Competition Is Murder- Supervillains and Industrial Sabotage

Cover to Iron Man: Legacy #1, art by Salvador Larrocca

While reading Iron Man:Legacy #1, I stumbled upon an interesting topic. The story opens with Stark Industries being attacked by environmental terrorists protesting Stark's arc reactor technology. Though it initially seems that a group of idealists armed with melting ray beams are trying to topple Stark's industrial power, a quick investigation by Tony Stark shows that the environment group is actually funded by an oil conglomerate. What had appeared to be an act of idealistic terrorism was actually good old fashioned industrial sabotage. And this is not a frequent occurance in the comic book world. It seems that the cost of doing business in a comic book is dealing with supervillain industrial sabotage.

Iron Man (and his alter-ego Tony Stark) has been a frequent victim of this. Competitors like Justin Hammer, Roxxon Industries, and Obadiah Stane have often sent hired villains to damage Stark's property. In fact, Iron Man has had to deal with the likes of the Ghost, the Chessmen, the Beetle, Spymaster, and quite a few others who have tried to mess up his stuff.

The Ghost, art by Bob Layton

Bruce Wayne has also suffered industrial sabotage from the likes of Lex Luthor and Black Mask. He overcame these machinations with some quick work as the Batman.

Lex Luthor, art by Ed McGuinness

I'm sure that there are tons of other examples throughout comic history of the cost of doing business.

It just goes to show that you can't build something nice without a competitor hiring a maniac in spandex to blow it up. Or something along those lines...

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Iron Man is Impressed With Barter Economies

Invincible Iron Man #28 by Matt Fraction and Salvador Larroca, Marvel Comics (2010)

Stark Resilient is officially underway as Tony Stark tries to piece together his life, build a new Iron Man suit, and kickstart his new company, with the goal of creating the first ever electric car powered in full by repulsor technology. First step? The interview process.

Here, Stark interviews a Mr. Macken. He ran an electronics repair shop in Detroit, fixing televisions and such primarily for senior citizens. However, the community he worked in was poverty-stricken and faced as astonishing 88% unemployment rate. This meant that most of his customer base were out of work and could not actually afford to pay for their repairs. So, Mr. Macken decides to fix the televisions anyway in exchange for direct goods and services, such as a nice home-cooked meal and some plumbing in his home. This apparently "created a kind of running barter system in lieu of cash. An underground economy." And it impressed Tony Stark.

First, which community is this that is running an 88% unemployment rate? And how small is this community? I did a quick search and couldn't find anything. Maybe the community is a few blocks populated mostly by senior citizens, who likely would have been retired anyway. Though, that wouldn't even count in the unemployment statistics since unemployment refers to those actively looking for work. The people who Mr. Macken tends to serve seem to be just good, old-fashioned poor.

Second, how big could this barter economy have possibly been? Tony makes it seem like Mr. Macken launched an entire system where everyone in this community just swapped chickens for checkups. That might be, but my guess is that it was really more along the lines of a barter system relegated to television repair. I doubt this would have made a major impact worthy enough to gain Tony Stark's attention.

Plus, I doubt this economy's sustainability. As we all know, there are several problems with barter economies, the least of which is not having a standard by which you measure value. For instance, someone with a particular skill or trait could exhaust it after one use. Take, for instance, the case of the repair man offering to fix Mr. Macken's plumbing in exchange for TV repair. Suppose the gentlemen later needs his radio fixed. He's already fixed the plumbing, so what else does he have to offer?

I don't know about you, but I don't trust this "Mr. Macken" and his crazy get-rich-quick schemes. Not the kind of employee I envision for Stark Resilient.

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Repulsor Technology for All

Invincible Iron Man #27 by Matt Fraction and Salvador Larroca, Marvel Comics (2010)

After a year of running from Norman Osborn while having his memory banks slowly exterminated, Tony Stark has been "rebooted." Now with Osborn gone and his mind restored, it's to rebuild Stark Industries. Only Tony no longer wants to focus on weapons manufacturing and distribution.

Instead, he is starting a new enterprise, Stark Resilient, which promises a business model focused on fostering international cooperation and ushering in an era of world peace. How does he arrive at this goal? Simple. By providing the world with an alternative energy source, his patented repulsor technology, Tony hopes to one eliminate Earth's dependence on fossil fuels.

A pretty decent plan. After all, as we discussed in an earlier post on alien technology and economic growth, the best way towards economic growth is the free and unfettered dissemination of information and technology. In this sense, Stark was doing a great disservice to the world by keeping this technology for himself. He could have powered more cars, produced more electricity, heated more homes, etc.

And yet we know exactly why he kept it secret, don't we? He was afraid that this technology would fall into the wrong hands, which would ultimately cause more harm than good. Hell, this is the entire premise of Iron Man 2. It's also what caused the Plutonian to go berserk in Mark Waid's Irredeemable.

Now he's come around. Whether this will have the intended consequences remains to be seen. Let's just hope more Russians don't start attacking speed racers.

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Tony Stark and Intellectual Property, Part 2

Cover to Iron Man v4, Issue 28

I really enjoyed the reader response to the previous post. Thanks to everyone for the insightful comments.

The question posed is whether Tony Stark, as inventor of the Iron Man armor, has the right to control and destroy his creations when these creations are enormously powerful and can greatly affect the course of human history. Does Tony Stark have the right to distribute this technology as he sees fit?

To use an analogy that I think is somewhat effective, should Robert Oppenheimer be allowed to keep atomic bomb technology in his house and only give it to people he likes?

I think not, especially since Tony Stark has shown himself to be an a rather unstable person and hasn't shown the best judgement regarding his armor.

For years in Iron Man comics (namely in the first Michelinie/Layton run and Denny O'Neil's run), Nick Fury has tried to get the specifications for the Iron Man armor. He even went so far as to try a hostile takeover of Stark Enterprises. The tone of the stories seemed to paint Fury as the villain but who was really right in that struggle? Nick Fury, who wants to use the Iron Man armor to protect the lives of his agents and make S.H.I.E.L.D. a more capable international peacekeeping force? Or Tony Stark who wants to prevent his armor from falling into the wrong hands? Granted, Nick Fury hasn't always shown the best judgement in the past, but he's usually been on the side of the angels. And he has the decision making power of an entire international peace-keeping force behind him. Had Tony given in to Fury's request, how many lives of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents could have been saved by protective Iron Man armor? How many threats could S.H.I.E.L.D. have dealt with directly without having to wait hours for superheroes to show up? How many lives could have been saved in that time? Finally, who would be more effective in Iron Man armor, trained military agents or a former alcoholic billionaire playboy?

Tony's bad decision making continued in the Armor Wars, when Justin Hammer used industrial espionage to steal Tony's armor designs and sell them on the black market. Tony's response was to go on a rampage and destroy the armors of all individuals (heroes and villains) who could have had elements of his armor designs incorporated into their suits. In the process of this, Iron Man took down the Controller, the Raiders, the Beetle, the Titanium Man, and the Crimson Dynamo. Unfortunately, he also took down the Mandroids of SHIELD and the Guardsmen who protect the superhero prison the Vault. Tony also beat up Stingray thinking his armor used Iron Man technology (it didn't) and beat up Captain America while attacking the Vault. In addition, Iron Man's attack on the Vault actually released several super-villains including Mr. Hyde, Titania, the Griffin, Vibro, and the Armadillo. Iron Man's actions caused him to become a wanted criminal. He actually had to fake his own death to avoid getting arrested. Tony's armor designs were safe but he left a lot of destruction in his wake.

Iron Man v1, Issue #225, art by Bob Layton

Later in The Best Defense storyline, the U.S. government found some of Tony's left over armor and reverse engineered it, integrating some of the components they found into their weapons and tanks. Unfortunately, the technology was poorly adapted and the lives of U.S. servicemen was put into jeopardy by malfunctioning tech. What was Tony's solution? Become the Secretary of Defense in order to personally supervise his tech.

In Execute Program, Tony's specialty armors were hacked by a virus and went on rampage. His armors went on to beat up the Avengers, Namor, and ironically clobber the Fantastic Four. Only Tony was able to dismantle them using his personal knowledge of his own tech.

Iron Man v4, Issue # 12, art by Adi Granov

In all of these cases, Tony Stark has shown increasingly poor judgement regarding his Iron Man armor. He has shown egotistical paranoia regarding his designs, withholding them from the international community. The ostensible reason for this is to keep his technology out of the wrong hands. This doesn't really seem to work though. Villians continually get their hands on and misuse Iron Man designs. In fact, all Tony has done is remove the ability of other heroes and the federal government from utilizing his technology. He's also shown that his Iron Man designs are sufficiently advanced to out-fox Reed Richards in the short term. The end result of this is that stolen Iron Man tech is unbeatable unless Tony Stark is there to stop it.

Clearly from the evidence listed above, Tony Stark is not a man who is mentally stable to hold complete dominion over the Iron Man designs. But that brings us to another, more current question. Does Tony have the right to erase his mind as he has done in "World's Most Wanted" which just finished in the Invincible Iron Man title?

This is a problematic question. Naturally, Tony's memories, thoughts, and emotions are his own. He should be allowed to do with these as he wishes. But his brain doesn't just contain emotion and memories. It contains designs, ideas, and the secret identities of every registered super-hero which he took illegally. That information belongs to the government and Tony's theft of it definitively makes him the the titular "World's Most Wanted." Granted, in the current state of the Marvel Universe, the power of government has fallen into the hands of a decidely evil bastard, Norman Osborn (a truly ridiculous turn of events, but hey... its comics). But Norman Osborn was put in his position by elected officials and therefore has more right to the info than Tony does. Stark may have the moral high ground in this case but legally (as some readers pointed out in the comments for the previous post) he's wrong.

But Tony isn't only destroying his identity and a superhero's secret identities. He's also destroying all his knowledge of current and future technology. Tony's erasure of his mind reflects his lifetime pattern of egomaniacal control of his Iron Man designs. When he can't control the use of the Armor, he destroys it. In Tony's mind, no one else can properly use his technology. Now, as always, Tony seeks to hoarde his technology and prevent the positive development that could result if his designs were opened up to the scientific community. At the very least, Tony's armor designs could be used to make better pacemakers for people with coronary heart disease. But all that is gone because Tony took it upon himself to destroy all of his knowledge. At least until 4 issues from now when everything goes back to normal.

By the way, anyone who didn't read the comments on the previous post definitely should. You folks have a lot of well-formed arguments and I'm interested to hear what else you have to say.

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Tony Stark and Intellectual Property, Part 1

Invincible Iron Man #1 Variant Cover, art by Bob Layton

Tony Stark is brilliant. He is the genius wonderboy of technology in the marvel universe. Reed Richards may have a better grasp on physics and Hank Pym may know biology, but Tony is the master of all things mechanical. And after the Extremis Virus was made a part of his genetic code, Tony evens know biology better than the average Ph.D. in cellular biology. Tony is a genius and resource for the Marvel World akin to the greatest technological minds of all time.

His ability to change the world is limitless. Unfortunately, so is his ego. When we first met Tony Stark, he was developing the Iron Man technology to save his life. Shortly thereafter, Tony decided that this technology was too dangerous for anyone but himself to have. He even refused to patent the armor, for fear that simply having his specifications documented would lead to their misuse (this decision bit Tony in the ass during the Armor Wars and The Best Defense storylines). In Tony Stark’s estimation, he was the only person with significant moral certitude to have and use his armor designs. Of course, this is a man who has flown drunkenly through a billboard in the Iron Man armor, beaten up the aquatic hero Stingray for no good reason, faked his death without telling anyone who cares for him about it, violated numerous national and international laws, and been the angry instigator in a fist fight with the Hulk. What kind of man finds himself in a conflict where the Hulk is the most reasonable person? Still, in light of all of this Tony vehemently believes the world cannot be given access to the Iron Man armor because they will use it the wrong way.

And now, in the “World’s Most Wanted” storyline in Iron Man, Tony is destroying all of his old Iron Man armors and even erasing the contents of his own mind, rather than have it fall into the hands of Norman Osbourn. Granted he’s also erasing information about the secret identities of every superhero who registered with the initiative, so kudos to Tony for protecting all of his contemporaries. Still, does Tony Stark have the right to remove his brain and all the knowledge that comes with it?

Does he have the right to be the sole controller of his weapons designs? And even then, does he have the right to destroy the wealth of knowledge in his brain, as he is doing in “World’s Most Wanted.”

I’d like to hear what our readers think before I write my response. In a week, I’m going to post my response to the question with examples gleaned from my years as an Iron Man reader. Put please let me know your thoughts.

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Ecocomic Recession Watch: Ultimate Armor Wars Edition

Ultimate Armor Wars #1 by Warren Ellis and Steve Kurth (2009)

Let it be known that you can always count on comic books to show you just how much worse life can get. While real-Earth is suffering from a global recession, the Ultimate Marvel Earth is dealing with the after effects of a large-scale attack by Magneto causing the complete destruction of Manhattan and the death of millions of people in addition to an economic collapse. I kid you not, things are so bad that Tony Stark is down to his last hundred million dollars. Stark Industries is all but gone. What ever is Tony going to do for money in this dark and dreadful age?

The answer may shock you...

That's right. The situation is so dire that Tony Stark has resorted to podcasting his thoughts (which in this book are mostly amusing drunken ramblings) in order to make a little extra cash.

It's actually pretty brilliant. I'd pay for them all.

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Iron Man and Health Insurance Costs

Invincible Iron Man #18 by Matt Fraction and Salvador Larroca (2009)

It's true--many former employees who were fired from S.H.I.E.L.D. after Norman Osborn took over and renamed the organization H.A.M.M.E.R. are now without health care coverage. Recall that Pepper Potts was similarly complaining of her lack of insurance. The latest victim is Maria Hill.

As mentioned in another post, we already have COBRA coverage, which allows an employee who is eligible through certain qualifying events (including voluntary or involuntary termination of employment for reasons other than gross misconduct) to maintain continued coverage for a period of up to 18 months.

Alternatively, Hill could just purchase non-group health insurance. As far as I am aware, she does not have any preexisting condition that would disqualify her for coverage (and even if she did, I believe California does have a high-risk pool for medically needy individuals, and guaranteed issue for certain individuals and certain base benefits).

Why wouldn't Hill do either of these things? Well, the obvious reason is that both forms of coverage are just damn expensive. For example, here is a news item from the Commonwealth Fund I remember reading a while back, which reported the results of a Families USA study showing that family COBRA premiums present an extreme cost burden to the unemployed:

While unemployment insurance benefits vary according to state, the report found that the national average unemployment insurance benefit is $1,278, but the average COBRA premium for family coverage absorbs about 84 percent of those funds, or $1,069. [...] In nine states, the cost of COBRA premiums equaled or exceeded the unemployment insurance payment. In Alaska, the state with the largest disparity, the average COBRA premiums for family coverage consume 132 percent of unemployment income.

Ouch. This is why President Obama had proposed that the government subsidize 65% of individuals' COBRA costs for up to nine months. It sounds like a good thing for someone like Maria Hill, but remember that during a recession there is widespread unemployment and many people remain without jobs for longer than nine months.

If COBRA insurance is not affordable for many unemployed, then individual insurance is definitely not an option. There is no great national survey or database like the MEPS from which I can pluck an accurate average non-group premium as well as I could an average employer insurance premium. However looking at New York State's Insurance Department website, you can get an idea of just how expensive this coverage is. Take a look at this report of HMO rates for individual health plans by county as of September 2009. Even in counties that are not New York County, the premiums seem to be at least $800 per month, or $9,600 per year.

To be fair, New York State employer a pure community rating policy, which means that insurers are required to issue the same premium to all individuals regardless of age and health status, i.e. without medical underwriting. The effect is that the average cost of individual insurance in NYS goes way up. The average cost in California might be something closer to $3,000 or $4,000 a year. AHIP's survey of insurance affordability says even less, but this seems conservative to me.

One might wonder why Maria is fretting at all about not having health insurance. I mean, she does not have a preexisting condition and she's young, right? She can take a few months without insurance. Well, this might be the logic that some people use, but even unemployed, Hill has some pretty considerable occupational hazards. Her current activities in between jobs include smuggling sensitive data out of Tony Stark's secure warehouses, having her mind invaded and nearly wiped by The Controller, and getting into brutal fights with H.A.M.M.E.R. forces. A little insurance might do her some good.

Of course, Hill also differs from your average Joe in that she probably has lots of money saved up. You don't exactly work for S.H.I.E.L.D. for petty scraps of cash. I'm sure she is fully capable of dipping into her savings to sustain her until she finds new employment. That is, unless Osborn froze her assets or something like he did with Stark. In that case, she's screwed.

Indeed, having gaps in coverage is a big problem. There are arguments over it. Big national debates. Town hall meetings and protesters even.

Is there anything that the United States government can do to help out people like Hill and those who did not previously work for a big regulatory agency? Some claim that one way of reducing the temporarily uninsured in America is by allowing for cheap, high-deductible short-term coverage. Many states actually have such short-term insurance plans (New York doesn't though), where an individual can buy insurance for a period of three months to a year. It's watered down coverage, but it's coverage nonetheless. Others champion a more public solution. More subsidies for COBRA coverage, expansion of Medicaid (or other public program) eligibility to include these transitional individuals, etc.

Whatever the solution, it is clear that something must be done. With Osborn in charge, you never know what business will be pumpkin bombed next.

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Criminal Organizations of the Marvel Universe: A.I.M.

Advanced Idea Mechanics (or A.I.M. if you prefer) is the weapons manufacturing/techonological terrorism giant of the Marvel Universe. Like most Marvel criminal organizations, they are split into different cells and desire to rule the world. But A.I.M. also wants to make a profit. They sell weapons to both heroes and villains in the Marvel universe. They then use these profits to work towards realizing their dreams of a world dominated by bizarre science.

And like any good organization that serves the public and wants instant recognition for their employees, A.I.M. has an employee uniform. Granted, it's much more advanced than your average McDonald's cap or blue shirt for Best Buy. It's a yellow radiation suit that makes every member of A.I.M. look like a nefarious bee-keeper.

Which brings me to a question I've always had. What is it like to be A.I.M.'s in-house tailor? A.I.M. has to have an in-house tailor. You can't be invoicing out for uniforms if you run an underground illegal weapons manufacturing and fringe science group. People would start to notice that sort of thing after a while and report you to the authorities. So A.I.M. needs an individual specifically tasked with clothing their brilliant and mentally deranged members. Garrish yellow bee-keeper outfits that resist radiation don't sew themselves.

And these outfits would need a lot of work and thought put into them. A.I.M. workers walk around in their personal outfit constantly whether they're fighting Iron Man or lounging in A.I.M.'s mad scientist employee staff room. And I would hope that any garment that is worn so much in so many different circumstances would be fitted to the user. After all, if one is going to make evil schemes dressed like a yellow bee-keeper, one should at least be comfortable.

The tailor of A.I.M. has an important jobs since the tailor's work affects the work performance of hundreds of A.I.M. members on tasks such as designing laser guns with 18 barrels and making a UFO that walks around with spider-like legs. Comfort affects job performance and it is the A.I.M. tailor who helps to decide whether A.I.M. will succeed in taking control of a small Caribbean island or get burned up by repulsor rays. And that's a lot of pressure on a tailor's hand and needle. But it seems like the tailor of A.I.M. is up to the task.

Sometimes...

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Ecocomic Recession Watch: Iron Man Edition

No one is safe from the ecocomic recession. Not even Pepper Potts. Although, it could not have been that long since Normal Osbourn took over as leader of H.A.M.M.E.R. and Dark Reign began. In Marvel time, it probably has not even been three months. So, couldn't have Pepper just applied for COBRA coverage? Under the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, individuals who lose their group health benefits should have the option to continue their coverage temporarily, for up to 18 months.

Maybe Pepper forgot to file a claim in time. Or maybe COBRA does not cover individuals who lose their jobs to former supervillains who fend off alien invasions and subsequently dissolve said individual's company.

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