Iron man battles Linux and open source in new comic book

io9's Annalee Newitz points to a post on that science fiction blog today which reveals that Iron Man fights on the side of proprietary software in a new comic book due out this summer.

"He's explicitly anti-Linux," she says. "Totally freakin weird!"

Link.

[#1 posted by undergroundbastard , April 10, 2008 9:12 PM]

While I'm sure Marvel wetdreams it were the Microsoft of the comics world, I'd like to think that their writers would aspire to start indie firms that allow for writer-owned creations. Hell, Schuster finally got his rights to Superman established just last week - 70 years later.

As a former owner of Iron Man #1-32 and a few hundred later ones, this just flat out saddens me.

[#2 posted by Agent 86 , April 10, 2008 9:21 PM]

He's the owner of a multi-billion dollar company, so I'd be more surprised if he wasn't against open source. Sometimes you have to stick with who the character is, not who you want them to be.

[#3 posted by dalziel_86 , April 10, 2008 9:28 PM]

Iron Man's been a fascist dickhole for a year or two now, since Civil War.

[#4 posted by Letter J , April 10, 2008 9:40 PM]

Could Oracle have something to do with this?

[#5 posted by Cicolini , April 10, 2008 9:50 PM]

Completely in character. He's an dry drunk authoritarian dick.

[#6 posted by Samurai Gratz , April 10, 2008 9:53 PM]

Dude, if Iron Man's suit was open source, EVERYBODY would have one. "Proprietary software" is this generation's "secret identity."

[#7 posted by SamLL , April 10, 2008 10:02 PM]

This is notably less stupid in the actual interview than in the blog-commentary-on-the-interview to which this blog-commentary-on-a-blog-commentary links.

[#8 posted by Beryllium , April 10, 2008 10:07 PM]

@7 (Samll):

Just wait. It hasn't even hit Slashdot yet :)

[#9 posted by rictic , April 10, 2008 10:23 PM]

Danziel_86 got it completely right. Ironman's all about some centralization of power and security theatre these days. Civil War casts him and Reed Richards as hyperbolic villains.

[#10 posted by Egypt Urnash , April 10, 2008 10:43 PM]

More interestingly to me, when I click through to the original article it sounds like this series is about Iron Man Vs. Transhumanism:

“No matter how high tech or evolved, even with Extremis, the Iron Man armor is still a guy in a suit,” Fraction stated. “If you get between the man and the suit you can undo it. So Stane doesn’t need a suit. That’s the difference. That’s what we start to see, the future of Iron Man is that there’s no gap between Iron and Man. It’s one being and Stane is quite literally evolving himself and people who pay him as we see in the book’s opening.”

Which is, really, not very surprising: corporate media seems to be resolutely anti-transhumanist. Sure, in the seventies we were treated to the heroic, superhuman Bionic Man - but nowadays, the media image of the enhanced person is a horrible decrepid space zombie like the Borg. Robot characters angst about being Pinocchio; posthumans are painted as amoral at best.

This is what you get when you look at visions of humanity's future outside of written SF. I honestly can't think of a single sympathetic portrayal of a posthuman being in tv, movies, or comics.

[#11 posted by Takuan , April 10, 2008 10:46 PM]

now, that's an interesting point......

[#12 posted by Takuan , April 10, 2008 10:57 PM]

the new transhuman hero; he - no, she, will be a free agent. No control or debt to shady government agencies, aliens or mysterious mentors in steel caves.

Implants: global web linked, instant access, communication, total recall. An enhanced neural system for sensation and motor functions. Embedded drug lab/anti-body library. Nano tech skin that instantly self heals and withstands temperature extremes and physical trauma and abuse. Flight.
All the aspects of a traditional god. Integral weapons systems with fire control for remote externals. hmmmm.... This could be a sympathetic character. Someone no more screwed up than the rest of use,but enhanced to the point of having no fear and almost no desires. Other peers? Such enhancements the new norm,at least among the rich?

[#13 posted by noen , April 10, 2008 11:34 PM]

I agree it is an interesting point, though I am still highly skeptical that transhumanism is "reality based". Still, the goal is to empower individuals and that is surely seen as a threat. As things are today you can't get good accurate information about things that really matter, like accurate health info.

Here is a simple fantasy that points this out. Imagine you had some nanites that were programed to monitor your health and correct a few simple diseases, synthesize meds as needed. You know, something plausible within the next generation or so. Problem is entire billion dollar industries would go poof over night.

You bet the transhumanist movement is a threat.

[#14 posted by madjo , April 11, 2008 12:49 AM]

So he's anti-freedom?

BTW, great way of generating free publicity. Just take an impopular stance among geekdom in a publication catered to geeks, and voila instant free publicity.
I hadn't even known about a comic called Iron Man, though granted I don't care much for paper comics, just give me the ones on the web, more compelling than Marvel and DC.

[#15 posted by bpurkapi , April 11, 2008 1:54 AM]

Just reading the explanation from the writer made me want to vomit. Honestly, it is in character, but the writer lacked a decent argument for why it was a character driven episode. The timing more then anything bothers me. This issue could have come out 4 years prior, but as soon as the movie is about to launch it releases. The movie will attract more non fans of the Invincible Iron Man than the comic ever did. I never read Iron Man and only knew him from the Avengers. I like most comic readers was a fan of X-Men, Spawn, Savage Dragon, and Batman, with the occasional Avengers(which at one time or another contained the Hulk, Silver Surfer, Spider Man, and various other heroes. Justice League was also a part of the comic equation and was DC's Avengers.

[#16 posted by coaxial , April 11, 2008 2:07 AM]

First Iron Man kills Captain America, now this. Isn't Iron Man essentially becoming an American fascist? It would be interesting they turned him into a villain, but more of a plausible villain that sadly some people would identify with, like Dick Cheney.

[#17 posted by TEKNA2007 , April 11, 2008 3:29 AM]

Maybe they're just setting him up for a character arc. First he's totally anti-Linux, but over time he comes to see the tragic error of his ways ...

[#18 posted by twig , April 11, 2008 4:33 AM]

I honestly can't think of a single sympathetic portrayal of a posthuman being in tv, movies, or comics.

Victor Mancha (Runaways), Johnny Mnemonic (movie version), Aaron Stack, Machine Man (Nextwave, Ms. Marvel, Cyborg (Teen Titans), the guy from The Order whose suit keeps him alive after massive body trauma, Jaime Reyes (the new Blue Beetle), etc...

[#19 posted by Patrick Nielsen Hayden , April 11, 2008 4:35 AM]

"Isn't Iron Man essentially becoming an American fascist?"

"Becoming"?

[#20 posted by Crusader , April 11, 2008 5:10 AM]

Something this article kinda downplays: the modern depiction of Iron Man post-Extremis is very post-human. Warren Ellis' Extremis storyline filled Starks body with various nano-gizmos giving him the ability to remotely command technology with his mind, even without the Iron Man suit, and most of the dialogue and plot revolved around Stark wrestling with his arms dealer past while using the profits and experience that gave him to bring "the future [...] the earliest stages of adapting machine to man and making us great". A documentary filmmaker challenges Stark to justify how the Iron Man armor helps the kids who've had their limbs blown off by his mines; it's all great stuff.

That said, yeah, Stark probably wouldn't be a great fan of open-sourcing Extremis or Iron tech.

[#21 posted by Crusader , April 11, 2008 5:25 AM]

Another point: Stark got taken down (as in, he goes into a seizure) by a Skrull computer virus this month; maybe community security experts could've found and corrected the problem with his biotech if he had open-sourced Extremis ;)

[#22 posted by So-Called Austin Mayor , April 11, 2008 7:04 AM]

There is nothing "weird" about an a-hole arms-dealer being anti-open source. Makes perfect sense.

-- SCAM (

[#23 posted by Brett Burton , April 11, 2008 7:19 AM]

This is worse than Frank Milelr's idea of having Batman hunt down Bin Laden. What's next, Nightcrawler raiding abortion clinics? (Just kidding Marvel, please don't do that).

[#24 posted by Chris Tucker , April 11, 2008 7:56 AM]

Of COURSE Iron Man is against Linux.

Do you have ANY idea of the danger Iron Man faces on a daily basis from Steve's Beowulf cluster of Atomic Supermen and his genetically engineered cybergoats?

Jeebus, people! Face the reality of Tony Stark's life! He's going up against Steve, the SuperVillian on a daily basis!

http://www.ubergeek.tv/article.php?pid=54&swfSize=2

[#25 posted by noen , April 11, 2008 9:31 AM]

"This issue could have come out 4 years prior, but as soon as the movie is about to launch it releases."

Because there is an agenda. That agenda is to shape and direct mass opinion through all available media. This makes sense because we know that Bush41 has long had a goal of turning the US into a fascist state (this is public knowledge and BB reported it some time ago). If that is one's goal then what you do is you saturate mass media with the message you want. People en mass are easily controlled this way, it's been going on for a long time and it works very well.

[#26 posted by Takuan , April 11, 2008 9:54 AM]

what's wrong with writing a character that you can create high drama with when he reforms later?

[#27 posted by Teresa Nielsen Hayden / Moderator , April 11, 2008 10:40 AM]

There's a new Blue Beetle? When did that happen?

Takuan @26, no problem at all -- unless they bring in a new writer before you get to that part.

[#28 posted by jancola , April 11, 2008 12:09 PM]

Teresa @ 27: in Infinite Crisis

Madjo @ 14: He's been cast as anti-freedom since Civil War. In fact he's kind of a super villain now, so you could take this as an allegory in favor of Linux. Unless you want to be like a super villain.

[#29 posted by scottfree , April 11, 2008 12:27 PM]

I think it was significant that Stark faced the Capt in Civil War and Capt eventually died. Because Capt always stood up for the American way or whatever, but he wasn't too impressed with s.h.i.e.l.d. or any of that business, whereas the Stark/Pym/Richards triad tried to enforce a hegemony based on military/industrial cooperation. Capt just kicks butt; the others make money out of it. Of course, Pym and Richards...i wont ruin it for people who haven't kept up. Stark tries to be a good guy, but on some level I think he really is just out for more power.

also the old blue beetle is back too; resurrected by Booster gold.

[#30 posted by pahool , April 11, 2008 2:35 PM]

I guess I'm missing the bit where he's "explicitly anti-linux."

[#31 posted by droob , April 11, 2008 3:56 PM]

Noen @25 Waitwaitwaitwait: so (pretending this storyline is as simple as the erroneous headline suggests), you think Marvel's editors are being steered by the White House? For real?

[#32 posted by storableprawn , April 13, 2008 1:29 PM]

"Because there is an agenda. That agenda is to shape and direct mass opinion through all available media."

Read up on this. You don't know this writer. Matt Fraction is going to do something entirely unexpected for this, undoubtedly. He is not some Bush-supporting crony.

And yes, at this point in the character's life, he would be supportive of keeping his software and work private. Perhaps this villain has something to teach him. Perhaps not. This is the writer who wrote Five Fists of Science; this could go in a lot of directions. Whichever way, it will surely be fun to read, and be true to the character while exploring new ground.