Diamond List for May 21st, 2008

[TheCorpulent1]

I love Iron Man's new status as the police commissioner for the Marvel universe.

 

[Max J Power]

Captain America #38 $2.99
Fantastic Four #557 $2.99

 

[Dread]

Man, we are getting Iron Man overload! Ultimate Iron Man, Invincible Iron Man, Iron Man (regular series), Iron Man: Legacy Of Doom, and the Vegas Iron Man...not to mention, he practically appears in every other book, like Hulk. The movie was great, but PLEASE, give us an friggin' Iron Man break. It's like Marvel is trying to tell us, "You guys complained about Wolverine overload all these years..you don't KNOW overload!"

I agree. Marvel has been cranking up the Iron Man appearances, and it has been going on since PRELUDE TO CW basically, which is almost two years now.

There are those who feel comparing it to Wolverine's past overuse is unfair because it "matches the character", which are usually excuses to prevent people from countering that DC pimps Batman & Superman as often as Wolverine & Spider-Man pop up (or used to) in other books.

I don't. Overuse is overuse and I am not afraid of staking it out there that Iron Man is being overused, and has been over a year before the movie. That said, the movie's a success and it is Marvel Production's first, so expect it to last another year, at the very least.

Fraction's IM title is off to a good start, though. And think about it; a "hot" artist like Larocca bailed from Ultimate X-Men in mid-storyline to do a second Iron Man title. As recently as 2004, that would have seemed like a loser career strategy. Amazing how some things change. At the very least, at least Marvel is spreading their "focus" around better than in the 90's, when they relied on Spider-Man, Wolverine, and the X-Franchise way too much.

 

[Anubis]

You are such a whiney *****e Dread. I bet you'd go to heaven and say it smells funny.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I don't get how "matching the character" is just tossed aside as a worthless excuse. So, it's just totally unacceptable for any character to ever have more than X number of appearances per month? That's just silly.

 

[Dread]

You are such a whiney *****e Dread. I bet you'd go to heaven and say it smells funny.

If Heaven smells funny, I'll call it.

Bit of a reach, though. Overdoing Iron Man is heaven?

I don't get how "matching the character" is just tossed aside as a worthless excuse. So, it's just totally unacceptable for any character to ever have more than X number of appearances per month? That's just silly.

There's matching the character and still overdoing things. Iron Man at some points is (and was) in every other issue of anything Marvel publishes, especially 616. And last year, even a MENTION of IRON MAN got you a "THE INITIATIVE" tag on your cover.

There's potential in his status quo, especially now that some writers are trying to scale back from him basically becoming Dr. Doom (Fraction, in IIM, provides a fresh example of this effort), but you can still overdo it. You can't swing a dead cat at Marvel without running into Iron Man. People *****'ed, and rightly so, when this was done with Wolverine or Spider-Man (or even Venom, Ghost Rider, and Punisher). What, because Iron Man wasn't a 90's cash cow/fad, he gets a pass? I could argue Punisher's war on crime makes him just as applicable to show up 7 times a month as Iron Man. Not that I would want to, though.

I am not saying there aren't good Iron Man stories being told these days. But do we have to literally see him in every single Marvel book (or damn close)? I just think people are so happy about Marvel amping non Spider & X people that they just go, "______ is owed their due" and don't mind the overexposure. Which I guess is a logical response after a decade of X/Spider overindulgence, I suppose.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

It doesn't have anything to do with Iron Man being "owed his due" for me. The man appointed himself the head honcho of the entire world's intelligence and superhuman communities. Why wouldn't he appear everywhere?

 

[Dread]

It doesn't have anything to do with Iron Man being "owed his due" for me. The man appointed himself the head honcho of the entire world's intelligence and superhuman communities. Why wouldn't he appear everywhere?

Because it is annoying.

Nick Fury was head of SHIELD for over 40 years and he never showed up nearly as much as Iron Man has the last 2 years. He was all over the place in a few books but not the ENTIRE line EVERY week without any rest.

It is possible to have too much of a good thing. I mean, that is basically what has worn a lot of polish out of Wolverine for me (and many others).

 

[CaptainCanada]

Well, Fury also wasn't the Superman Czar, which is what Tony basically is.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Yeah, and Fury did show up quite a bit, to be honest. More than a fairly third-string character like him would seem to warrant.

 

[Dread]

Well, Fury also wasn't the Superman Czar, which is what Tony basically is.

And Superman is the Superhero Czar. If any DC character has an excuse to be in every other comic, it should be him. The guy barely needs to sleep. He can almost move at the speed of light. He is out to do good, from battling world-shattering menaces to bank robbers. He could be appearing in every other book DC publishes and it would be "in character". People would complain, and with good reason.

My issue here is I am calling a spade a spade and people are thinking it is invalid because the spade has a good reason. As an example, just because there is a very good reason why the fence is purple (the man who painted it liked purple) doesn't mean I can't say the fence is purple and form an opinion on it.

This seems equally baffling coming from some of the same posters who sometimes would complain, with good reason, when Wolverine or Batman showed up too much.

Yeah, and Fury did show up quite a bit, to be honest. More than a fairly third-string character like him would seem to warrant.

He did, but not to the sustained level that IM is. He wasn't in every issue of a year's worth of storylines for franchises that had nothing to do with SHIELD, like Iron Man seems to be now.

 

[SonOfCthulhu]

Pigeons From Hell #2 (of 4) $3.50
Batman And The Outsiders #7 $2.99
Brave And The Bold #13 $2.99
Countdown To Mystery #8 (of 8) $3.99
Flash #240 $2.99
Justice Hc Vol 03 $19.99
Justice League Of America #21 $2.99
Justice Society Of America #15 $2.99
Tangent Supermans Reign #3 (of 12) $2.99

 

[TheCorpulent1]

He did, but not to the sustained level that IM is. He wasn't in every issue of a year's worth of storylines for franchises that had nothing to do with SHIELD, like Iron Man seems to be now.

But everything has something to do with SHIELD now, thanks to Civil War. If you're not a fan of the position Iron Man's in post-CW, that's fine, but I honestly don't think that he's having more appearances than his post-CW status warrants. He's at the head of the organization that's got its fingers in literally all of Marvel's pies right now.

 

[Hans]

Agreed. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense for Wolverine to be able to juggle being on at least two different X-teams, an Avengers team and have time for two solo books. I can see how having him pop up at every turn can be pretty silly. But Iron Man's appearances are always warranted. He's the cop in the MU right now. Even if I didn't like him as a character, I'd still think the progression he's going through is an interesting one. It's not often a comic book character actually grows and evolves into something else. I have to hand it to Marvel to sticking to their guns with Tony and not shying away when a good portion of readers were turned off by his "villianous" tendencies.

 

[masteryoda]

Mighty Avengers #14