Iron Man/X-O Manowar

[vanhornluke]

Re: http://chronologyproject.com/phpbb2/vie ... =2&t=15108

I'm glad someone's looking at mid-90s Iron Man chronology in detail. I've been hoping someone who knows it a lot better than I do would do an analysis of the two-issue Iron Man/X-O Manowar crossover for MCP, since it's missing from his chronology.

[robfj]

I do have those issues. I've just checked back in them to make sure it was a genuine crossover of universes, not an alternate universe where they both happened to exist. I'll think about analysing them.

[vanhornluke]

Yep, it's a crossover of universes, rather than a shared earth story.

[robfj]

I've read the issues over carefully and I don't think they fit with Earth-616 history. They'd have to be an alternate timeline.

The story is obviously involves Teen Tony, which fits with the publication dates. The main problem with this is that 2 of the villains were dead at that time.
Blackout died in A 277, and will only be brought back to life in New Thunderbolts #17.
Melter was killed by Scourge in A 263 and unlike many other Scourge victims has never been resurrected.

An additional problem is Iron Man's armour. With some poetic licence it could be construed as Teen Tony's version, but I baulk at the inclusion of large shoulder pads with the word Stark on them.

It is interesting that the Valiant Fandom wiki also relegates the issues and video game to an alternate Heavy Metal universe, different from both the Valiant and Acclaim universes. I don't know their reasons, but even I can see that the origin of X-O Manowar here is not the same as *any* other X-O origin.

[vanhornluke]

Ah, that makes sense

[vanhornluke]

I just learned that this crossover is actually 616. It is referenced in the Daily Bugle page in Marvel Vision #6, and those Bugle pages have been referenced in the handbooks as 616. The above mentioned problems are definitely problematic, but they're not impossible to make sense of.

[dimadick]

The story is obviously involves Teen Tony, which fits with the publication dates. The main problem with this is that 2 of the villains were dead at that time.
Blackout died in A 277, and will only be brought back to life in New Thunderbolts #17.

Blackout died due to cerebral hemorrhage, while trying to break the control Helmut Zemo had over him. In Captain America #427 (May, 1994), Dead Ringer/Lou Dexter shapeshifts into Blackout's form and impersonates him.

In New Thunderbolts #18, Blackout's braindead body is revived. But the body is used to host the consciousness of the Smuggler/Conrad Josten. In Thunderbolts #100, Blackout's body appears, but the Smuggler is in control. Blackout's darkforce powers are used to kill Photon/Genis-Vell. Smuggler is then restored to his own body.

Blackout inexplicably turns out alive in "Dark Reign: The Hood" #1 (July, 2009), where he has joined the Hood/Parker Robbins' army of super-villains.

Melter was killed by Scourge in A 263 and unlike many other Scourge victims has never been resurrected.

Melter is long dead, but this has not stopped a number of legacy characters from using the identity.
*Melter's counterpart in the Heroes Reborn universe was introdsuced in Avengers Vol 2 #8 (June, 1997).
*An unnamed Melter successor was introduced in Amazing Spider-Man #589 (May, 2009). He is a patron of the Bar With No Name.
*Melter/Christopher Colchiss was introduced in "Dark Reign: Young Avengers" #1 (July, 2009). He is a mutant whose powers allow him to melt both organic and inorganic materials,
*An unnamed Melter successor was introduced in "Superior Spider-Man" #26 (March, 2014). He bought his costume and equipment from Hobgoblin/Roderick Kingsley and is nominally loyal to him.

[robfj]

I just learned that this crossover is actually 616. It is referenced in the Daily Bugle page in Marvel Vision #6, and those Bugle pages have been referenced in the handbooks as 616.

The Daily Bugle entries are stubs of fake articles describing the events of particular issues. Of course they are really just adverts for the issues in question.

Can you give me an example of a Handbook referencing such a Daily Bugle article? It must presumably be referencing something in the stub which isn't actually in the issue, otherwise it could just reference the issue?

[vanhornluke]

Can you give me an example of a Handbook referencing such a Daily Bugle article? It must presumably be referencing something in the stub which isn't actually in the issue, otherwise it could just reference the issue?

I don't recall which handbook off the top of my head, but one of the handbook entries for the Daily Bugle referenced the Bugle authors in the Marvel Vision articles, and the associated bibliography at marvel.com explicitly referenced the individual issues of Marvel Vision as the source of the authors' names.

[Russ Chappell]

the associated bibliography at marvel.com explicitly referenced the individual issues of Marvel Vision as the source of the authors' names.

Just speaking for myself, that's not enough to convince me that the Marvel Vision articles can drag a story into 616.

Can we clear something up? Where did you "learn that this crossover is actually 616"?

[vanhornluke]

What i meant is that someone pointed out to me that the Bugle page in Marvel Vision #6 mentions rhat crossover, and i already knew that the handbooks reference those Bugle pages as 616, so thats how I inferred that the story is 616 (similar to how we infer that some of the novels are 616 because the handbooks reference characters or events from those novels).

[Russ Chappell]

Okay. Cool. Thanks.