Product Description: Iron Man faces his most untouchable foe in criminal industrialist Justin Hammer and his literal army of super-villains! But can the Armored Avenger overcome an even more implacable personal demon, invulnerable to technology or wealth? Guest-starring Ant-Man and the Sub-Mariner! Collects Iron Man #120-128.
Listen, His Armor is a CARRY-ON ITEM! I am one of the probably hundreds of thousands of people who saw the new Marvel-financed version of Iron Man at the movies. Like many of these moviegoers, I was impressed and even persuaded to compare it favorably with Batman Begins, which I had previously thought to be the best possible comic book movie.
I read Marvel comics a lot as a kid, but my favorite title was Uncanny X-Men and my favorite character was Nightcrawler. After reading this book, Iron Man: Demon in a Bottle, I find I still prefer the X-Men and Nightcrawler. Especially because of the ridiculous scene in which Tony Stark changes into his armor in an airplane restroom. How does he get the armor in the cramped restroom with him, you might ask? HE HAS IT FOLDED NEATLY IN A SMALL BRIEFCASE!
Argh. I hope the rest of Iron Man's comic book stories do not involve impregnable robotic armor that can be folded and stored as easily as Robin the Boy Wonder's costume might. Hopefully the briefcase armor will have gone the way of thought-balloons in any future Iron Man comics I might happen to read. Or else I'll rip up a puppy.
The first of Michelinie and Layton's home runs. There was apparently an Iron Man animated series running in the early 90s, the period of my youth, when I wasted many an hour watching episodes of Batman, Spider-Man, and X-Men, making me lifelong fans of all three franchises; however, I never saw so much as one episode of the Iron Man show, and so I never developed much interest in the character (or the entire Avengers franchise in general, which was absent from the screens in that era, only arriving in highly diluted form after the big boom was over). Once I started reading comics, I gradually became familiar with him, and with the big movie on the way (which looks great), we're seeing a renaissance of Iron Man product; this is often heralded as Tony's big story, so I bought the very nice-looking Premier edition, collecting the nine-issue "Demon in a Bottle" arc (which, in the tradition of older comics, is really a series of one-, two-, or three-parters linked by a common subplot.
The overall verdict: pretty good stuff. Certainly quite readable, and Michelinie and Layton largely avoid smothering the pages with captions, giving Romita Jr. room to work, something Chris Claremont never learned to do (not to say there aren't plenty of captions; much more than you'd find in a modern comic; in particular, there's the understandable need for each issue to recap, in space ranging from a few panels to a few pages, the preceding issue, which is rather awkward in a modern collected edition which this story clearly wasn't written with in mind).
This is trumpeted as Tony's big brush with alcoholism, but for all but the last issue or so that's deep-background; the main plot involves the newly-introduced Justin Hammer's attempts to undermine Stark Industries by various means, which is just the main of many pressures building on Stark that drive him to drink (including a notably unresolved plot introduced before this collection even begins involving SHIELD, but the ending provides a sort of "go get `em" closure where you know Tony will get by fine now that he's got his winning edge).
The principle supporting cast is Bethany Cabe and James Rhodes; the former, Tony's new love interest (with some discreetly implied casual sex in a hotel), is a memorable character; Rhodey's fine here, though he hasn't yet become War Machine (or even found out about his boss's real name). Also present are the Avengers (notably a sparring session with Captain America), the late Ant-Man II (a Michelinie creation), and Namor (there are few better choices for a misunderstanding-fight than Namor, given his nature). One thing I found kind of amusing is the status of secret identities here: nobody knows who Tony is; not Cap or any of the other Avengers, not Bethany or Rhodey, not Ant-Man (particularly notable, since Tony doesn't know Scott is Ant-Man either); it feels a bit forced, really, but it's not anything close to a real issue. I really like Romita Jr.'s art here; nowadays his stuff is just boxy and ugly, but the classic look is wonderful.
Worth it for nostalgia's sake One of the most important moments in Iron Man's history occurs in Demon in a Bottle, which makes it worth picking up for nostalgia's sake if nothing else. While villain Justin Hammer rears his ugly head, Tony "Iron Man" Stark takes on his toughest opponent: alcoholism. While David Michelinie (who's run on the title is the closest thing Iron Man ever had to a definitive writer) attempts to give a powerful/human story here, the issue gets resolved way too quickly for anyone to consider it believable. Not to mention that the book comes off as quite dated thanks to the atrocious dialogue and overall lame conflict and storyline. Despite that though, Demon in a Bottle marks a historic moment in the Iron Man mythos, and the artwork from Bob Layton and John Romita Jr. isn't bad either. All in all, Demon in a Bottle is worth picking up for nostalgia's sake alone for Iron Man fans, but all others should proceed with caution.
A bit dated, but still worth a read I picked this up thinking that it would be all about Tony and his drinking problem. imagine my surpize to find it only happened in the last issue in this collection. Now, I can surmize the point of the issue, but its a real letdown than one would expect.
it gets three stars because even though it was a good read, the real questions that the book clames to tackle ultimately get resolved too quickly to prove lasting.
man v. machine By the time these issues were originally published, Iron Man had been around for nearly 15 years, but for all his popularity-- sharing a book with Captain America in the 1960s, moving to his own title, and playing a major role in the Marvel title The Avengers-- he'd never quite made a mark as a character the way other heroes of the Marvel-verse had. Simply put, he felt more like a concept-- take a James Bond-like playboy named Tony Stark and merge him with the idea of the Knight in Shining Armor-- than a fully-fleshed out idea. It's a neat concept, but one that a long string of very talented writers and artists failed to develop. Even literally giving Iron Man a new heart-- to replace the shrapnel-damaged ticker that had spurred the invention of his life-giving armor in the first place-- failed to pump new blood into the character. He seemed destined to remain a second-tier figure, fun and visually striking, but lacking the pathos of such landmark heroes as Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four.
In 1978, that all changed. Writer/co-plotter David Michelinie and Artist/co-plotter Bob Layton have stated in numerous interviews that they see themselves as craftsmen at the service of the characters, and that they want readers to become absorbed in the storylines, rather than thinking about the creators behind the scenes. Fine, but their own landmark work on this title belies that modesty. Simply put, what was needed was not a new heart, or new armor, or a big-time supervillain, but two artists alert to the possibilities buried within the title, and especially the title character. For all intents and purposes, they re-invented Tony Stark/Iron Man, and gave Marvel a whole new hero to play with.
M&L's solution to the riddle that had bedeviled even Stan Lee was remarkably simple: what if we really took this guy seriously, and tried to tell some realistic stories about him? What if we made him a real character-- funny, fleshed-out, full of strengths and ego and very deep flaws-- and tested his grace under pressure? What if we surrounded him with a top-notch supporting cast? What if we gave him a real girlfriend, instead of the Harlequin robots that had populated the book in the past? What if we really explored what it meant to be a Cold Warrior, to think about the ethics and unforseen consequences of your actions and inventions? In other words, what if we emphasized the "man" in the title, rather than the "iron"?
What resulted was a run of 40 issues (#116-156, although Layton left after #153) that offered a gripping and very human arc, respecting the genre conventions of the superhero tale (the costumes, the action sequences, the patented marvel hero crossovers) while also asking them to grow up. This wasn't new to Marvel, but it was new to Iron Man, and M&L's run on the title heralded a renaissance at a company that had been in a downward creative spiral for the previous half-decade: in the wake of M&L would come Frank Miller's Daredevil, John Byrne and Chris Claremont's X-Men (and Byrne's even-better five-year run on the Fantastic Four), Walt Simonson's mythic look at Thor, and the classic Hobgoblin arc in Spider-Man (it's not a coincidence that these books followed editorial and business-side shake-ups that would lead to better conditions for writers and artists, and draw some of the best talent to the company. After all, treating people like human beings shouldn't only apply to fictional characters).
I emphasize that whole 40-issue arc because some people have complained that the storylines here are wrapped up too quickly and neatly. That's a fair complaint, but I think it's more an effect of the TPB form (which has to end *somewhere*, and gives a sometime-false impression of closure) than the stories themselves-- the issues and ideas raised here continue to be developed after the stories collected in the book. In fact, M&L do such a good job re-inventing the character that they haunt every creative team that followed them on the book, as new writers and artists either choose to emphasize the extremes of Stark's flaws (Denny O'Neill's often fascinating but misguided restaging of Stark's alcoholism in the early 80s is but one example, althoug it's so grippingly done that, for all its problems, it probably deserves its own TPB, too) or ignore M&L's innovations altogether choosing to revert Stark to his crass playboy persona of the 60s (the recent Civil War series is at least an attempt to do something unique with what M&L wrought). In the end, not even M&L could live up to their own legacy-- their much-anticipated return to the title in the mid-80s (partially collected as an "armor wars" TPB) started strong, but was eventually overwhelmed by its action sequences, which didn't flow in and out of their characters as gracefully as their first run had.
Which is why it's great this first run is now collected and back in print. Is it perfect? No. Is it occasionally nostalgic? Sure (check out those disco-era fashions). But none of that eradicates M&L's achievement-- in a genre that sometimes emphasizes mindless mechanical action and macho cliche, they managed to create a brief, shining moment of humanism. And that, in the end, is what superheroes are all about.
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
Tony's Online Tips
Trevor
