fifty frenchmen can't be wrong (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
some_stars) wrote2012-05-20 11:37 pm
some_stars) wrote2012-05-20 11:37 pm
inside the writer's studio
So I've got at least two other prompts I'm definitely going to write/have started to write (Tony/Thor, Maria/Natasha), a couple more that I REALLY WANT TO, but there's also this thing that I'd already started, more serious and more complicated, to the point where I felt like I needed an outline. But it's not a very detailed outline yet, because I've only just begun writing/planning. So the last three steps on the outline are:
8. EVERYTHING GOES TO HELL
9. Love...fixes stuff?
10. THE END
This is actually a pretty accurate illustration of my process. And my brain.
Also, not particularly relatedly but because I'm TRYING to stop spamming so much--not that you'd notice--I rewatched Iron Man 1 yesterday, to soak up some character voice, and I knew I hadn't been misremembering when one of my first reactions to The Avengers was, "But Tony DOES lay down on the wire, he does it in BOTH HIS MOVIES." Yes, he goes in with an escape plan, but when shit goes wrong the escape plan is what goes out the window, not the saving-other-people part. Granted I haven't yet confirmed this for IM2, because rewatching that movie is a fucking chore and I've been putting it off for literally a year, but I strongly suspect my belief is correct.
I mean, like with so much else between Steve and Tony in this movie, they're reacting to the image they see, and it's not like Tony's volunteering information on all his heroic self-sacrifices (at least not in a sincere way as a response to someone who matters criticizing his character). So that exchange makes perfect sense on both sides. But Tony flying the nuke into the portal isn't a big moment of character growth, really. It's what he does. He doesn't go into a situation resigned, but he's always been prepared to die in the suit. Too prepared, which is why I think The Avengers actually does fit in pretty well--intentionally or not; of course I hope for the former--to the arc set up in IM1 and derailed in IM2. He crashed and burned, then got himself back with the suit. That led to another downward spiral, but he got himself back again and managed to be almost the healthiest guy on the team. But whatever's inside him, pushing him to peak and self-destruct over and over, is not gone.
I hope it's significant that he's still drinking. In the comics--and let me preface this by noting that Marvel is NOT my area of expertise, and I read these issues once, straight through, at obsessive speed and probably not noticing a lot of stuff. So please, PLEASE correct me if I get stuff wrong--but in the comics, the famous alcoholism arc actually happened in two stages. The first one, with the famous name--"Demon in a Bottle"--was resolved rather tidily, although it was built up to for a fair amount of time by the standards of the era--I think ten issues?--and certainly at the time it was an impressive topic for comics to address.
But the one I think is more famous--the one with a much longer buildup, the one where he loses the team and the suit and his company and ends up homeless, the one where Captain America rescues him from a burning building where he's passed out drunk, the one that climaxes in the cover reading "In The Morning, Tony Stark Will Be Sober...Or Dead"? That comes later. And that's the one after which he forever refers to himself as an alcoholic and never drinks again, and any suggestion that he might becomes a huge fucking deal.
(This whole era of Iron Man is pretty great, btw. The art takes some getting used to, but a lot of it, once you get a handle on the aesthetic, is actually really good. And the writing too--again, a different aesthetic, but good. And, again from my brief but intense whirl through Marvel, I remember Avengers and Captain America being awesome at this time too. And of course some amazing Batman runs that I do remember clearly, and other DC stuff. Basically, the mid-seventies to late eighties were a shockingly good decade-and-some for superhero comics; I think fans forget that sometimes these days, when our eyes don't immediately adjust to the art and we're all so scarred by the nineties.)
So the way I make sense of the total fucking mess IM2 made of this kind of hugely important story arc is that it was the first round. The one where everything gets fixed in a single issue with a heartwarming last panel. It's the next one that I'm hoping for--not with too much of my heart, because these are mainstream summer blockbusters, but I have to hope--the one where a few years later it turns out alcoholism and depression can't actually be cured once and for all by the love of a good woman, and the downward spiral starts again. The one where, I hope to god, the story doesn't offer a convenient "but actually he knows he'll be dead soon, that's why he's acting this way, there's a solid external reason!" excuse--I swear I could never forgive IM2 for that alone, even if the rest of it wasn't a disaster.
I'm just saying, there's so much more story there. And he drank pretty prominently in The Avengers, and threw himself on the grenade for the third time in a row. So I'm holding onto that, hoping it means something, that he hasn't just been declared healthy while entirely bypassing one of the original character's most formative and compelling story arcs. I'm 95% certain I'll be disappointed. But if I'm not, it's going to be amazing.
--and hey, this did end up being related to the first part, because "the second alcoholism arc, done right" is basically what I want to do with step 8 up there. My triggers would be relationship difficulties and the stress--eustress and distress both--of being on a team, rather than corporate intrigue (...and relationship difficulties, oh comics). And I would stop short of putting Tony out on the streets for actual months. But if the movieverse isn't going to go there, then dammit, somebody needs to.
AND ACTUALLY, one more for real unrelated thing: I just had the unsettling realization that for significant chunks of this last story, mostly the beginning, my narrative voice was drifting away from Iron Man and towards Spider-Man. I mean, what? Of all characters--the comics version(s), of course, 616 and the original Ultimateverse. Movieverse Tony's just got a very particular kind of babble, and on several lines I don't think I hit the mark. I think I overshot and landed directly on Peter Parker.
Well, people seemed to like it. And at least I got somebody's voice right.
8. EVERYTHING GOES TO HELL
9. Love...fixes stuff?
10. THE END
This is actually a pretty accurate illustration of my process. And my brain.
Also, not particularly relatedly but because I'm TRYING to stop spamming so much--not that you'd notice--I rewatched Iron Man 1 yesterday, to soak up some character voice, and I knew I hadn't been misremembering when one of my first reactions to The Avengers was, "But Tony DOES lay down on the wire, he does it in BOTH HIS MOVIES." Yes, he goes in with an escape plan, but when shit goes wrong the escape plan is what goes out the window, not the saving-other-people part. Granted I haven't yet confirmed this for IM2, because rewatching that movie is a fucking chore and I've been putting it off for literally a year, but I strongly suspect my belief is correct.
I mean, like with so much else between Steve and Tony in this movie, they're reacting to the image they see, and it's not like Tony's volunteering information on all his heroic self-sacrifices (at least not in a sincere way as a response to someone who matters criticizing his character). So that exchange makes perfect sense on both sides. But Tony flying the nuke into the portal isn't a big moment of character growth, really. It's what he does. He doesn't go into a situation resigned, but he's always been prepared to die in the suit. Too prepared, which is why I think The Avengers actually does fit in pretty well--intentionally or not; of course I hope for the former--to the arc set up in IM1 and derailed in IM2. He crashed and burned, then got himself back with the suit. That led to another downward spiral, but he got himself back again and managed to be almost the healthiest guy on the team. But whatever's inside him, pushing him to peak and self-destruct over and over, is not gone.
I hope it's significant that he's still drinking. In the comics--and let me preface this by noting that Marvel is NOT my area of expertise, and I read these issues once, straight through, at obsessive speed and probably not noticing a lot of stuff. So please, PLEASE correct me if I get stuff wrong--but in the comics, the famous alcoholism arc actually happened in two stages. The first one, with the famous name--"Demon in a Bottle"--was resolved rather tidily, although it was built up to for a fair amount of time by the standards of the era--I think ten issues?--and certainly at the time it was an impressive topic for comics to address.
But the one I think is more famous--the one with a much longer buildup, the one where he loses the team and the suit and his company and ends up homeless, the one where Captain America rescues him from a burning building where he's passed out drunk, the one that climaxes in the cover reading "In The Morning, Tony Stark Will Be Sober...Or Dead"? That comes later. And that's the one after which he forever refers to himself as an alcoholic and never drinks again, and any suggestion that he might becomes a huge fucking deal.
(This whole era of Iron Man is pretty great, btw. The art takes some getting used to, but a lot of it, once you get a handle on the aesthetic, is actually really good. And the writing too--again, a different aesthetic, but good. And, again from my brief but intense whirl through Marvel, I remember Avengers and Captain America being awesome at this time too. And of course some amazing Batman runs that I do remember clearly, and other DC stuff. Basically, the mid-seventies to late eighties were a shockingly good decade-and-some for superhero comics; I think fans forget that sometimes these days, when our eyes don't immediately adjust to the art and we're all so scarred by the nineties.)
So the way I make sense of the total fucking mess IM2 made of this kind of hugely important story arc is that it was the first round. The one where everything gets fixed in a single issue with a heartwarming last panel. It's the next one that I'm hoping for--not with too much of my heart, because these are mainstream summer blockbusters, but I have to hope--the one where a few years later it turns out alcoholism and depression can't actually be cured once and for all by the love of a good woman, and the downward spiral starts again. The one where, I hope to god, the story doesn't offer a convenient "but actually he knows he'll be dead soon, that's why he's acting this way, there's a solid external reason!" excuse--I swear I could never forgive IM2 for that alone, even if the rest of it wasn't a disaster.
I'm just saying, there's so much more story there. And he drank pretty prominently in The Avengers, and threw himself on the grenade for the third time in a row. So I'm holding onto that, hoping it means something, that he hasn't just been declared healthy while entirely bypassing one of the original character's most formative and compelling story arcs. I'm 95% certain I'll be disappointed. But if I'm not, it's going to be amazing.
--and hey, this did end up being related to the first part, because "the second alcoholism arc, done right" is basically what I want to do with step 8 up there. My triggers would be relationship difficulties and the stress--eustress and distress both--of being on a team, rather than corporate intrigue (...and relationship difficulties, oh comics). And I would stop short of putting Tony out on the streets for actual months. But if the movieverse isn't going to go there, then dammit, somebody needs to.
AND ACTUALLY, one more for real unrelated thing: I just had the unsettling realization that for significant chunks of this last story, mostly the beginning, my narrative voice was drifting away from Iron Man and towards Spider-Man. I mean, what? Of all characters--the comics version(s), of course, 616 and the original Ultimateverse. Movieverse Tony's just got a very particular kind of babble, and on several lines I don't think I hit the mark. I think I overshot and landed directly on Peter Parker.
Well, people seemed to like it. And at least I got somebody's voice right.
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