When Iron Man 2020 was first introduced in the Machine Man limited series in 1985, I thought to myself, “That’s gonna come back to bite ‘em in the arse 35 years from now!” In retrospect, I don’t know why I thought Iron Man 2020 would be any different from Killraven or Deathlok, but I’ve had my eye on this tpb for about a year now. When it came to buy it last week, though, I had changed my mind. Although it included the entire Machine Man limited series (which I wouldn’t mind owning on nice paper), it also included every other appearance (to the date of publication) of Arno Stark, Tony Stark’s cousin, a character I had virtually no interest in whatsoever. I just wanted to see how close Tom DeFalco, Herb Trimpe and Barry Windsor-Smith’s vision of 2020 came to the reality. Actually, I would have been more likely to buy it if it had included only the Machine Man limited series. (Actually, there was such a tpb, published in 1988, but it’s been out of print long since.) Then, over last weekend, I found it for half price at my secondary comic shop and, glad I didn’t pay full price (less my regular customer discount) at my primary shop, decided to buy it after all.
Now that 2020 is actually here, I decided to revisit the comics in this collection. I skipped the 1988 Spider-Man Annual which leads off the collection (and takes place, from IM2020’s POV, in 2015) and got right to the Machine Man limited series. The first thing I noticed was that the story begins on September 23, 2020, still a couple months in the future from where we are now. Despite the catchphase of the series being “Enter the Terrifying World of the Near Future,” the impending presidential election is not mentioned. Let’s break the series down into a few key areas.
HISTORY/EVENTS: Mass-produced robots became came into being in the late ‘80s. A few years after that, the first commercially viable mini-fusion engine. Within three years, these developments retooled the auto industry, with Baintronics in the lead, and led to the anti-robot movement of 1996 and the summer riots of 1999 (which turned Fire Island into a “Bainy” dumping ground). The government ended the riots in 2001 and regulated the sale of robots, with Baintronics gaining a monopoly. This led to the illegal robot trade led by a group calling themselves the “Midnight Wreckers.”
TECHNOLOGY: There are a variety of robots (including kill-bots) as well as a variety of vehicles (such as “skippers” and ”floaters,” plus the Wreckers have a floating “Sancuary” (like the SHIELD helicarrier). Baintronics Long Island warehouse is 17 miles long. People take sonic showers.
SOCIETY: Generally, people live well and robots do the work. Video parlors are popular, and “vidiots” (video addicts) literally plug themselves into violent games such as “Kill Your Neighbor” via surgical implants. People listen to “classical” music (such as the Plasmatics) on their quadrosettes and belong to “mating groups” (not clearly defined). It costs $14.37 (exact change) to ride the subway, and a cab costs $30 per kilometer.
LANGUAGE: Yaa-Zoo, ziggered, doesn’t light my telescreen (ring any bells), don’t flash it (understand).
CHARACTERS: Sunset Bain (“Madame Menace” from the original series) is 70 years old, kept young looking via plastic surgery. Gears Garvin is the “Ancient Wrecker,” the leader of the Midnight Wreckers. Peter Spaulding is dead. Arno Stark purchased the name and rights to Iron Man after the original’s death. (No mention is made of him being Tony Stark’s cousin; could he have purchased the rights to the name “Stark” as well as “Iron Man”? the implication is that he has purchased these rights for one year only, so that he is the “Iron Man of 2020,” much like the “Starman of 1950”). Jocasta was rebuilt by sunset Bain sometime after being destroyed in Marvel Two-in-One #93.
CONCLUSION: I can see some (not many, but some) shades of current society accurately reflected in 1985. The aspect of the story which most accurately reflects the passage of 35 years is, when Machine Man gets his electronic brain scrambled at one point, he spends the rest of the issue spouting actual commercial slogans and jingles from the 1980s. Despite the bargain price, I still haven’t yet read those other Iron Man 2020 stories.
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