[ad_1]
Iron Man is perhaps one of the great heroes of the Marvel film universe, but in the "Spider-Man" series, he is also one of the big stubs.
None of this is intended to diminish the achievements of Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), both in the fictional world of the MCU and in the real world. In the first, he defeated several super-villains, defended the principle of government oversight of super-beings, even when acting against his personal interest and – at the end of his story, in "Avengers: Endgame "- sacrificed his life saving the universe. In the latter case, he deserves credit for the original MCU: the 2008 Iron Man movie was the one that started it all. It was so popular that another article was published in 2010 before the release of the first movie "Avengers". two years later. (Iron Man was the only MCU character to have received more than one movie before "The Avengers".)
At the same time, Iron Man has always been an imperfect character. Even after overcoming his past as a profiteer of war, he remains a recognized narcissist, a man who has never completely abandoned the sense of entitlement that accompanied him in his privileged past as son and sole heir to the rich man. Howard Stark business. Each of his films is littered with occasions when he walks on people – sometimes intentionally, sometimes unintentionally – leaving in his way a plethora of stories of nasty origin and hurt ego . The most serious consequence of this personality trait is perhaps the creation of Ultron, a super-intelligent robot designed to protect the planet but which almost destroyed it at the same time. Although Iron Man learned from his mistake, this lesson probably did not comfort the residents of Sokow, a country where innumerable innocent people died as a result of the exploits of Ultron.
Yet, Iron Man's flaws have rarely been as pronounced as in both "Spider-Man" movies. On both occasions, the films highlight that Iron Man considers himself a Spider-Man / Peter Parker mentor (Tom Holland): In the first film, he shows the idealistic and energetic young man the job of superheroes , while following – set after his death in "Avengers: Endgame" – he grants him access to his technology posthumously and, through the intermediary of his best friend, Happy Hogan, makes it clear that & # 39; He considers Spider-Man to be his heir and his lawful successor. At the same time, he is also inadvertently responsible for creating the two villains in these "Spider-Man" movies – not because of innocent mistakes, but rather because of his pre-established tendency to abuse his clbad privilege.
In "Homecoming", the character of Vulture / Adrian Toomes (Michael Keaton) is portrayed as a fundamentally honest man, owner of a rescue company that suffers a major financial setback after Stark has forced him to to opt out of an important contract because of its wealth and political influence. While this does not justify Toomes' subsequent decision to steal and tamper with weapons, it is clear that he is not trying to hurt people and, unlike most other villains of the MCU, does not want to hurt people. Do not aspire to conquer the world or defeat the Avengers. His only motivation is to have a realistic chance of earning a decent living for himself and his family – including, without his knowledge, a girl who ends up being Parker's first love interest. It is reasonable to think that if Iron Man had not used his financial influence to wander through Toomes, he would never have become the vulture.
The character of Mysterio / Quentin Beck (Jake Gyllenhaal) has a similar story. It turns out that Beck invented the sophisticated holographic technology used to convince people that the Elementals were attacking the Earth while he was employed at Stark. Instead of appreciating the potential of technology, Stark credits him with the insulting nickname BARF (binary augmented retro-framing) and uses it to deal with his traumatic memories, calling it "$ 611 million for my little therapeutic experience. "Although Stark was later fired by Beck for his" instability ", the focus was on his lack of vision for not recognizing the potential of holographic technology and unsatisfactory treatment. other people whose intellect could compete with his own. This story lends weight to the moment Beck teaches Parker that he should "never be excused for being the smartest person in the room", as well as for the general willingness Beck's deceiving the world into believing that he's himself a superhero.
And, revealingly, he is joined in his mission by other former Stark employees, all of whom are unhappy with the way they were treated (one can imagine that they can not all be delusional about the behavior of Stark).
There are some important points to remember about the nasty twist of Iron Man.
First, he points out that even the MCU is not free from the real-world clbad conflict. Part of the problem of very wealthy men and women like Tony Stark is that even the best of them can not help being corrupted by their wealth. When a person has so much money, she has so much power over the rest of humanity that it is possible to see other people as ships to be moved, used or discarded, depending on whether suitable or not. The problem is not that wealth gives them the instinct to do it – most, if not all, human beings have at least the initial impression of seeing other human beings in this way – but although the money allows them to act first. and then take it out.
Just as Spider-Man's mantra is "with great power comes with great responsibility", the sad truth about being fabulously rich, is that with great wealth, the lack of responsibility can also come. A non-rich should have been accountable to Toomes and Beck before ruining his business and belittling his vision. Stark's wealth allowed him to harm them with impunity – and even worse, with unintended consequences that were either primarily or entirely handled by other people.
In addition, the emergence of Stark as an unexpected villain demonstrates that the MCU is able to establish and develop flaws, even in its most iconic characters. While Scouting superheroes like Christopher Reeves's Superman are certainly welcome and have their place in the history of superheroes, it's refreshing to see a character whose flaws are not just that he's can be dark and dark (looking at you, Batman / Bruce Wayne). Stark's mistakes not only provide social commentary on the dangers of immense wealth, but they are a comforting reminder that even the greatest heroes can still make colossal mistakes. This is an important lesson that allows us to stay rooted and allows us to forgive our own mistakes, even if it still encourages us to be more responsible with our own areas of privilege.
The sad truth, of course, is that our real-world counterparts at Tony Stark rarely have his redeeming qualities. Too often, wealthy titans who crush small businesses, mistreat their employees and almost destroy the planet do not do it out of ignorance or misplaced good intentions, but out of greed and cruelty. Similarly, as Iron Man redeems himself many times by selflessly helping others and ultimately making the ultimate sacrifice, most of the billionaires of our world are too human when you strip their wealth to ask them to give back to humanity. There are of course philanthropists and activists in their ranks, and the good they do should not be neglected. But to date, no real heroes have come out of their ranks to actually lead humanity at the moment of its need instead of throwing money at some good causes here and there.
As depressing as it may sound, the harsh truth about Iron Man is that, although it's an unintentional villain in the first two MCU movies "Spider-Man" – its wickedness is still far less than that of the real billionaires who run the world outside the Marvel cinematic universe.
Source link
