InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "As you wish."

colonel_green (colonel_green) wrote in scans_daily,
@ 2009-06-17 17:27:00

Entry tags:

char: black widow/natasha romanova, char: crimson dynamo/dmitri bukharin, char: green goblin/norman osborn, char: maria hill, char: victoria hand, creator: matt fraction, creator: salvador larroca, publisher: marvel comics, title: invincible iron man

In Soviet Russia...

I've found the current mega-arc of Invincible Iron Man rather slow, but this month's #14 was a big improvement, since we're getting near the finish line. Four scans.

First, Tony goes to Russia where he has a secret lab hidden. Pepper tracks him using her armour, and Norman tracks her.

Pwned.

Elsewhere, after a run-in with the Controller and dodging more of Norman's men, Maria Hill ends up back in the Big Apple, the centre of the universe. Having gotten the doohickey Tony sent her to get, task #2 is to find Captain America.

Let me guess, Natasha's fake first name is "Donna"?

(Post a new comment)

	daningram 2009-06-17 03:39 pm UTC (link)
	About fucking time someone realized Norman was full of shit and stood in his way. Wish it was US department heads, though... (Reply to this)

	neuhallidae 2009-06-17 03:45 pm UTC (link)
	Bukharin's dialogue bugs me for assorted reasons, but I think I love him anyway. (Reply to this)

	trueredorion 2009-06-17 03:56 pm UTC (link)
	Natasha has some fucked up morals if she thinks people who command suicide bombers are "good people". (Reply to this)

fungo_squiggly
2009-06-17 03:58 pm UTC (link)

(Reply to this) (Thread)

	icon_uk 2009-06-17 04:10 pm UTC (link)
	Yes they'd object to Norman, but not out of morality, more out of the only thing they might worry about was someone as corrupt and warped as they are playing on the other side. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	colonel_green 2009-06-17 04:22 pm UTC (link)
	Colonel Bukharin is the fifth Crimson Dynamo; earlier in this issue, he lends Tony his armour. (Reply to this) (Parent)

kali921
2009-06-17 04:37 pm UTC (link)

This is the Russian government we're talking about. The same government that rolled back democratic gains under Putin (who still holds considerable sway there), and that is BFFs with repressive, authoritarian regimes like Iran and North Korea and China. Would they really have any moral objection to the likes of Norman Osborne?

Because a regime is authoritarian does not automatically mean that all other geopolitical considerations are thrust aside when another authoritarian figure/regime requests cooperation. In the Marvelverse there are (just like in real life here on planet Earth) still enough political differences between the United States and the Russian Federation such that the Russians denying Norman access to their airspace is perfectly freakin' logical for more reasons than I care to iterate here. Also, "authoritarian" does not automatically mean a logical extension to "cooperate with known American supervillains." Even for a bullying, corrupt, and murderous regime like Putin's. There's nationalism and lingering Cold War realpolitik at work here.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

fungo_squiggly
2009-06-17 04:46 pm UTC (link)

Indeed to this, and to all the comments above. My point was not actually "Russia would agree to anything Norman Osborne asks," it was more along the lines of "Russia would certainly not refuse him on moral grounds, which makes a member of the Russian government telling Norman off a lot less satisfying than it might otherwise be."

Anyway, I continue to believe that my mustache thesis is in fact the real reason for the Colonel's support of Tony (and by extension Pepper).

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

kali921
2009-06-17 04:51 pm UTC (link)

I support your mustache thesis.

I don't get from these scans that Bukharin is telling Normie to go to hell purely on moral grounds; I'll have to read the entire issue to see if there's more context to support that conclusion. After all, Bukharin could be referring to a number of things. But if Fraction meant purely on moral grounds in the way that Americans traditionally interpret the explicit and implicit meanings of such when that line of argument comes from the contemporary Russian regime? Yeah. Major plot!fail there, Fraction.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	colonel_green 2009-06-17 04:54 pm UTC (link)
	He's refusing him because he's a friend of Iron Man's. He helps Tony out earlier in the issue. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	kali921 2009-06-17 04:56 pm UTC (link)
	Which makes the scene either more or less funny depending on your interpretation. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	(Anonymous) 2009-06-19 10:48 am UTC (link)
	Murderous??? (Reply to this) (Parent)

	hyperactivator 2009-06-17 05:32 pm UTC (link)
	I say it's a simple matter of takes one to know one. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	kali921 2009-06-17 04:40 pm UTC (link)
	Oh, Matt Fraction. You're so adorably inept at writing Russians trying to speak English! Not ALL Russians ignore the definite article in English! God, Bukharin's dialog is so cliched, and Bukharin even has a waxed villain mustache. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	colonel_green 2009-06-17 04:44 pm UTC (link)
	How is that inept? It's clearly intended to be comicly stereotypical. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

kali921
2009-06-17 04:55 pm UTC (link)

Are you sure it was meant to be comicly stereotypical? It reads as hackneyed and lazy. It reads like Fraction wasn't even trying, and sadly it's just not that funny. If you want to write a stereotypical Russian, at least write the dialog in such a way that mirrors linguistic markers and tendencies of Russian phrasing and verb use when Russians who are less than fluent in English try to speak the language.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	colonel_green 2009-06-17 05:00 pm UTC (link)
	Yes, that would be the logical inference. If one is looking to think negatively of Fraction, one may think otherwise. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	fungo_squiggly 2009-06-17 04:47 pm UTC (link)
	"Now if you'll excuse me, Mr. Osborne, I must be finding Moose and Squirrel." That's what it reminded me of anyway... (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	kali921 2009-06-17 04:52 pm UTC (link)
	This. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	outlawpoet 2009-06-17 04:54 pm UTC (link)
	I'm trying to imagine what a billionth of a byte looks like. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	amazingman 2009-06-17 05:48 pm UTC (link)
	Only Hank Pym knows. And that's only if Reed will let him play with his toys again. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	cmdr_zoom 2009-06-17 08:19 pm UTC (link)
	Yup. Irony: Fraction failing fractions. (Or maybe he's good at those, and crap at decimals/SI prefixes.) (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	outlawpoet 2009-06-17 09:16 pm UTC (link)
	Well, I mean, technically, as a byte is a measure of information, you could have a billionth of a byte, in that you could have a dataset of such incredible noise that it was only fractionally indicative of useful bits of data, but I can imagine few situations where a few 1/billion hints towards data could mean anything at all. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	jkcarrier 2009-06-17 04:56 pm UTC (link)
	The perspective in that first panel makes my brain hurt. Ms. Hand must be about 2 feet tall, and that glass table is like something out of an M.C. Escher print. (Reply to this)

	khaosworks 2009-06-17 06:03 pm UTC (link)
	They're already drawing Natasha to resemble Scarlett Johannson, I see. (Reply to this)

	toasty_fresh 2009-06-17 06:48 pm UTC (link)
	Norman's "Pepper Potts, Pepper Potts" makes me giggle. (Reply to this)

	kijikun 2009-06-17 07:00 pm UTC (link)
	Why do artist insist on drawing hot women wearing thongs? Hot action woman wearing thongs? Can we make THEM wear a thong and oh I don't know try to run while wearing it? (Reply to this) (Thread)

	20thcenturyvole 2009-06-17 08:35 pm UTC (link)
	Ugh, that pissed me off too. I can only imagine Larocca was all, "Oh no, we're under our fanservice quota! WAIT I CAN DRAW IN A WHALE TAIL." Because if you're wearing comfortable sweats, of course you're wearing a g-string underneath. And no doubt a matching bra. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	neuhallidae 2009-06-17 08:45 pm UTC (link)
	I could be totally wrong, but they look like yoga pants to me. Which implies she apparently wears the thong while twisting herself into a pretzel, which just makes me cringe more. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	mari_redstar 2009-06-18 02:01 am UTC (link)
	Motto. Wouldn't not drawing the thong in be not only less work but more appealing on more than one level? She's not wearing uncomfortable underwear, so no one has to wince in sympathy, and she's not wearing underwear, so everyone can ogle. Too logical or what? (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

kijikun
2009-06-18 02:05 am UTC (link)

*nods* I mean I'll buy some female characters wearing thongs -- because hey some women don't find them uncomfortable or are wearing them for a certain reason (no panty lines, they aren't going to be wearing it long, etc), but Black Widow? Not one of those woman.

I see her wearing boy shorts when she's not wearing her skin tight costume. And when she is wearing skin tight costume, I'd be she's not wearing any underwear because the damn thing has it built in or something.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

	taggerung301 2009-06-17 08:18 pm UTC (link)
	Yay Russia! (never thought that I would ever say that . . .) (Reply to this)

	batcookies 2009-06-17 09:14 pm UTC (link)
	Norman Osborne vs. Maria Hill. I don't know who to cheer for, here. I suppose "none of the above" works. (Reply to this) (Thread)

tavella
2009-06-18 08:03 am UTC (link)

The way I work it out is: nothing serious is going to happen to Osborn in a side book like this, while theoretically Maria could go down. So I'd cheer for Osborn to do the world some good by taking Maria Hill out before he gets squashed.

Sadly, I think Fraction is pretty wedded to his "Maria Hill is a fabulous hero!" thing, so undoubtedly she'll get to show Osborn up instead. But hey, there's a small hope Fraction might try to make her a martyr.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

	Also: kijikun 2009-06-18 02:05 am UTC (link)
	Marvel what is your obsession with Russia? I know its hard to accept the cold war is over but really... (Reply to this)

	regulus13 2009-06-18 02:06 am UTC (link)
	"How--DARE YOU?!?" Puts a big ol smile on my face. >:] (Reply to this)

	unknownscribler 2009-06-18 06:05 am UTC (link)
	Damn but I loathe the design of Pepper's armour (Reply to this) (Thread)

	akodo_rokku 2009-06-19 01:52 am UTC (link)
	I actually dig it. But then I dug Natasha Irons' original armor too, and they're pretty similar. I hope Super Pepper sticks around for a while. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	jlroberson 2009-06-18 06:43 am UTC (link)
	I LIKE Col. Bukharin. (Reply to this)