anyway, i just found out that in one of the early drafts of iron man, howard stark was going to be alive as the cold and ruthless industrialist who would be THE ANTAGONIST OF THE MOVIE, THE GUY WHO TRIES TO KILL TONY like if this doesn’t tell you anything about the sort of space that character occupies in the concept of mcu iron man then idk what will
at some point, they also intended to hold out on obadiah stane and only present him as a villain in the second movie after spending the first parading as tony’s friend and mentor, so fucking imagine the nightmare scenario where tony’s own father tries to murder him in one movie and then the trusted friend who helped him through becoming iron man, also tries to murder him after using their closeness and tony’s vulnerability to his advantage
… I can see why Marvel changed their minds on doing this because it is a fascinating character arc with really complex villains. Given Iron Man was the first of the Marvel movies to make it big – laying the ground work for Thor, Captain America and Avengers – I can understand why they decided to go for a simpler narrative: the princess in the tower saves herself from the dragon with the dragon.
But man, can you imagine?
Movie 1: the man who sends Tony to his death is Howard, his father. This man then takes the things that Tony built out of blood and bone to escape, and builds a new weapon he intends to use to make a new fortune and start a global arms race.
It doesn’t even matter if Howard had intentionally wanted to kill Tony or his capture was accidental and subsequent refusal to pay ransom was company policy or a US government decision. The point would be Tony actively rebelling against what he sees as his father’s interest in profit over ethics. And in all this, there’s Obadiah Stane, supporting Tony despite having been Howard’s right hand man for years. There’s Uncle Obadiah helping Tony recover. There’s Stane, helping Tony fight and then kill Howard next to Pepper and Coulson.
End credits – Tony announcing he is Iron Man and that Stark Industries will be ceasing weapons development, with Obadiah Stane standing by him, acting CEO as the company mourns the death of its founder, Howard Stark.
And then, Movie 2 – Tony facing death from heavy metal poisoning and desperately trying to find a cure. And there is Obadiah Stane, nudging Tony to indulge his worse impulses (and accelerate the poisoning) as a distraction while he takes the reigns of Stark Industries and re-starts the weapons division.
Tony’s realisation that Obadiah Stane has betrayed him – is, in effect, actively working towards Tony dying as the easiest way for Stane to take over Stark Industries – is all the more emotionally devastating to the audience because we spent an entire movie and 2 years assuming he was one of the heroes. We’ve seen Tony call him ‘Uncle Obie’ repeatedly. We’ve heard the childhood stories – we’ve seen a man, portrayed as a hero, care about Tony at some of his lowest moments.
And now, here’s this same man, destroying everything Tony has tried to do. Worse, this man doesn’t care that Tony is preparing to die, that everything Tony is doing is towards a legacy, to make sure that the Stark name won’t be remembered for death and selling weapons on the black market.
And Tony is helpless – he’s dying, he can’t stop Stane, he’s cut off from his company and the world think he’s having a nervous breakdown.
On a side note, two years separate Iron Man I and Iron Man II – at Monaco Tony remarks that the event is his first vacation in two years. Given metal poisoning and technology development, Tony probably found out he was going to die from the arc reactor in his chest fairly soon after the end of Iron Man I and then began working to make sure Stark Industries would have a future without him. Tony had a long time to know he was living on borrowed time is what I’m saying.
Anyway, there’s Tony, betrayed by the man who helped him kill his father. There’s Tony, stretching out his life by days and months only if he stops using the arc reactor to power the Iron Man. There’s Tony – helpless and caught. And into this comes Nick Fury and Howard Stark’s research notes.
And here’s Tony watching a video of the man who sent him to his death. A video filmed literal decades ago and talking to him. Here’s Tony being saved by his father and the man who tried to kill him.
What a mind fuck those two movies would have been. How complex and weird and ridiculously human both those villains would have been. How utterly impossible to tell the story well in 5 hours split over 2 movies, 2 years apart.
But wow can you imagine how well Robert Downey Junior would have done portraying a man betrayed twice and saved twice by the same two men?
Can you imagine how much more screwed up we’d all be when we watched Tony find out about Steve Rogers.
Because you see, that would be the moment Tony realises (or at least believes) that his father wanted the Iron Man technology probably because it would have allowed deeper, more thorough deep water exploration in search of a body.
Think of a Tony who looks at Captain America and fights with Captain America and follows Captain America while believing that his father chose Steve over his own son – over and over again, all the way to the end – rather than the [handwave Loki’s magic staff] deux ex machina of the Avengers.
Anyway in the right script writer’s hands, it would have been amazing is what I’m saying.
Dewey watches a lot of adult themed television shows. He’s an 80s kid without being born in the 80s. I’m pretty his late night show was inspired by shows like Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon, and I can only imagine Dewey watched a lot of these shows with Donald.
Donald and Dewey watching late night tv shows and listening to 80s pop music is my forever aesthetic.
the most telling thing about the political climate this year is that usually my dash is filled with 4th of July posts by now but there’s been absolutely nothing… like nobody can even find the strength to post ironic eagle memes are you guys alright over there
I am so damn proud this country, the good that is evident every damn day. Those who want to drag the US back into the kitchen, force it back into closets, put their hands where the want, ignore the tired, poor, hungry, needy, and disabled … well they better get out of the way because THIS is the United States of America.
They’ve already lost; they just don’t know it yet.
Sandra Soapbox Cosplay 