Iron Man revisited
Y'all ever rewatch a movie and suddenly have an insight into what it means? Last night I'm watching Iron Man (2008) for maybe the twelfth time. Never watched it that closely. My surface level take is simple: a funny drunk rich dude realized war ain't good, so he makes a suit of armor to become a hero. I was wrong. Tony Stark is a sad rich dude who felt weak once so he takes it out on the world only becoming a hero when he dies.
Recap of the first movie just in case: Tony Stark, a billionaire weapons designer, gets kidnapped by terrorists using weapons he designed. With the help and death of a cool guy named Yensin in a cave with a box of scraps, he builds an armoured battle suit and frees himself. Then he vows to stop making weapons* and in the process becomes the superhero Iron Man. Evil forces beware and all that.
Except that's not correct either. What I realized last night, what I missed, is that Tony Stark is not a hero. Not for a damn long time does he become a hero, when he sacrifices himself for other people. He builds and refines the suit because he is scared. He does not do it to help people.
For most of his career in the Marvel movies Stark is reactionary. He upgrades his suits when he finds faults in them during battle. A little lightning absorption after getting shocked, energy shields after physical shields fail, cup holder because he dropped his drink. In basic storytelling, this is the first phase of a hero's journey** where the hero learns and reacts to the new world of heroics. Arguably, Stark doesn't become proactive in his own journey until Avengers: Endgame when he has things*** in his life he does not wish to lose.
Back to the first movie. Billionaire Tony for the first time almost loses something he had no idea was precious to him: his life. He channels that fear into a hurt sense of pride. For most of his life he probably told himself making murder missiles for Jesus and the US of A was the right thing to do. Then he finds out the Jesus murder missiles are in the hands of not-jesus people and worse the missiles are used to hurt him. And my Hela, does that mean that no matter who holds those missiles the instruments of death themselves are bad? Nope, but if they aren't held by Tony the missiles are definitely bad.
So what happens? Tony cancels his company making murder Jesus missiles and locks himself away to make a murder suit to feel better. And he does, with much comedy. Then he goes out to a party where a former bang-buddy journalist asks him why his murder missiles are being used in the same town his dead buddy Yensin (helped him build the OG suit in a cave with a box of scraps) once lived in. Tony puts on a new shiny murder suit and goes a murderin'.
This happens throughout Tony's life in the cinematic Marvels. Hurt him or his pride, make him feel small, he will do one of three things: say something witty and mean, build something to murder you, or say something witty and mean while murdering you.
The dark night of the soul**** of Tony's story comes when he is just about to marry Pepper (for some reason) and a giant space man beats ten Helas out of him and leaves him stranded in space while also wiping out half the universe. Read that last sentence again and ask yourself what your rock bottom looks like because fucking hell. Imagine the ego it takes for your come to jarvis moment be half the people ever being killed*****. So he marries and builds a lake house and fucks off****** until he becomes the hero by getting proactive and sacrificing himself, full circle saying "I am Iron Man."
Anyway, great movie and fun as hell. Check it out.
* except the murder suit
**every time you use this phrase a literary professor gets his wings
*** daughter and a house by a lake
****English majors take another drink, you drunks
*****he doesn't know he can bring them back and doesn't seem to try
******were there no supervillains for five years?