He's a cool CEO with a heart of steel...

Wait...wait...

I'm trying to work this out. Zebediah Stane is the open-source, post-nationalist, and he's evil, and Tony Stark is like Microsoft, and he's good, and nationalist, even though he has facilities all round the world.

Does that make Microsoft nationalist? Operating not for the sake of profit, but for the sake of pride in country?

I don't know that I follow this.

I also didn't really follow Casanova, so there you go.

@braak: Also, what the hell would you put Linux on if there weren't any desktops?

Actually, nevermind. My roommate in college put Linux on our X-Box, so I guess you could do that.

So Iron Man can be defeated by the BSOD? That would be a great scene in the movie.

Open source is evil? Looks like I'll be cheering for the villain.

Perhaps the producers should have changed the opening stanza of Iron Man to this:

Has it crashed again?
Can it run or is it dead?
Can it work at all,
Or you kick it thru the wall?
Is it alive or dead?
How does one contain one's rage?
Well just hit it there
Why should we even care?

@braak: Well Bill Gates is one of the most generous philanthropists that has ever lived so I guess you can look at it from that perspective as well.

@Git Em SteveDave: I assume you mean OBSD, which should be able to defeat anyone.

@Git Em SteveDave: Actually it's the RROD.

Where does Steve Jobs fit into all of this???

I'm imagining an Easter Egg in the software running Iron ma's suit.

@knownspace: And yet he has also set back software development years by not complying with standards (*cough*IE*cough), allowing limited users to affect core system files, using anti-competitive tactics to suppress rivals (aka, stifling innovation), and allowing an insecure OS to dominate the market (the Kraken botnet has nearly half a million machines enslaved, including 10% of Fortune 500 companies).

For all of his philanthropy, there is also the damage he has done to the industry that he was in for so long, which may take decades to repair

@knownspace: Yeah, now. There's a reasonable debate about whether philanthropy afterwards justify shady business practices in the first place. It's similar to asking whether and when "ends" justify "means."

Hey, Matt Fraction -- stop trying to pander to corporate interests and leave the allegory to Shakespeare. If you love Microsoft so much, go work for them, but leave Iron Man out of your corporate wet dream, OK?

Huh. This may be the first time I've ever been excited to read an Iron Man comic.

So...this sets up the evil adversary who goes by the handle "Android," right?

@braak: Glad to hear I'm not the only one, I had the same issues too. I read maybe 2 or 3 issues of Cassanova and I had no idea what the hell was going on. Everwhere I looked people were supposedly hyping the hell out of it and I had to wonder if they were reading the same book I was or if I was alone in my confusion.

Actually this is kind of neat, if done right.

An example of corporate politics being essential to the plot is the recent Transhuman title by Jonathan Hickman. It is working very well there in my opinion.

Besides, talk about timing from a marketing perspective; it looks like Marvel realized how many geeks in suits would identify with Tony Stark set to come out in theaters, this might be a good way to suck some of them into the titles. I'm just speculating here, though.

Either way, all is fine and dandy and sounds interesting, as long as we don't see Ezekiel Stane pulling a Hans Reiser by the 10th issue.

This is just wrong. Everyone knows Mac and Linux are better than MicroSoft. And a comic book writer should know that his audience isn't going to respond well to trying to tell them different than what they know to be true.

Does anyone else think Matt should go by "Math?" I mean, if my name were Matthew Fraction, I would.

Wait, he's named "Ezekiel" and not "Obadiah?" Boo!

@Defendant: I was right with you ntil you said Mac.

@BloggyMcBlogBlog: @Annalee Newitz: OK, just have to fire off this rocket to end this.....PC load letter? WTF does that mean. No, I don't want to end now. Yes, I know I'm submitting secure data over a possibly insecure connection. No you stupid paperclip, I don't need your help doing this.....

@Jesse Mrozowski: I was doubly resentful of it because at my comic book store, they were sealed up in plastic, so I had to buy them before I read them.

I definitely got a "I wish I was Grant Morrison" vibe off of the first issue, but that was about as coherent a thought as I found.

I wonder how much this cost?

@El-Zilcho: Well, Obadiah's been dead since 1985...

This guy sounds like a complete moron to me. If anything, this tie-in book could do potential damage to the film, not boost its sales (not to mention the comic book - Microsoft Good, Linux Evil! That'll go down well with nerddom...). I've been off Marvel comics for a few years, and by the sounds of this in addition to the invasion-schtick, sounds like I'll stay off...

Well this explains the teaser trailer piece when Stark/Ironman comes "crashing" down into his parking garage.

Normally Fraction is a sound and literate writer - better (more open minded/creative) than others. My guess is that he's screwing with us all.

@Defendant: They do?

@Cin: Is there a truly secure OS?

@Defendant: If that's true, it needs to be defined. I attended an OS convention last year and was more than a little surprised to hear the OS crowd talking about how good some Windows products are. "Because they work," said an athoritative geek in the audiance. And not many people argued the point past the expected boos and hisses. I like it all.

The software metaphor is terrible. My Ubuntu desktop install crashed all the time, but my xp sp2 install is rock solid on the same hardware.

Maybe AK vs M4 would have been better.

@learned_hands:

And a non functioning liver.

I just want to state for the record that Matt Fraction writes damn good comics. He knows what he's doing, this isn't corporate pandering. Get over it. He's not saying open source is evil. This is going to be a great comic. If you doubt me, check out Casanova or his work on Punisher War Journal, or Iron Fist.

This actually makes a lot of sense, Tony Stark is a the supreme businessman, he acts on the behalf of government ala the civil war stuff, he is the archetype of keeping freedom through government. Which is exactly what proprietary software is about.

Rather than freedom through anarchy which is where the civil war rebels are at.

*in my mind at least*

@Jeff-Minor: Yup. It's called OpenBSD.

This is a flawed allegory. Stark builds hardware controlled by proprietary software. Since the Armor Wars, he does not license either without the other. And he is the creative mind that leads his company, demanding near-absolute control over his product. In other words, he's not Gates; he's Jobs.

So, Bullet Head's new battle cry is going to be, "Allow!?"

@braak: When I saw your comment up top, I was sure someone would clarify things.

Sharing your exact confusions, I was happy.

No one could.

I am unhappy.

@sumocat: You read the "Evil Genius" article in this month's Wired, too, right?

Huh, reading these comments, I now don't know WHAT to believe.