in which Tony Stark gets down on his knees and begs

[eruthros]

So I'm not saying that anybody should, like, go and read the current run of the Invincible Iron Man (written by Matt Fraction, art by Salvador Larroca) or anything, especially since most of it makes me eyeroll all over the place. I'm just saying: wow, Matt Fraction/Marvel, your kinks are showing.

Panels from #503 and #520 and #521; includes noncon-begging-a-bad-guy tropes and tentacles and mind control and torture and being a prisoner and omg how is marvel so racist villains and ableist terms and large images and spoilers. Because I find it really difficult to parse comics dialogue with every other word bolded like it is in the original, I've left that out.

So, first there was this, from #503, in which - for Reasons - Tony Stark is trying to disarm a nuclear bomb that Doc Ock has planted, but Doc Ock keeps distracting him:


(link to full-sized page 6+12)

Panel 1: Tony is staring at a cannister with a radiation symbol painted on it (because it's a nuclear bomb, see). Tony is wearing the Iron Man suit without the helmet, and his face is red and bloody. Doc Ock, from mostly offscreen except for one of his tentacles: "Your mind versus mine. To win, you have to lose." Tony: "Shut up, one, and two, you're insane, and three, shut up, you're insane and I'm trying to concentrate--"
2: Two of Ock's tentacles grab Tony around the neck and waist and yank him backward. Doc Ock: "Try harder."
(There's a whole giant fight scene that I've mostly redacted as well as another plotline that I cut out. Back to the fight.)
3: A bunch of Ock's tentacles are around Tony, who is lying prone on the floor. Tony has pulled up part of a tile and left scratches in the floor as he attempts to avoid being pulled backwards. Ock: "No, boy. I'm not done with you yet."

Then Tony realizes he can't disarm the bomb and that he has to just appeal to Doc Ock. It's not entirely clear why he decides to do this - it's elided offscreen. Just cut to:



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Panel 1: Tony is on his hands and knees in front of Doc Ock's tentacles. Tony: "Otto. Please."
2: Tony is kneeling up with his hands together in a prayer position. Tony: "Please, Otto. Stop this. You have to stop this. You can't-- you can't want your legacy to be that you killed millions of people."
3: Doc Ock is resting on his tentacles above Tony; Tony is still kneeling up, but now we're looking up at Ock from behind Tony. Ock: "Can't I? Beg for it, Stark. Call me 'master' and beg for their lives."

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Panel 1: Tony, from the front again, still holding his hands together in prayer position. He looks startled. "I-- what?"
2: Closer view of Doc Ock's face. Ock: "Beg your master for mercy. Petition me with prayer."
3: Tony, side view, with one of Ock's tentacles. Tony: "I ... please don't do this ..."
4: Tony: "... master." Tony leans forward to kiss Ock's tentacle. Srsly.
5: Close-up of Doc Ock: "Mmm. I don't think you mean it. Watch this."
6: Close-up on the timer for the bomb which has suddenly changed to thirty seconds. "Time flies for men like me, Stark. See?"

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Panel 1: Close-up on Tony looking startled amid the tentacles. Tony: "AAA! Otto! Ot-- Master!"
2: Tony: "Master, please. I beg you. I am begging you--you are right. I am wrong. You're smarter than me and you always were--" A longer shot of Tony, still on his knees surrounded by tentacles; he's reaching up with both hands to grasp Doc Ock's leg.
3: Closer-up on Tony. Tony: "--please--"
4: Close-up of Doc Ock. Ock: "Fine."
5. Tony looking at the bomb or something, possibly while Ock turns away to leave? I find this panel hard to parse. Anyway, Tony: "God-- Oh, God--"

Anyway suffice it to say that Doc Ock wins but decides not to kill billions of people. Later, in Doc Ock's lair:


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Panel 1: A shot of Tony, kneeling and holding Ock's leg, as in a previous panel; this one is green and pixilated to indicate that it's video footage. Tony: "Master, please. I beg you. I am begging you--you are right. I am wrong. You're smarter than me and you always were--"
2: Continued video footage, close up of Tony's face. Tony: "--please--" Doc Ock, from offscreen: "Rewind five seconds."
3: Closer-up version of panel one. Tony: "Master, please. I beg you. I am begging you--you are right. I am wrong. You're smarter than me and you always were--"
4: Closer-up version of panel two. Tony: "--please--" Doc Ock, from offscreen: "Again."
5: Closer-up again version of panel one. Tony: "Master, please. I beg you. I am begging you--you are right. I am wrong. You're smarter than me and you always were--"
6: Closer-up again version of panel two. Tony: "--please--" Doc Ock, from offscreen: "And again."
7: Closer-up still version of panel one, so zoomed that it's super pixilated. Tony: "Master, please. I beg you. I am begging you--you are right. I am wrong. You're smarter than me and you always were--"
8: Close-up on Doc Ock's face. Ock: "Ha ha. Glorious."

As it turns out, the bomb contained radioactive material, but it was a fake - and the reason Tony couldn't defuse it is that it wasn't actually functional. So Doc Ock basically just planted a fake nuclear bomb for the sole and exclusive purpose of making a Tony Stark begging sex tape. So that happened.

And then this month there is this, in which - for Reasons - okay, you know what, the plot doesn't make any sense and it's so woobie Tony Stark that I can't deal, plus the choice of villains makes me cranky (why do they keep bringing back the Mandarin why oh wait it's because they're racist assholes). Whatever, the only important context is that Tony Stark has decided to quit being Iron Man (Rhodey and Pepper are doing the superheroing instead) and quit running Stark Resilient for reasons of how it puts a TARGET on other people's HEADS and now he is packing up his office to leave:



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Panel 1: Tony is drawing something at his desk; he's surrounded by boxes and talking to the Mandarin (I KNOW) on bluetoothstarkphone. The Mandarin: "Tell me, Stark, what are you doing?" Tony: "Oh, just doodling around. Packing up my office. Why?"
2: The Mandarin: "You're drawing a kind of squid, for lack of a better term. A titanomech. Very large. Ambulatory on tentacle-like appendages." Closer shot of Tony, who has turned away from his work, startled. Tony: "Cute trick. You've got cameras hidden in my office somehow, Mandarin?"
3: MANDARIN CITY. (I KNOW). Somebody is bowing in front of the Mandarin, who is sitting in a big chair with steam-stuff coming off his hand. The Mandarin: "Even better."

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Panel 1: Still in Mandarin City; the Mandarin, face in shadow, is holding a grey metal thingy. The Mandarin: "What happened at Hammer Industries was a mistake. The price we pay for lack of rigidity and precision. Surely you understand that in any technical venture it is always the human element that fails in unpredictable ways." Tony, on the phone: "Are you lonely, Mandarin? Do you want a friend or something? Because I have enough friends."
2: Now in Tony's office again; Tony's standing up and has turned to face the camera, so that we can really focus on the events of these panels. Tony: "Now tell me how you knew I was--" The Mandarin, on the phone: "Punch yourself in the face, Stark."
3: Close-up of Tony; his expression is blank and his fist is in front of him.
4: Close-up of Tony; he's just punched himself in the face. Tony: "GGGFWAAH--"
5: Close-up of the Mandarin's hand on the grey metal thingy. The Mandarin: "I'm in your head, Stark. Quite literally, hidden in your very source code. Ever since you tried to wipe your mind clean I have been a part of you. You want to know how to stop the bloodshed and save your people?"
6: Close-up of the Mandarin; his face is still in shadow, but now we get to see his little bluetooth thing. Important nod for realism I guess. The Mandarin: "Kneel and call me 'master.'"

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Panel 1: A big. nearly full-page panel, of Tony Stark kneeling next to all his boxes. He's looking down at the floor; one hand is holding up the phone, and the other is relaxed on his lap. Tony: "Yes..."
2: Extreme closeup of just Tony's lower face and the hand with the phone. "...master." NEXT: THE FUTURE.

So then in #521 Tony Stark ends up in a sort of superhero prison where people are mind controlled and have bombs in their chests and torture devices and Tony is supposed to build giant tentacular robots but he doesn't have the equipment and basically it's marvel comics:



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Panel 1: Tony, offscreen: "You don't have eggs. You get me these things, I can make it. The Mandarin, back to camera: "That was not the deal."
2: Tony, offscreen: "The deal was you'd give me everything I needed to make the Titanomechs and I'd make them on your budget and schedule-- --hey--" The Mandarin has turned around and is pointing one of his rings at Tony.
3: Tony: "We're just talking here. No reason to--" The Mandarin: "SILENCE!"
4: The Mandarin's hand is surrounded by white glowy-electric-field-thingy; so is Tony Stark, who is clutching his head and screaming "AAA."

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Panel 1: The Mandarin: "No. I was being disrespected." Two guards are standing over Tony Stark, whose body is still electrical-auraing a little, as he says "Ooh-- Okay-- Okay--.
2: The two guards are holding Tony up. Tony: "--Jus' pretty sure thas gonna start causing brain damage soon... the List. Master."
3: (continued) "Just steal it. You don't even have to spend any money. I don't care. You get me the list, I can get you your mechs."

Gotta keep calling him master, obv. Anyway, Tony's more dangerous than the rest of the captured superheros, right? Especially since he just can't help being a HERO. So he has to be kept in line and remember who his master is. And he has to have his very own chastity belt. No really.



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Panel 1: LATER. Zeke looks up from his machine to see Tony standing silhouetted in the doorframe. Zeke: "Tony."
2: A closer shot of Zeke and Tony at a desk. Zeke: "Tony, what happened?" Tony, who is wearing a big unwieldy green metal vest-thing with riveted straps that go down between his legs: "Hah. They beat the hell out of me, man."

(link to full-sized page 22B)

Panel 1: Tony, who is apparently having trouble sitting down and is being helped by Zeke: "He locked me in this vest so the repulsor in my chest can't ... I don't get to help anyone like that until it comes off. And if it comes off, they'll kill you first."

Between those two shots, it is totally clear that the straps of the metal vest thing go down around his genitals, on the outside of his pants, which I guess means he can never change his pants without the guards' help with the rivets. There is a reason most people wear these things under their underwear, Tony.

Anyway that was this week's release, so. Next week, on the Invincible Iron Man: Will Tony call someone "Master" again? Because they make him do it to save his FRIENDS? Even though he doesn't want to? Signs point to yes.

This post was brought to you by "I can't even, Matt Fraction."

Comments

[eruthros]

It really does! Some Iron Man writers are more into rough body play, but Matt Fraction is clearly going for the begging kink :)