Why Should We Remember a Writer Named Denny O'Neil? A podcast memoriam about inventing modern superheroes.

"Make me laugh. Make me cry. Tell me my place in the world. Lift me out of my skin and place me in another. Show me places I have never visited and carry me to the ends of time and space. Give my demons names and help me to confront them. Demonstrate for me possibilities I've never thought of and present me with heroes who will give me courage and hope. Ease my sorrows and increase my joy. Teach me compassion. Entertain and enchant and enlighten me. Tell me a story.” ― Dennis O'Neil I have now uploaded the most complete audio presentationL fifty-two minutes of completed notes and insights. Enjoy, and feel free to follow my podcast. Jo Duffy is our guest this fall, along with a few other interesting writer friends, you'll see. So, from my notes: Why would we remember a writer named Denny O’Neil? On June 11th, 2020, comics writer and editor Denny O' Neil died. He first re-invented Batman as the Dark Knight Detective. Through his early 70s work with artist Neal Adams, and later as editor of the Batman comics line of the 1990s, Denny revamped Batman into the cool version you love at the movies, Ninjas and intense combat style? Earthquake in Gotham? Bane breaking Batman? It’s all there during O’Neil’s tenure as editor of all Batman comics in the 90s.
His career began its distinction and popularity in 1970, with Neal Adams, whose 'social relevance ' take on Green Lantern / Green Arrow intrigued me nearly two decades later. His Daredevil is the precursor to the successful Netflix MU.
He helped revive The Shadow with Mike Kaluta, about the time I was born. Given the direct inspiration of the earliest Batman stories, and how those were also O’Neil’s inspiration for his groundbreaking take on the Dark Night Detective, it’s no shock to find him spinning stories of the masked vigilante and his network of associates. He hired Frank Miller and edited the groundbreaking Miller run that modernized Daredevil, then wrote the title when it finally came to my convenience store. Denny O’Neil also, while working for Marvel, named Optimus Prime during the development of the Transformers. He wrote two great ASM Annuals, #14 and 15 with Frank Miller on art. Return to Dr. Strange, and the Punisher.
But his personal struggle with alcoholism inspired Tony Stark's long crash and journey back to the light in the underrated 1980s Black Iron Man stories I collected when I was thirteen. The idea of someone Black under the helmet really caught my attention! Years later, I would understand better the grim slide into poverty and self-affliction that makes his take on the genius inventor the most haunting and relatable to date. Mr. O'Neil's take on The Question, with artist Denys Cowan (a co-founder of Milestone Comics, a line featuring black superheroes and creators), was a gritty, suspenseful, insightful one on modern day big city corruption. He inspired my abiding interest in Zen. He even wrote two of my first Amazing Spider-Man comics, when I was seven, much beloved. Peter clearing his name and Blues for Lonesome Pinky are not typical ASM but remain memorable.
How can I relate to this character, he would ask. How do I pretend to be these characters, so I can write their stories? How can we, the reader, be something like the heroes (and villains), ourselves? O’Neil later taught at the School of Visual Arts, influencing even more generations of comic creators. He served on the board of the Hero Initiative, a charity dedicated to taking care of comic creators in need. And in late 2018, he was honored by the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library as the keynote speaker at their “Comic Books and Social Justice” event. – Den of Geek Much respect to this great shaper of my young mind. R.I.P. Denny O'Neil, age 81. I tried my neighborhood Thai restaurant before I got the sad news. He loved Asian cuisine so, synchronicity! If only I had made it vegetarian too! Included in the podcast- when I have space to re-upload it- are anecdotes culled from interviews and letters by Neal Adams, as well. For example: • Green Lantern/ Green Arrow # 87 (1972) John Stewart • Arguing for diversity, Neal Adams pushed for the creation of a new Green Lantern. Julie Schwartz, the comics editor, realized Neal wanted a Black man. Neal underscored how he wanted an educated Black man- so he became an architect. They gave him pride, and fortunately, lost Julie’s idea to call him Lincoln Washington and Neal picked a new name out of the air: John Stewart. John talked directly in the language of his times, as a college-educated young professional, how he feels about inequalities. He makes no secret of his dislike for wearing a mask, and disposes of it immediately. “I’m not afraid for people to know who I am,” he says to Hal Jordan. Stewart made no bones about his dislike of the Presidential candidate he must protect from assassination. But the ring did not pick him out as the next of the bravest men on Earth it could find, in error. He and Hal uncover a plot, in an excellent first adventure. It’s our loss that the comic as canceled two issues later, before we could see the co-creators bring John to life again. But he became the Green Lantern to a whole generation of Justice League fans in our present century.
So, the introduction to the spotlight podcast:
Herein is the exploration of Denny's themes, the influence and content of his stories, the origins of the first Black Green Lantern, and the shaping of Batman into the hero we know today- whose shadow stretches across two-fisted fiction in the years since. The first comics author to take an ongoing angle of 'social relevance,' O'Neil was a very well-read man with a background in both the military and martial arts, as well as an abiding interest in Zen, while continuing to be a practicing Catholic and writer of social conscience.
Over on integr8dfix.blogspot.com, I 've added a few other specific points about Batman in particular: short stories, no Bat-equipment, no angst, and the intellectual use of violence. I should delve into those when I am ready to pick up and talk about the Question. https://integr8dfix.blogspot.com/2020/07/no-bat-belts-and-bat-boats-and-fighting.html

Ghosts of the Deviant Stronghold: Heart of the Mountain (Avengers Cartoon Prototype)

http://ceaseill.blogspot.com/2010/05/lure-of-enchantress.html


Continues from




















I'm wrapping up the last part of my trilogy of Marvel/ TRANZ crossover universe tales, as detailed in this blog!
The following cartoon is a prototype, utilizing handy resources and simple ideas together with my illustrations. The action sequence in "Ghosts of the Deviant Stronghold!" is the basis for this animation; thanks to Marc Kane for the suggestion!

Have a great day, Lue Lyron







http://ceaseill.blogspot.com/2010/05/iron-man-heart-of-mountain-feat.html for Part One
The man clutching the Norn Stones clings for dear life, dragged across the cave floor.
“How darling, you should hold the hands of my mind,” she says to him, beckoning for effect with her repetitively curling finger. “Never let it be said, Amora has not love enough for all she deems worthy!”
Her eyebrows arch; her cheeks squeeze high and tightly; her eyes dazzle with the essence of desire.

”There’s really no further need for violence, guys,” says Iron Man, positively entranced. The features of the Enchantress soothe, even arouse, those assembled before her. “I propose a very different engagement,” she says coyly, “wherein I conjure sylphs and nature-perfumed wood nymphs---and a broad-shouldered, handsome and fair warrior for you, green one, if you wish to let bygones go by. This is our...special time, no longer burdened by the schemes of the wretches you’ve laid low!” She actually gets her arms around Iron Man’s neck, speaking as she dangles behind him. “Your armored friend ascertains the very different time we might share, and let this violent tableau burn away in the fires of our passions.”

"There's...so much good you could do...with your powers, Enchantress," says Captain America, earnestly.

"If ye wish our friendship," declares Thor, "thou needest turn thy restorative power upon yon fallen archer, for behold! His statue-like being hath born the ravages of battle as serious fractures!"

"Ah, geez, Hawkeye..." says She Hulk, let down at the sight of the seriously damaged stone iteration of the marksman of marvel.

"Tis a simple measure," replies Enchantress, who re-assembles Hawkeye's stone form. While her vaporous hands seek out the Norn Stones, she restores the Avenger, who begins to take on color, flushed of cheek. His uniform, however, remains humbly, yet greatly, shredded. The entire tone of the room turns in Amora's favor---as if it had never left.

The Grey Gargoyle stands, swaying from She Hulk’s attack, calculating some moment when he might reach an advantage...and attain the secrets of immortality that have drawn him into conflict all the days since the accidental discovery of his transforming stone touch. Only the coughing, ragged man gripping the magically summoned Norn Stones breaks the strangely tantalizing mood...while Sabretooth, dazed, crouches, scenting another figure, the man from the plane. He steps carefully into the shadows, laughing to himself.


Before the Norn Stones draw into the flesh and blood hands of the Enchantress, mighty Thor shakes off the ambient hypnosis of the cooing sorceress and takes one in hand. “There is---life within the stone!”
“N-no kidding,” says the battered and weary Steve Holt, who clutches the other Norn Stone to his chest. “I guess...if you’re gonna take these, kill me, lady. Least maybe I’ll die a warrior’s death...and this beautiful thing held inside will take me somewhere better.”

“There’s nothing there, my weary friend,” she answers, “save for some heart’s desire therein you see!”
Holt looks the impossibly beautiful woman in the eye, and realizes even HE must glance away to retain resolve. “Maybe...heart’s desires are too crystal perfect for this crummy world...refracted from other worlds we imagine inside us.” He holds the stone up to eye level. “But here’s a flash for ya. I’ve got the stones to do something about it, so too bad for you!”



She stiffens momentarily, but she engages, mystically and conversationally, her inexorable pull. “You know...I have understandings to unlock those desires of which you speak. I will be your passionate tutor...if you’ll only share now what’s coming to me.”

Then the warrior woman---the one who saved him on the most exciting day of his life, and the one of whom he’s dreamed in the bewildering nights since---Valkyrie emerges from the stones. “That he will, wicked one...that he will!!” Adorned in white and blue, regal in her bearing, her golden tresses hide one of her angry, peering, determined eyes, as she draws her sword Dragonfang and affixes the stone to its hilt on one side, and plucks the other from Thor’s hand to repeat on the other. “My thanks for your concept of me; perhaps the Eye of Odin lies not, and some past life together did we thread; and you,” she says, turning towards Holt as the Enchantress begins to gesture with malevolent sparks at her fingertips, “thank you also, whatever our connection...for the piece of me you have brought forth, as well.”


She turns to the Enchantress, and as everyone snaps out of the mesmerizing tone of the room, she brandishes her blade. “You betrayed me long ago, Amora, and from the shadows of some scheme in recent years did you cast a spell to capture me once more, as you did with the soul crystal of a thousand years past---when you made me your plaything, your disguise, even merging me with the body of lost Barbara Norriss * (Defenders #4, 1973) !”


Now strides the Grey Gargoyle towards the Destroyer, only to be bashed aside by the wary Captain America. “No you don’t, Stoney Face!”
From the shadows, the twins Dave and Nick grab Holt (their father?) and drag him out of the fray, as the Norn-enhanced blade of Valkyrie crashes down upon Amora the Enchantress’ phosphorescently manifested spells. The She Hulk comes quickly to her senses, and says, “Waaiit a minute! May I humbly present for the court a proposition: I owe somebody one SERIOUS birthday spanking!”
“Stand at ready,” says Thor, barring her way slowly, firmly. “This be a matter---by our watchful gaze-- which Brunnhilde herself, methinks, must resolve!”





At some point, begins the Valkyrie, did you bewitch me, during one of my adventures beside and beyond what most call reality.


At some point, begins the Valkyrie, did you bewitch me, during one of my adventures beside and beyond what most call reality.




Next: The Enchantress' final showdown with Valkyrie! Her Destroyer plan fully revealed!

WHO are the Celestials? And WHAT is the connection between the Celestials and gods that led to the Destroyer's creation in the first place?

The mystery of the twins, the phantoms of the lost Deviant catacombs, and the enigma of the one called Nido! Prepare for the smash conclusion: "Heart of the Mountain!"





Valkyrie:



Only of late have I been drawn into the Norn Stones, a situation I ascertained was a trap. Was I there for my own safety, or imprisoned? But patience quickly prevailed once found, and my nothingness became a prism for my consciousness.”
Then did I realize, Amora. ‘Twas YOU who did play me as before, containing my essence without help in a crystal for passage-less eternity. Yet as you know, I have since the day you merged me with Barbara’s body, to make from her lost mind a champion, diminished when opposed to her fellow woman, yet, forever prepared to test her equality with any man living. Yet did her life before seek to smother me with questions, commands and kisses unbidden, born of passions belonging to the mortal woman with whom I became merged. Now, free of her body, returned into my own, I find some enchantment from that life remaining...still able to draw me to you again.”
“Long have we known one another, yes,” replies Amora. “As your friend and master, I bid you---peace now.”
Valkyrie shakes her head, with melancholy, and then glares with firm resolve.
“Of the many things you have been, you must find a new role yet,” she says. Her sword strikes ball lightning sparks that roll throughout the walls and earth of the ripped open heart of the mountain, clashing with shield made visible, force bolts turning aside, friction, scattered gravity and force physically reflect the mesons and anti-matter substances disturbed---redistributed---the bending of reality’s binding ingredients in the creation of their battle.





“Inside the stones did I realize:
This!... Hold on me is not as complete. She relies on a spell she cast, a trap she set, when I was in fact a very different person! So was the body different and so, the body has been free to BE free!
Yet did I bide my time. I will separate our paths in this form, Amora. I have waited to see what notorious thoughts and resolves did require myself as your pawn. When the conception of me was drawn then would I materialize---perhaps by you yourself, when your plans came to fruition. Your will: that my mind play the hand to carry your deadliest toys. Have you ever seen me for myself, even so much as this wounded warrior who did reach for my imprisoned self? See you any, save yourself, for all your vaunted years and charms?
“Stay-Stay back!!!”
The power of the Norn Stones, which of late were her jail, unite with the will that yet remained free...for she has come to know her immortal self, who it is her nature to be...
And by that intention, does she break free.
Now, the Enchantress, her hand over her pained face, wounded that none raise a hand to her aid in all the universe, sounds refreshed in the bite of a moment, as she disappears from the realm of sounds, smells, and the wide realms of touch.
“I sever ties to you, though never would I want to do
So but I must let you go
It’s with pain, constraint, and necessity, you know.
For our own good, sorry to be misunderstood
The energy level all wrong to let things keep moving along
In such an unhealthy way you’ll drain me dry if we stay
So we give the energy to our arts, free to live our stolen hearts.”
With those words inspired by the ghost walk with Marc Kane into the place wherein the hidden Enchantress had set this game into play, assembling her as a piece, now does the pawn claim her own stakes and decisions, removed from this weakness for the magic of this one she’d called friend, in the bitter days first when Valkyries no longer chose the human slain. The Celestials of the Third Host, all thousand feet high manifestations of unfathomable superhumans, had bargained to remove the gods from the matters of men, a thousand years before; the Destroyer intended as her next prison had been made to face the danger of their return. So have events turned now, the assertion of her being---in a world greater, mysterious outer mechanisms forever change.
And with these words does the energy to destroy all herein described begin a new life in the foundation of the cavern.

The trees...the moss...the light from the opened heart of the mountain...years of tender care, it seems, brings a small garden...and from that, now comes a semi-circle of trees.
Twins have safely come to take their Dad out of the fight once he was now out of fight himself. In the shadows of the Deviant catacombs, the hieroglyphs and hidden machines hinting at marvels by the greatly mutated line of Man created by the Celestials’ machination upon the visit of the Second Host. Now do green shrubs and the flora awaiting its entrance now into Nature and its fauna.
Stones affixed to the hilt of Dragonfang now become the Valkyrie’s to bear away to Asgard, as befits the life beyond circulation in the lives of earth’s super-heroes, its champion now returned to a place of impossibilities that would seem madness outside the daydreams of humanity.
Grey Gargoyle seeks to acquire its secret of immortality; that guides him to the only proven totem of immeasurable power available, the Destroyer figure. But She Hulk has now figured out how useful a projectile might be in disadvantaging the Grey Gargoyle. She takes the stone form of Cap’s shield and hurls it with vigor into the villain. Cheerfully, Cap catches it on the rebound, fruitfully transmutated back to its reliable, one-of-a-kind allow form. “You trying out for these stars and stripes?” chuckles Cap to She Hulk. “Your head wings’ll never go with this cut! Besides, you want people to think I’m just a female knock-off of some well-known male super hero?“
“Nice shot!” cheers Hawkeye, complete with ripped up costume.
“Nice suit!” she quips.
“What are you doing?” growls Sabretooth to the quite normal seeming older gentleman with one hand, strolling up to the Destroyer. He disregards the mutant. With the arm that now no longer seems to have a hand attached does he reach to the cosmic goliath, and without touching, the air seems to part like a liquid before the construct, which in fewer blinks of the eye than it took to read this, the Destroyer is now a formless pool lying at his feet: a pond of indescribable substance, and indestructible matter.
Captain America stands before this enormously powerful, yet subtly contained, personage, his face filled with wonder. His heart sets aside fear...but no question comes to mind.
“Nido,” says the man. “That’s me.”
“You...reached out...”
“Ah, with my old stump, without the hand I lost in a tow truck winch, at the end of my younger days. I was free to be a hoodlum all I could, since there was not much else waiting in life those times. Right now, all I really want’s to catch up with my plane to San Diego! Nice this time of year...”
As Thor takes note: Sabretooth abandons the fight. “For what wait thou, beastlike man?”
“Thought I might see something I like,” he replies, casually turning his back now. “See I’m mostly busy with saving my own SKIN! Breaking fangs on wrist of a thunder god has NOTHING to add to survival!”
By the time Sabretooth clears the crevice into which he leaps, Thor’s hammer hurtles close behind, to end in dusty shatterings of plans.
“Yet do men not realize, I seek not to take lives of mortal men,” says Thor, as Mjolnir flies back to its thrower’s hand. “Though in battle times oft have I seen one so insanely unafraid of senseless savagery yet respect the sheer presence of authorial force! Still should I plunge within the darkness...and...nothing! I hover, having plunged into the shattered ground, yet to no avail, while still are matters else unresolved!”
As Thor turns back, Sabretooth holds his breath deep in shadows. Here, however, he turns towards a pair of red eyes, and a metallic, tall figure with a presence even Creed would call sinister.
“I have need of one such as you,” says the figure. “Hold still a moment...I collect you for my marauding band of cloned creations...and such as you shall serve well...glad am I to have continued to parallel the path of the Enchantress in emergent scheming with the extra-dimensional prime movers...” He holds Sabretooth in stasis, surrounded by crackling crimson. The light absorbing darks dotting the aura announce the coming of absconding oblivion.








“Triplets”: that is the rhythmic word attracting the attention of the twins to a place in the air otherwise unfilled, they touch an experience with their minds amidst the corridors of secrets from the offshoot civilization. “Brown...and on either, side, white, then black,” says Dave.
“I see it too,” replies Nick. “Those layers of sound bending, then falling in cadence, place something like communication straight into our... wait, we know you! But you’re so young!”
“Then a great team has reunited, in a way,” say the voices; which one exactly speaks, it is from one perceived auditorium of the pictured mental self, a mystery zone.
“We actually just got an energy boost from elsewhere in time and space that got us this close; we were attracted to the magic of the Valkyrie. We are travelling backwards in time, before she thus became imprisoned..travelling back to the time when the spell connected, from an era containing plots of yet another dimension. *”
(*See “Free of This Fallen World!” and “Calinferno!” and “Remus Sharptooth Regrets, or Spell of the Wolf”, the Defenders/ Tranz trilogy on these blogs..not to mention the giant-sized Fantastic Four story. It chronologically falls in between those sagas and this one! Yes, really!)
“Sense Stones,” thinks Iron Man.
Read outs consistent; quantum parameters heuristically recorded; pattern unknown.
Triplets sense Iron Man. But he tries, in addition to his many computations, to find some kind of non-algorithmic, original thought...seeking in sensation he knows as an arbitrary induction, to unite with the unknown, some other way...and so stands in the presence of enigmas, aware simply they yet remain beyond his rationales.
So long as you don’t loot or disturb the Deviant tech...IF you’re not just some side-effect of one of those hidden machines...I just want to remain here a minute longer....even if I can’t understand, I’m just...so curious.
“Nido!” they exclaim, when the humble dark skinned man’s twinkling eye belies instant knowledge of themselves profoundly beneath their own understandings.
“Dangard stands witness,” he says warmly. Then he turns to Steve Holt.
“A moment, my friend.”
Triplets, given energy by Sun Strike, realize this version of the father of the twins is not the one native to the reality where they forged their bond with differently named twin sons. However, their pathway back in time towards their parents, thanks to the spell attempting to bind Valkyrie, glows brightly, twinkling in a type of void beyond hyperspace, connecting subtly with their one connection to the mysterious time travelers who, with their mother, gave them birth.
“We’ve been trying to regroup with Mom and Dad,” explains Nick; “Dave and I got separated, too, but we found our way to this reality inside some transport device in this mountain!”
Valkyrie holds the Norn Stones forth to them... a legacy from her capitivity, the jewels won by the bravery of their father-in-this-reality. “Twins: a knowing is mine, I must share. Take these stones; they are from another reality stolen. Take them with you, and when the feeling directs, when the knowledge comes, you will return them to the Norn Queen. From Karnilla’s magical presence, you will find yourself thereafter back in the world upon which your parents are incarnated three hundred years away...and from there lies the path to the children that began this journey, from a different turn in Mysti Hazel’s Garden...perhaps a ride on an Iwangosowhers, asking directions from I Don’t Know...”
“Are you...Mom?”
“No,” but we are of the same spirit, born of the continuing spell that make us each to ride the skies of Asgard, the same purpose that made us to gather fallen heroes. Perhaps now may we stand by their side, and poise our strength against sadness and helplessness, to prolong the lives of heroes.”
“Follow your own journeys into mystery. Return to your childhood. Connect with your Source. You will find the means of contacting her again. Return to where she sent you to play.” They pass down a hallway in gratitude...and then does their adventure graduate some new level as yet known in the clues yet shared widely...
And now her gaze meets his. And finally he understands. Profoundly. He is alone, after all. Yet one need not take it that way...he watches her as they walk into the forest conjured in the aftermath of her victory, expending the immediate wishes upon which the Norn Stones played.
She is, after all, a creature of Asgard. So then does her walk take her into the same woods...yet her part in his path becomes a feeling held secret and dear...and her reality again reaches across the cosmos, to dwell beyond faith.
Thor’s rain shower is gentle this time, cleansing, cooling the laser-riven earth. His thoughts turn to stories of a Wanderer, told before his own birth...the greatest magician, truly, for he hung the nine days to gain the runes, and even gave an eye to Wisdom. Though his guises were many, Thor feels certain: the hand of his All Father has again intervened.
Holt awakens, gathering his pack, walking the path from nowhere to the highway.
You will find her, the man had said, extending an arm without a hand as though to shake his own. With that, he vanished as one may have never been.
And who can say what months pass...
Until one day...
He again beholds one he might wish to love in every way.

In her he sees more magic than he ever dared to hold. He watches her hair, unbidden, her smile, and scrutinizes her serious looks in between, her nervousness here in the same grocery store he labors to make his bills, to share a suite with friends and get together a life to replace the lonely roads.
He watches her bend over. He knows he’s staring. And yet her smile from the start has shaken him in a way only the greatest dangers have.
He continues bagging the accumulated line of groceries.
“Now that’s what I would call a nice end.”

Heart of the Mountain: Avengers Assemble (pt 2) with Thor, Captain America, and more

Iron Man's repulsor nearly tracks the lithe form, twisting out of reach atop his flying discs. While Iron Man doesn't recognize Midnight Sun as a former pawn of Fu Manchu, he finds the physical skill a nuisance to his plan to quickly knock him out before he can draw another bead on Hawkeye. With the two of them to fill the air with peril, however, Midnight Sun can't attack either of them, and so he speeds into a crevice, almost vanishing before the naked eye, as Hawkeye's last arrow travels in a near-perfect arc to pulverise the stones beside the speeding criminal, who is showered by loose dirt and stones. He plunges within the mountain with Iron Man in hot pursuit.

Sabretooth roars, right in the face of the She Hulk, whose eyebrows arch as though disappointed. She then roars back, and says, "happy?" He sniffs the air, says, "no sweat." She connects much of a powerful punch to his face, saying, "Probably."
He's tantalized by her colossal power. "I've never killed a green babe before," he snarls, smiling.
"Put up or shut up," she says, advancing on him, "you're not stopping me from going into this cave. You don't look the type to surrender."
"But it might be a good idea," says Hawkeye, drawin his arrow. "Just sayin'."

Sabretooth turns and lopes away, full bore, for the crevice that received Midnight Sun.
"Can always finish you off in the dark," he says, darting in. But an arrow flies towards him, with a shaft full of gas that imparts to his steps a drunken lethargy.

"Of course," She Hulk says, "that's the direction we're going, too."
"Es nada, Shulkie," quips Hawkeye; "We'll have this sky-bike you safely parked going before you can say, 'two in the hole!'"
"Think I can withstand the gas cannister," retorts She Hulk, "how bout I use some of that marksman ship you showed me and just pitch you into the cave?"

"That's an X-Men cliche, this is the Avengers," says Hawkeye. "but I'm flattered you'd like to thrust me into..."
"There's a fine line between jokes and sexual harassment, Robin Hood," says She Hulk, righting the Avengers Sky Jet. "if this thing's in running condition, grab a seat on the back, we've got to catch up!"
"CaN i HOLD on?" he asks.
"No."

"Iron Man, this is Captain America; do you read my position?"
"Fixed, Captain. Zooming after this character into a sightless catacomb! I'm not picking up any navigational technology on him, yet he's instinctively cutting a swift path to the heart of the mountain!"
"That's where the strength for an ambush lies. But they don't know I'm almost right on top of them!"
"You ringing a doorbell to get in?"
"I've got a Norse god of thunder with the biggest doorknocker in the business converging with me on this hillside!"


And inside...

Absorbing Man! That android...posed to strike!
He's froze up, sure as you touched him yourself, Gargoyle!
Who is that woman?
TITANIA! Baby, izzat YOU?!

She and this machine are at the moment of transfer---of her mind into its body!
Enchantress!!! What's the game, woman?






So you DO care for this girl! I recognize Doom's catspaw from the Beyonder's world...Take her out of the way, at the moment I bring forth a substitute of my choosing, and she is yours!

Holt (thinking) Is this what's drawn me into this place? What can I do against a group of world-beater supervillains? What is the purpose of havi---those crystals! The size of a phone booth...there's someone inside! It's---it's HER!!!The Valkyrie! I can't leave her there---I've got to book it over to her, even all I can do is wish really hard to free her!

(whispering from shadows): Look! Our dad's going for it!

Kinda hope he’s not in the middle of this scrap, ‘less he has powers like Dad where we grew up!”
“This’ll be a different version of Dad, anyway."

"C'mon, dude, we've got to distract the stony grey guy! He's walking up on the huge stones with the lady inside!"
"Is that Mom?"

Absorbing Man:
Waitaminnit, Enchantress! How cum you've already got a patsy on hand for yer switcheroo? I ain't dumb enough to wonder why you have a plan!

I'm doing you a favor, Creel! If you want the wench, remove her from the Destroyer's reach while I bring forth the Norn Stones!

Holt (thinking) Keep talking, I've almost reached you, Blondie...

(whisper): Dad doesn't see him!
Grey guy! Let's move on him! While the others are talking!!!
Hey! We've got the stones to stop him, right here!
Say what?
Let's rock these boulders onto him!

Gargoyle: Wha?!?

(from shadows) We're not interested in your version of freeze tag, Frenchie!


Enchantress: Something's happening beside my Norn Stones!
Absorbing Man: Somebody rattlin' yer Asgardian jewels? Why don't I step up and touch this robot myself---we'll find out whatever properties it's got when I absorb its...


THOOOM! THOOOOM! THOOOOOM!


The whole cave is shaking!
One thing in the universe makes that noise! Quickly, fool, take her before...

Gargoyle: I know you're up there...whoever's dumping these pathetic rocks will soon find themselves a statue of unliving stone!

Holt: Got you, babe! I wish I could just carry you out of ...what the hey? The crystal's shrinking! It's palm-sized!

Enchantress: You grey buffoon, someone's taking the Norn Stones!
Absorbing Man: Don't worry, Titania, 'bout being frozen beside some idol! The Absorbing Man's got the touch!!!

KRAA-KA-DOOOOOM!!

Enchantress!! Absorbing Man! Be still!!! Heed the words of Thor, Son of Odin, villanous ones!!!

Iron Man(flying in): Can't top the man's entrance without a few showgirls---but how bout some fire works?

Grey Gargoyle:
The mountain side!!!It's ripping open! After all these years, the power of the Thunder God...

Absorbing Man:
At least now I got enough light to split open their heads, with the power in this ro---

Enchantress: NOOO!!!

Captain America: Iron Man! Thor! AVENGERS ASSEMBLE!!!!






Picks up, part three, on http://ceaseill.blogspot.com/2010/05/ghosts-of-deviant-stronghold-iron-man.html

Iron Man 2 : A No-Spoiler's Opinion

From grimy setting of the opening, to the spectacular dive with AC/DC blaring that leads to Tony Stark's Techno Caesar entrance on stage at the massive Expo, those first ten minutes really took me into IRON MAN 2, which stimulated many curiosities that will follow my free time studies in days to come.
I loved the strong women characters, whose roles were written as credible possibilities for brilliant human beings. While a suggestion that Scarlett Jo's Natasha Romanova might have an intellect for evaluation, hacking knowledge, take-down style martial arts and a head for languages fits the superficiality of the action plot, they do glamorize capabilities that real women achieve. Her role fit smoothly into much of the rest of the action with Stark, Potts, even Fury. It was very hard to spotlight what makes her unique and capable with War Machine also requiring development; this was a difficult story editing decision, to pack in so many things.

The best moments of Paltrow's Potts role take your mind off the modern-minded gender switch to reflect a competent woman effectively running "behind the scenes" actualities, albeit with Tony's renegade penchant there to make a difficult job almost impossible!

The villain side is a really fun pastiche of believable elements in classic Iron Man stories, while generating new characters in place of fragmented analogues of these best ideas. The Whiplash (an ex-con) accoutrement to the Crimson Dynamo's mythos by way of a central film theme, legacy, gave him a hook. Mickey Rourke's intelligence-fueled climb from the neglect heap through the terrors of prison life and his father's exile and poverty makes him sympathetic and motivated while never sacrificing his scarring and ethical perversion. The military/ industrial complex's dark side is played up for its incompetence and greed, reprising the classical antagonistic Senator role from Stan Lee's 60s comic. The weaponeer entrepenuer played with condescending and ignorant relish, Justin Hammer, from Layton/ Micheleine's 1980s run. Rourke's main villain was greatly inspired by the actor's study of a much-maligned and infamous Butyrka Prison (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butyrka_prison)


Don Cheedle's Rhodey character delivered most of the lines my wife quoted on the way home, too. If you could just swap four minutes of Hammer's smarmy condescension for a couple more moments to get to know Rhodey as more than a Stark auxilliary or soldier...still, his sense of duty is present to contrast his good friend in his weakness, and his humor under adversity shines without pandering. The issues lending to that adversity could've been just a tad more intense...

The levity provides a humorous emotional release that keeps the intensity from straining credibility, without breaking character. All around, terrific acting with the kind of climax you only saw before in comics; a sleek plot that re=invented many beloved parts of Iron Man comics lore.

It's really an individualist parable about a genius striving for a more egalitarian world. Build your own super powers!

· I say this in light of the fact that I used to really dream and play Iron Man, and his title is one of the very few series where I assembled maybe a hundred-issue plus collection, as well as the first six years I later attained in black and white, along with about six years' of AVENGERS appearances in that same reprint format.


Tony had a mustache like my Dad, and I always enjoyed the peeks into the adult, corporate, political and technological worlds that could only be afforded through this unique hero. Tony is not so different, though glamorized, for all his troubles, than the kinds of rebellious innovators who have ever made an actual difference in real life!

The subtle set-up for the upcoming AVENGERS and the "don't leave the theater!" cameo brought it all home, because you're not left with the feeling this fictional world is OVER.

Much more to add in the morning.

Might I say, we LOVED the trailers for A-TEAM and Air Walker (cartoon fans know as Avatar).


Don't miss our art spot light on Marc Kane and an edgy indie project from the co-creator (with Keith Giffen) of hard knockin' Lobo, Roger Slifer, on http://integr8dfix.blogspot.com/

Iron Man, too: All about the Golden Avenger and his star, on the eve of IRON MAN 2

"I've never been in a sequel and it's very daunting because I feel the expectation of the millions of people who watched it and enjoyed it and told me that it was a little different than your usual genre picture and that they expected us to not screw it up. So I actually have taken Iron Man 2 (2010) probably more seriously than any movie I've ever done, which is appropriately ridiculous for Hollywood." 1

(above:
A walk down armory lane, courtesy Ian Sokolowski)http://ianthecomicartist.com/
That's Robert Downey Jr. (aka "Bob"), obviously, on his reprised star turn as Tony Stark in IRON MAN 2. My friends around the world, seeing the flick already in Malaysia and Germany, suggest that expectation's well met.

"I know very little about acting" Downey's known to say; "I'm just an incredibly gifted faker." That kind of self-effacement and confidence, simultaneously, fits the Micheleine/ Layton comics version of the character I read so voraciously in adolescence.

"It's one thing to say you're Iron Man, and it's another to actually wear the armor," Downey adds. "The film is almost entirely about character, and yet we still have twice as much action as we did last time, so it's going to be nuts." 2

I can't think of a super hero film where the star felt so right as the lead character. Brilliancy, daring, and just a touch of insanity, Downey fits right into Stark's skin. You may know he started acting in his dad's indie films as a child.
Downey studied ballet in England at 10, and during his Greenwich Village teen years, he performed with the Stagedoor Manor troup. 4

His break out role at the end of the Brat Pack Years was the loosely adapted Less Than Zero, a film he says contained "a Ghost of Christmas Future" kind of prophecy in his drug-addicted role that heralded his deeper involvement with risk-taking in the form of heroin. 5

He learned violin and tennis in his spot-on lead in Chaplin, which involved a "dangerous" level of commitment to acrobatic physical comedy.

His glamorized viewpoint on his addictions led to many years of typically brilliant performances mixed with out-of-control social behavior. I was particularly struck by his comments on the place in his spiritual path where he "played Johnny Handgun" in U.S. Marshalls, "the worst action movie ever", as he felt he went to the very edge of what he could do, and live.

Downey worked together on an art piece with the director of the Elton John music video--contemporary artist Sam Taylor Wood, from an art video called "Pietà," made in the manner of Michelangelo's famous Pietà sculpture in Rome. It was included in Sam Taylor Wood's exhibition "Mute" at the White Cube 2 art gallery in London, November 23 to January 12, 2002.

He's a longtime musician as well, singing on many soundtracks as well as a duet with Sting during his supporting role on Ally McBeal. "I'm deep into old Genesis. I'm sorry, but these are songs that mean something to me. "Follow You Follow Me" is a song that's about something to me." 1

With Scarlet Johannsen "completely buff" as the Black Widow, I've very interested in what interpretation of post-Cold War Widow will make the screen. Academy Award winner Don Cheadle may not look Rhodey's part so much as Terrence Howard, but he brings a strong filmography to a much-expanded role.

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

Amazing Armor
Though Iron Man was created in 1963 as part of the early Marvel Age, his Cold War oriented adventures didn't really come together with their own identity until six issues later, when his supporting cast--including Pepper Potts---came together, as well as, two issue later, his definitive color scheme, introduced by Steve Ditko.
Steve Ditko's classic red and gold design is featured here, along with a guest shot by one of the original X-Men, the high-flying Angel


The other "Bob" in Iron Man's life was comics artist Bob Layton, whose strong inks and influence on plots written with David Micheleine gave Iron Man's armor a sheen and sleekness like never before, and gave
Tony Stark his most appealing and complex characterization yet. (Their partner, penciller John Romita, Jr., was a co-creator of the graphic novel basis for last month's Kick-Ass)


A brand new Iron Man look is a periodic occurrence, as the classic look evolves with the times every couple of years (not to mention many variations such as the Stealth Armor and Deep Sea Armor). The very newest will appear in INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #25 this spring:














The history
of the comics character,
synopses of most individual issues,
as well as his various media incarnations and much fan celebration through art and fiction, is documented here:
http://ironmanlibrary.com/superhero-library/iron-man/iron-man-home-page.aspx

and, since 1996, here:
www.ironmanarmory.com

Tale of Two Iron Men
Iron Man #118 also saw another important innovation in the form of Tony's soon-to-be best friend, James "Rhodey" Rhodes, whose characterization largely ended up on the cutting-room floor last time.

Bob Layton tells SciFiMafia.com:

“Part of the problem was that Tony Stark never had a best friend, He didn’t have anyone who he could confide in and share his point of view. We wanted to create someone who was a counterpart to him who didn’t have superpowers and wasn’t just an employee — somebody that he had a personal relationship with. We felt he needed a human foil there. It was never our intention for him to take over as Iron Man.” 6

As fans of the mid-80s run of the comic remember, Rhodey ended up in the role, in 1983-5...an "Iron Man 2" if you will...during Denny O'Neil's shake-up and deeper exploration of an addicted Tony Stark cracking beneath the psychological pressures orchestrated by Obadiah Stane, reprised as the villain for the first Iron Man film.

http://boblayton.com/ has a lot more of this very talented guy; check him out!

Len Kaminski and Kevin Hopgood created the original War Machine armor's look as we know it during the 90s. He's grown into a character in his own right since.

Briefcase armor suit scene:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOLTLx-yb60

The games seem to be the best thing in superhero first person players this side of BATMAN:ARKHAM ASYLUM. A great two-player is a rare thing! But you can see for yourself at:

http://www.sega.com/ironman2/us/index.html





I plan to come back with a second part featuring some of the cybernetics innovations and a touch more history of the character, but let me finish with a shout out to IMWAN.com, a board where they discuss everything from the latest dvd releases to current events to daily life to, of course, a love of all comics history, with many aspirants and professionals participating and sharing. Their name stems from an effort back in the 1970s to give Shellhead a "humanized" look...when artist George Tuska attempted a time-lost and humorous innovation to make the Golden Avenger Iron Man With A Nose! They found they couldn't "officially" use the name, but the face plate nose piece lives on in this zany and insightful site's acronym nomenclature. Check'em out!







1 imbd.com/ Robert Downey Jr. profile
2 http://www.traileraddict.com/trailer/iron-man-2/interview-robert-downey-jr


3 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Downey,_Jr.

4 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stagedoor_Manor
5 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Less_Than_Zero_(film)
http://scifimafia.com/2010/01/war-machine-co-creator-bob-layton-talks-about-rhodey-and-iron-man-2/

http://splashpage.mtv.com/tag/invincible-iron-man

LAST
http://splashpage.mtv.com/2010/05/05/iron-man-2-better-than-iron-man-jon-favreau/

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.