| Comic ramblings, part II |
[Jul. 10th, 2009|10:57 am] |
I posted my inquiry to the BC forums, and Scav posted my inquiry to the CBR forums. Looking at both threads, here's how people seem to be reconciling the contradictions I pointed out in Invincible Iron Man, aggregated and objectively paraphrased to the best of my subjective abilities.
1. Iron Man tech was already available on the black market, so putting one more piece of IronTech out there to track down Stane isn't such a bad thing, and Iron Man and Spidey did shut down one IronTech black marketeer.
This may make sense, quite possibly fixes my perceived contradictions, but...that means IronTech is no longer remotely the secret technology it's been made out to be since the Armor Wars. If you accept that random black marketeers are passing around even a limited supply of IronTech, then IronTech is no longer some secret sauce. By now any smart arms dealer has traced every circuit path, photographed every inch of tech, and copied every bit of code so they can replicate the armor any time they want.
That's something that Tony Stark knows. If we're to believe the Five Nightmares, he wouldn't be overly concerned about someone getting hold of one helmet, he would lie awake at night sweating that someone would discover a way to use his cybernetic innovations in the helmet to upgrade their armor. That answer above, and the story it comes from, seems to ignore the fact that the recipe for crystal meth isn't as top secret as Iron Man schematics.
2. A suit of bulletproof, flying armor that can stop a plane from free fall and lift school buses is no more or less dangerous than a pacemaker that lets you float.
There's actually several different replies to this, but I'm not sure how to reply to any of them, because the scene were Pepper demands StarkTech be removed but then is cool with BrandTech in her is so laughably out of character, it defies reason. Pepper wouldn't mind a StarkTech pacemaker keeping her alive, ergo the idea of the Rescue armor having the same "blood" on it would never have crossed her mind.
It was a bad scene, it made Pepper out to be a hypocritical drama queen, and it was later contradicted by a second plot. However, as all good fanboys know, bitches is crazy, so let's move onward to the point three. *sigh*
3. Tony's brain got turned into a computer with Extremis. Now that Extremis is gone, he doesn't have an operating system. His brain is like a hard drive.
So let's see if I understand this. Back when Tony had Extremis, his brain was like a computer. It was a computer that was constantly downloading information to the point that he was hallucinating. Now that Extremis is gone, as is the flood of information, he can't access the information in his hard drive brain, so he's slowly deleting his mind to make sure no one can get to it. Am I the only one here who thinks it's odd that with or without Extremis, Tony Stark goes insane?
Tony has had access to cybernetics since long before Extremis. Even if you discount the brain scan tech in Extremis, he rebuilt James Rhodes who was little more than an Anakin impersonator. Man-machine interfaces is what Tony does. Saying Tony doesn't have the time or tech to either wipe out the database or re-interface with the Extremis armor sans Extremis is like saying Reed Richards can't sign a contract because his pen is all the way across the room.
I don't think so, Tim.
4. JARVIS would be a nice thing for Tony to have as his brain drains away, but I don't think it'd run on the old armors.
Yeah. I agree, and that's my point. We know from Secret Invasion that the Skrulls were able to cook up a computer virus which could (fantasmically) install onto and infect everything that falls under the umbrella of StarkTech, which includes Tony himself by way of Extremis. If StarkTech is so monolithic that a single virus can specifically target it without disrupting other technologies...if that virus's target includes Extremis...if StarkTech is such a unique technology that Ezekial Stane's entire techbase is built from StarkTech and requires compatible StarkTech to grow(1)...if War Machine was the only Stark system that was different enough not to be infected by the Skrull virus...then it kind of stands to reason that JARVIS, an OS/AI that runs on StarkTech armor, could just as easily run on StarkTech armor.
(1. I know that seems to contradicts my saying that a smart arms dealer would study and copy Iron Man tech, but I assure you, Ezekial Stane is not a smart arms dealer. He's a script kiddie whose scripts are Iron Man armor. What he does seems impressive, but he's the super-villain equivalent to your co-workers newphew who is a whiz with computers because his MySpace page has dancing cats on it and he setup their email. Zeke Stane is no Vanko, Thinker, or Fixer.)
So, what have I learned from other people's interpretation of Matt Fractions work? First, I've learned that not many people in comics could tell you the difference in an atomic bomb and the blueprints for an atomic bomb. Second, bitches is crazy. Third, Tony Stark's really not that smart, but odds are Hank Pym's cock tastes like chocolate. Fourth, there is no more potent veil than nostalgia porn; characterization, innovation, and all else must kneel before a story that references an old comic book.
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