I should preface this post by telling you that Iron Man is my all time favorite Marvel superhero.
So two of these issues do have to do with him so I have a personal interest in these decisions Marvel is making.
As of late Marvel seems to be in a "shock value" mindset to try and sell more comics
...and it's starting to become annoying honestly.
I was one of the few people who actually liked the idea of a story where Captain America thought he was a Hydra agent all along and was looking forward to seeing the story through.
I don't know if it was because of the outpour of man-children crying about their childhoods being ruined or what, but they couldn't stick to their guns and the very next issue gave away the big "twist" that (to make a long story short) he was more or less brainwashed by Red Skull.
Recently Marvel released info of once again stirring the "Who's Tony's REAL parents" shit pot that blew up in their faces the last time. There are even rumors of Black Widow being revealed as his real mother. Even if you ignore that both of those characters are near the same age, there's still a large ugly glaring issue with that.
THEY'VE HAD SEX!
I'm not okay with Tony Stark suddenly being written with an Oedipus complex, but I don't think it will turn out to be Black Widow anyway. Personally, I think they should just leave his parents alone.
Then there's today's announcement of a 15-year-old black girl named Riri Williams going to be the new Iron Man.
Apparently after the events of Civil War 2 end, Tony will be retiring once again and this random new character will be taking up the Iron mantle.
First off, before anyone thinks I'm being racist, I don't give a damn what color a character is. But I want them DEVELOPED ahead of time rather than just throwing her in the suit and going "they'll get used to her" which seems to be Marvel's M.O. these days. (See Jane Foster's "Thor" for further proof)
The people that are defending this idea and character are using the excuse of "well Rhodes was Iron Man for a while".
Yes he was, but they spent a LONG time developing his character, letting us get to know him, and seeing the friendship he and Tony had to understand WHY Tony would have him as his replacement when he was fighting his own demons and the world still needed Iron Man. It was well thought out and executed accordingly.
This is just sloppy. There is no connection whatsoever and they seem to think that's fine.
If they wanted to make this transition flow well with good writing and a strong connection, she should have been Rhodes daughter.
They should have introduced her a long time ago, shown her skills and intelligence here and there, given us an uncle Tony relationship between the two.....and THEN make this move.
It still would have been a "new" character, but it wouldn't be some random person he's "had his eye on for a while" that just so happens to share his intelligence.
THAT'S how you write a strong bond to an existing character so the passing of the torch works!
The sad thing is, that took me less than five minutes to think of. Yet the Marvel writers have been getting paid to make up random characters with no connection to the heroes they're taking over.
And that is what is really wrong with Marvel comics right now.
They're more interested in cheap controversy and appealing to the PC diversity crowd, than telling well thought cohesive stories.
Marvel may have the better films, but the same cannot be said for the current state of their comics.
