He Built This In a Cave! From a Box of Scraps!

I have to admit, one of my favorite parts during the Iron Man movie, was when Stane was shouting at the lead scientist about how ...

"Tony Stark was able to build this in a CAVE! From a box of scraps!"

"But I'm not Tony Stark."

I almost thought for sure Stane would have pushed balding science guy over the railing.

So this entry will be about the genius of Tony Stark!

The Mark 1 armor as its being called was Tony's 'getaway' armor. Heavy, bulky, rather crude in design and really intended to be a one time use armor. While that is a change from the comics, where he wore his original grey armor for a while, painted it gold and added a 'skirt' and then finally created the infamous red and yellow armor, the update works. What is especially interesting is how they say in the movie that he spent about 3 months building it with Yinsen. It wasn't something he just magically whipped up, but still 3 months to build something that has taken some of the world's best engineers years, decades to even get close to, is pretty amazing.

But then, for anyone who knows anything about Tony Stark knows that he's got more brain power in his pinky than most of us have. We're talking about a man who can prototype something in his head, create the specs, blueprints, and debug something single handedly, and I am glad that the movie did show that Tony did evolve his designs. Learning from each 'setback', but still essentially showing just how insanely smart he is. Granted his AI, J.A.R.V.I.S did do a lot of the dirty work as did the other bots in his lab, but then he's making a suit of highly advanced armor. If he did it all single handedly, I would have said its too unrealistic, fabricating each part from hand and assembling them all, nah, he would have used some robots at least. Anything else would look, well kinda like something someone would wear to a comic convention. What is impressive was how they didn't completely "fantastic" the 'birth' of Iron Man in both the comics and the movie. I mean, Stan Lee, a man who really had no engineering or science background, was able to do a pretty good futurist. And that's really what Tony Stark is, a futurist. He plans at least 5 years ahead of anyone. Who would have guessed during Vietnam that we would really have some of the tech that Tony Stark created back in the 60s. Iron Man had a way to guide projectiles. Send drone armor out into battle. Lightweight, yet strong body armor, night vision/infrared goggles.

He really was the first super hero that could be anyone. Which I think is pretty impressive. He didn't get bitten by a radioactive spider. He didn't get a super soldier treatment. He wasn't a Thunder God, or a monster, or even a guy that could shrink and grow. He was a man in an armor that served as his life support system. (One thing I am VERY glad the new movie did away with, was having Tony stuck in the Iron Man chestplate and just had him wear the small arc reactor in his chest.) And it didn't take long for someone else to don a suit of Iron Man armor. It wasn't too far into his life that Happy Hogan first wore the suit. Yes the chunky driver. I'll bet you a 'brass rat' that Happy gets a go in the suit in the next movie, even if only for a brief scene. But it proved ANYONE could be Iron Man. Then eventually Rhodey wore the suit and was actually Iron Man for quite a while during the 80s. Talk about progressive huh. An African American superhero that stood toe to toe with some of the biggest nasties of the Marvel Universe and few even knew what color his skin was. Yes kids, that Secret Wars Iron Man from the mid 80s, wasn't Tony. It was Rhodey.

Although like so many smart men, they do some dumb things. For some its insider trading, for others its call girls, and for a few its bribes. For Tony is was booze. Marvel gave us our first high functioning alchoholic superhero. Who got so drunk that he lost his company, gave up his armor to Rhodey, lost all his wealth, and lived in the gutter. Even Captain America had a hard time knocking sense into that billion dollar genius brain of his.

It took a lot of work, but eventually he sobered up, regained his wealth, his company and his identity. But the demon was still within him. Which I think was pretty impressive of Marvel to do. They could have easily had him swear off the sauce and go on like nothing ever happened. But he lived with the aftershocks of his alkie days for many many many years. To this day even. I recall an issue of Iron Man around 1999, where he's trying to help fellow super hero, Carol Danvers, aka Ms. Marvel aka Warbird, recover from her own alcoholism. He's yelling at her, and she's yelling back, he can smell the whiskey on her breath and its making his mouth water. Although I do have one issue with the whole "once an alcholic, always an alcoholic" line that AA tries to put on people. There is such a thing as moderation. There is such a thing as 'forbidden fruit'. You always want what you can't have. Although there are people with addictive personalities. He's substituted drinks for armor. Even wondering if being Iron Man was as much an addiction as alcohol.

But then... he saves some lives and realizes "Its not addiction. Its a calling." So you see, even smart men, who do dumb things, CAN learn and evolve. Its impressive when you can see a movie, where the main character uses his brains and not just resort to a big gun. That's where Stane and Stark's battle really got interesting. You had brains, versus brawn. Stark had the smaller, less offensive more defensive armor. Stane had the larger, far more offensive armor. Who won? Exactly. It wasn't the guy with the biggest stick. It was the guy who makes the sticks and knows that you don't need pure muscle. You need a fraking large Arc Reactor explosion. But I'm pretty confident, that even if Pepper didn't blow the reactor... He would have out smarted Stane. Of course, Stane always was fated to die. In the comics, he blew his own head off with his repulsors. So, it was go out like a coward with suicide or go down like a villan in a blaze of glory.

So kids, remember, math, science and playing with tinker toys may get you farther in life than being a jock. Of course, Tony Stark was able to go 12 for 12 with a year's worth of Maxim cover models, and I didn't quite see a beer gut or a computer butt. So, learn! Keep yourself healthy and fit. And it might not be a bad idea to stay off the booze, and you too could be Tony Stark... in your own way!

Until next time. Keep facing forward!