I don’t know about the new Batman. in the screenshots Joker looks normal except with a Chelsea smile. I wonder how much of Moores origin they’ll stick with. Iron Man I cannot forgive for being such a cynical dick over the last few years.

blessings all and do not kill

You got it all wrong. Hitler wasn’t referred to as the man of steel. That would be Stalin, whose name actually means “man of steal” in Russian.

Incidentally, is anyone else annoyed at how arrogant iron man always is? i mean Capt. was always a bit camp, plus he never did wrong, but iron man? Not my cup of tea. to be fair, anyway, he may have been a skrull for twenty years, so who knows?

I’m not sure why there is analysis beyond this point in the article.

I never thought the song and the character were connected, or atleast not in any meaningful way. I always thought they were talking about the Golem, or something similar. Tony Stark never struck me as a character who would go around killing everyone.

Sometimes creative people receive inspiration from places completely unknown to them. An obvious examples would be George Harrison and that song he unintentionally ripped off.

But, more importantly, I’ve always been told not to take an artist’s word on the meaning of his/her own art. It can be illuminating, but also potentially misleading, depending on whether or not the artist wants to hide his/her influences. If you wrote the lyrics to Iron Man, would you be more inclined say it was based directly on a comic book, or a “science fiction story” you dreamed up from current events? Which one would give you more credit/pride?

The chemical symbol for iron is Fe.

The biological name for “man” is male.

And so, scientifically speaking, and “iron man” is actually a Female.

Of course golems aren’t “men of steel.” They are made of dirt. Dirt and rocks. Well I guess you could make golem out of iron ore, since that’s a type of rock, but that would just be silly.

There’s reference to Pete Townsend, so Black Sabbath should be in there too.

As far as Sabbath vs. the comics, I noticed a parity, but it was never a very meaningful one. Now that the previews feature Sabbath’s “Iron Man,” however, it sort of retcons the song to fit with the Iron Man concept – or makes an artful allusion from comic hero to Black Sabbath dystopia.

Either way, I enjoyed your article, Mark.

nope, that’s a miss.

In mythical lore they can be made of clay, or other things including metal, stone, etc. Symbolically they represent the technology we create, on the most fundamental level, which could be described as inanimate objects given life by the intent of a person.

It’s deeply intuitive on the most basic level of understanding in the brain. Some of the earliest developments of higher intelligence are self recognition, empathic understanding of the intents of others, and the creation of simple tools and implements of will.

Metaphorically, personified technology = golem. Online avatars are in a sense golems.

Golems are by definition crude, and soulless. i.e. they lack the higher intelligence and emotions such as compassion. So metaphorically, metal is a good choice, and violence is a likely purpose of a golem.

It’s really not surprising someone writes a song about an iron man going to war, even if nobody had ever thought of it before. It’s no more surprising than video games with rudimentary personas are mostly violence based. At the most rudimentary level, that’s what humanity is: crude, dumb, and violent.

:|

I wonder if Tony Stark / Iron Man of the movie will also have a dark side or if he’ll just be a one dimensional action figure wank fest.

Some friends of mine occasionally play ‘Iron Man’ on the hurdy-gurdy. It works extremely well.

But that’s what most people expect from a movie based on an archaic superhero comic; lots of action, and a storyline the audience can keep up with without having to think too hard about it.

Besides, how are you going to work greater depth into a movie about a comic hero who wears a suit of armor and has freakin’ JETS sticking out of his feet and shoots rockets from his arms? Not a lot of room for subtlety and grace, there.

It’s fluff, intellectually. But that’s fine, because that’s all it’s supposed to be. I look forward to seeing it, just because I loved the Iron Man concept as a kid.

Now, if they made a movie about an honest-to-god Golem, that would be very interesting…

Spider Man was fairly complex… for a comic book movie. The Dark Knight based on Frank Miller looks like it might be OK, for a comic book movie. 300 was absolutely moronic.

But the nature of Iron Man being a robotic suit with copious firepower, and the glib previews, don’t give me much hope. Besides, Tony Stark has always been this character basically designed to glamourize wealth, warfare, and weaponry. Which is fine and all, but basically an action packed wank-fest.

The only thing that could make it interesting is if Downey delivers a really neurotic performance out of the armor suit.

I suspect it’s an amalgam of ideas and influences that gave birth to “Iron Man.” It’s arguable WHO in the band wrote the lyrics– Geezer claims at least some inspiration for “Iron Man”, but I’ve also heard Ozzy claim he wrote all (or nearly all) the lyrics for Sabbath songs, so it’s possible they both had something to do with “Iron Man.” Considering all the drugs they were doing back then I’m sure images of the comic-hero intertwined with images of Birmingham steel-mills, and ecological destruction and invented images from their own minds to give birth to “Iron Man”, plus a lot of the lyrics were probably just them trying to come up with stuff that rhymed: “we need something that rhymes with ‘dread’. . . how about ‘boots of lead’?”

Yes yes yes, a wonderful mental exercise for stoners and music-nerds everywhere.

I’ve got pretty high hopes for the movie. Favreau’s not only a long-time comics fan, but he’s also interested in character and dialog. Swingers looks like it was pretty good practice for writing Tony Stark.

After it was over, I looked over at them and said “You know, even if the movie sucks, at least we got to see that.”