The Stark Portrayal of Iron Man

By: Merin
Date: Wednesday, February 28, 2007

I've enjoyed Frontline probably more than most of the Civil War books.
Personally, I have a sympathetic view of reporters and a negative view of mass media, especially tv news.
Throughout this series, although Sally Floyd is supposed to represent the side of the media that I prefer I've strongly disliked her attitude, views and conclusions. Although Ben Urich is supposed to represent the kind of commentator I avoid he came across in the series as the rational one who sought the truth and was humble instead of prideful.
I don't know what that says except these two are not stereotypical representatives of their field.

Onto issue 11. Spoilers alert. Outspoken opinions alert.

I got the feeling early on that this story's start is supposed to be like reporters in Baghdad, witnessing the destruction on all sides and feeling like the blame lay solely with the insurgents. Sally's POV clearly is that Captain America represents ideals that are not important to the people on the ground, just as the media wants us to believe that the insurgents in Iraq are being selfish and not caring about the people they profess to be defending the rights of. In this parallel we see Tony Stark as the US military command, causing the rebellious heroes (insurgents) to cause all the damage in an attempt to fight against his oppression. But Sally seems hell-bent on blaming Captain America for all of this, despite its true origins (who started it, who escalated it, who's causing more harm and more death), and at the end, even after confronting Stark with the amoral, opportunistic methods the man employed she APPLAUDS HIM.
I seriously rarely wish ill towards people, and about fictional people, but if Sally Floyd would find herself condemned to fast food jobs for the rest of her life while she lived with a boyfriend who cheated on her constantly, I'd think she'd be getting better than she deserves. ( No, I never wish actual violence on people.)

There's a series of parodies of Civil War out there, check them out as they point out obvious flaws and mistakes so bad they are funny, and one of the points they make constantly in issue 7 is that NYC has seen this level of destruction and tragedy before. Many times. MANY MANY times. Just pulling one off the top of my head, I'll say early X-Factor when Apocalypse released his Horsemen on the city and, in the ensuing fight, the heroic mutants cause Ship to crash. Except, after that story, the city saw the former X-Men as heroes.

My point with the above is that Frontline somehow wants us to believe that this fight, like the Stamford plot device, are bigger than anything the Marvel U has had to deal with. Or the tipping point, maybe, to be fairer to the writers. Sally does comment "Maybe these were the good old days." and I take that to mean that its always been like this and people are suddenly just fed up. Sure, ok, I guess I have to follow that.

Hating Marvel's direction and Sally aside, back to the issue. Ben and Sally interview Cap, where he looks all penitent, hunched, and sits with his hands between his legs. Somehow he can't defend his ideals anymore when confronted with the "important fact" that he doesn't waste his time or braincells consuming the absolute TRASH of pop culture such as Myspace and American Idol. Guess that makes me detached from reality and unpatriotic as well, even though I follow laws and politics and vote and petition and write my representatives and care about big issues . . . nope, laying your life on the line for the country doesn't matter if you aren't following the exploits of Paris Hilton or love Nascar. Damn, Sally sure must love "I could totally see drinking a beer with" President Bush.

Cap takes it, looks like a kicked puppy, and is all but begging them to get an apology to Tony. Seriously, who at Marvel cut off Steve's pride and is keeping the parts in a jar on their desk?

Anywho, the interview turns into a condemnation by Sally of a living legend while Ben, uncomfortably, watches. She outright says that Cap broke America. That, to me, is like saying John Dean and the US Congress broke America for trying to impeach Nixon. Afterwards Ben says maybe he should do the interview with Tony. Duh.

After some pages of exposition, we get to the meat of the story where the two "reporters" confront Stark with what they know.
Pause. Out of a linear review of events, I'm gonna let off some steam here about them going through all this trouble and then not doing anything with what they learned. Is the theme from the writers of Civil War and Frontline, and Marvel for that matter, that the ends justify any means? Seems so.
Unpause. Sally recaps the lead up to the war, where she switches sides from blaming Cap to denouncing the law and all that went into and after the law's enactment. She is the one who can't pick a side, but anyway. Ben and Sally, who speaks often despite promising to keep her lips sealed, drop the following bombshell on Tony - he rigged much of the Civil War from the start, specifically to create Prison 42 (using unregistered heroes as guinea pigs to test if it would work for villains) and the diplomatic catastrophe that was Osborn shooting at the Atlantean delegation, nearly causing a war with Atlantis and therefore bringing public sentiment on Tony's side for the 50 state initiative, using villains as agents, and getting more heroes to fall in line and register thereby bringing the heroic community closer together against a potential common enemy.

This revelation, which appears to be true as Tony breaks down crying afterward (aw, poor baby, I'm sure the dead and those who lost loved ones because of this insanity will all want to comfort the fascist pig,) strikes me just about as hard as the revelation in Fantastic Four that Reed explained to the Thinker (and to an invisible Sue) about how he created a fictional science of telling the future through math via an idea he got (I'm not making this up) from a science fiction novel. These two men turned on their ideals, their friends, lied to their government and the citizens of the USA, nearly caused a major war, caused countless deaths, all in the name of preventing another "tragic accident" which, AGAIN I feel the need to point out, was no accident but a super-villain using his powers in a malicious, evil way. Nitro hyped on a drug - what happened to those revelations, anyway? Better give up free speech and privacy, real Americans, or else Osama bin Laden will fly a plane into YOUR LIVING ROOM!
Seriously, right now Dr. Doom must be laughing his ass off that Reed Richards has outdone his worst enemy - isn't Doom always saying he's trying to make the world a better place, and its only by his superior intellect and decisions that disregard what the public wants or fears that will succeed in doing so? Maybe Reed can get himself a cape and suit of armor now. Iron Man already has the armor, and I feel he must have read that Exiles story where Iron Man had rigged a bunch of horrible events to give him the power to take over the world. In this case, Victor must be envious that Tony has been far more successful in diabolic schemes.

Whoa, off on a tangent. Let me say that this issue of Frontline was very, very well done. I really enjoyed the pacing of the story and the consistency of the characters (yes, I think Sally blowing with the wind IS her character.) We have confirmed the lengths that Reed and Stark went to, we have it confirmed that Stark is a war-profiteer (I don't give two shakes that he gave money to new pensions for police, fire-men, and registered heroes - that's ALL blood money), and that Stark was willing to risk war with Atlantis and the deaths of many innocents just to get things the way he believed they needed to be. We got to see the smugness slip off Tony's face.

As I said in the Civil War 7 review at the end, the real question is whether the book did its job well, not whether we like what happened or agree with the concepts in the story. This book, as with most of Frontline, was a big success. The B+ is as high as I go because even this book seems to applaud Tony as some kind of martyr. Here's a hint, Marvel - martyrs sacrifice themselves truthfully with full disclosure of their beliefs, they do not sacrifice others through veils of lies and deceptions.

Click here to read the staff review by Mania.