"He lives again!" (1984)Story: Tom DeFalco
Penciler: Herb Trimpe
Inker: Barry Winsor-Smith
Story:
When you read what follows, you will undoubtedly be reminded of a certain Iron Man annual #11 from 1990 and of some excellent and more recent Kurt Busiek stories involving a certain Sunset Bain. Interestingly enough, all these comics came out later and this mini-series is the source of their inspiration.
Story:
When you read what follows, you will undoubtedly be reminded of a certain Iron Man annual #11 from 1990 and of some excellent and more recent Kurt Busiek stories involving a certain Sunset Bain. Interestingly enough, all these comics came out later and this mini-series is the source of their inspiration.
Machine Man wakes up. He soon realizes that he has been lying disassembled in a crate for the past 40 years. He's just been put back together by a bunch of kids calling themselves the «Midnight Wreckers», thieves who live in hiding inside an old abandoned McDonald's. The year is now 2020 and it is a world far different from the one he once knew. Dominated by an all-powerful high-tech company called Baintronics, the Wreckers make a living by stealing scraps of technology from the Baintronics dumps to sell off on the black market.
At the head of this multinational empire, Sunset Bain is old and no longer beautiful. Her eyes in particular, reveal her true age and she is forced to wear dark glasses when she's around people. Her personal robot is a character we know well: Jocasta. Sunset is soon made aware that Machine Man is operational once more. For some 
undisclosed reason, this plunges her and a certain elderly ambassador Brickman into a state of utter panic. All their resources are deployed to retrieve the robot, but to no avail. To attain their goal, they'll have to hire a professional, a mercenary without principles who will gladly do their bidding for the right price: Arno Stark, the Iron Man of 2020. After a long chase, it will be Machine Man against Man Machine and to the victor, go the spoils.
What's cool:
Wow… what a story. I don't know how much acclaim this limited series got back when it was first published, but if I had been one of those first lucky people to get their hands on it, I would have been blown away, unable to blink for fear of missing something.
undisclosed reason, this plunges her and a certain elderly ambassador Brickman into a state of utter panic. All their resources are deployed to retrieve the robot, but to no avail. To attain their goal, they'll have to hire a professional, a mercenary without principles who will gladly do their bidding for the right price: Arno Stark, the Iron Man of 2020. After a long chase, it will be Machine Man against Man Machine and to the victor, go the spoils.What's cool:
Wow… what a story. I don't know how much acclaim this limited series got back when it was first published, but if I had been one of those first lucky people to get their hands on it, I would have been blown away, unable to blink for fear of missing something.
The story is great, it paints the picture of a world so vile and yet, so realistic and plausible that you can't help but believe in it. Keep in mind that 2020 isn't all that far away anymore, but back then, it was the far future!
When I first read this story, my only criticism was that it seemed to have no roots in the present. We had never heard of a Sunset Bain after all… but now that she has been introduced in the Iron Man mythos, along with Machine Man and Jocasta… it makes all the difference. This story enriched the Iron Man books instead of just borrowing from them.
As for the art, well… it's Barry Windsor-Smith, silly, what else do I need to say? Those of you who have read IM # 232 (undoubtedly one of the most off-beat and visually staggering IM tales ever told) or IM #243, will be familiar with his style. He's awesome. His art is just beyond my ability to describe, it simply has to be seen to be believed. The atmosphere of this comic is incomparable, dark and oppressive. It's one of those worlds in which the rebels are actually the good guys and you can feel the character's despair and disgust to live in such a world. The final issue in particular, in which Windsor-Smith gets to handle the entire art chores and can finally cut loose, is jaw-dropping. When Machine Man and Iron Man battle in hand to hand combat, their metal bodies slowly coming apart, exposing the circuits below their outer shells… wow.
I have no idea what these comics might be worth on the market these days, but be aware that they were reprinted in 1994 in two issues entitled «Machine Man 2020». The reprint was intended to accompany the Iron Man 2020 graphic novel… although, in my modest opinion, all that did is make the latter pale greatly in comparison.
Quote:
Quote:
Pouring himself a glass of liquor, Arno reveals: "I am Arno Stark - the Iron Man of 2020! You may have heard of me… I purchased the exclusive rights to the name and this armor after the original Iron Man's tragic death!"
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