Writer Kieron Gillen has been obfuscating his real plan with this weird, elaborate alien-robot conspiracy notion that Tony Stark was designed in utero by a know-it-all android-type named Recorder 451 to become a techno-messiah for Earth’s general defense works, including piloting a 4-mile high suit of armor that could kill Celestials – something Howard and Maria Stark agreed to because it was the only way to save him from dying before he was born. It was such an intricate and unreal sort of ‘secret origin’ that it felt like he couldn’t possibly be trying to make that a real part of the character’s history. It was an interesting story, told in a fairly entertaining manner, but it was way too ‘Clone Saga’ in the sense that it would have overcomplicated a major character in an era where origins are trying to be pared down to make everybody movie-ready.
Perhaps the fact that Tony is already a movie star means they don’t have to think that way anymore – or so it seems, because Iron Man #17 reveals the truth of Gillen’s plan, and it somehow feels even more ‘Clone Saga.’ It turns out all that space-robot genetic tampering really did happen to Howard and Maria’s son, but that son is a disabled, bed-ridden guy named Arno who has been hidden all of his life out of fear of 451’s discovery. Tony Stark was just some kid who was adopted as a decoy to throw the space-robot off the scent. That gambit worked, because Tony’s inability to pilot that Godkiller armor unraveled 451’s mind enough for him to kill himself, which means Arno can finally come out of hiding and join the human race.
So, in summation, Tony Stark’s adopted, he has no idea who his real parents are, and he has a secret space-baby brother. Oh, and “Arno Stark” apparently used to be the time traveling evil nephew of Tony’s in Iron Man 2020 books, but having never read those, I can’t speak to that.
All I can talk about is what’s in this book, and the knee-jerk response is that it feels lame. I’m hard-pressed to think of any character in the Marvel universe who is more his father’s son than Tony Stark, save maybe Battlin’ Jack Murdock’s kid Matt. Both crazy technological geniuses who even look the same… although that might not be fair to say, since this is comic books, and more often than not, everybody looks the same and the only way to tell them apart is by clothing and haircuts. But it still feels like a massively convoluted bunch of weirdness that monkeywrenches some very bankable Marvel properties – rare is the comic character who is not only a movie star himself, but whose father is, too (especially if that rumored Agent Carter series ever gets off the ground).
That’s the initial reaction, anyway. Then you start to pick at it a bit. What are we getting out of this big change? A disabled character positioned to be a major player in the Marvel universe and a partner to Iron Man, who himself is now a character adoptees can identify with (if Peter Parker wasn’t enough of one). Plus, the inevitable “who are the real parents of Tony Stark?” storyline has potential, and yet Howard Stark is still very much his father, and now he casts an even longer shadow.
So maybe it’s not bad, or if it is, maybe some good will come out of it. Alien Robot Space Baby Stark may not have been the most elegant way to introduce the concept of The Stark Brothers, but maybe it’ll work. Let’s just hope that “removing the supporting pillars,” as Gillen terms what he’s been doing to Tony in the issue’s afterword, won’t take away the lone-wolf, DIY kind of thing we’ve come to enjoy out of Iron Man.
Iron Man #17 is all talk, and artist Carlo Pagulayan portrays it completley straightforward, and it’s just fine. We still have a lot to digest with this altered perception of the Stark family… and who knows? Maybe Arno will turn out to be evil Iron Man 2020, and this will all be a lot of hooey and malarkey being used to manipulate Tony. I’m sure we’ll know the truth in seven years’ time.
