Review - The Superior Iron Man #4

Comics writer Tom Taylor has only been in the public eye for a relatively short while, cutting his teeth on the videogame tie-in Injustice Gods Among Us and somehow making it one of the best comics that DC has put out in recent years. With The Superior Iron Man, Taylor has gone from a dark reinterpretation of DC superheroes to a dark reinterpretation of a Marvel superhero.

It has become routine, therefore, for reviewers to assert that his talent clearly lies in writing alternate versions of familiar characters, but the last three issues of this series has demonstrated a remarkable aptitude for writing Daredevil in his classic form.

To be sure, in its portrayal of a Tony Stark robbed of his moral compass by a freak accident, the series has provided a fascinating look at the dark side of a popular character as well as using that theme-and-variation format to address the dark side of the starry-eyed futurism that has defined the character ever since the Warren Ellis reinvention of the character, Extremis.

To be fair, this new series is very true to the spirit of the Ellis reinvention, what with its cynicism and moral ambiguity. But the secret weapon of this series is and continues to be its use of Daredevil as its counterpoint and moral compass, and the greater and greater lengths that Tony has gone to in order to silence this representative of his last pangs of conscience. I will not spoil it, but at the end of this issue, he tops himself.

As compelling as this series is, if Mark Waid is really leaving Daredevil after issue 15, I would be happy to see Tom Taylor replace him, in part because Taylor seems to have the same knack Waid does for imaginative plot twists and consistently entertaining character work, but largely because he seems to understand the Man Without Fear remarkably well.

Until then, the way Taylor handles the two characters in his care approaches the masterful, and each issue is at least eminently entertaining, and I continue looking forward to pretty much anything he writes.

On Lex Luthor

I was listening to a Mark Waid interview recently where he said that he liked the idea of Superman and Lex Luthor having been childhood and/or teenage friends because it adds a lot to Superman’s character to have that little splash of darkness. 
However, I think that the guy he was debating against did have one very good point: while it probably helps develop Superman’s character, his loss is Luthor’s gain in terms of character development. I don’t like the idea that young Luthor was obsessed with things extraterrestrial because as I understand Luthor he is fundamentally a man. He has spent years rising through the social ranks, pulling dirty tricks but at every turn striving to become as powerful as a man can possibly become. Eventually, he reaches the pinnacle of his achievement: he is the most brilliant, most wealthy human being on the planet. And just at that moment of triumph, an alien being who is both naturally more powerful and naturally more beautiful in both body and soul than Luthor can ever be appears and outdoes him. This, to me, defines Luthor’s character. His evil arises from the fact that his principles are founded in petty jealousy and desire for revenge. But, like all good villains, his foibles disguise a pretty legitimate point - that anything as powerful as Superman, however benevolent, is inherently fascistic merely by placing itself that far above everyone else. 
What if Superman turned bad? That’s the classic refrain. But what Luthor understands that he thinks everyone else is blind to (and, to some extent, they are) is that Superman doesn’t have to turn bad to be oppressive. He doesn’t have to be The Plutonian to feel that cracking down on human flaws is fundamentally the right thing to do. His very presence is an affront to humanity. The fact that he is roughly omni-benevolent is a happy accident. And to be fair to Mark Waid, the solution he comes to in Kingdom Come is the best one I’ve heard--if Superman really does have a stronger and more accurate moral compass than anyone else, let him prove it by not using his powers, by living among us as equals.

Back to the topic of villains, in my experience the best villains define and crystallize the hero’s character through contrast. The Batman is largely defined by his principles. So the Joker challenges those principles and tries to get the Batman to break all of them. Superman is a super-powered alien life form whose powers are bestowed upon him through no achievement on his part who has never had any need for jealousy. So Lex Luthor is a pathologically jealous self-made man who cannot go any higher simply by virtue of being only human.