In the most recent issue of Nova, which I only picked up at the store because Chris Maka has a gun (I'm kidding, I'm kidding, Chris only has one eye, they won't let him have a gun, that's what the rhino-DNA henchmen are for) I found myself noticing that Tony Stark was being reasonable. He was using reason and argument to try and make his points. I'm not saying that Tony's most recent actions as portrayed in comics haven't been evil and Machiavellian - the whole 'depowering She-Hulk' thing comes to mind - but it struck me as odd that he was doing things like granting, and ensuring, that Rich got a 24 hour grace period before bringing the Initiative down on him.
Of course, the fact is, in his current state Rich could probably take on half of the Initiative by himself. And whatever else he may be now, Tony's usually not stupid. Egocentrically blind to his own faults, sure, but not stupid.
I was distracted by bondage Speedball, though. Oh, sorry, I mean Penance. Who made the mistake of being figurative with a guy not know for his tolerance of such things: "Robbie Baldwin is dead. Speedball is dead."
"Robbie Baldwin is RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME! Oh, wait, was that a metaphor? Shit, you know I didn't do well on my SAT's, Robby."
In the end, Nova does the only sane thing possible and gets the hell out of dodge. I think it was being called a sociopathy by Moonstone, of all people, that did it - I mean, she's a licensed psychiatrist. Granted, an evil licensed psychiatrist, but still.
It's funny to me sometimes that there's no surer way to become evil in the MU than either desiring or pursuing an advanced degree, except perhaps to inherit a barony. In fact, it often seems that the only way to be a non-evil superheroic doctor in the MU is to have a baron as your enemy - Dr. Strange would probably be evil, just like that other Doctor Strange, if not for the fact that he was fighting Baron Mordo all the time. Then again, I could be exaggerating the evil of Barons merely as a means to counteract the evil of Doctors. I can only think of Baron Blood, Baron Zemo, and Baron Mordo off the top of my head. A few minutes searching turned up The Baron, an old Power Man foe I've never heard of, Baron Brimstone, of course Baron Karza (I don't know if we count Micronauts, but Karza was pretty badass), our old pal Wolfgang von Strucker (I forgot he was a Baron, actually), and a fake, Baron Samedi, who was just an agent of AIM. Hmm. Now that I look at it, that's a decent amount of evil Barons.
Maybe someone found out that Tony Stark is in fact the Baron Stark? That would explain a lot. Does Tony even have an advanced degree? It's the MU version of nature vs. nurture.
Posted by Matt Rossi at June 14, 2007 10:24 AM
First you have to understand what a baron actually is to determine why in comics they are usually evil. Its a noble that ranks below a viscount.
Since it is a relatively minor position, there really aren't that many Barons, famous or infamous to begin with in any kind of fiction.
The fact that most of the ones in comics are evil has more to do with them being German characters introduced for stories set during WWI and WWII than them being barons.
You can find a few sympathetic or heroic Barons in fiction
Baron Marius Pontmercy from Les Miserables and Baron Munchausen. There is also Enemy Ace, a character based on the historical Red Baron, was presented as an honorable character. The stories were told from his point of view.
Along the same lines, one wonders why you can never trust
a Grand Vizier. Emperors can go either way but if you run into a Grand Vizier in a story you just know someones getting stabbed in the back.
According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Von, it just means 'of' or 'from'.
Reed Richards pursued and probably got an advanced degree and is only now truly evil; Peter Parker pursued an advanced degree, and didn't turn evil at all.
Moira MacTaggart and Charles Xavier both have advanced degrees, and the former isn't evil and the latter is only intermittently evil.
And, of course, when Doug Moench took over Captain America from Steve Englehart in the late 1970s, he focused for more than a year on Cap's doctoral thesis in political science at ESU, The American Dream in Theory and in Practice. That storyline eventually led to Mark Gruenwald's time travel adventure in which Cap was stuck in 1934 Germany for a while and hid out in a university, "Herr Professor Doctor Baron Captain America".
Why is it that the world never remembered the name of Johann Gambolputty de von Ausfern- schplenden- schlitter- crasscrenbon- fried- digger- dingle- dangle- dongle- dungle- burstein- von- knacker- thrasher- apple- banger- horowitz- ticolensic- grander- knotty- spelltinkle- grandlich- grumblemeyer- spelterwasser- kurstlich- himbleeisen- bahnwagen- gutenabend- bitte- ein- nürnburger- bratwustle- gerspurten- mitz- weimache- luber- hundsfut- gumberaber- shönedanker- kalbsfleisch- mittler- aucher von Hautkopft of Ulm?
I dunno. He did a pretty fair amount of damage to Wally West.
Nope, Tony only has a bachelor's from MIT to his credit (although if writers actually understood how MIT works, and if his alma mater had been established more recently, he'd almost certainly have gotten a joint MS/BS degree in the same period of time).
Reed definitely has advanced degrees, as his history has him at multiple universities. Oddly enough, Reed, who has advanced degrees, goes by "Mister" in his other id, while Victor, who only got his advanced degree from the University of Latveria after he took over the country, if at all, goes by "Doctor".
Other Marvel heroes with advanced degrees; Thor (when Don Blake anyway), Beast (it seems Xavier's can give out Ph.D.s, since that's the only time one can fit it into his history), Yellowjacket, Hulk, and while I'm not sure, Ms. Marvel probably should have a Master's from her military service (given her security career, many in the military at the mid-officer level get Master's at some point). Bill Foster had one as well. Probably Stingray.
"You have to understand, I think our President is doing a bang up job"
Mike Baron. In 2004.
Sorry, no new Nexus comics for me.
Von and Van can indicate nobility, and back when family names were uncommon, often did. You weren't just Johann son of Wolfgang, you were THE Johann of...whatever town you were lord of.
But it got watered down later, especially Van, which rarely indicates nobility of any sort, just, "Hey, you, we need a family name for tax purposes. You from Dommelen? Find, you're Jaan Van Dommelen now."
Baron Wulfenbach in Girl Genius is an interestingly mixed bag, but on the whole I'd say he's not evil.
Let's not forget Baron Werner Ünderbheit IV, arch foe of Dr. Thaddeus S. "Rusty" Venture.
Doc Samson must have an advanced degree...
She-Hulk, of course, is an attorney.
Starfox is a Doctor - Doctor Love.