon as he armors

up and he raises a repulsor then all the nodes

go red because you know Tony's about to start

some shit yep um and then the book kind of takes

a weird turn like they have this pepper has this

backup version from eight years prior and yeah

they're I I can kind of explain that quickly.

Okay, so back in the day back in the groovy 60s

where I'm willing to bet most comic book writers

and a lot of people in general more if you believe

the stories were dropping acid Stanley came up

with His villain called the black llama who is

like this wizard king in another dimension But

when he travels to the earth 616, you know, he

goes insane And starts trying to like, you know

torture people and take over the world and it

was around this time they mentioned this later

in the story that tony basically created a backup

of his mind but retroactively making this the

first time that tony has copied his brain and

that's the purse that copy is running the classic

horned iron man suit that we see over the course

of the series here and this is all after pepper

you know sachets in and Basically pulls the carpet

out from under Tony's feet and like I've bought

Fox you know, yeah and then for resilient and

this is after the Heroic age Invincible Iron

Man series where you know after Norman Osborne

Fallen from quote -unquote grace and Tony rebooted

his mind and he had like the bleeding edge armor

and he created this new company called stark

resilient, but Anything with his name on it tends

to draw the attention of super villainy so they

he divorced himself from the company and a Pretty

smart move for once considering some of the dumb

moves that Tony Stark has made in his life. Yeah

You know Of course Yeah, so he brings him back

to resilient and they're going down to the basement

and it's all To quote Adam Lackbar. It's a trap.

Mm -hmm Yeah, so your Tony runs he gets knocked

out. Oh, sorry. That was a bomb the gun knocked.

I'm looking at the wrong page here And I like

to like who are you you don't recognize me. I'm

hurt yeah I think it's actually the The cover

art I believe for the the episode here issue

sevens cover With pepper standing basically behind

him pulling out the arc reactor Wow, that's a

powerful image Clearly referencing Iron Man 1

Yep, the film version that that whole thing,

but yeah, and it does it does have that like

the I don't know the cover artist name but that

is a That is a just subtly creepy book that he's

got there. Yeah, it's very creepy. I mean, he's

Tony's got the acupuncture needles, you know,

like in his head. Yeah, just very. It's just

like, oh, yeah. very much so uh quick change

on this uh yidre sinar and philippe latanabi

are the pencilers in issue seven and sinar and

roi roi jose are the inkers uh with guru at ea

effects doing the colors guru effect yeah and

i i gotta say what I had to go back again when

I was reading this in prep here, because when

you get these guys on for penciling, their style,

like the look of their characters is very reminiscent

of an artist named Derek Robertson. He's been

around forever. I think he's most well known

at this point for the Dynamite comic series,

The Boys, soon to be, I believe, Amazon TV show

starring Karl Urban. Cause it's got this very,

uh, I can't think of a proper word that it's

got a very plump look to the, the face. Like,

you know, that's the best way I could think to

come up with that. It's just a very plump, very

full figure kind of look to the characters. Yeah.

I, I, I gotta say, I'm not thrilled with Tony's

design. In in this one at least in this in this

one panel in the beginning of it where he says

Let's ease up on the judgment. You would have

done the same things if you were in my position

I don't know his face just looks a little off

there Yeah, and that I love that line. You would

have done the same things if you were in my position

You were you did this is like years before Tony

even thought of like civil war like the superhero

registration act this in fact the the horn if

the suit yeah the suit is from around the time

of the whole black llama attack this is before

he even tried sobriety the first time you know

so the line i'll learn from your massive catalog

of failures is somewhat of a telling line and

i mean if the series you know but i i in my head

canon by the end of this series had it gone on

for a time By the end of it, I imagine Tony's

mind would have been switched back and then,

you know, Robo Tony becomes the bad guy, you

know, because it is a pro computer program. So,

you know, he gets infected by something and,

you know, just, you know, flips that switch.

But yeah, so I like that sound of an eight year

old plan being rendered obsolete by years of

advancement. That's the sound of your instinct

as the same armor, which Looks like a rather

roided out version of venom minus the tongue

and teeth Yeah, what would have happened? Yeah,

the page where it's like my armor is coming like

I love the art on the armor, but it's always

creeped me out when the armors act Without Tony

being in them because it's just an empty fit.

It's like, you know john travolta nicholas cage

they took its face off face off off yeah and

i'm glad you only get that one image of nicholas

cage's face because i can barely stand what you

try watching hellraiser and you'll know what

i'm talking about folks i've i've tried i can't

i can't do horror I just can't. So the automaton

suit is like, hey, well, guess what? I'm going

to trap you, Tony. And we see this thing basically

just Iron Man up itself with Tony, you know,

basically trapped in its own body. And poor,

poor teenage bomb is just, you know, knocked

out on the floor. Yeah, I do like the look. Like

when you. Suit peel itself apart and you can

see the interior of it clearly looks more high

-tech Because again, this is only about I think

two generations. I Think this is like the mark

for the mark five You know to use that vernacular

in the comics and it was still very much, you

know He collapses it down and it fits in an attache

an attache case Yeah, you know sort of thing.

So it was never like even in the Comics like

it was super hugely advanced. It's just not it

doesn't seem like it should be looking that advanced

Yeah, yeah, it develops Tony it take so off with

the you know again the the Holt out sim suit

chasing after him. Yeah, they're taking him to

space Yeah, and he specifically says the mark

2 wasn't built to fly in space No, it wasn't.

I've made some upgrades Yeah, and this is actually

what I think about it's this is would it be Mark

3 because the gray suit was mark 1 the gold suit

was mark 2. Yeah, this would be mark 3 so yeah,

yeah nitpicky nerd grapes yeah, but yeah, I do

like when the mark 2 or mark 3 is blasting in

space and You know, it's peeling apart and there's

just ribbons of it You know stretching out with

the wires and all that and it's kind of like

it's bored like this thing Just reminds me of

the board against our trick. Yeah, it kind of

does They end up on the resilient space station

and Automaton Tony has real Tony or whatever

Basically hasn't hooked up to all this stuff

and they're gonna do something to him Well the

the the robot version of Tony is like hey, I'm

gonna take over your body I'm gonna I'm gonna

put your mind and yada yada yada. I gotta say

though. I'm not a fan of the This Mark's faceplate

it's too gold Batman ish to me yeah, I mean,

but this is the I used on heck was the artist

that designed this and This is Yeah, this is

mark 3 and then mark I believe the suit You can

there's a mark 3 .5 and that's the one with the

rivets along the face and the nose Because there

was a version of suit where Tony built a nose

on for some reason But yeah, the the face plate

this one. It's still the very What's the word

I'm looking for it's not as warm and inviting

as like the classic red and gold that came after

this that you know was was the suit until I Think

armor wars or well until sometime in the mid

80s. It was after Tony took the suit back from

roadie and he created like the silver Centurion

armor that ran for a number of years in the 80s

and then You know, then they really is like hey

this guy build suits wouldn't he build a lot

of suits and such like that over the years But

yeah, so, you know Automaton or you know Robo

Tony That's what I'm calling You know, he's conversing

with Tony until you know pepper is trying it's

like which what did you sell? Like where did

you get that? I mean, oh I sold one of the dangerous

ones and he doesn't explicitly say it but it's

heavily hinted at the last issue like the first

issue we looked at folks that of All the like

stuff that we've seen Tony build in the comics

There's all the there's warehouses full of stuff

that we don't know about and he sold one of the

really bad ones because he got two hundred billion

dollars for it, you know from a foreign government

which Even if he did it legally the US government

would be like Excuse us But this is this this

this is Axis Tony so he doesn't care and then

he's talking shit to Robo Tony is like you should

at least see what my idea is before or You know

you take over my body and you see there's like

a piece of the sim suit has attached itself to

You know the mark three here. So while they're

doing the whole back and forth and Robo Tony

is you know who are you to play god sort of thing

i like that you can i like that you still think

of yourself with just a mustache yeah and then

it's also like you know that's how tony stark

was for years and he never had at least i don't

think he had the goatee until rdj i might be

wrong on that you know but i don't remember it

in 94 so Well, I think he had the goatee when

they came back from Heroes Reborn But I haven't

read that series in a while so I'd have to go

and look but it's just another kind of Demarcation

between the two eras of Iron Man. We know we

have the past which is probably year two or three

Tony and then we have You know modern Tony with

the goatee and the devil may care attitude Yeah,

this this series took on a turn that creepy yes

i was not expecting yes it is creepy like i remember

four years ago when we first reviewed the first

five i was like oh tony stark is basically turning

into valentine from um the kingsman uh you know

because the app and the this and the that and

the and the whatever um there's elements of that

that comparable i can see that Yeah, I mean just

just that first beginning like I have an extremis

app and if you want it You're gonna have to pay

for it kind of thing. That's the only thing that

really cuz remember Valentine in the first Kingsman

movie had yeah the app for use He he was given

away free of these I forget what you call them

like the SIM card these SIM cards that were given

like free internet and free cell service anywhere

in the world forever Yeah, so, you know, you

know, there's gonna be some sort of God, I can't

remember. It was a tech movie with Ryan Philippi

and that would be antitrust Yeah, there'd be

all sorts of antitrust lawsuits like oh, yeah,

you know You know, it's like well, why can't

they build this? Well, you just can't well why?

Because I'm not you know charging ungodly rates

per month for cell phones and such like that

Yeah, Issue 7 kind of ends with Psycho Tony basically

getting the armor from... because he destroyed

the Robo Tony. Mark 3. Yeah, Mark 3. And he holds

up the faceplate. Well, I guess I gotta go talk

to Pepper now. And that's how Issue 7 ends. And

gee, that doesn't look like Doctor Doom at all.

Yeah, exactly. You know with the silver hand

in the face plate and the ominous presence Yeah,

we I love the cover on issue 8 here By Mike Choi

again So but it's like, you know rage mode sim

armor versus the mark 3 and I love how the face

is Kind of been punched in a little bit. Yep

You know like a car that you know has been run

over a couple of times oh yeah and i love how

the the mark three's hand is like like pressing

into the sim armor's face it's almost like clay

face on batman how it's like you know dripping

and oozing around it like that yeah that is very

cool i wish the only thing that i i'm not feeling

with the certain covers is i wish mike choy would

have stuck with one type of art style um because

like the more realistic type stuff like the one

in issue seven with pepper pulling out the arc

rate like i like that kind of real d kind of

thing i don't know it's just me well i think

i think it's a color mostly that kind of alters

it because you know the for the issue seven cover

because it's essentially like Tony's on an operating

table with the light overhead and yeah that that's

what makes so creepy as pepper coming in like

that and there's that little bit of shadow at

play and also the designs like looking specifically

at Pepper I think I said Carol there a second

ago. I'm not sure That particular design reminds

me of an artist named Clayton Crane who's I know

him primarily from some ghostwriter comics like

when they rebooted Ghost Rider in the mid -aughts

and brought back like Johnny Blaze and then Jason

Aaron took on and just made it like the wonderfully

glorious greenhouse comic it always should have

been and it's very I don't want to say distended

but just elongated like just the way the face

is it's kind of longer like that it's that's

kind of also what gives that cover its creep

factor is that design so Along with the lighting

the color, but you know we get back to the issue

at hand issue eight real tony, you know Calls

back calls back to resilient and this is just

after pepper's kind of talked teen abombed down

And You know the way he's written and the way

he responds like look I I Vaguely remember what

I was like at that age, but the way he talks

to pepper. Yeah Makes him seem older than he

actually is Right. Yeah and then you have Tony

calls back, you know, like it's over and then

then the robot Tony's back and now he's in the

silver centurion armor and then Tony this is

what makes this version of Tony so creepy is

He's using his charm. He's using his wit. He's

using all the right words and he's just keeps

trying to bend everyone to his will and he's

trying to play him play it off as if I'm the

good guy mm -hmm yeah absolutely you're holding

an entire city hostage and you essentially poison

them you're not the good guy I'm totally the

good guy like it's He's Hannibal Lecter as Tony

Stark here. That's what it is. I love how Robo

Tony or Centurion Tony is talking to Pepper and

Teen A -Bomb and Real Tony is like, you know,

I'm still on the line, right? Also, can we please

not fight in front of my monster? He's not exactly

the most emotionally stable. I like that. It's

how he goes like in that comment like it's a

dig like he doesn't care about the kid and as

he said in like the last episode four years ago

You know, we're never not gonna refer to the

gap between episodes like this folks. It's just

the thing Yeah in that like he right up to the

kids face showing the callousness of his character

He straight says oh, yeah, I'm gonna figure out

how to fix you and I'm gonna monetize the hell

So we eventually get to a point where they need

to find out where Tony is. Well, he's at Stark

Island. He's basically inviting all of the people

to come to Stark Island because he's going to

use them as a giant human shield. This is not

the Tony Stark we know and love. This Tony Stark

is super evil genius. He's he's Hannibal Hannibal

Lector stark, I mean, yeah, like the whole idea

I love he goes back to the Island he sent out

like a message to get all the quote -unquote

beautiful people to the island to protect him

like he said and I love how Robo Tony says yes,

he just sent out a booty call to an entire city

Mm -hmm. And then yeah, I love it. I have to

read this a couple All the times to get this

line right where he's filled his swimming pool

full of champagne Specifically, I filled the

pool with enough champagne to get the whole smash

Let's get unhygienically off our faces and I

can't tell you like it's not like I am an alcoholic

although in my 20s as a lot of us were we Tend

to test the limits of our invulnerability with

alcohol and I've never heard anyone say let's

get off our faces that confused the hell out

of Yeah reading this last night That was Yeah,

that was a little much and actually I say Hannibal

Lecter. No, he's like Hannibal Cole Legula because

for like the 18th time in this series. We see

the aftermath of a Tony Stark led orgy Yeah like

Looking at this I first thought the first movie

scene that came to mind if you ever seen the

return of Xander Cage Yeah, you know It's like

that scene like the morning after he goes to

get his fur coat and then the lady with the What

do you call it? The tracker? or house arrest

bracelet foot She's like well, I'm not gonna

do anything and then like six women pile on Vin

Diesel. This is pretty much that Yeah, pretty

much And then we go back towards Pepper and Robo

Tony and Teen Abomination. Teen Abomination apparently

had a nightmare or something and broke the bed.

Okay. Well, you don't think hulks have mental

problems? No, they do. I'm just... I don't know.

Like I said, I did enjoy this. I'm just kind

of wondering, like... I wish they would have

shown. Like Okay, they kind of do show it she

hears a crack she goes running And he broke the

bed because of bad dreams. I don't know I kind

of wish we would have gotten more into his head

because it's okay It's a character that we get

so little from not necessarily him himself but

like the back the backstory is happy hogan was

his dad somebody else was his mom pepper's his

stepmom he took the extremist thing yada yada

yada didn't do anything for him and this move

this i would almost say this movie this comic

is starting to feel like iron man 3 and i love

iron man 3 don't get me wrong i absolutely love

that movie but this is pretty much like you know

at the end of that movie oh well you know i i

figured out how to fix pepper and i also went

under the knife myself best sleep i ever got

that's kind of what this is with teen a bomb

as far as tony eventually getting to fix him

yeah and then i i do like the warmth and maturity

that robo tony shows is like you know it's not

what you look like isn't who you are Then and

that might sound a bit cliches, but I think I

can say this with some authority being a backup

mind walking around in a machine, buddy And then

I just love that whole scene is my mom used to

say that too not the bit about walking around

in machine, buddy Yeah, that would have been

a hell of a coincidence. I Mean just a little

moment of levity and otherwise dark dark tail

and then you know, and then Tony calls to Basically

taunt Robo Tony pepper and he's got some gizmo

that's basically going to like manipulate the

electricity of people's minds to make them drones

for him and you know finally somebody says human

rights in this like everything that Tony's done

to this point is like how does anyone how is

the UCLA not like crawling up his ass with human

rights violations lawsuits like The hell yeah,

and then then we get the return of a classic

element of Iron Man comics where you know Iron

Man Surrounds himself with all the beautiful

people and they look like drugged or stoned or

something. You're not entirely certain whether

they're doing This of their own free will or

it's this biomark one that he mentions and then

we get the return of the Iron Legion Yeah, that

was awesome I mean you see there's the extremis

armor from the war in Ellis series. There's Space

Armor the rubber ducky sea armor the variable

risk threat response battle suit aka the war

machine You even got the old mark one there and

it's just Always love when every suit shows up.

Yeah again. That was one of my favorite parts

of Iron Man 3 Oh, I squeed in the theater when

I saw that Too loud, but my friends sit Next

to me. He's like, did you just squeers like your

goddamn rights? I did. It's the iron goddamn

legion. Yep I think my favorite suit and that

whole thing was Igor Yeah, Igor was awesome And

it's like There's some and just a quick iron

man three aside folks the the the line is like

Rody's like okay for me. Oh, no, you these are

all for me. You already got your suit, which

I think in my head cannon I think that's a call

back to Oh, I'm sorry. Sorry. This is the fun

V. The hum drum V is over there and then you

know, Rody has to go rescue William Sadler and

the iron Patriot armor God I hate that not not

the iron patriot idea just that design Yeah,

well, they had to use something and they had

to make it patriotic So well, well, no, I get

that like the iron patriot I get I mean even

had a miniseries where roadie was the iron patriot

for a time in the comics It's just that particular

design after you know looking at the bulky like

it's the the war machine suit and Iron Man 2

look it's a It's stone cold Steve Austin. He's

gonna stomp a mud hole and walk it dry and and

this thing looks like uh Like some dude driving

a priest like me me. Excuse me. Mm -hmm You know,

it doesn't look like a threat is what i'm saying

So anyway, the the iron agents start peeling

away all All the humans and then robo tony who's

essentially running all the suits, you know starts

attacking tony And you know, I know we said before

when this Suit was on its own. It looked like

venom and now it's truly become well, he's become

the Iron Monger is what he's become He's become

a cross between Iron Monger and carnage at this

point well, I know but just specifically when

he starts armoring up like Robo Tony or Tony

brings Robo Tony to his lab and something we

saw in like the first issue where he first Drew

the sim armor onto himself. Like there's a whole

tank of this metal Yeah, that Tony absorbs and

he literally he looks like the iron monger. He

looks like the dude from Iron Man one. Mm -hmm

You know except he built this one in a high -tech

lab from a box of scraps Mm -hmm So I know I

just love that last page where you know, he's

holding up the repulsor and like oh somebody

gonna get hurt real bad Mm -hmm. Yep and then

issue nine final issue here wow that cover that

fucking cover um fe is the periodic symbol for

iron right if i remember yeah okay so that's

not it's not um uh mike joy trying to say hey

it's time for feminist iron woman kind of thing

which obviously no it's It's not the atomic symbol

for it's not no it is no what I'm saying is Fe

is not harder It's not for like feminism or anything

like that. It's not a special thing. It's it's

the iron yeah, I'd see it took me a minute and

I'd realize oh wait, that's iron man because

the There's that you know the Austin Powers symbol

behind him. That's the yeah what came out of

the 60s that stands for man, and I do like you

know Pepper kind of standing triumphant over

Tony and The one thing that always kind of bothered

me about the rescue armor that I love with this

cover and seeing it in endgame Little bit of

a spoiler if you haven't seen the movie yet folks

Is this looks like a proper suit of armor? versus

the the version that Pepper has in the comics

that you see a lot is Okay, sure. It's form -fitting,

but I mean that it's form -fitting on the level

of red Sonya's chainmail bikini You know it looks

like a metal fetish suit more than a suit of

armor Yeah, basically I look at this cover and

I think of that one screenshot that I've had

for years where RC in I believe it was in season

3 of Transformers generation 1 where she basically

is holding her gun up in some sort of you know

Sexy pose and her ass is hanging out and whatever

kind of a thing like But this as you said is

not so form -fitting. It's not you know super

super sexy, but you get What she's doing you

get you know there's some femininity to the design.

It's just not it doesn't look like it's just

Yeah, exactly. It looks like something that you

could actually wear and and I should mention

that it's a Salvador Larocca is one of the, I

think he's one of the accredited creators of

this, the rescue armor. I love his work. I have

been a huge fan of his work for years. It's just,

you know, yeah, it looks like a suit of armor.

It looks like it would exist in the Marvel universe,

but it also looks like a giant metal onesie that

Pepper could wear to the beat. So anyway, you

know, she, we get in, it's You know, this is

the end of the road, folks. And, you know, we've

got Yildire Senar. Yeah, I hope I pronounced

that right. Yildire. Yeah, sounds right. But,

you know, because we got the kind of very Glee,

Derek Robertson armor looking back and it's,

you know, when you get that full on look of the

suit. Of like the sim armor, like that's yeah,

he's hulked out, but that's he's straight up

become the iron monger now. Mm -hmm. Yeah, he

pretty much has He's also destroying one of my

favorite Iron Man suits in his hand there. That's

the suit that Tony that's the first fresh suit

that Tony built post the original armor wars

I often called the coffee pot suit because the

boots on that look like those big coffee decanters

that you know Servers will walk around to tables

at a restaurant with you want to top off your

coffee? But yeah, so they he gets into it. He's

still trying to talk Robo Tony down and I There's

so many cool Iron Man shots in this last issue

alone it just yeah The art is so good. I mean,

and the dialogue that Tom Taylor is writing for

this, and basically the story, you know, the

whole thing in this first part of the armor war

here with Iron Monger Man and everybody else,

he's basically saying, I made you, I made all

of you. I can unmake you. It's like, okay, Tony,

you're not a god really. Come on now. Yeah, and

if you flip this and put it in like a good Tony

is in the sim armor Fighting against this evil

corrupted AI version of him, which is totally

how this series would have ended Had it continued

that one shot of him like going with you know,

the arm outstretched and lesting Blasting with

the repulsor gauntlet and being surrounded by

all those other armors. That is like a quiz.

This is comic books Never mind saying this is

Iron Man, this is comic books right here, folks.

Yeah, very much so. It was Robert Hayes that

originally did voice Iron Man in the 94 cartoon

series that I love so much, that we both love

so much, I assume. I so hear RDJ in my head.

I'm not running away. I'm taking the fight away

from my island. I want to tear you apart and

humiliate you without worrying about having all

my stuff broken. Yeah, you know what? I could

hear Robert Hayes coming out of Robo Tony. Yeah.

But I don't know the name of the actor that does

Tony in Avengers Assemble now because it was

originally done by Adrian Pastar, you know, General

Tabbit from Agents of - Shield yeah, but I don't

remember the new guys. He's doing an RDJ voice

Yeah But I like this We even bring in like the

new version of the Hulkbuster armor that I think

that's from World War Hulk Like the big boxy

looking thing I Still like this thing where he

tat Robo Tony tackles, you know, Sim Tony onto

the brookburn to the golden gate bridge he's

like we shouldn't do this here the collateral

damage fuck the collateral damage i'm worried

about the cliche i was like exactly but that's

what we want tony we want the cliche give us

the cliche exactly and then he says unimaginative

disaster film director and he's even that's either

a shot at uh roland emmerich or michael bay take

your pick I still love Armageddon no matter how

many crappy Transformers movies Michael Bay has

made. Michael Bay has only made one Transformers

movie and it was arguably okay. Anything that

happened afterward is a giant fever dream the

entire world is experienced together as one.

So, Michael Bay is Tony Stark? No. Evil Tony

Stark, I should say. he's more if he if he if

michael bay will get back to the comic in a second

folks is stark he's morgan stark he's he's he's

sam roth no no he's not a start like morgan stark

is uh tony's asshole cousin who was constantly

trying to take over the company back in the day

uh no if he's a character from iron man michael

bay is sam rockwell justin hammer oh god Because

the Justin Hammer in the comics is a legitimate

threat Yeah, Justin. I am in two is a dude is

a douchebag. Yeah Yeah, but yeah, so pepper shows

up again, yeah Yeah, you built pepper a new suit.

I'm the only Tony star that gets to build her

a suit. Oh God it's what I do love about the

story is that It's basically Tony fighting with

himself. It's basically him Fighting his emotions

Fighting with you know his quote -unquote morals

because sometimes Tony doesn't have morals Sometimes

not all the time that that's sort of the thing

with the axis event like I said before with the

red skull becoming Empathetic and realizing the

evil that he has perpetrated in the world the

or dr. Doom becoming like read Richard's level

of selfless and such like that there's also guys

like Tony who basically this is Tony without

the morality or inhibitions there was Sam Wilson

Captain America at the time basically is like

what is the world ever done for me and he basically

becomes like this big bully it's that's and this

is all post that this is after axis Yeah He Tony

remained this but he was also in the new I think

at this point was the third volume of the new

Avengers title he was still like access Tony

in there, but they didn't write him nearly as

slimy and Disgusting as he was written in this

comic Because of that when they were trying to

blow up alternate worlds to prevent their earth

from being destroyed So you don't notice the

villainy quite as much Yeah, and in this I love

close to the end of this where Robo Tony is saying

we'll be vigilant We know the sound weapon we

designed works to disrupt the tech symbiote structure.

We can deal with it if it comes Evil Tony is

like What was that what? that little sly smile

oh you really weren't supposed to see that sit

down i'm sitting and he puts in this this whatever

flash drive flash drive thing and and basically

puts in a virus because he couldn't have done

it outside of resilient he had to be inside of

it and all shit breaks loose yeah so yeah basically

it's Basically he pulls an age of Ultron. He's

burning Robo Tony out of the internet Yeah, so

it the only safe place is this flash drive that

actually it's a different flash drive that Tony

pulls out and He essentially holds himself hostage

Yeah, so remember we were talking about how Not

overly overtly sexual the pepper the the rescue

suit was Maybe the world is better off without

a Tony Stark and pepper's like no Those boobs

are gigantom um now at this point gigant. Oh,

yeah Yeah unit of measurement Probably she's

got a gigantic booty. Yeah, exactly. Oh, we need

to tell Mike thought about this. He'll love that

Of course We haven't heel turn here folks I mean

as the stone cold Steve reference before a teen

a bomb turns on Tony. Yep, and then the sim suit

does Come and you have that again a really like

this is comics right here like that shot of the

Suit, you know morphing onto Tony Then you see

that the Robo Tony's no more because the flash

drive got nuked Yep Although he was as much a

person as any of us because if we could all be

translated into ones and zeros yada yada yada

Yada yada yada and but I love the line of team

able you murdered him and Then Tony's like you

didn't kill your mother like oh wow. He's finally

playing that card because This whole time, folks,

Jamie, Teen A -Bomb, is worried that the last

time he, or the first time he morphed like this,

that he hulked out, as it were, he thought he

killed his mom. Right, yeah. And is it weird

that once, once whatever happened, so they reveal

this to Teen A -Bomb, and he basically un -holds

and pepper thinks it was a girl originally like

he's she says jamie she's well no it's cuz tony

revealed that your mom's alive okay in a new

york county hospital with a severe head injury

okay see i thought for a second that pepper thought

that which i know she didn't obviously from earlier

because i don't know it was weird it just that

line just and i was weird So anyway pepper is

gonna take Tony's armor again And this is something

this is miss pepper made Lapse in judgment and

error You know is she obviously she doesn't like

symbiotes. She she knows this doesn't end Well,

she would also know that you know sound affects

them and then Tony is like yeah, it's a synthetic

symbiote They're susceptible to sound Do you

really think for a second I'd build my most advanced

armor and not shield it? Yeah, really. And basically

at the end here, whatever you do from now on,

you will do it without admiration, without those

who once respected you. You will do it without

your friends. You might still manage to force

your arrogant vision onto the world, but you

will do so broken, unloved, and completely alone.

Dude like I get it. I understand it but I think

this series could have done with like an epilogue

issue or something cuz We've got to got at the

12 issues to just kind of give it that proper

Proper length and a proper ending. Yeah, even

if it was just one more even if it just had an

issue 10 I mean a 10 issue run is not that bad

but it just, I don't know. This series, the end

of this series just went somewhere I wasn't thinking

it was gonna go. It does end it. And two things

about this last shot where you see Iron Man flying

back to Stark Island. There was a shot like this

in the first issue of Superior Iron Man that...

I thought about this last night because I reread

the whole series just to kind of have it fresh.

This shot is very reminiscent of a shot that

Sean Chen drew in the first issue of Iron Man

Volume 3, which is the one post -Heroes Reborn

written by Kierke Biesek where the new version

of the horned suit, it's called the Renaissance

armor, is flying down Broadway in New York City.

This is very much patterned after that. There

is a Ben Affleck daredevil element to this last

shot because you see You see all these people

clearly turning on Tony like no there none of

these like close -up shots are very happy with

him and it goes to where Pepper mentions I bought

one of the largest media companies on earth from

under you and I'll use it to undermine you with

the that comment and this look Think she dropped

the dime on Tony like she and Robo Tony maybe

it's an unrevealed part of their plan But they

hacked his servers and they released the fact

that Tony essentially poisoned the water supply

and aired all his dirty laundry They pulled a

black widow from Winter Soldier basically and

it it's kind of like what? You know if you watch

the directors cut of the Ben Affleck daredevil,

which is the better cut in my opinion because

then the plot actually makes sense like Well,

no, I mean, you watch the theatrical cut and

the cops are coming for Kingpin. It's never established

before that why they're coming for Kingpin, like

how all of a sudden they're coming for Wilson

Fisk versus the director's cut where, you know,

Joey Pant's Ben Urich drops a dime on Wilson

Fisk and, you know, gives them the good. So,

well, him and him and Foggy. So, but yeah, Tony

ends that he's sitting in the dark with looks

like a bottle of jack and you know he's completely

and utterly alone and then we go from here to

the the main avengers roster chasing after the

new avengers which is essentially the illuminati

because you know the worlds are ending the multiverse

is collapsing and you know shit's about to get

real yeah Superior Iron Man Volume 2 Stark Realities.

I hate to do this but I gotta give it a 3 out

of 5. I love the art. The art is amazing. There

were a few moments in the art because the artists

changed that I didn't really like the look of

Tony as, you know, as Tony, but the rest of the

art is amazing. Tom Taylor is an amazing writer.

He's written a lot of other things that I absolutely

love. However, this story just, I understand

it and I get it and I get the whole emotional

impact of him basically having to... deal with

himself and deal with his own demons i just it

took a turn that i just wasn't really ready for

i don't think yeah i kind of reflect i'm torn

between a three and a four because like i said

at the beginning of the show i am an iron man

fan boy i am a member i count myself as a member

of the iron legion you know it's i have this

entire series in my collection Because it's a

very essential as much as I Disgustingly just

hate this version of Tony It's a very I wouldn't

say necessary chapter But it is a very important

chapter in you know the evolution of Tony Stark

in the comics week This is Tony if we see him

at his worst when? Normally with all his morals

and inhibitions, and he's drunk like that. This

is Tony without those You know those barricades

in the way Right and we think this version is

evil and then he goes on to secret wars with

you know Like I said in New Avengers where they

him and the rest of the Illuminati are like the

whole thing with secret wars that was leading

up to that is there's these things called incursions

where alternate earths in the Marvel multiverse

were colliding together and if one earth could

destroy the other that would ensure their survival

and That's kind of what the Illuminati have been

doing over in New Avengers And they were doing

that before Axis. The normal, the good Tony Stark,

the one that we want back was pulling this sim

armor Tony, like Axis Tony level bullshit. So

I mean, ultimately, is this even like a bad Tony

or is this just a part of Tony that we've just

never seen before? Yeah, and I think that is

very cool that this may or may not be a part

of Tony that we've never seen before Again, like

I said, and I and I agree with everything you

just said I just I don't know maybe it's because

it was been four years and you actually reread

the whole thing where I just read Like the end

of these five and and and then these four issues

six to nine Maybe I should have reread the whole

thing. I don't know but it just didn't Wasn't

where I thought it was gonna go and it doesn't

it has an ending But it's kind of like hey go

read secret wars to find out more about this

Tony now And I'm like yeah, I want to do that.

I want more of superior. I want more of of this

that's what I wanted yeah, I mean the story I

mean with secret wars like the the core miniseries

in that event I I really recommend it because,

like I said before, I love alternate takes on

characters. It's a really cool story where Dr.

Doom basically reboots the multiverse, but he

kind of does a crisis on Infinite Earth where

he takes all these different pieces, all these

different alternate versions of Marvel canon

and creates a whole new battle world. So it's

kind of like what DC did where they collapsed

all their stories from all their multiverses

into one earth at the end of crisis and Doom

is God and his the Thor core and it's every alternate

version of Thor Which does include the frog Thor

frog? Amongst that that's his police force it

It's there and it's batshit insane and it is

so much fun. But the I'd say if you folks do

want to know where this story quote unquote finger

quotes ends it ends in the i think it's fourth

or fifth volume of avengers that was during the

jonathan hickman's second epic marvel run first

he did fantastic four then he did avengers later

this year he's going to be taking over you know

x -men territory and if you read either of those

runs I highly recommend picking up that x -men

sight unseen because this dude knows his shit

it ends in Avengers with You know, this is old

man Steve Rogers after he's had the super soldier

serum To remove from him and he's got like the

old 90s cap armor and he's going after Tony He's

gonna make him pay for ruining the world And

that's where that story kind of ends with you

know, these two friends having their own personal

civil war You know at the edge of everything

going kaput. But again, like I agree with what

Mike said, folks, that, yes, it would have been

nice to even get that one more issue to have

a little, I don't want to say more satisfying

ending, but maybe one that's not left so completely

open the way this is with, you know, Tony Stark

sipping on some old number seven and Brooding

in the dark is like no one's gonna swim in my

champagne pool with me now Yeah All right folks

that's gonna do it for us where do the people

find you online sir, I you can find me online

every so often because we Don't really have a

set recording schedule anymore on the comic connoisseurs

along with my fellow comic connoisseurs Ben Carver

and Red Ink. Sometimes we agree on the stuff

we talk about, most of the time we don't. You

can also find me on Facebook, Instagram, and

Twitter at JT from Saskatoon. Absolutely I am

at TF2 and like on Twitter you can follow at

the pull bag on Twitter Facebook all that other

good stuff follow at Geekcast Radio on Twitter

the Geekcast Radio Network on Facebook as always

head on over to geekcastradio .com check out

this and all of our other episodes of this podcast

and all the other podcasts we do coming up later

in june we've got episode three fifty five point

five which is tony stark iron man volume one

self -made man this is either gonna have i i'm

hoping you'll have all three of us that we have

j t and myself Ryan and I, or all three of us.

This is Dan Slott's first volume after finishing

up Ten Years of Spider -Man. We've got the finale

for I Hate Fairyland coming up, TMNT Invasion

of the Triceratons arc with Joe Reed and myself.

I'm toying around with the notion of reading

some other stuff later. I'm hoping to... get

later on friendly neighborhood spider -man which

i guess is a new series um so that'll be kind

of cool uh and then um was it dan slott no it

wasn't dan it was somebody who's on this book

uh oh yeah it was friendly neighbor yeah i thought

it was like tod's zadorsky or something like

that yeah no i'm not talking about that one um

uh i saw either it was either dan slaughter gail

simone had tweeted about fantastic four volume

two mr and mrs grim which collects uh... fantastic

four twenty eighteen number five wedding special

twenty eighteen number one and fantastic four

nineteen sixty one number eight uh... friendly

neighborhood is come on come on friendly neighborhood

is created written by oh of course tom taylor

That's the writer on that so and Yidre Yildre

Sinar is also on art on that one as well With

Marcelo Ferreira and a few other people as well.

So we're you know Doing various things here at

the pull bag who knows what the heck's gonna

happen Right now just going off of the stuff

that I already have purchased from Comixology,

so that's where Tony Stark, Iron Man Volume 1,

I Hate Fairyland, Team & Tea, and other stuff

is coming from. Make your greatest game in the

comics and we will catch you next time here inside

the pull bag. Fantastic. I'm just not the hero

type, clearly, with this laundry list of character

defects, all the mistakes I've made, largely

public. Truth is, I am Iron Man. You've just

heard the latest episode of The Pull Bag, the

GCRN's first comic review and discussion podcast.

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