Iron Man #600(with Iceman theorizing)

Well...Eva Bell is now confirmed by Bendis to be in Iron Man #600.



Here's hoping she does more...a lot more...than just show a glimpse of the future of Tony, Riri and Doom.

It's been about three years for the younger Iceman, two-and-a-half for the older.

It's reality-breaking for me. I feel I know Iceman as well as I know myself, and they'd have about as much chance of convincing me I'm gay and have spent my entire life 'living in shame and denial' as Iceman. Every time I've see him depicted as gay it just read as totally false and a lie to me. I've come to accept it always will.

Most fans who can't buy into the current seeming narrative go with 'Jeen mindraped him into thinking he is gay'. I've never bought into that because that was never the story being told. That's just wishing/fantasizing.

But I started to note all the convoluted explanations and very parsed statements coming from Marvel. From current and former writers and editors. Odd bits of stuff in the story being told that had no reason to be there, stuff that actually told a different story.

I may not have every detail right, or be able to predict with accuracy when the revelations will be coming. Most fans knew OG Wolverine would be coming back at some point, yet even knowing that, trying to predict the where and when and how of it... A lot of speculation with a lot of wrong guesses. I've gotten some of this wrong, I will probably get more wrong. But on the big stuff...

It may sound crazy to say this, but I have faith in Iceman...the reality of that person and who they were, that I read about for over 35 years of my life in over fifty years of stories...and followed, translated, into other media.

I don't accept that that truth can just be washed away, rewritten, as if it never was.

And maybe, just maybe, we are not supposed to.

I hope I am right, as well, old friend...

Yeah, I saw the solicits for Astonishing X-Men Annual #1

Fake Iceman, Fake Xavier, no Cyclops...at least it's Jean and not Jeen...maybe Beast is Mystique again? I'm not pre-ordering, I'm getting burned enough by Marvel as it is. I'll wait for word-of-mouth, and if it's good, I'll get it off the wall.

As for Iron Man #600...

No Iceman news. Rip that band-aid right off.

Besides that, it was a crap issue, with a finale so lame that it has to be seen to be believed. If you thought Uncanny X-Men #600 hit the nadir of hype that lead to nothing, Bendis surpassed himself with this issue.

Warning: Potential spoilers for Iron Man #600 below

If you've been on a comic site in the last week you probably already know Stark was going to try to bring Rhodey back from the dead in #600. Well, he succeed, by basically using the same method he used to get himself out of his coma. Because death = coma. Totally the same thing. It's a method he should be able to use for any of his friends and fellow heroes that die and still have a body. Stark should market it through his company, so death can quickly become a non-thing in the Marvel universe after this issue.

Bendis makes a list of everyone who would want Rhodey to be back alive again. Fellow Avengers. Carol. Sadly, Rhodey's daughter doesn't even get a mention. She does get a mention when Bendis talks about people he should tell that Rhodey is alive again...after Carol.

You know that pointless and stupid retcon that says the Starks are not Tony's biological parents? If you believe that and care about anything related to that, you get to meet Tony's 'real' dad in this issue(after a brief tease last issue)...then he is killed off(Edit: Or maybe just knocked unconscious. Who knows, or even cares?!)

The dialogue for the issue is bad even for Bendis, which is saying something.

There's also some mostly pointless and often incomprehensible stuff with the Hood and Doctor Doom. And Riri may help found a new S.H.I.E.L.D.-type organization.

I felt my brain cells literally dying as I read this issue. IQ points dropping like the stock market on a bad news day. I regret no only that I bought this issue, but that I pre-ordered it to boot.

But wait...here's the best part...the final three pages...and the totality of Eva bell's appearance in this issue...

Reprinted pages from from All-New X-Men Annual #1!!!

No, I'm not kidding.

There's a new caption that says...THE FUTURE. And a couple of word balloons were tweaked without changing any dialogue.

See for yourself.



Eva Bell may be the "huge new villain [that] arises" referred to in the solicit, but you can't tell it from reading the story. The book fluctuates between stupid, pointless and incomprehensible.

Pathetic...lame...stupid...crap issue.

I'm actually glad Iceman wasn't in it.

Old Man Hawkeye is the gold standard of Marvel right now. Imagine that.

Bendis' Iron Man was garbage. This issue reeks of it. And I'm glad he's gone. Fucking brutal.

I honestly believe that once Soule's run on Daredevil is over, the only Marvel book I'll be reading is Deadpool. Everything else will be from IDW, Boom!, or Image. I'm fed up with lazy storytelling and the stunts that were pulled in Invincible Iron Man for the last few years were the last straw. Just God awful.

Don't get me wrong, I like diversity in my comics and my entertainment in general. Much of the entertainment I consume is VERY diverse...

...But Marvel has spent the last few years off-setting books with bad writing, bad-to-non-existent-editing and often mediocre-to-bad art...by engaging in cheep stunts and gimmicks, pandering to diversity and pandering to nostalgia.

If I were an editor, I would never have published Iron Man #600 as it was. And yes I understand Bendis was sick with a MRSA infection that nearly killed him(I posted a thread about it with updates). I would have given Bendis more time, and if that were not possible, I would have rewritten part of the issue myself. Editors use to do that with comics ALL THE TIME.

You take the Iceman ongoing. If it were written by a straight writer it would be labeled homophobic. No better proof of that than most people who didn't know the writer was a gay man thought Sina Grace was a very homophobic woman. And if the same stories had been told in the same way about a straight Iceman, the same people who have been praising and defending the series against all detractors...would be lambasting it, and trash-talking it, over everything that is wrong with it.

I can't stand people who avoid buying something simply because it is diverse, or hate on something simply because it is diverse. But buying something just because it is diverse, and praising and defending it just because it is diverse, is no better. It turns consuming entertainment into a charity, with no incentive to produce something of quality or worth.

The same with the stunts and the gimmicks and the nostalgia. I'm nostalgic for characters that talk and act like themselves. I'm nostalgic for good stories, good characterization, good continuity. People literally cheer if a writer manages to get a character right for PART of an issue. Not even the whole thing, just PART of it. Crazy...

I've read several articles defending and praising Iron Man #600, how it is going to be "polarizing to some fans", and just generally praising Bendis's run on the book largely due to the "breath of fresh air" that is Riri Williams and all his "groundbreaking" work on Victor Von Doom.

It was a crap run with a lousy last issue. If Riri were white and a man, NO ONE would give a rat's ass about her. His Doom was a muddled mess. Tony Stark was a bit player in his own book. The crap with Tony's 'real' parents is just that, crap. No one, from fans to the people writing these articles, can seem to even figure out what the hell was actually even happening with Doom and the Hood in their final battle. And the reprint pages from All New X-Men Annual #1 was the final nail in the coffin. At $5.99, it was a slap in the face to anyone who bought it. It wasn't even worth the price of a regular issue, much less $6.

When Iron Man was announced as the new flagship character for Marvel(Replacing Spider-Man in that role), and Bendis was announced as the writer for the book, all anyone could say was how Iron Man would play to Bendis's strengths as a writer. Where? When?

Marvel is a company currently propped up and held together by cheep stunts and gimmicks, and pandering to diversity and nostalgia. They have almost nothing beyond that.