In New Avengers #3 (2005), Stark re-iterates that point to Cap:
6 years later, in this week's Avengers #18, in the wake of the Avengers Tower being destroyed along with much of New York City:
Bendis, you've officially lapped yourself.Now, if this were anybody but Bendis, I would note that this doesn't gibe at all with what's been going on in Iron Man's own book. Stark Resilient has been a success; Tony Stark has contracts galore coming in, and is rolling in enough dough to design new trillion dollar armors for himself and Pepper Potts and Rhodey, etc. And wasn't Avengers Tower, you know, insured? Qualify for federal disaster funds?
But of course, Bendis is notorious for not caring what's going on in the home books of the characters that he's using in Avengers.
Still, one has to ask: what's the point of having a billionaire on your team if you're constantly going to pull out the "I'm broke" card?
Of course, given that we're already recycling the Norman Osborn and H.A.M.M.E.R. and Dark Avengers storylines, I guess it's no surprise that he has needed to trot out the "feel sorry for Tony because he's broke" ploy again.
Not that I'm saying Bendis has run out of ideas, but don't be surprised if we have a massive jailbreak, a trip to the Savage Land, and the return of The Sentry in the near future of Avengers...
Perhaps Tony isn't broke at all...but simply fed up with the place blowing up every other Tuesday? I guess they'll just have to reserve Gazebo #7 over at the park for their meetings.
ReplyDeleteMarvel.Fire.Bendis.Now.
ReplyDeleteAlso? Whatever type of magic Wanda's using in lieu of the Bendis-debunked chaos magic is now ALSO bullshit.
ReplyDeleteIsn't this more of a consistency? Tony Stark didn't have a couple billion dollars lying around to build a New York skyscraper in 2005, and he currently does not have a couple billion dollars lying around to build a New York skyscraper.
ReplyDeleteAnd he doesn't.
And the idea that Bendis is actively fucking over the stories in his fellow Architect and buddy Matt Fraction's Iron Man is kind of hilarious.
Last I checked, he has a promising prototype car whose coming out party for investors was disrupted by a super villain attack. The whole point of Stark Resilient is that it's a scrappy start-up held together with bubblegum and fishing line. Where is he going to scrape together billions of dollars when in his own book he isn't even paying his employees in his own book?
But I realize it's Bendis, therefore it's terrible. So carry on.
Please, comic gods, let the Sentry stay dead.
ReplyDeleteChris--perhaps you should check again. The fact that Stark beat off the super-villain attack proved his technology a success on international video. As a result, Stark "secured major funding," and "mass production begins later this year." (Iron Man #33). In Iron Man #501, Stark discusses all of the "construction and manufacturing contracts we've built up" as a result, and in the same issue Stark launches an IPO for Resilient AND collects a check for "half-a-bil" from "the bank". He's jetting off to Fashion Week and building new armor for Rhodey.
ReplyDeleteAt this point Resilient is far past the "bubblegum and fishing line" stage, and cash is rolling in.
I never said Bendis was "actively fucking over" the stories of others. I said he was just ignoring them so he could keep running his tropes. Because to suggest that "was all the money [Stark] had left" shows that Bendis hasn't read an issue of Iron Man in nearly a year, or that he doesn't care.
So carry on.
You do realize a solid "half-a-bil" wouldn't even cover the costs of one skyscraper in a major metro city, right?
ReplyDeleteAnon--Of course. But you do realize that Tony Stark isn't required to put the full amount down upfront, any more than you or I are required to pay the full price of a house before they'll sell it to us, right?
ReplyDeleteAnd that half-a-bil was just one example of everyone eager to throw financing Stark's way. Between that and the contracts and the IPO and everyone else high on Resilient, to suggest that Stark couldn't put together financing for a new Avengers building is just silly. Donald Trump's been bankrupt what, 3 times, and he's still getting people to lend him money for building projects...
(And who says it has to be a skyscraper? A "mansion" worked just fine for decades...)
The money he has coming in is investments for projects
ReplyDelete1) His automobile, which so far they haven't manufactured any beyond the prototype, nor even built a factory. So he's got no actual profits coming in yet.
2) The rebuilding of Broxton/Asgard, a project that never got off the ground, so I would assume that once the government contract evaporated, so too would the seed investors.
Tony Stark's personal Do Cool Superhero Stuff fund is likely still quite low to non-existent, despite Stark Resilient being a promising start-up with some major investors. Even the shiny new armors you mentioned were either from before Dark Reign, cobbled together from donated armors Steve Rogers sent him from SHIELD, or introduced in a Nick Spencer comic.
And as to "who says it has to be a skyscraper"? Well, Tony does. When he explicitly says he cannot afford to rebuild a skyscraper. If I said to someone "there is no way I can afford to go on vacation to Hawaii" that is still an accurate statement, even if I could totally afford a more modest vacation. Which I am not sure that Tony Stark could afford right now either. (The mansion, I'm sure he's got bus fare)
Donald Trump is a terrible example, because he builds Skyscrapers to rent them out or make them into hotels, or at least in some function in which they will generate some form of revenue. I don't think the avengers can really afford to pay rent on something like a mansion.
ReplyDeleteAlso, what money is coming into Resilient probably needs to go back into Resilient so he can actually make it profitable at some point. He's already not paying employees and he's not selling anything at all yet. The only way he'd ever be able to finance any kind of avengers activity is to build his wealth back up.
The mansion/skyscraper/avengers' house is a frivolity anyway. Sure, it's great to have a spot to meet, but they all have comm units and a few have telepathic powers. What they should do is collect member fees and rent a town home. Heck just get a storage space or something.