The Four Color Media Monitor

USA Today's written a puff piece about Marvel's reboot, and tells that Brian Bendis is supposedly going to make Tony Stark an A-lister:

Iron Man is the superhero crown jewel of the Marvel movies in Hollywood, and if writer Brian Michael Bendis has his way, Tony Stark and his armored alter ego will be on top of the comic-book A-list, too.

As anyone familiar with Bendis knows, if he has his way, the title will only wind up with pretentious scripting and characterization, not unlike the X-Men have, and that's no way to achieve A-list status.

And Bendis has big plans for Tony Stark, adding a new love interest, formidable foes and other supporting players while building an expansive world around Iron Man "that is equal to how people perceive him," says writer.

He can't fool anybody in-the-know, but it'll be a shame if he does fool people unfamiliar with the medium.

A veteran of Spider-Man, X-Men and Avengers comics as well as event series such as Secret Invasion, Siege and Age of Ultron, Bendis has written Iron Man in various other series, though some in the Marvel offices thought he'd succeed on a Tony Stark solo book.

And his characterization hasn't been worthy of the paper it's printed on, so why should we expect any better this time? Ever since Civil War, Tony's been turned into something more akin to an idiot at best and a villain at worst. And they didn't even seem interested in cashing in on the movie's success at the time, which could explain all the more why that rendition prevailed.

Bendis calls Invincible Iron Man "a futurist's look at what he has to do next as a superhero" — the series picks up eight months after the conclusion of the current event series Secret Wars with Tony wanting to be a better man in every aspect of his life. (The recently wrapped Superior Iron Man comic had him based in San Francisco and being more of a jerk than usual.)

Ah, see? That's pretty much been the situation for several years now, yet USA Today's writer doesn't seem worried about what took place until now, nor whether it was plausible, let alone called for.

In addition to his weaponry, Iron Man's also getting a larger cast of characters, many of them new. Fans of Stark pals Pepper Potts and Happy Hogan will get to see them again at some point, but Bendis says he is instead focusing on introducing folks such as a love interest "who is smarter than him," the writer says. "He can't just be snarky Tony Stark and woo her. He's got to earn her, and even that's a challenge.

"The fact that he has to says a lot: 'Well, maybe I'm not as cool as I think am.'"

Why does that sound more like the idea Tony should become a "beta-male" who doesn't have enough talent to win over a girl? This brings to mind how the recent Star Trek reboots characterized Captain Jim Kirk, as more of a screw-up when it came to affairs with women. Bendis ought to think about how he may not be as cool or clever as he thinks he is.

One of Bendis' main goals is to give Iron Man a deep bench of bad guys in the first year of the new series — all with looks designed by Marquez — who are just as dangerous as Spider-Man or Batman's rogues galleries.

"His villain pool can be a little shallow sometimes," Bendis says. "You've got the Mandarin and Whiplash, and then you stare into space thinking of the next one."

What a joke. He's only putting down past writers who did far better work than he ever did conceiving a rogues' gallery and/or suspense situations where Tony had to face off with and outsmart various villains. What about Melter, Controller, Fin Fang Foom, Madame Masque, A.I.M, Living Laser, Unicorn, the 3-4 criminals who wore Iron Monger suits and the several different crooks who wore the Crimson Dynamo outfits? Doesn't the mobster Justin Hammer, revealed in 1979 as a bankroller for several villains provided they give him a cut of their loot, count as a worthy foe in his own way too? Bendis is actually giving clues he's more familiar with IM through the movies than the comics.

In addition, he wants to tackle a major plot development from writer Kieron Gillen's run on Iron Man: that Tony is adopted and no one has made any reference to who his biological parents actually are. "Well, that is going to change," adds Bendis.

It already did, so there's nothing to see here. That was not an impressive retcon, and it only reduces Tony's significance, making him more of a guy whom we know less about while shoving in too much science-fiction in the background. Worst, it was contrived. If they intend to keep that retcon intact, then there's ever less point to reading what they want to shove down everybody's throats now.

Labels: crossoverloading, dreadful writers, Iron Man, marvel comics, msm propaganda