Iron Man 2: Comic vs Movie

15 years ago, the greatest cinematic universe ever conceived was started, with the release of Iron Man; a movie that somehow had surprised audiences with its quality storytelling and visuals. In fact, it had the highest Rotten Tomatoes score in the MCU for 10 years. It was only surpassed in 2018, by Black Panther. It comes as a bigger surprise that the script was being written as filming was going on. As in, pre-production and actual production were occurring at the same time, and it still worked out very well in the end. The Incredible Hulk was released that same year and made it absolutely clear that there was going to be a crossover movie eventually, with the cameo appearance of Tony Stark in the end, after all the explicit mentions of Stark Industries and SHIELD throughout the movie. Needless to say, there were high expectations for the second Iron Man movie, which would be the first MCU movie released after Disney’s acquisition of Marvel. When the movie was released, it underwhelmed audiences, but still turned a profit and set up further movies, leaving only a bittersweet taste in the mouths of critics. Although it was inferior to the first movie, it was still a good movie in its own right, and a fair enough adaptation of one of Iron Man’s most prolific comic stories. This article will explore the similarities and differences between the comic story and the movie adaptation of the story.

1. The Tone

Whether one wants to admit it or not, the tone of Marvel movies changed from the very first movie released under Disney. If one is to look attentively at Iron Man and Iron Man 2, one will notice that there is a glaring difference in the tone. There was tonal consistency between Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk, but when it came to Iron Man 2 and the rest of the Phase 1 movies, the tone was very different. Iron Man was a more serious, grounded, realistic movie compared to the glamorous, comicbooky, whimsical, wacky Iron Man 2, which struggled to keep its grounded and realistic tone from the first movie. One could tell that they tried, but there are reports (which have now been reduced to rumors-and that’s if they’re still mentioned at all) that there was a lot of studio interference with the movie, and that a lot of stuff was dialled down to make the movie more accessible to younger viewers. This transformed the tone from serious to wacky. The comic story is different in this regard, as it is more serious than the movie. It deals with deep psychological issues as well as entrepreneurship, and has a lot of consequences for one’s actions: something the movie only hints at or just slightly touches on.

2. Side Characters

Given the different history that the comic and live action versions went through, it is obvious that adaptations of some stories would not be identical. Tony Stark had only just been introduced to the world and did not know about much outside his own little bubble. As Nick Fury told him in the post credits scene of the first movie, “you have just taken your first step into a larger world.” That was not just to Stark, but to us, the fans as well. He came to know the Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy after this, but what happened in this story? This story had many side characters who did not appear in the comics. This movie was the Batman v Superman of the MCU: the movie that teased the entire phase and sacrificed its own story for it. Of course, Iron Man 2 did it better, but that doesn’t mean that it was the right thing to do. The comics had the Avengers in it for a few scenes, as they told Iron Man to stand down as their leader until he could get his act together. Nick Fury had a brief appearance as well. The rest were just supporting characters from his side of the world, with the exception of Pepper Potts, who was a big part of the movie adaptation. In the movie, he was in a complex romantic relationship with Pepper which became a committed relationship in the end. In the comic story, he was dating Bethany Cabe. In the comic, the Avengers are already known to the world and are well-known to the world, whereas the movie has the government’s initial reactions to the emergence of Iron Man. The side characters in the movie were Black Widow, Pepper Potts, Happy Hogan, JARVIS, Phil Coulson, Nick Fury and Rhodey. In the comic, it was the Avengers (who included Vision, Beast, Janet Van Dyne and Hank Pym), Nick Fury, (these were all very minor appearances that count more as extended cameos), Rhodey, Beth Cabe, Edwin Jarvis (he’s a human in the comics) and the villains.

3. The Antagonist

This part of the list is simple enough to explain with a brief overview of the comics. This part of the list is simple enough to explain with a brief overview of the comics. The comic’s story has Tony Stark dealing with issues with his Iron Man armour at first, then with a group of supervillains who have been hired by Justin Hammer. Tony’s problem with the suit involves it malfunctioning and doing things on its own. At some point, it kills an ambassador, with Tony wearing it. Fortunately, the authorities don’t prosecute him and believe him when he says that the armour is malfunctioning. In the beginning of the story, he also fights off Roxxon soldiers alongside Namor in the beginning of the story. The other villains in the story are Whiplash, Constrictor, Aqueduct, Stiletto, the Beetle, Melter, Spymaster, Discus, Porcupine, Man-Killer, Blizzard and Justin Hammer. He fights most of these villains and after defeating and imprisoning them, finds out from Whiplash that Justin Hammer hired them. Hammer is a rival businessman who lost a deal to Tony Stark and wants revenge. The final, and subtlest enemy, is Tony’s alcoholism. It comes from the stress of all these events unfolding and his world crumbling around him. In fact, the story became known as Demon in a Bottle, but that wasn’t the original title. It was just the title of the last chapter of the story, but Marvel noticed that the name caught on and started printing the story with that title. In the movie, the antagonists are Justin Hammer and Ivan Vanko, also known as Whiplash. Justin Hammer wants to get bigger defense contracts and Vanko wants revenge against Tony for what Howard Stark did to Anton Vanko, Ivan’s father. After a failed attempt at Stark’s life, Ivan is arrested, and Justin helps him escape and fakes his death then hires him to help him get the upper hand on Stark Industries. Eventually, Ivan betrays him in order to pursue his own plans of revenge.

4. Tony’s Personal Problems

Tony Stark is, for lack of a better term, complicated. He is arrogant, ignorant, self-obsessed and a man who tries to carry the weight of the world on his back. Often, his attitudes and personality land him in hot water and create many enemies. This has happened a lot in the MCU, and it is no different in the comics. Adding to the list of his many problems, he begins to have an alcohol problem in the comic story. The more the other problems arise, the more he drinks, and it reaches a point where he takes out his pent up frustrations on Jarvis, who ends up quitting his job. He also has a bit of a problem in his relationship, which is caused by his drinking. His girlfriend at the time, Beth, begins to distance herself from him because he won’t listen to reason and keeps digging himself deeper into the pit of alcoholism. Beth eventually realizes that she is going to stay with him and help him through his problems towards the end of the story, as she comes from a relationship that ended due to a similar problem. Jarvis ends up coming back as well, but only after selling his shares of Stark Industries which prevented SHIELD from having a controlling interest in his company. The story ends with him determined to get the shares back and get himself back on his feet after the alcoholism episode. It is a problem that comes up again and again throughout his life. The MCU simplified it and made his major problem be that he feels too responsible for what happens in the world. They don’t have the alcoholism, the depression or the malfunctioning armour storyline. He gets drunk once at a party, and that’s the end of it. His problems with Pepper are due to him doing everything in a reasonable way, but just not telling her why. He gave his company to her and was shirking his responsibilities as Iron Man so that Rhodey could take over. It only made sense to Pepper once she found out that he was dying at the time. The movie doesn’t make him seem like he needs to fix anything about himself. It instead makes him seem more reasonable and justified than the comic version did.

As said before, comic to movie adaptations are never going to be fully accurate, but at the same time, there are some deviations which can be avoided. If the core of the story remains, then it is a good adaptation. This was not really the case with Iron Man 2, although it handled other aspects really well.

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