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MJMJR β War Machine portrait
Published: 2012-11-13 16:17:35 +0000 UTC; Views: 550; Favourites: 47; Downloads: 0
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Description
With War Machine I decided to kind of mix his classic armor with the movie one and this is the result.
Detail for collage piece [link]
War Machine Copyright Marvel Comics
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Comments: 31
Always did like Rhody's armor better than Tony's
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for me it depends on the design when it comes to Iron Man's armor. I always loved the 70's and 80s designs. But the original War Machine armor is just pure awesome.
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I only got into some of the Iron Man stories from the TV shows in the mid-90's but as much as Tony manages to constantly update and tweak his armor I just like the War Machine.
Partly for the relatively plain color scheme (though my favorite color is red) and nothing says BADASS as a chain-gun and rocket launcher additions.
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The 90s TV show was pretty great. They only used his robotic armor design for the majority of it. In the comics he mostly used that armor by remote control. The one he had before that was one of my fave designs.Β
Yeah it was cool seeing an armor design that used black and sliver rather than red and gold. Its part of why I loved Tony's stealth armor design. It was all black with red eyes. It just looked badass.
And you can never go wrong with a chain gun and rocket launcher.
If your into armor with heavy weapons you'd probably like the one enemy Iron Man faced in the original Armor Wars storyline. Firepower. It was a black hulk sized armored suit with nothing but missiles and guns all over it.Β
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The Firepower armor sounds like it could have been a Hulk-buster type armor with the obligatory armaments.
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It practically is. You see it and read about it here.Β marvel.com/universe/Firepower_β¦
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Thanks kindly.
And if I remember correctly, there was a whole story arc, or at least an underlying theme, where there was several Armored individuals using Stark Tech.
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No problem
Yeah, it was the original Armor Wars. It starts because an armored villain named Force comes to Iron Man for help and Stark helps him fake his death and get a new identity. Tony keeps the Force armor and discovers it has Stark Tech in it that had been stolen from him by Spymaster years ago and it was sold to other villains. So Stark becomes obsessed with destroying his tech that is being used for evil and his obsession eventually puts him at odds with everyone, including the Avengers, SHIELD and the US Government.Β
Its probably one of the best Iron Man stories. Its been collected into two volumes if I recall right.Β
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Seems silly of Stark. He builds all sorts of goodies, without any kind of secrecy or legal trademark (and parading his wares around) then has to run around playing clean up on things he leaves behind or things that other people borrowed and improved upon.
Rather difficult to say "it's private" when he's wearing it around town.
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Stark kept all of his Iron Man tech private. I mean just because he wears the armor doesn't clue people into how it functions, how the weapons and flight systems work and so on. He totally kept all that secret and he was the only one using it. Its not like he was selling full Iron Man suits to the public and then was surprised when they were used for evil.
It wasn't until Spymaster stole the tech and sold it to Justin Hammer and other guys that supply tech villains with their armor that some of the technology became public on the black market. Even after this happened the buyers of the stolen tech couldn't quite master what Stark had done completely so they only took bits of they could of the technology and incorporated it into their armor designs to improve their functions in certain ways. Geniuses like The Tinkerer and Gremlin had more success with using the pirated tech to its fullest while guys like the Beetle and Stilt-Man didn't because they didn't have the genius needed to do it.Β
The only armors Stark made for the government was the Mandroid armor and the Guardsmen armor and both technologies for the most part were protected by SHIELD. The armors were mass produced but none of them had the abilities of Stark's Iron Man suits or the secret tech he developed just for the Iron Man armors. Essentially he gave them stripped down Mark 2 and Mark 3 tech based suits and tossed in some non-lethal weapons systems. Unlike the armor he had at the time which was Mark 8 with cutting edge technologies and weapons systems he developed for his own use.
Its like giving someone a station wagon and keeping the fast attack armored tank for yourself.
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I understand what you are saying, however I still find it hard to believe (story wise) that there is no one able to look at what Iron Man does and come up with some kind of similar types of material. And with the cartoons, movies and various comics that I have read of Iron Man, there's some things that of the suit that gets occasionally banged or "shot off" someone picking it up and going "hey I can work with this."
Now I do fully understand, that like with how people build cars or how programmers write code, there are certain earmarks that someone can say "hey that's how I would do it."
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Oh okay I understand. 
Actually that has happened almost since the beginning of the Iron Man comics. The Russian government built two armored suits based on seeing Iron Man in action: The Crimson Dynamo and the Titanium Man both of whom became major Iron Man enemies. Pretty much every armored villain (with the exception of Doctor Doom)and governments around the world in the MU have taken some sort of inspiration from seeing Iron Man to build their own armored suits with whatever tech they have available which is why most of them are usually bulkier or more easily damaged than Stark's armor which is made of unique composites of metal and other materials made of his own design rather than conventional technology and alloys.Β
Going just by the comics having a chip or chunk of material from Iron Man's suit isn't going to clue people in to how Stark manufactures it or incorporates his secret technology into his suits. It would be like giving a grade school class a wing tip from a plane and telling them to build a fully functional F-16 fighter jet based on it.
Before Armor Wars the only villain that had ever gotten hold of actual Stark technology to make his own suit was Obadiah Stane. But because he only got a hold of the schematics for the first two bulky Iron Man suits Stane and his men couldn't work out most of the innovation Stark had in his current suits, especially the compact size of of the current models so when they built the Iron Monger armor it was actually built even bigger than the suits it was based on because they couldn't figure out the tech Stark used to make his gear.Β
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Well I suppose that is with a lot of innovators when they come up withΒ something as interesting like Stark did with the IM (my shorthand for Iron Man) armor people wanted to try and mimic it, I know the imitation is the sincere form of flatter but with that in mind most of the armors that were developed seemed to make the IM armor more of often imitated, never duplicated.
In a similar, if a little more vague, notion things the Nanosuit armor from the Crysis series and other such items seem to draw various ideas or themes from Iron Man armor.
I suppose it is a good commentary on the sharing of ideas and how a lot of stories can have similar themes, points, mediums etc.
Then again in such a world as we are in, it is hard to have an idea that is unique enough that doesn't seem like it parallels and borrows from a known story. such as movies like Avatar which is largely a remake of Dances with WolvesΒ (or Disney's Pocahontas, or the other move Fern Gully) .... And yes I know that people like Quentin Tarantino often tell where he got his references.
I'd be happy to to talk with you over the dA notes on the idea.
But I do thank you for the background on the iron man stories.
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Yeah pretty much. I mean some of the armors inspired by Stark's IM suit were downright laughable. The Mauler armor, while powerful, was just badly designed from top to bottom. Stewart Clarke made the Rampage Armor which more often than not almost got him killed and the Porcupine armor lasted all of five seconds against Iron Man in an actual brawl.
I think that borrowed themes are a staple of most any storytelling medium. The only thing that sets some stories apart from others is the writer's ability to take an old story and tell it in a new way or from a unique perspective on top of layering in new ideas.
I like to save my DA Notes for commissioners. Also its no problem, I enjoyed our conversation
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*hoes looking at the Armors mentioned* oh GAWD Porcupine? Thank heavens I never saw it action.
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If your looking at the original brown and green suit that looks like a walking tiki hut with a gas mask over the top then yes I know, it's god awful. 
Captain America kept the armor and has it displayed at Avengers Mansion in honor of the man's sacrifice. It has a plaque that reads: The Porcupine: Honored Foe of the Avengers.
For me the silliest one was the Mauler armor. It just has such a poor design concept with all the hoses and ankle jets hanging out all over the place. Though it's debut is one of my favorite Daredevil stories by Frank Miller
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Well I suppose the big question is "how can this be introduced without seeming like a goof?" then again my "hero" has always been Spider-man hand half of his villain gallery (an a few of the ally heros) is a parade of two bit second tier characters. People like shocker (a thug with souped up brass knuckles) or a Rhino (a Juggernaut wannabe) that Peter didn't even need to actually lay a finger on, just had to give a guy a workout and watch him pass out from heat exhaustion.
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True but I think even if a character is somewhat goofy if a writer cares enough they can put some heart and soul into them or at least make them compelling. For years Kraven was considered a bit of a joke and then Kraven's Last Hunt happened and made him into a legendary foe of Spidey.Β
Same with Kingpin. When he was first introduced he just seemed like a big fat guy that was able to beat on spidey a few times and then Frank Miller turned him into feared organized crime figure on par with The Godfather that ruled the city's underworld during his run on Daredevil and it set the tone for the character forever.
Rhino is a perfect example of this. For years he was just treated pretty much the way you describe. A souped up Juggernaut wanna-be, but then later on in the Spider-Man series he was fleshed out as being a guy that just wanted to get out of the Rhino suit he was trapped in and retire but some how, some way he would always get dragged back into a life of crime and it eventually drove him insane and he ended up dying as a result.
Even as goofy as some of them can be I think Spider-Man has probably the most well rounded rogues gallery of any comic character besides Batman.
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I can see what you mean, but I still say that some of the characters still come across as a very curious concept.
Although speaking of which, I know it went through several iterations, but I found the Royal Flush Gang appealing. Part of it is the style they present, and in most of the iterations it wasn't just a group of thugs, or a group of solo villains like Spidey's Sinister Six that didn't really know how to work together.
That and I rather relish the detail that the second version of the group (three main version as I read on wikipedia) where they eventually walk away from Joker with "you're a little too much for us."
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Oh no doubt. I mean some of them are downright weird, especially if you start getting into the Marvel Team-Up villains area of Spider-Man enemies. The Modular Man, Equinox, Moondark, Basilisk, The Wraith, The White Dragon, The Men Fish... its just a long list of weirdos mixed in with his and other heroes villains in that series.Β
I do like the Royal Flush Gang as well because of the things you mention. Its like none of them should be working together because of their personality clashes and yet they manage to do it better than most villain gangs. The version I liked best was the one that faced the Justice League International team where Booster Gold debuted.Β
My all time favorite villain team has to be the Masters of Evil. Despite their rotating membership and leadership over the years they've proven to be the most successful at what they do.Β
A close second would have to be the Serpent Society. They handle it like a business, they're professionals and they attack every assignment as a team no matter how big or small it is. The other thing that makes them unique to me is their loyalty and friendship to one another.Β
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*looks atΒ bot the Masters of Evil and Serpent Society* well at least the Serpent Society, kept the snake theme going. Shows at least some level of a cohesive group.
I suppose the single item you mentioned of "none of them should be working together because of their personality clashes and yet they manage to do it better than most villain gangs" is the exact reason why the majority of of the villain groups break down. If like the Sinister Six, the people are thugs that are too independent and can't (or more accurately DON'T) work as a team. If it's like in the cartoon of Ultimate Spiderman where Red Skull is trying to get "evil league" together with other heavy hitting villains like Dr. Doom and Norman Osborn, it won't really work out. Each of them is too much of a control freak to be able to work as a team. They'd work together initially but as soon as there is some kind of upset or stress placed on the group, they attack each other like a pack of rabid wolves.
Come to think of it, isn't it pretty much the same reason both sets of teams wouldn't work together, just different reasonings.
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Yeah plus the Serpent Society has their own headquarters while most every other group just seems to meet in old warehouses or dingy hideouts in and around the city so they also had that stability going for them.Β
I've never seen that episode of Ultimate Spider-Man but what you describe is pretty accurate. They always have the inner power struggles because someone always thinks they can lead better or they don't take orders well or someone or one wants to take revenge on another one for some sleight or insult from the past, love triangles...
Even the heroic teams aren't immune to this sort of drama and backstabbing but their inner fights usually don't provoke one member to try and murder another or nearly beat a rival to death. Though Avengers West Coast came close a few times.
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It's, as I have dubbed it, the "Starscream Mentality" they are willing to work if the 'team' is winning but as soon as it goes not-so-good they fight and claw for the top spot and the leader is to blame if it fails.
Well more often than not, that's what separate the heros from the villians, the heros are willing to go "oh hold up, time out, lets deal with THEM (the villians or other pressing drastic issue) right now, and we can then beat on each other on who's turn it is to clean the fridge."
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I think you have that sort of person in most any group, good or bad. And even in the heroic teams the personal conflicts spilled over into their jobs or missions. Hawkeye was like that in the Avengers and always sniping at Captain America's leadership until he was given his own group to lead. For a while Iron Man had the same problem with Wonder Man when his ego went out of control in the early Avengers West Coast days. Though the most violent one would be the rivalry between Hawkeye and US Agent. They would literally beat the hell out of one another.
The one villain that does the Starscream thing the most is Moonstone. Every time she is in a group she manipulates and schemes her way into a position of power. If she's not the leader she makes damn sure she's his most trusted aid and can influence them. The Siege on Avengers Mansion by the Masters of Evil and her tenure on the Thunderbolts shows her at her scheming best.Β
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man I love these conversations with you.
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