Iron Man: Demon in a Bottle

[selenak]

So, a by-product of my looooong flight back from Bali to Germany via Singapore was that I came into possession of "Demon in a Bottle", the trade volume collecting those issues containing what was arguably the most famous storyline involving Tony Stark pre-Civil War. Indeed, if there was one thing vaguely comic-knowledgable people who weren't actually reading his stories were aware of about Iron Man/Tony Stark before Civil War (and of course before the more recent movie), it probably was that he's an alcoholic. Me, I was familiar with flashbacks in later stories, and excerpts via pic spams, but I hadn't read the complete storyarc, written by David Michelinie and Bob Layton. I must say, bad late 70s hair and purple prose ("Namor shrugs - a motion made sensuously graceful by its quietly controlled power") not withstanding, it still holds up very well and accomplishes the very tricky feat of telling a credible story about a well-established character descending into an addiction in a genre that demands regular action scenes while doing so in an emotionally credible way. (I'm looking at you, Willow Rosenberg.) (Or rather, at you, Mutant Enemy team in s6.)



Which I had been curious about before and which brief flashbacks and depictions of individual panels could not tell me. Incidentally, ever since seeing the movie, I'm wondering a similar thing, i.e. whether or not they're going to do this particular storyline in one of the sequels. There are some signs they might - when Tony first is introduced, he's depicted drinking (in fact, he keeps drinking through the film, but switches to coffee post-Afghanistan while working on the armor), for example - but how to sell the crowd drawn to a fast paced popcorn movie on something as inherently dark and not-metaphorical or otherwise removed from reality as alcoholism is indeed the question. Well, Demon in the Bottle provides one possible solution. The storyarc offers an external foe, Justin Hammer (yes, that last name is impossible to take serious ever again, thanks, Joss), whose minions keep Tony busy with action scenes for about two third of the volume, while the drinking increases and increases until it takes over completely at the end. Mind you, the abrupt ending is about the only thing which really wouldn't work in a film. It doesn't work in the comics if you take Demon in a Bottle as a standalone but if you read it with the awareness that Tony's resolution to recover will be broken again, sending him into another spiral that ends in the gutter until he gets on the wagon again on which he has been staying ever since, that is not a problem. False first time recovery attempt optimism is pretty usual in such cases.

As villains go, Justin Hammer isn't really interesting, nor are his minions, but everyone else is, plus as the storyarc itself points out, Hammer never was the real problem. Tony's girlfriend du jour, Bethany Cabe, is a credible (and rare) attempt at a non-superpowered female action heroine (she heads a security service and is a bodyguard herself) and immediately wins by pointing out how much Iron Man sucks as a personal body guard. (Seriously, that cover story was one of the lamest in the Marvelverse. Which is why I have no problem with Tony having outed himself for good in both comicverse nad movieverse alike.) Since he's, you know, never actually around when Tony is in any danger. She's also organizing a rescue attempt with Rhodey and later staging an intervention with Jarvis, both of which she does with flair. I approve of Bethany, though of course I know that relationship was dooooomed.

Jarvis gets one of the most painful character scenes when a drunken Tony lashes out at him and Jarvis hands over his letter of resignation the next morning. (Someone better versed in Batman lore than me will have to say whether or not Alfred ever did that to provide Bruce with a highly necessary emotional slap.) It's to the credit of the writers that they didn't shy away from any of the ugly sides of alcoholism, whether it's the insults and blame of friends, the self-pity, or the increasing loss of any kind of temper control. In terms of character continuity beyond this particular story arc, there is a scene just about summing up something that can be observed in many an Iron Man storyline, particularily current day ones - he loves being Iron Man, it's being Tony Stark he has a problem with, and the armor is definitely a secondary addiction/escape from that. (Though of course this stops working when you're so drunk you can't control any of your high tech.) Speaking of long term continuity, two things immediately made me grin: a) Namor and Tony fight on sight. Again. Of course they do. Namor is that kind of guy. (And now I'm having fond flashbacks to Henry Hellrung pwning Namor in The Order.) and b) we get what seems to be the original Steve-trains-Tony-in-martial-arts scene. You know, the one Tony Stark keeps having flashbacks to in just about every big emotional crisis ever afterwards, whether it's his jealous armor kidnapping him (don't ask - or rather, do, this is why I can't hate Joe Quesada, he wrote actual Tony/Sentient Armor canon, proving yet again there is no crack like Marvel) or, well, that Civil War thing. (In which while beating each other up for real Tony and Steve have fond flash backs of beating each other up for fun in Christos Cage' Casualties of War.) Unfortunately, the original inspirational training lessons, as opposed to Tony's flashbacks to same, are not slashy at all (which tells you something about Tony's way of remembering things, I suppose), but they do contain the priceless "You're in surprisingly good shape for a desk jockey"/ "I play a lot of tennis"/ "Uh huh" exchange.

One more thing: we also get a flashack to the original origin story, in which our hero is kidnapped in Vietnam. I must say, the updated Afghanistan version (as told in Warren Ellis' Extremis, which is what the movie used) works better for me, though the Vietnam original at least doesn't make you wonder about Yinsen's name. Oh, and the colourists really fail sometimes, the narrative prose waxes on about Bethany's "emerald eyes" while the panel showes them blue now and then.

Comments

[unlovablehands.livejournal.com]

you know, for as much as the 70's could be heavy-handed and faily, they also did a lot of really good jobs combining ~the real world~ with the superhero world. much better than we tend to do nowadays, because it wasn't just for grim 'n gritty jollies, but to actually, like, examine the genre. Do you happen to know the issue numbers on this? I've always been more a DC girl than a Marvel girl (although not, especially, a Bat girl, so I can't tell you on your alfred question), but yeah. thanks for this post. i enjoyed it.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Issue numbers: #120 to #128 of The Invincible Iron Man, and you're welcome!

[unlovablehands.livejournal.com]

Thanks :)

[leviathan0999.livejournal.com]

My Dad -- that's him in the icon, standing in front of his WWII Bomber (Wow, how tasteless is that for a comment to a German! Sorry, it's my only "dad" icon!) -- was an alcoholic, and was, in the 1970s, very much an activist and instrumental in the creation of workplace alcoholism-prevention-and-treatment programs. I had to twist his arm to get him to read the original issues, but when he finally did, he heartily approved of the serious and intelligent treatment of the disease in this storyline.

I was, too. I'm old enough to like the bad 70s hair, and this is my all-time favorite Iron Man armor design. I also really enjoyed the jokes and joie-de-vivre in being rich that Michelinie wrote so well ("Why don't you just call Princess Grace for directions?"..."Sheesh!")

It's a treat to be reminded of this lovely, lovely story. You should check out the TPB of "The Armor Wars," by Michelinie/Layton and Mark Bright. A lot of the thematic power of the movie was derived from that story.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

I'm just kidding about the bad 70s hair (after all, one of my favourite tv shows is Blake's 7, and in Doctor Who, some of the seasons produced in the 70s are my favourites, too), though having been born in 1969, I was too young during the 70s to don a 70s hairstyle myself.*g*

Armor Wars: I've read it, last year when I was massively catching up on Iron Man canon, and agree re: thematic power.

Your dad: I was wondering what someone who has been through this would think, so I'm really glad to hear he approved.

Oh, don't worry re: icon. Basil Fawlty notwithstanding, we do mention the war. (Sometimes I'm weirded out and/or annoyed by the easy and casual way "Nazi" is used as a synonym for basically anything - as in "grammar nazi" or "Christmas nazi" or what not - but WW II bombers in the background of icons definitely aren't a problem. I once interviewed quite a lot of surviving emigrés as part of a project and went in being afraid they wouldn't want to talk to me because nearly all of them had lost family during the war, and born in 1969 or not, I am German, but they were all unprejudiced and friendly, which I was immensely grateful for. )

[likeadeuce.livejournal.com]

I really love this book, for all the reasons you said.

And I'm absolutely certain the addiction will find its way, somehow into the next movie; in fact, I'm quite sure that's why Downey agreed to take the part.

[lcsbanana.livejournal.com]

the thing i find tricky about putting the alcoholism arc in a TPB is that the second part is so crucial, but it takes place--a couple years later, real time, i think? So you go through the first arc, with the descent and the awful realism and barely saving himself, and everything seems okay for a little while, and then--that brutal, amazing, BRUTAL scene where Indries tells him what a horrible person he is, and leaves, and fiiinally in the last panel he reaches for the bottle.

because, man, THAT. that's the PUNCH of it for me, and the way he completely unravels afterward and almost dies on the streets is almost--denouement. But that sneaky sucker punch where they let you go dozens of issues thinking it's over, and then it just DESCENDS on you--that's totally what makes the arc, for me. And it's so time-based, you really CAN'T put it out in a TPB, you know? SIGH. (which is still no excuse for them not having a TPB of the second drinking arc if only so I can see a cleaned-up remastered glossy full page version of IN THE MORNING TONY STARK WILL BE SOBER...OR DEAD. oh, how i love that cover. :D)

...on somewhat of a tangent, GOD I LOVE BETHANY. I need to write a post with scans explaining to everyone JUST HOW AWESOME BETHANY CABE IS.

[likeadeuce.livejournal.com]

I have to say, I understand why the "Demon" arc is a classic and the later one is. . .not a classic. It's good to know, reading 'Demon,' that the later stuff exists, because the resolution is a bit too easy, and the existence of later canon shows that the subsequent writers realized that. (I actually kind of wonder if Denny O'Neil was apologizing for The Green Lantern/Green Arrow storyline years earlier, where he had Roy Harper kick HEROIN within just a couple pages, without any help and through pure willpower). But the later arc is mostly -- though I enjoy it -- is pretty heavy into soap opera elements and general addiction cliches. I much prefer the way 'Demon' shows the habit sneaking up on him, and combining with his control freak tendencies to make Tony into his own worst enemy.

[lcsbanana.livejournal.com]

yeah, i agree about the writing--i'm just SUCH a sucker for cumulative storytelling. it's why episodic narratives are my absolute favorite and i will never, ever love novels or movies as much as comics and TV. so when they let the tension build up for THAT LONG, and then that last page after Indries destroys him, with the gorgeous layout and the IM helmet and just--yeah. MONEY SHOT.

[likeadeuce.livejournal.com]

Oh, I like it too -- though the whole Indries plot is a bit much (for me) of my least favorite aspect of Iron Man canon, which is the tendency of the stories to emphasize that people are SO MEAN to Tony JUST BECAUSE it's fun to watch him suffer. Which -- I know is somewhat an aspect of the 'Demon' story, with Justin Hammer -- and of Stane in the movie -- and of young Stane in the current comics -- but I guess there's enough I like in those stories that the persecution-porn doesn't seem quite so blatant.

[londonkds.livejournal.com]

My understanding is that O'Neil had an insurmountable political revulsion to any story in which a millionaire playboy arms manufacturer was treated as anything except the irredeemable scum of the Earth, and the only way he could tolerate writing Tony Stark was to reduce him to a down-and-out.

[likeadeuce.livejournal.com]

Heh, that wouldn't surprise me either.

Oh, DENNY. I love the man, but that wasn't his best work.

[likeadeuce.livejournal.com]

Also, I wonder if it occurred to DO that turning Tony's story into "it's hard out here for a billionaire" isn't ACTUALLY the most socialist of messages.

[oracne.livejournal.com]

[has flashbacks to reading this AS IT CAME OUT]

[likeadeuce.livejournal.com]

Oh, so, was the outcome a big surprise or was it something you saw coming? I like to imagine that, without the hype machine like it is today, it would be possible to really be taken aback by the way stories developed in those days.

[oracne.livejournal.com]

I do remember being a bit shocked by some of the turns the story took. Not as much as in the big Daredevil story, though, in which Kingpin basically ruined him and he went back to live in Hell's Kitchen (which at that time was already gentrifying in real life, but not in the comic!), and bad things happened and happened.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

I could have, age-wise, but they didn't print Iron Man comics in German back then (other titles, yes, but not Iron Man), and I didn't start English at school until one year later, Latin being the first foreign language.*g*

[harmonyangel.livejournal.com]

You know, I still haven't actually read this arc. I've skimmed parts, but I've never just sat down and done it.

This needs to be remedied.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

It needs to, because excerpts really don't provide what really makes it - the way the increasing addiction is really build up and woven in and tied to character, never sprung upon.