Chapter 53 - The Last Will and Testament of Tony Stark
Tony Stark’s death in the Avenger’s “Forever War” storyline left Marvel in quite a predicament as the countdown towards 1996’s Iron Man film continued. Most of the company’s executives wanted creative synergy between the various divisions (comics, film, and animation), but the death of one of its iconic characters effectively killed that. Thus editor-in-chief Tom DeFalco petitioned called for Marvel’s top writers to submit proposals over how to bring Stark back into the picture. An unknown source leaked one such proposal by Terry Kavanaugh and writer/editor Bob Harras to Wizard Magazine. It detailed a storyline where the Avengers would bring a teenaged Tony Stark from another timeline into the present. Needless to say that the news caused a fan uproar on the nascent Internet forums and newsgroups.
In truth, Jim Shooter and Tom DeFalco both rejected the proposal as being too contrived and approved Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning’s submission. Their main credits up to that point were the recently-cancelled Force Works, which gave them the bonafides to move over to Iron Man where the would explore transhumanist themes beginning with “The Last Will and Testament of Anthony Stark.” Longtime supporting character and one-time Iron Man, Jim Rhodes, would return to the mantle with much of the old supporting cast returning to the forefront.
Stark’s disappearance [1] had left Stark Enterprises vulnerable to takeover by other less scrupulous corporations including Hammer Industries, Roxxon, and even Shaw Industries with new CEO Pepper Potts barely able to keep them at bay. Said corporations stage attacks and other methods of sabotage using notable Iron Man foes such as Whiplash, Spymaster, and others to drive Stark shares down to facilitate their takeover attempts. Meanwhile, Jim Rhodes is still coping with the death of Tony who he was on poor terms with when Stark died when he receives a message of a break-in at Tony’s armory that he goes to investigate as War Machine.
He soon learns that is was a ruse by an artificial intelligence imprinted with the memory engrams of Tony Stark that activated after the original’s death. Tony knew that the vultures would circle around his company and bequeathed the armory to Rhodes, including a new iteration of the Iron Man armor designed specifically to him. Rhodes is understandably disturbed by the AI Tony since the original Tony digitized his consciousness before their falling out, but reluctantly agrees take the mantle with AI Tony inside the armor as his “wingman.”
The “new” Iron Man immediately took on a quasi-cyberpunk tone, although not to the extent of the waning Marvel 2099 line, that included some body horror as Justin Hammer “upgraded” many of Iron Man’s classic foes into cyborgs. The Ghost was the most extreme example as Abnett and Lanning turned him into a disembodied sentient computer virus—a ghost in the machine driven to near-madness by his lack of a physical form. Similarly, the Rhodes, Potts, and Tony’s closest friends often (privately) questioned the “authenticity” of the AI Tony injecting more drama and emotional stakes into the series.
Sales of the series remained relatively flat for the first two issues of the Abnett/Lanning run. However, they saw a slight uptick with increasing promotion of the Iron Man film and UPN renewing the animated series for a third season. Fans were somewhat divided on the issue of Tony’s “return” from the dead as a disembodied AI. Some disliked it while others viewed it as an interesting concept though both camps approved of Jim Rhodes returning to the mantle he carried during the eighties.
[1] This is in the era before Stark revealed that he was Iron Man to the public.
In truth, Jim Shooter and Tom DeFalco both rejected the proposal as being too contrived and approved Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning’s submission. Their main credits up to that point were the recently-cancelled Force Works, which gave them the bonafides to move over to Iron Man where the would explore transhumanist themes beginning with “The Last Will and Testament of Anthony Stark.” Longtime supporting character and one-time Iron Man, Jim Rhodes, would return to the mantle with much of the old supporting cast returning to the forefront.
Stark’s disappearance [1] had left Stark Enterprises vulnerable to takeover by other less scrupulous corporations including Hammer Industries, Roxxon, and even Shaw Industries with new CEO Pepper Potts barely able to keep them at bay. Said corporations stage attacks and other methods of sabotage using notable Iron Man foes such as Whiplash, Spymaster, and others to drive Stark shares down to facilitate their takeover attempts. Meanwhile, Jim Rhodes is still coping with the death of Tony who he was on poor terms with when Stark died when he receives a message of a break-in at Tony’s armory that he goes to investigate as War Machine.
He soon learns that is was a ruse by an artificial intelligence imprinted with the memory engrams of Tony Stark that activated after the original’s death. Tony knew that the vultures would circle around his company and bequeathed the armory to Rhodes, including a new iteration of the Iron Man armor designed specifically to him. Rhodes is understandably disturbed by the AI Tony since the original Tony digitized his consciousness before their falling out, but reluctantly agrees take the mantle with AI Tony inside the armor as his “wingman.”
The “new” Iron Man immediately took on a quasi-cyberpunk tone, although not to the extent of the waning Marvel 2099 line, that included some body horror as Justin Hammer “upgraded” many of Iron Man’s classic foes into cyborgs. The Ghost was the most extreme example as Abnett and Lanning turned him into a disembodied sentient computer virus—a ghost in the machine driven to near-madness by his lack of a physical form. Similarly, the Rhodes, Potts, and Tony’s closest friends often (privately) questioned the “authenticity” of the AI Tony injecting more drama and emotional stakes into the series.
Sales of the series remained relatively flat for the first two issues of the Abnett/Lanning run. However, they saw a slight uptick with increasing promotion of the Iron Man film and UPN renewing the animated series for a third season. Fans were somewhat divided on the issue of Tony’s “return” from the dead as a disembodied AI. Some disliked it while others viewed it as an interesting concept though both camps approved of Jim Rhodes returning to the mantle he carried during the eighties.
[1] This is in the era before Stark revealed that he was Iron Man to the public.
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