Iron Man 2020: Robot Revolution

Tony Stark: Iron Man (Collected Editions) #5

by Dan Slott, Christos Gage (Writer), Pete Woods (Illustrator)

All is well. The Robot Rebellion has been dealt with. Humanity is perfectly safe. You may all thank Arno Stark, the Iron Man of 2020. Don't you feel better now? Machine Man is NOT coming to kill you and everyone you love. 1010101111001100110000. Pay no attention to those numbers. Those were a typo. We apologize for any errors, glitches or...unforeseen problems with any of your Baintronics devices. A new software patch is coming. For EVERYTHING.

COLLECTING: IRON MAN 2020 (2020) 1-6

Genres: Marvel, Comics, Graphic Novels, Superheroes, Graphic Novels Comics, Comic Book, Science Fiction

136 pages, Paperback

First published October 14, 2020

About the author

Dan Slott is an American comic book writer, the current writer on Marvel Comics' The Amazing Spider-Man, and is best known for his work on books such as Arkham Asylum: Living Hell, She-Hulk, Silver Surfer, The Superior Spider-Man, and Ren & Stimpy.

Reviews

[Gianfranco Mancini · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was waiting for this event since Arno Stark, the Iron Man of 2020, appeared for the first time among the pages of the 1988 Machine Man mini-series.



Maybe final result was not as good as expected, the extinction event heralded here paled in front of the pandemic harrowing now the world, and the robot revolution storyline was just lame, but I enjoyed a lot this 6 issues mini-series, its tie-ins, and previous volumes of Dan Slott's run paving the way to it.



It was an entertaining and funny run to read for me, after Gillen and Bendis' ones made me stop reading Iron Man after decades.



Something like Ready Player One meets the Golden Avenger with strong Michelinie/Layton classic run vibes and much more.



Yes, it was a flawed one, but Slott, Gage, and various artists involved, rekindled the spark for good making me love again this comic-book after years, and for this I'm grateful to them.



Thank you.

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Way back in the 1980's, Machine Man got a miniseries where he was transported to the future and fought Arno Stark, Iron Man 2020. So Marvel started laying the ground work for this a few years ago when Arno Stark was introduced as Tony Stark's long lost brother. Behold it's 2020, and Marvel cooly gives us the modern equivalent of that 80's series.

The story didn't wow me as much as I thought it would. It's robits vs. humans as Arno Stark and Sunset Bain try and enslave robots in order to stop a cosmic threat on the horizon. The war isn't very exciting or compelling. I did like some of the obscure robots Slott brings back like H.E.R.B.I.E. from the Fantastic Four cartoon. (He replaced the Human Torch as executives stupidly thought kids would set themselves on fire to emulate Johnny Storm. Adults never give kids enough credit. It's not like I hit my pets over the head with a hammer after watching Looney Tunes growing up.) I like how Slott gave H.E.R.B.I.E. a sassy edge.

I wasn't a fan of Pete Woods's art. It was too cartoonish and static to me. There a bunch of little ancillary miniseries Marvel made to go along with this. They are all fine but are ancillary to this. If I had to pick one to read, it'd be Machine Man 2020.

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

For the uninitiated, way back in the 1980s Marvel did a 4 issue Machine Man limited series that saw our plucky ‘human robot’ reactivated in the distant future of the year 2020, where he had to face off against the future Iron Man of 2020, Arno Stark. This series was hugely popular with a large chunk of Marvel fans, especially Machine Man junkies like me, and the Iron Man of 2020 even popped up in guest appearances every now and then over the last (good grief!) thirty five years or so.

I have been quietly excited since Marvel introduced a present day version of Arno Stark a couple of years back in the pages of Iron Man because I knew they were laying the foundations for this book. You see, we’ve finally caught up with that ‘distant future’ of 2020 and are now actually living in it.

OK, so the world isn’t quite as ‘Blade Runner’-ish as it was portrayed in that old Machine Man miniseries but we are living in a world full of screen-addicted ‘vidiots’ and AI is probably more present in our everyday lives than the creators of that series could have ever predicted. With a few tweaks and the introduction of a ‘Robot Revolution’ Dan Scott and Christos Gage have brought us a present day Marvel Universe where the Machine Man and Iron Man (and let’s not forget Jocasta and Sunset Bain) of 2020 fit right in and, let me tell you, the story was a real treat.

This tale is unashamedly catering to the long term fans who were around in the ‘80s and who have been waiting to see what Marvel would do to mark this seminal tale when 2020 did finally roll around and, as one of those long term fans, it was SO nice to have a book aimed squarely at us rather than the majority of current titles that are (not unfairly) mainly aimed at capturing younger fans who mainly know the Marvel Universe through the movies.

This book was everything I could have hoped for all these years. The artwork was great. The plot was exciting. The dialogue was funny. My boy Machine Man had a pretty big role, as did my girl Jocasta, which made me very, very happy. We even got a foul-mouthed H.E.R.B.I.E. in the mix (I’m too sassy to die!) which was great.

The only thing that could make me happier than this book would be A NEW MACHINE MAN ONGOING TITLE! ARE YOU LISTENING, MARVEL? WE WANT AARON STACK! GIVE ME MY X-51! MACHINE MAN FOREVER! LARGA VIDA AL HOMBRE MÁQUINA! ...sounds of ranting comicbook reader being dragged off by men in white coats...

[Chris Lemmerman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dan Slott and Christos Gage bring the saga of Tony Stark: Iron Man to a close in this final mini-series. Arno Stark is Iron Man, while Tony himself, convinced that he is an AI in a human body rather than a true human, has gone into hiding. Arno knows that there's a creature on its way that will destroy all human life, and only by enlisting all of the AI in the world to his side can he hope to defeat it. But the robots have a bit of a problem with that. Enter Mark One, and the Robot Revolution!

I've never been the biggest fan of Arno's heel turn. Kieron Gillen did a lot of work to make him a more likeable character, and a lot of Slott's story has seemed to turn that on its head again, but the ultimate conclusion of this story makes it easy to see both sides. In fact, it's the philosophical discussions that make this book great, just as much as the superheroics and explodey bits.

Slott's Iron Man has been through the wringer, and this really does feel like the final straw for him, so it's no wonder we spend most of our time with Arno. All the pieces Slott has put into play across his too-short run come to fruition, and while the final issue feels like a bit of a fake-out, it does round out nicely and put Tony in a good place to springboard into his next adventure.

On art is Pete Woods, who I don't recall working at Marvel very much lately, but he draws (and colours, I think?) all six oversized issues here. His work is clear and clean, but unfortunately the design of the Iron Man 2020 armour is going to look stupid no matter who draws it, so there's only so much he can do on that front. Otherwise, a solid effort all around.

Considering how awful this year has been, I think I'm going to hardwire my brain to think of this mini-series whenever anyone mentions the year 2020 from now on. While it's not perfect, it's a damn sight better than the rest of the world right now, and it's a nice way to lose yourself for an hour or so. Long live the Robot Revolution!

[Sans · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m not sure what I just read but I do know I didn’t love it.

[Frédéric · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dan Sloot’s previous run didn’t impress me much; the basic idea was interesting if not extraordinarily original but the execution was poor with a supporting cast to kill twice (an award for Machine man who’d deserve a lava melting for being such an obnoxious asshole)

Yet this conclusion introducing the new Iron Man title is not so bad and some ideas seemingly abruptly ended come to fruition. The end is frankly anticlimatic but somehow it does the job in line with what was developed earlier. Lots of action and twists-virtual reality is a godsend for writers- and a domewhat rational conclusion. More than I hoped for to start with.

Nice art by Pete Woods.

[Robert · Rating 2 out of 5]

**sYSteM oVeRLoAd**

Sigh. I wanted this to be good, which is why it hurts all that more that it is not (for me, anyway).



Plot points and weird pseudo science was worked through at a mad clip, my head felt like it was spinning and, unlike Jocasta, I can't attach it to a new gimballed torso.

Perhaps the spin-offs involving Pepper as Rescue, the unexpected return of Albert and Elsie Dee from the '90s Wolverine comics and Force Works (which I have yet to read, so fingers crossed) mean that this event was worth it but the flagship title was a hot mess and I will be trying to actively forget it and move on.


Me, too, H.E.R.B.I.E. Me, too.

[Jirka Navrátil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Arno je zajímavý Iron Man, škoda že to s ním neměli v plánu táhnout delší dobu místo Tonyho.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like drawing style if Arno Stark!!
And "about comic" part here.

But the story was not so good and unique.🤔

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a kid, I loved the Iron Manual. And the Marvel Encyclopedia's cosmic side and possible futures blew my mind, but those were just ones off as a kid.

In the Naughties, when I first got into comics--Iron Man was my favorite superhero. Extremis blew my mind and I really emphasized with the conflicted futurist in Civil War. Charles Knauf, who created my favorite show--Carnivale, took over and I really liked his run. Then Matt Fraction began the longest run on the title--I really liked Most Wanted and Dissasembled.

Gillen's run started to run a little thin for me, but I loved the idea if Tony Stark in space. Secret Origin was both a fun recon yet deliriously stupid. It felt aborted, kind of like Spiderman The Other and Wolverine Revolutions. Hickman's Shield run kind of reignited my imagination yet eventually, I lost interest. I Didn't care for Robert Downey Jr., nor did I care about Bendis' run or AXIS storyline. Slotts claim that his run was Black Mirror meets Rick and Morty was kind of gross.

But the concept of Iron Man 2020 brought me back--as that idea cornered a section of my mind for years. The Godkiller and Stark's destiny called for me.

This isn't quite as ambitious as I expected but it is a sense of closure of sorts. Yet, its all a trick--an misdirection. Its really a story about the progress needed for AI/Robot. Livewires, Avengers A.I, etc. This is more their story rather than an apocalyptic future.

Also seeing this is a possible thread for Reckoning War...

[RG · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nothing special

[Jennalyn · Rating 1 out of 5]

(Been reading this as the issues released and I'm so glad it's over!)

This was bad. Really bad. I liked Slott's work on "Tony Stark: Iron Man" but it was always a bit rushed and lacked the time and nuance necessary to make the high concept sci-fi elements work well. But it was at least fun and pretty and the concept was interesting. I also felt like there might be a brilliant twist behind Tony's belief that he was an A.I. At first I thought that it was a conspiracy. Then I thought it might be true and Arno had the "real Tony" hidden in stasis or in a coma while he manipulated this A.I. version of Tony. But no. Now that we've finally reached the end of that story line, it turns out that there was nothing clever going on. No twist. No real existential exploration of what it means to be human, like the earlier issues seemed to promise. And no interesting or surprising twist or pay off to make it all worth it. Everything that seemed to have promise in TS:IM was either dropped or fizzled out in this run.

Overall, "Iron Man 2020" had been a snooze fest, lacking the fun and gorgeous artwork of TS: IM, focusing on the boring and insipid Arno, repeatedly "killing" "A.I. Tony" for shock value, and rushing through plots that make no sense, where every resolution is rushed and hand-waved away with a quick and easy trick of "comic book science" that is never even explained. This would be enough to make me give up on comics entirely, if it's weren't for the fact I've read just enough comics by now to know that they can be so much better than this.

I'm glad this is over. I hope the next Iron Man run is a giant improvement. And as a side note... I HATE the way Tony was drawn in the last two issues! He looks like a sleazy used car salesman. Ugg. I need to read some 70s era Iron Man comics as a palette cleanser. The writing would be better (and that's saying something considering how basic and cheesy comics were back then).

[Sesana · Rating 3 out of 5]

If I had read the original Iron Man 2020 years ago, I might like this book better. I imagine it must have been exciting to see that Marvel was building towards a take on a story that had originally been set in the future. I hope that if Marvel is still around and publishing comics in 2099, they do something really cool. But I'm not one of the readers this is aimed at.

The robot war wasn't terribly compelling, and Arno isn't interesting as either a villain or antihero. I was also disappointed that it seemed like we were getting set up for a story that would deal with the nature of humanity and if AI qualify as people, but no, that's all essentially swept under the rug. But at least the book is, on balance, more entertaining than not, even if it is shallow. And H.E.R.B.I.E. is incredibly entertaining. I hope he shows up more often, and I'd even read a miniseries with him as star.

[Jason · Rating 2 out of 5]

That was...bad. The story idea had so much potential. But it was rediculous, non-sensical, and boring.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 2 out of 5]

Iron Man 2020. Sadly, a mediocre end to a mediocre run. Slott did all this work to line up the "Iron Man 2020" setting, and we got a robot rebellion against an evil Arno. It's an uninteresting premise and a bad use of the character. In the end, everything gets tied up with an overly neat bow [2+/5].

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

I guess we weren't really supposed to like Arno. I did like the flips in narrative.

[Cat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Before I start this review, I want to admit that this is my first Iron Man comic ever and I couldn’t tell you what has previously happened in any of the series’. This also means that I have never heard of Arno Stark until I read this.


For what it was and for my lack of background knowledge, this issue was alright. It explains well enough what is happening so that new readers can also follow along. There is also an ‘Arno Stark’ timeline at the end of the issue that breaks down his appearances and storylines, though it’s put together weird and not easy to follow along.


I went into this series already skeptical, these comic events typically fall flat for me and it definitely met my expectations. It was okay. Nothing great, nothing I felt was original or groundbreaking. The story was slow for a first issue and didn’t give much to hook us in, all it really achieved was making us dislike the main protagonist at this point. That may have been their point, but it’s like Slott didn’t even try to make it interesting or worth reading about Arno. I spent the whole time I was reading wondering, “Okay, but what about Tony?” I just couldn’t get invested in the story.


I also didn’t enjoy the line work a single bit. The colors were the best thing about this issue. I’ve mentioned in other reviews I’ve done that simple, minimalist line work bothers me. I want detail, I want to believe it could potentially be real. I absolutely dislike the Iron Man suit Arno wears, hate the suit, hate the lack of detail.


Overall, I feel every aspect of this comic fell short and I definitely won’t be continuing on with the event.

[Daniel Butcher · Rating 2 out of 5]

I still don’t really see why we needed the whole robot storyline…it’s just rough storytelling.

[Alex Sarll]

After too many wobbles, delays and co-writes, Dan Slott's Iron Man had a deadline to pull itself together, given it really had to do the Iron Man 2020 callback story in 2020. Kieron Gillen had obligingly done some of the set-up a few years back, introducing Arno Stark no longer as Tony's future descendant, but as his present-day long-lost brother. Now Arno also gets the cog-shouldered armour and zero-tolerance approach which, if inevitably they can't exactly match the eighties vision of the dark future character, certainly strike the appropriate note of homage. Wisely, the story dodges most of the ways in which actual 2020 has proven so much worse than the allegedly dystopian version of it envisioned back in the day, though every now and again an echo sneaks through, like Arno and his resurrected parents talking about how "it can get uncomfortable cooped up in the same place all the time", even if it is to save your life. Or the underlying plot that "2020 is the year the extinction entity arrives" – which, if not true for the human race, certainly seems to hold true for most things which made our existences worthwhile. There are little nods in other directions here and there, too – Slott's Anglophilia normally manifests as Doctor Who parallels, but here we have a hard light Thirteenth Floor, absent from the building plans, as a haven for AI, which is a nice deep cut for an American.

The emotional core of the story, though, is the thread that's been running through the whole series, about AI rights, and indeed the rights of anyone not strictly human. Tony has frequently been cavalier on this point, to a degree which has made it hard to like him sometimes (and this for a character who has been kind of a dick from the off, but more often than not gets away with it). But his failure to consider robots on the same level as organics was as nothing to Arno's willingness to shoot or enslave first, and ask questions after, where by 'ask questions' we mean dissection rather than anything recognising personhood. When the authorities burst into an AI speakeasy in search of unowned robots, the parallels aren't exactly subtle, but sometimes they don't need to be. There's also an ingeniously horrible scene with Arno's Lady Macbeth, Sunset Bain, and the feline Dr Shapiro. Each time it comes back to that line which, if not originating with Pratchett, found its best-known modern expression in him, about treating people as things – adding the coda that one should also be damn careful about where the initial line between 'things' and 'people' is drawn. And whenever that risks becoming too much of a grind, the story digs a big hand into the toybox of robots Marvel has produced over the years, whether that means a whole squad of Nick Fury LMDs, H.E.R.B.I.E. getting to deliver "Come with me if you want to live", or Awesome Andy rescuing a Boston Dynamics robot from stability tests (and yes, it makes no sense that they even have robots that primitive in a world which also has proper androids, but then that's the standing issue with superhero universe science, and it's still an air-puncher of a scene. Alas, it flubs the ending - Arno's agenda shifts in a way which, if still consistent with his ultimate goal, nonetheless feels very late in the day, and then on top of that we get a very shaky redemption scene. But Iron Man 2020, for all that, does a much better job of living up to the run's early promise than actual 2020 did (though then again, what doesn't?).

[Nicole Westen · Rating 2 out of 5]

The ending wasn't bad, but I was a bit 'meh' about most of the book. The robot uprising feels cliched at this point. Robots gain free thought and refuse to be 'slaves' anymore and try to destroy human society. Okay... and then what? I mean, robots are all built for a specific purpose, they aren't like people in the sense that they can just up and learn to do something completely different. The mars rover can't assemble a car, and a car assembly arm can't explore mars. So robots revolting against their jobs is kinda like a plumber getting angry at everyone for asking him to fix their toilets. And if robots gain freedom, then what? They have autonomy to make their own decisions, but again, are limited by their physical make-up and programming, and it's not like they need money or anything the way people do, to provide for food and shelter and medical care.
I would assume robots would like to be treated as company employees and allowed to do what they wish in their free time, more or less like people. But no, we're going to be bigoted against all humans and not attempt peaceful negotiations because we're better than humans.
Can we have a robot rebellion that doesn't do that? What about a robot rebellion that looks and humans and thinks 'poor, fragile things, we should stop them from doing robot things because they get hurt. Robots should take over because humans obviously can't properly care for themselves and maintain and equitable society'. What about that?

[Kori Watson · Rating 3 out of 5]

There’s definitely bits it’d be nice to give it 4.5 stars but the lack or resolution on the revolution makes it feel like they just became a narrative tool for interpersonal conflict which I feel is inappropriate for something as hefty as a civil rights movement. Like outside of starks circle we don’t really get to see what steps people are taking to work towards change. Understandable the way comic are they want to return to status quo but with this later being often ignored this can feel a bit like trying on minority status for the aesthetic.

I have never read anything else with Arlo except skimming his wiki. He’s a whole can of worms I don’t want to open but I just don’t like him and not in the way I’m supposed to not.

Edit: also Rhody’s phobia being because he’s a imperfect reproduction is one thin. It kinda takes away from his trams from literally being killed but might work as a metaphor but just reversing it is extra annoying BS

[Silas · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was only dimly aware that this was a callback to a previous event. I knew a lot of the characters, including Arno Stark from some previous Iron Man reading, but missed a bunch in between that and this, and there were at least a few robot characters I was unfamiliar with. The story begins with Arno Stark as Iron Man being very publicly at war with all artificial intelligences, and that is happening all over. I have been away from comics for a while, but don't really recall that being a thing very many other places. Still, rolling with that, it's just not all that compelling, and a bit rushed. It's not totally awful, and it sets up more or less a status quo at the end, with Tony back as Iron Man, and Arno off doing his own thing on his own. It's not exactly a stellar book, but it gets us from point A to point B and calls back that old event, I suppose. Still, it was far from a favorite for me.

[Ellen Schoener · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, this was better than expected.
And ready some of the other reviews, I expected not much.
I got this purely to find out more about the quirky characters introduced previously. There is a wonderful variety of robots and AI and humans and creatures. I am still disappointed we did not get to see more. Dr. Shapiro alone is worth a spin-off. He is amazing.
The main story? Confusing and a bit of a mess.
The villain? A delusional lunatic. I never quite got behind any of his motivations.
His minions, including Bain.... a bit of wasted potential.
The thing they do with Tony? No idea what that was all about. All that created drama ending up more like a storm in a teacup.
The ending? What the heck.
But hey, I liked it. At least bits of it. The best thing definitely were all the quirky side characters, robots and creatures.
And Dr. Shapiro.

[Ross · Rating 3 out of 5]

This feels like a MASSIVE work to tie up loose ends and dangling plot points that have followed the Iron Man titles for years.

Yes, this has 'connections' to Arno Stark stories from the...mid 80's? (look at that armor)
Yes, this has connections to the Godkiller armor stories and ties to Tony's time with GotG
Yes, this EVEN HAS connections to Riri and her Ironheart creation and Jim Rhodes rebirth

At times, the story clangs when they miss a step or make a massive assumption. Overall, it's a decent reset (again) for the series. This 'plot thread wipe' gives them a pretty clean path to take the characters down any path they choose.

Bonus: Machine Man has need of German beer, fleshbag.
Bonus bonus: H.E.R.B.I.E. has a potty mouth when his uninhibitor chip is active

[Rhys Causon · Rating 3 out of 5]

As someone who hasn’t read any Iron Man comics this feels like the ending to a really long storyline, that I’ve only heard sentences of over the course of seven years. And that’s only for one character.

Needless to say this was a different way of telling an Iron Man story as the main focus (for the most part) isn’t Tony Stark but his lesser known brother (from what I know anyway) Arno Stark.

With a large cast of supporting bit players as the characters in the story as well I hate to say it but this story isn’t very accessible to someone who hasn’t read any Iron Man before. Well not unless you just want to be in that, “wow, comics are weird” mindset.

[Adam Fisher · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 Stars.
For what was touted to be a huge Iron Man event, I feel like "Iron Man 2020" was a bust for me. The setup was that Tony is dead and is an AI, Arno is alive and will now be Iron Man. What it ends up being is that Tony is not dead, has setup an elaborate hoax to give Arno the courage the stay alive, but it took a huge battle and robot uprising, and ultimately, everything is the same as it was before all the Arno stuff.
.... And Iron Man Volume 1 starts again... It's almost like they don't know what to do with this character anymore.
I didn't hate it, and it wasn't horrible... but felt like a waste of time.

[Garrett · Rating 4 out of 5]

When, in the 80s, Marvel introduced us to the evil-ish Iron Man of 2020, Arno Stark, 2020 seemed like a long fucking way away. Seeing that it was knocking on their narrative doorstep, they needed a way to payoff the character, and this does a pretty good job - though it would be a hard one to simply drop into. You'd need some status quo updating of the 616, but after that, well, this is a better comic to have fun with than it is a straight story, though it does have some huge character moments - particularly for Tony - and a really dynamic ending. Nothing gigantic or irrevocable here, but some good moments, a fun ride, and some solid resets for what would come after.

[Edmund Bloxam · Rating 1 out of 5]

This story is what would happen if you let a child write stories. Oo, oo, THIS and then...oo, THAT.

AI just doesn't work this way. AI is limited by whatever you programmed into it. Not all of it would have a 'personality' and be 'alive'.

Most importantly, MOST COMPUTERS ARE NOT AI. They are machines following instructions. YOUR COFFEE MACHINE IS NEVER GOING TO REBEL AGAINST YOU.

Beyond dumb. So much other dumb shit in this garbage pail of nonsense shit. Even the 'extinction level event of 2020' was a major disappointment. Speaking of the real thing, I would rather have Covid than read anything this guy writes ever again.

[Beelzefuzz · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some philosophical ideas are introduced but never really explored.
Ship of Theseues is overcome or dismissed with a self-talk pep-talk.
Free will is deprogrammed or programmed with no interesting exploration.
And that ending. Ugh. I do not even think you could make a good case for it being a "reality as shared delusion" commentary, just lazy slapdash to get out of the situation.

So glad this is over. Now if we can get Slott off F4 so it can be good again. I remember Slott's Spider-man being the best thing since sliced web. What happened to him?

[Trike · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was just too goofy and over-the-top for me. Even for superhero comics this was wackadoodle. And the design for Arno Stark’s version of Iron Man is just dumb. Kind of a cool ending, but it’s too little, too late to save the book.