#HE DIDN'T THINK HE'D EVER HAVE TO EXPLAIN THIS TO MAGNETO

[neonwebs]

Miguel voice

[katatonicimpression]

Exodus

Send me a character or a ship and I will share 5 headcanons about them!

I don't think he ever knew his parents. That he was abandoned as a baby/young kid and raised by, like, nuns or something in Paris. Him growing up adjacent to the church could explain how he can read, despite not being a priest or a nobleman. And yeah obviously he's not noble (which seems painfully obvious to me but some have disagreed). This guy was never a lord, never owned land or serfs, was never knowingly related to anyone important. He grew up isolated and alone because of his appearance (canon, and also obvious - he literally looks like a cartoon demon ffs), and while many people rationalised it by assuming he was foreign (hc), anyone more worldly would know something was up. So he kept his distance.

Dark, but I think he does deranged fasting stuff. Like, at lent he does the intense early medieval black fast shit that was never universal and was out of fashion by his own time. Just constantly putting his body through hell.

I've said before, but I don't think he feels anything comparable to modern internalised homophobia. When it comes to his relationship with eobar, he knows that he loves him and accepts it about himself with no difficulty. He could maybe have some hangups about the sexual side of that? But again, not in a "It's unnatural, it's sick and perverted" way. More that valuing sex would clash with his asceticism. But even then personally I think he doesn't really care. I think he just is too repressed emotionally and caught up in a series of cultish obsessions (crusades to himself/apocalypse to Magneto to himself to krakoa) to prioritise it.

He has zero knowledge of any science. Does not know any maths beyond basic counting. He is suspicious of the concept of medicine because he is fully working on medieval superstition about how causation even works. In his time there were people who did functional medicine, midwives in particular. He didn't listen to or trust those people either. He's 100% crank, even for his era. He'd be selling healing crystals and unregulated supplements if he'd been born in the modern day... he still might.

He is genuinely really into making himself pretty. Like, even if it makes no sense with his professed values. He's always dressing up in his grandiose ornamentation. The gold jewelry, the metal wing piece he wears. The thigh high boots for some reason. He loves it. He's obsessed. Very vain man... but I kinda love it too

[weaving-knightmares]

The Invincible Iron Man #17

(spoilers!!!!!)

This is an issue I've been looking forward to reading ever since I saw the cover.

And the preview had got me even more excited because the first page paid homage to one of my favourite issues of iron man ever (Iron Man #232). I was also filled with some amount of trepidation because when a writer/artist references something that's nearly perfect and got it wrong, it has the power to change our feelings about the thing they're referencing. I'm relieved to say that that hasn't happened due to today's issue. Much like when Iron Man #182 was referenced in issue #8, Duggan actually succeeded in making a reference while adding to and not subtracting from Tony's life story.

The theme in today's issue was guilt, same as in the issue it paid homage to. The cause of Tony's guilt is the same, too, but I'm also glad to say that it wasn't a facsimile of im #232, which makes it feel real, like this is something Tony experiences quite a bit and isn't just the writer writing whatever for nostalgia.

I love that Zhong Wei was the one to talk to him about the death Tony left in his wake. While he is a very new character who was only created during this run, I feel like he's one of the most important, not only as a person who always tried to do the right thing or as someone tony trusted with his company (something that is so personal to him) but also, this is the first time in forever that we got to see Tony being a good boss, a person who wanted to make a difference and kept people who also wanted to do that around. It gives me hope for Tony starting a company again and actually running it and treating his employees with respect and all the things he was supposed to do but didn't since 2008 or so.

And while I'm still not fully sold on Magneto being a part of Tony's life, I have to admit that this was pretty good.

And about Howard: I can practically see all the posts about how this run is treating him too well and everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but I really liked that Tony's first reaction to seeing his father again was to explain himself, to feel badly about himself & talk about how he has done better. Tony, who never cares about what people think about him or whether they approve, reduced to this:

I also love that Howard started out being nice and reassuring (the first thing he said to his son being "Boy, you're a lot of work", though.....I have thoughts and they aren't generous at all) and then, without warning, becoming this scary, inhuman being who buried him alive makes so much sense when we remember that this is what Tony thinks about him - not his anger or his harshness or anything else: his unpredictability was what bothered him the most, what literally made him see human beings differently from most people.

Also, Tony coming to his senses at exactly this moment was interesting.

The next part of this issue was great, too, in a different way. The armour looks so much better in this art style and without the helmet on and I really liked the invisible shield and tony's dialogue during fights has been a highlight of this run for me, as weird as it sounds, because he actually sounds like himself (the righteous anger!!). I was hoping that he'd mention Zhong Wei and Marielle Marcus and wasn't disappointed. The twist towards the end was....how did Orchis not see that coming? (Selfishly, I'm hoping for Hank to somehow get involved in this storyline).

Magneto is in the next issue but I'm more excited about this:

what does it all mean?? is he going to have a heart problem again? Is something somehow related to Mike Grell's run going to happen?