Iron Man: Demon in a Bottle
re-issued: 2006
- available in soft cover
Written by David Michelinie (plotting
Michelinie and Bob Layton). Pencils by John Romita, Jr (and Carmine Infantino).
Inked by Bob Layton.
Colours/Letters: various. Editor:
Roger Stern.
Reprinting: Iron Man (1st series) #120-128 (1979)
Published by Marvel Comics
160 pages
Cover price: $24.99 USA
Currently at Marvel Comics, Iron Man is being put in a rather awkward position, acting as the defult "villain" in its massive, cross-company Civil War epic. Some guys get no respect! But this collection harkens back to an earlier period of the character.
This collection of nine consecutive
Iron Man issues from the late 1970s completes what I, semi-facetiously, think of as the substance-abuse
trilogy. It began in 1971 when Marvel Comics and Stan Lee decided to buck
the Comics Code's ban on drugs with a three issue run of Spider-Man in
which a longtime supporting character becomes hooked on pills (reprinted
in Spider-Man vs. The Green Goblin among others). The storyline was a critical
success and led to the Comics Code re-examining its more excessive restrictions.
DC Comics immediately tried to go one better by having an actual costumed
sidekick in the pages of Green Lantern (co-starring Green Arrow) -- the
Arrow's sidekick, the coincidentally-named Speedy -- revealed as a heroin
addict (reprinted in various Green Lantern/Green Arrow collections).
For the next few years comics trundled
along, Spidey's pal had a relapse, superheroes tackled drug dealers with
more frankness, and troubled heroes were more the norm.
Then, in 1979, the concept was taken
one step further. No longer a buddy, no longer a sidekick -- what if the
actual title character developed a problem? And what if, instead of doing
illegal drugs, his vice was perfectly legal, socially acceptable alcohol?
What if millionaire industrialist, Tony Stark, who fought crime as the armour-suited Iron Man, started hitting the sauce?
Perhaps the most effective thing
about this storyline is how understated it is. The reader of Iron Man
at the time would be largely unaware of where the story's headed. Sure,
Iron Man's alter ego, industrialist Tony Stark, is drinking a lot, but
it seems a character quirk, nothing more. Instead, the reader's attention
is focused on his various high-flying adventures, battling costumed villains
or teaming up with the Sub-Mariner, or on the sinister, escalating sub-plot
involving Iron Man's mysteriously malfunctioning armor, or Stark's burgeoning
romance with Bethany Cabe, or his fears that Stark International will fall
to a hostile takeover by the spy agency S.H.I.E.L.D. Along the way there's
a reprise of Iron Man's origin and cameos by the Avengers and Ant Man II,
as well as a scuffle with a whole slew of obscure Marvel villains.
Writer David Michelinie avoids the
preachy, holier-than-thou route, and instead just tells a story that happens
to concern a costumed super-hero getting a little...lost. The downside
is that Michelinie is maybe a little too soft. Surely the problem with
an addiction is how it affects your life, and what happens if your crutch
is taken away. Instead Iron Man can still flatten the opposition, and when
deprived of a drink, he takes it all in stride. It's not till the final
couple of issues that a genuine problem manifests itself.
Of course, I'm underselling this
collection. I praise it for its subtlety, then I spend half this review
focusing solely on the alcoholism.
The pleasant surprise was how darn entertaining
these issues are, just as superhero adventures. The action and heroics,
the sub-plots, all make this a highly entertaining diversion, regardless
of any socially relevant intentions.
Michelinie delivers smart writing
and plausible, grown up characters that are a pleasure to read and a rich
tapestry of plot threads. In fact, the various sub-plots are sometimes
more interesting than the main action-adventure heroics which are fun,
but not much more. The problem with Iron Man is that he can be too powerful,
with a gadget for every crisis, leading to stories that can be simple and
simply resolved. He's probably the only superhero who can be more compelling
out of costume than in. After all, you've got to love a guy who has everything
and still seems to brood as much as Spider-Man.
And there is something appealing
about that suit of armor, of physically putting on a costume that protects
you from the world. Of course, the symbolism isn't lost on Michelinie and
company, perhaps explaining why, of all Mavel's superheroes, Iron Man was
selected as the obvious candidate for a bout with the bottle.
My main quibble with these issues
is John Romita Jr.'s art. This, among his earliest professional work, is
problematic, with uneven handling of figures and physical dimensions. Bob
Layton's inks help a lot, and the art certainly doesn't ruin the saga.
Carmine Infantino pencils one issue and I actually preferred his guest
stint (also benefitting from Layton's inks).
The other quibble is that throughout
this collection, Stark is fretting over S.H.I.E.L.D trying to take over
his company. The final issues has Tony triumphing over the bottle, and
vowing optimistically to win back his company. The thing is, Tony Stark
succeeds...in the very next issue! If this collection had included even
the first five pages from issue #129 there would've been complete closure. The
Powers-that-be may've elected not to include 129 because the solution,
after so long a build up, is so ridiculously easy (remember my comments
about simple resolutions?) they might've felt it was artistically better
to end with a kind of Scarlett O'Hara optimism than to reprint the actual
solution.
More likely, since the collection was intended to highlight the alcoholism, the reprint editor may have reached the end of that plot and felt that
was enough. I've read other collections which, because they're intended
to highlight a particular idea or artist, let stories dangle in mid-plot
simply because it doesn't fall into the rigid criteria. But how can the
non-comic reading world be expected to take comicbook storytelling seriously
if comic folks don't take story -- that is, beginnings, middles, and ends
-- seriously themselves?
Admittedly, Tony Stark beating the
bottle and the bad guys then vowing to win back his company forms a reasonable finish as
all the other sub-plots are resolved in this collection -- so this does fairly nicely seem like a graphic "novel". But knowing that
it could've been completely wrapped up by reprinting just five more pages,
well...
For continuity buffs, another storyline
a few years later had him fall off the wagon completely and end up a derelict
for a time. But that's something for another day (maybe even another collection).
As well, Iron Man's origins date back to Stark being an arms manufacturer
during the Vietnam war (a story retold in this collection) but, as mores
changed with the times, Stark got out of the arms business. Yet, here,
Michelinie makes no comment on whether his version of Stark is an
arms manufacturer or not.
In this day and age, when it seems every few issues of every comic automatically gets collected in a TPB, it's nice when a book like this comes along (originally collected in the 1980s as The Power of Iron Man), reminding us that collections used to be reserved for stand out stories.
A classic story arc of yesteryear...that remains thoroughly entertaining today.
Reviewed by D.K. Latta
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