DEALING WITH “BAD BLOOD

An editorial by Bob Layton

Let’s deal with a F.A.Q. that has continually popped-up here on my website.

“What is wrong with the people who control the editorial reins on Marvel’s Iron Man these days?  Why does this series continue to lose ground every year?”

The simple answer:

The current regime at Marvel doesn’t understand the Iron Man/ Tony Stark character.

There is a large contingent of Iron Man fans who clamor daily for David Michelinie and my return to the series, but those pleas continue to fall on deaf ears at Marvel.

Additionally, the editorial powers fail to comprehend that the title continues to drop in sales due to their lack of understanding of the character. They try to maintain reader interest in the title by frequently changing the creative teams or by redesigning  the armor almost monthly.

However--the real trouble lies firmly in this simple fact:

They don’t believe in the character—but they’re trying to convince you that they do.

I don’t know Tom Brevoort.  I’ve only met him once—very briefly.

I’m sure he’s a very nice man. And, he's done an admirable job with the titles he manages as a Marvel editor--with the exception of IRON MAN.

And, Mr. Brevoort stubbornly refuses to allow David and me to lay a finger on the series, citing us on message board posts as “your fathers’ Iron Man creators".

Well--at least your ‘fathers’ creative team’ had a firm handle on the character. That's something Marvel has yet to acquire.

 And before I start getting angry e-mails about how “Iron Man: Bad Blood” didn’t stand-up with against our previous work, let me inform you that David and I were working under incredibly difficult circumstances, with the editor and the E.I.C., Joe Quesada, throwing roadblocks at us with the velocity of a speedball in the World Series.

I will clearly define two of those roadblocks in this editorial. (Let me state, for the record, I don’t presume to speak for Mr. Michelinie in these matters. You’ll have to ask him for his opinions yourself, although I don’t expect them to vary much from what I’m revealing here.)

  The history of Quesada's ‘Bad Blood’ goes way back to the time when he was months late as the penciller of the NINJAK series at Valiant and was eventually fired for it. (Not by me, as the tale has been wrongly told, but by Publisher Steve Massarsky.) I have been told on numerous occasions, by credible industry notables, that Joe blames me for not standing up for him. But as an editor for many years himself, you'd think that he would have developed the hindsight to comprehend that he gave Valiant few options. 

 Anyway—Joe Q. didn’t want David and me back on Iron Man.

Not for one minute and he didn’t hesitate to let Iron Man Editor Bobbie Chase know that.

Originally, the Bad Blood storyline was slated as a four-issue run in the regular Iron Man title.  However, Joe stonewalled until Bobbie was forced to pull our story arc and reschedule the entire run as a mini-series.

And now—the other hurdle:

I love Bobbie Chase as a person.  She is intelligent, witty and charming and I’m pleased to have known and worked with her.  But—she was also the wrong person to have been editing Iron Man.

 Bobbie (bless her big, misguided heart) had, as editor, templated her own P.C. sensibilities onto Tony Stark, rendering the character virtually impotent.

 He had now become a billionaire who was only permitted to give away his wealth to charitable purposes. (We actually had a scene bounced where Tony gave one of his clients a new car after punching him.  Bobbie edited it out, claiming that Stark would never flaunt his wealth in such a shameless manner.)

 He was now a playboy who may only be allowed to date one lady at a time.  And-- God forbid that he might actually sleep with that woman—even in his monogamous state!

 He was a brilliant inventor who now gave the fruit of his labors to others free of charge and was not allowed to”–gasp”- make ‘evil profits’ from his own inventions.

I found these restrictions to be ludicrous and totally counter-productive, but David and I labored on, arguing each new character contradiction with Ms. Chase as we progressed.

And let me speak for a moment about the art.

 As an artist, I’m not content with doing the ‘same-ol’-shit’, day in and day out. 

It’s important to any storyteller to stretch the envelope artistically.  A lot of  fans have voiced their disappointment with the visual direction of “Bad Blood”.

I’ll be the first one to admit that it was NOT the same artistic approach as my last run on Iron Man. 

But, that was by choice. 

Feeling it was very important to grow as an artist, I decided to create a more ‘organic look’ to the series and, unlike previous stints where I pulled characters from comic book central casting, I photo referenced nearly every single panel in the series.

Many fans were disappointed that they didn’t get the same Bob Layton art that they had in my previous runs—and that was true. And, I might add, ENTIRELY my fault.

That being said, I don’t regret my decision.

It was a terrific learning experience for me as an illustrator and I’d do it again in a heartbeat.

That IS my right as an artist.

Back to the character of Tony Stark for a minute: I like to think of myself as a constructive individual. So, rather than merely leveling charges, I’m going to attempt to point Marvel in a more positive direction.

Here is an excerpt from an interview I did some years back that sums up what they need to understand about the character, including the need to maintain his secret identity:

“The elements that make a good Iron Man story are the conflicts that create change in Tony Stark.

Not unlike his armor, Tony is a work in progress, constantly adapting to challenges that life throws at him while trying to control the inner demons that sometimes push him down unexpected roads.

Tony has an obsessive/compulsive personality--that is his Kryptonite. The Armor Wars saga was a prime example of that compulsion that drives him to endanger everything he's built in order to do, what he believes to be, the 'right thing'.

Tony doesn't play superhero. I believe he uses the Iron Man persona for two reasons; To protect his various business interests globally and to ground himself to the 'real world'. Keep in mind, as Tony Stark, he lives in an ivory tower… surrounded by people who tell him what they THINK he wants to hear. He has a celebrity status equal to a movie or rock star. This guy does NOT live in the 'real world'. In many ways, his being Iron Man is like 'The Prince and the Pauper'. Strangely enough, as Iron Man, he becomes a 'hands-on' guy, interacting one-on-one with people and using that anonymous identity to maintain perspective of how he's (Tony Stark) perceived by the world at large. Again, it fair to say that it's another aspect of his obsessive/compulsive personality.

Iron man is 'a fix' that he needs to maintain his (emotional) stability.’

And to Marvel, I have one last thing to say:

After a myriad of changes in creative personnel and sales continuing to drop over the last few years—it may be time to hand over editorial control of Iron Man to someone else.

It is my personal opinion that the character is "too far gone" to be salvaged without a total series overhaul--a total restart.

Of course, that's only my opinion.

But, obviously—you can do a lot worse than taking advice from me.