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We Are Iron Man: Tony Stark, Iron Man, and American Identity in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Phase One Films ASHLEY SUFFLEROBINSON N 1963, STAN LEE INTRODUCED A CHARACTER HIS READERS WOULD hate. With the United States embroiled in both the Cold War I and Vietnam, a rift opened between the country’s fundamental ideals and its reality; Americans were no longer clearly the “good guys” who fought “on the side of justice and freedom” (Appy 1). Consequently, Lee—then the art director, editor, and chief writer at Marvel Comics—dared himself to make a superhero that embodied Americans’ frustration with their country. As he explains in a 2008 interview, the young readers, if there was one thing they hated, it was war, it was the military . ... So I got a hero who represented that to the hundredth degree. He was a weapons manufacturer, he was provid- ing weapons for the Army, he was rich, he was an industrialist . ... I thought it would be fun to take the kind of character that nobody would like ...and shove him down their throat and make them like him. (“Invincible”) The result: Tony Stark. Lee’s invention of Tony Stark and his Iron Man alter-ego helped readers wrestle with American identity during the politically con- tentious Vietnam era. While Hollywood’s characterization of Tony Stark/Iron Man certainly differs from Lee’s original comic book cre- ation, his role does not. The Marvel Cinematic Universe’s (MCU’s) version of Stark also allows audiences to explore, examine, and The Journal of Popular Culture, Vol. 51, No. 4, 2018 © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 824 Iron Man and American Identity 825 confront American national identity. When Jon Favreau’s Iron Man was released in 2008, the United States was in a position eerily simi- lar to the situation in 1963. The country was again entangled in two seemingly unwinnable wars—this time in Iraq and Afghanistan—and public support for military involvement had sharply declined. Americans’ approval of the war in Iraq dropped from 72% in March 2003 to just 38% in February 2008 (“Public Attitudes”). The same was true for Afghanistan; in November 2001, only 9% of Ameri- cans believed the War in Afghanistan was a mistake, but by August 2008, that number had almost quadrupled (“Afghanistan”). The United States’ military policies also became a cornerstone for the 2008 presidential race, where then-Senator Barack Obama referred to the conflict as “the greatest strategic blunder in the recent his- tory of American foreign policy” (Obama). The simultaneous onset of The Great Recession further complicated matters. While the Uni- ted States dumped money into international conflicts, national unemployment rates rose to almost 10% (“Recession”). As historian and Pulitzer Prize winner Hedrick Smith argues, by the end of the decade, the United States was no longer “one large American family with shared prosperity and shared political and economic power.” Instead, the country fractured into “two Americas” along economic and political lines (xii–xiii). Between foreign military campaigns and a faltering national economy, Americans faced a harsh reality: the historic American ideals that encouraged progress, rewarded hard work, and allowed for upward mobility no longer seemed to exist. It is no surprise, then, that Marvel chose Tony Stark and Iron Man to helm Phase One of the MCU. While Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark/Iron Man might not be a direct translation of Lee’s original character, they share the same overarching purpose. Like the character of the 1970s, the MCU’s Tony Stark represents the country’s anxi- eties about its own contemporary reality: he embodies an America characterized by unchecked capitalism, corporate greed, narcissism, stagnation, and a powerful military-industrial complex. Stark, then, represents an America that has become disenfranchised from its foun- dational identity. The freedom and opportunity that characterize America’s mythic ideology appear outdated in the face of corporate power and wealth stratification. In contrast to Stark, however, Iron Man offers viewers hope for the viability of what Western historians 826 Ashley Suffle Robinson like Henry Nash Smith and Richard Slotkin have termed the Ameri- can myth. He updates the myth for the new millennium, effectively creating a hero that returns to the core of what it means to be “Amer- ican” while rejecting the nostalgia that makes the literal translation of the traditional frontier hero into the twenty-first century unten- able. This becomes especially clear when positioning Iron Man’s interpretation of American identity against the MCU’s Captain America. However, Steve Rogers reminds viewers of the United States’ exceptionalism, the World War II setting of Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) also historicizes it. Unlike Rogers, who cele- brates the traditional American myth, Iron Man reclaims it for a new generation. Ultimately, Tony Stark/Iron Man’s character arc through the MCU’s Phase One films—namely Iron Man (2008), Iron Man 2 (2010), and The Avengers (2012)—engages with America’s evolving national identity as the country struggles to reconcile its past ideals with its uncertain future. In order to address how Tony Stark and Iron Man deal with these issues, one must first understand the formation of America’s national character. The construction of American identity is informed by three interrelated concepts: the American frontier, the American West, and the American Dream. The frontier line became the most defining fea- ture of nineteenth-century America, and the acquisition of the Louisi- ana territory in 1803 moved the line westward and marked the opening of what is now consider the American West (Butler and Lansing 48). As Western historians such as Henry Nash Smith, Richard Slotkin, Robert V. Hine, and John Mack Faragher explain, the West fundamentally shapes American selfhood. Initially, the West allowed for the nation to establish a uniquely American space outside of European influence. According to James Oliver Robertson, the American West also became synonymous with expansion and manifest destiny, which in turn led Americans to “seek a set of values and an identification which was unchangeable in the midst of change” (78). The unexplored wildness of the historical frontier allowed for big dreams and bigger opportunities, and the drive toward progress remains integral to American identity today. To put it briefly, “The United States created and [still] retains its national identity in the West” (Butler and Lansing 4). The emerging mythology of the American West also shaped the American Dream. During the nineteenth century, the frontier became Iron Man and American Identity 827 synonymous with both progress, freedom, and total independence (Robertson 92). These ideas were eventually distilled into the Ameri- can Dream, which values “freedom, opportunity, and security to pur- sue one’s dreams” regardless of class or status (Jillson 269). In The American West: The Invention of a Myth, historian David Hamilton Murdoch refines that definition, arguing that the American Dream privileges hard work and progress while ensuring freedom and oppor- tunity are available to everyone (2–5). But the Dream itself is much more than a guiding concept; as historian Cal Jillson writes, “The American Dream is the spark that animates American life” (7). Thus, the triumvirate of the frontier, the West, and the American Dream combine to form what Murdoch, Slotkin, and Smith term the “Amer- ican myth,” which in turn serves as the backbone of American national identity. Even more importantly, the American myth gives rise to concepts of American heroism, which are critical to understanding how Tony Stark and Iron Man address American identity in the MCU. If the frontier itself embodied American ideals, then the frontier hero served as the paragon of American identity during the nineteenth century. Traditional frontier heroes of dime novel fame were brave, adventur- ous, independent, and conquered the wilderness in the name of pro- gress (Slotkin 34). They had exceptional skills that set them aside from regular men while retaining their morality in the face of vio- lence (Steckmesser 169). Frontier heroes also solidified the American myth by blurring the lines between reality and mythology. Heroes like Wild Bill Hickock and Buffalo Bill Cody were real people, not just dime novel characters. Their successes helped reassure Americans that the Dream was indeed within reach, and their fictions helped make the American myth fact (Henry Nash Smith 90–112). It is telling that images of the traditional frontier hero are almost nonexistent in the twenty-first century due to a general disillusion- ment with the American Dream. As Jillson points out, contemporary Americans worry about a lack of economic and social opportunities (269). In fact, 70% of Americans believe that the next generation will be less economically secure, and only 64% of Americans buy into the idea that the American Dream is achievable (Cillizza). This is especially true for young adults, who are facing a lack of lucrative job prospects in tandem with crippling student loan debt—which has surpassed 1.3 trillion dollars nationally (Eskow). As Joseph E. Stiglitz 828 Ashley Suffle Robinson explains, the economic situation for young Americans has led to a foreclosure “on our future as a nation.” While these issues are com- mon knowledge now, in early 2008, Americans were still reeling from the onset of the subprime mortgage crisis. The systems of pros- perity, opportunity, and financial security that Americans believed in crumbled overnight. So by the time Iron Man opened later that sum- mer, it appeared as if the essential elements of the American myth and national identity were under threat. Iron Man, Iron Man 2, and The Avengers reflect these anxieties, and Tony Stark embodies modern America’s disillusionment with the American myth.

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