A comic book fan discusses “Iron Man and Philosophy.”
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Usually with short stories by different authors compiled by an editor are hit and miss good and…well…not so good. And it seems that the philosophy types of books follow suit.
There are eighteen chapters in Iron Man and Philosophy and I found eight of them rather dry; mostly in part three. I mention this specifically because I noticed that I’m not the only reviewer who feels this way.
One example is the chapter where it talks about who owns Tony’s suit; him or his company? I was wondering why this was in a philosophy book. Shouldn’t it be in a business book instead?
While some of the chapters where “dry”, others were quite the opposite. Below are a few quotes from a couple chapters to spark your interest:
CHAPTER 3 – THE LITERAL MAKING OF A SUPERHERO Travis N. Rieder
“Believe it or not, it may soon be possible, through advances in cutting-edge science and technology, to replicate something similar to Tony’s creation, which gives Iron Man a certain degree of “realism.” But should we? Is that a path we should explore? Or is it a road we dare not take? Addressing these questions will require deep thinking about superheroes, nanotechnology, and some pretty serious philosophy.”
Coincidentally, I read an online article a few days after reading this chapter that the military is not only doing this, but they showed a prototype of the suit.
CHAPTER 5 – DID IRON MAN KILL CAPTAIN AMERICA? Mark D. White
“So, if we want to blame Iron Man for the death of Captain America, we would have to show that Tony did something wrong and that it directly led to Cap’s death. As we saw, many think Tony was wrong in taking charge of registration, but it’s difficult to see how that directly contributed to Cap’s assassination, other than putting him in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
This chapter will explain the latest movie that came out from Marvel: Captain America Civil War.
CHAPTER 17 – ENGENDERING JUSTICE IN IRON MAN Rebecca Housel and Gary Housel
“Interestingly, Jocasta became “Jarvis” in the 2008 movie Iron Man. As comics fans know, however, Edwin Jarvis was Stark’s and later the Avengers ’ loyal butler—and very much human, not a machine.2 More to the point, Jocasta was represented as female, while Jarvis—in both forms—was male. Could it be that twenty-first-century audiences still long for traditional, stereotypical roles for the masculine hero? Are audiences more comfortable with a male-voiced computer helping Stark build his armor because people would not believe that a woman—even an artificially intelligent one—could really help build such a mechanically sophisticated and complex piece of machinery?”
This chapter touched on how comics changed through the feminism movement. I only wished it focused more on one character instead of talking about other historical events. Short pieces must be laser focused.
So, should you buy this book? I would say for the half that it good, you would still get your money’s worth.
This post originally appeared at The Cape and the Cowl News. Reprinted with permission.
Photo: Flickr – sdobie/”Invincible Iron Man #3“