[Continuing my issue-by-issue look at Iron Man: The Inevitable.]
As part of the ongoing war against Tony Stark and Iron Man, Greta Abbott offers to sleep with him while at a charity function. That's putting the 'ass' into 'classic villainy!' (Oh god, why would I write such a thing?) Given Tony's reputation as a womaniser, why not indulge another of his vices? The Abbotts are mocking him with his past: his alcoholism, his womanising, his military contracts (when Stark says hello to a general, Abbott makes a crack about how that's another military contract sealed at a party), and on to get at Iron Man, to provoke him, to draw him out of the facade of denying he's Iron Man still. It's inevitable.
Meanwhile, the Spymaster is beginning to encounter his own version of the inevtaible: the Ghost failing to steal the Living Laser and thinking he killed Iron Man. Abbott immediately sees that it was a robot and not actually Iron Man. He's beginning, though, to notice the negative about being the bad guy: you lose. The help lets you down and you lose. The Ghost has failed before and he will fail again. In positioning yourself in the role opposite the hero, you're also guaranteeing yourself a life of failure.
The relationship between Tony and Dr. Dillon takes more of a spotlight here. Her role as superhero poser is made more clear when, for her attempts at communication with the Living Laser, she's given a suit that looks a lot like the Iron Man armour. She resists at first but later defies orders and heads back in too soon.
The two also have dinner together and there's a lot of dancing around the subject of Iron Man on Tony's part. She asks him a few times if he misses it and he never gives a straight answer. He talks about familiar patterns, old habits, and other related topics, but never answers the question. While he'll lie straight up about his continued role as Iron Man, he seems unable to do so here. What would be so hard about simply saying he does, but it's for the best that those days are behind him? Part of it is that he doesn't seem to like being Iron Man anymore. He's struggling to break free of the role, but, as we'll learn, because of the Extremis, he can't. It's part of his physical make-up. When Abbott brings up parts of his past that he's not fond of and compares them to being a superhero, all he's doing it making that something Tony doesn't want to do even more. He does it because he has to, because other people won't let him not do it. He can quit drinking, he can quit being a pig, he can even quit being an arms manufacturer, but he can't quit being Iron Man.
In 30 minutes, the poser dies. Ooops. Spoiler.
[Don't forget to donate what you can to the Hero Initiative! (Details in this post.) After you do, let me know via comment or e-mail (found at the righthand side) so I can keep track of donations -- and who to thank.]
Exceptional X-Men #4 annotations
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