Oh brother. Ultimate "Armor Wars!"

Snell over at Slay, Monstrobot of the Deep tips us off to another modern Marvel head-shaker: Ultimate Armor Wars.

Say WHAAAAT??

Snell nails the whole hassle with the "Ultimate" universe (my emphasis):

One of my big objections to what (admittedly little) I've seen of the Ultimate Universe is the completely wasted opportunity.

Created to be an entry point for new readers, to negate the need for knowledge of 40 years of continuity, the Ultimate books were in a perfect position to tell brand new stories, create brand new characters, and go where no Marvel has gone before.

Instead, all too often, the books seemed to be a race to introduce as many "Ultimate" versions of Earth-616 characters as possible. Damn the original story ideas, here's Ultimate Cable and Ultimate Stryfe and Ultimate Scorpion and the Ultimate Galactus trilogy and Ultimate this and Ultimate that. Rather than an entry point for new readers, they were marketed to attract old readers: "Come see our new version of X and Y!!"

Sigh. Stay tuned for Ultimate Kree-Skrull War, Ultimate Contest of Champions, Ultimate Infinity Gauntlet, Ultimate Celestial Madonna Saga, Ultimate Demon in a Bottle, Ultimate...

"Sigh" is right. Besides the ridiculously overt [left-wing] politicking that has overcome Marvel in the last few years (which is documented so aptly over at Avi Green's Four Color Media Monitor; in addition, Warren Ellis is scripting "Ultimate Armor Wars" which, if his volume four Iron Man arc is any indication, get ready for some far-left preaching), the stories just really started to suck. I was a fan of the first volume of The Ultimates, but then things began to spiral downhill, as Snell so eloquently noted above.

I wonder what David Michelinie, author of the original "Armor Wars," thinks of this. (The first issue, Iron Man #225, is at top left.) I'll have to drop him an e-mail ...

Dullard Wizard

Many of my favorite [comics] blogs have regular features (like the best comics blog on the 'net, Mark Engblom's Comic Coverage), so who am I to be any different? I'm not a regular Wizard reader (Wizard being the biggest comics news magazine around) but my DC-oriented buddy Brent regularly lends them to me after he's done with 'em. What gets me is that its writers are supposed to be the "ultimate comics geeks," yet at times they make some grievous (grievous in a comics fanboy sense, that is) factual errors. And it's these errors that brings us to CoR's inaugural post of its first regular feature -- the "Dullard Wizard."

March's issue (#209) has a little diddy about Iron Man towards the back of the issue (click on the image for a larger view):

Now, when you're talking Iron Man, you'd better know what you're talkin' about with me around, natch! After all, I did write articles for, and was once editor-in-chief of, Iron Man's premiere fan magazine! As you can see, the segment is about a pivotal moment in Iron Man's history: The one and only time he dramatically changed his armor's color scheme. Iron Man's main armor had always been red and gold (with the very early exceptions of his original armor and then its gold-painted follow-up) so this change to red and silver had many fans aghast. (Not me -- this armor remains my favorite IM armor of all-time.)

But back to the point: Wizard writes that Tony Stark built this new armor in the late 80s in order to fight the [now-classic] "Armor Wars." Nope. Stark built this suit a whole twenty-five issues earlier -- in #200, which was 1985. The "Armor Wars" (which was actually titled "Stark Wars," but that's another story) had not a thing to do with the red and silver suit's construction. In actuality, Stark was piddling around with different armor designs as a form of therapy following his battle with alcoholism (from the late #160s to #182). He remained reluctant to resume wearing armor -- until arch-enemy Obadiah Stane murdered his friend and co-worker Morley Erwin (in #199). Highly pissed off, Stark quickly lost his reservations about becoming Iron Man, donned the new red and silver suit, and kicked Stane's ass!

The red and silver armor (commonly dubbed the "Silver Centurion") was actually seen a bit prior to Iron Man #200 -- in the pages of The West Coast Avengers. It looked a tad different as apparently its final design wasn't settled upon yet.

Ironically, the designer of the suit, classic Iron Man creator Bob Layton, was one of the folks who had a hand in its eventual demise. He and pal David Michelinie, upon reassuming the creative mantle of the title in issue #215, decided the suit was too bulky, and worked in a plot device whereby the suit was causing Tony Stark neurological damage (IM #217). Also ironically, it was during the "Armor Wars" when the Silver Centurion was destroyed (IM #230). This gave Layton and Michelinie the opportunity to return Iron Man to his "true colors," red and gold, in the following issue.

And now you know!