Military Movements (Part 2)
The fact that Stark is Iron Man has generated a significant public reaction, as both Stark and Iron Man are quite famous.
Stark's reputation is really not good. The military had already smeared him once before, calling him an unscrupulous arms dealer standing on mountains of corpses and seas of blood, a completely irresponsible playboy, and a ruthless and extravagant rich scoundrel. If there were a star rating system, Stark's reputation would probably hover between half a star and one star.
However, Iron Man has a good reputation, not only because he saved people in New York, but also because he was at the forefront of several major incidents that endangered New York. Many people have seen him and heard about his deeds, and many people have become his fans because of his cool suit of armor.
Before the accident, Iron Man even had his own fan website, with many people making charity merchandise, and many fans even waiting on rooftops to photograph Stark flying across the New York skyline.
Thus, when Stark and Iron Man's identities overlapped, the largest superhero collapse in history occurred.
Generally speaking, when people like a certain character, they will have a lot of fantasies about him. Iron Man fans are no exception. As for who Iron Man really is, fans have long guessed. His expensive suit of armor indicates that he must be a rich man, so most fans believe that he is one of those young tycoons who are keen on doing charity.
Some speculate that he might be a son of the Osborn family, given that the elder Osborn was very enthusiastic about philanthropy. Others think he might be the boss of the largest construction company in the United States, or even the heir to an oil company, but he is definitely not Tony Stark.
On the day the news was announced, Iron Man's fan website changed its background image to blood red. The website's manager claimed that he was extremely disappointed and that Iron Man would no longer be his hero.
Meanwhile, many people claiming to be Iron Man fans sparked a heated discussion online, filming videos and recounting their heartbreaking journey of turning away from the fandom.
Many Zhike accounts began to write lengthy analyses of Stark's motives. Some said he was using small acts of kindness to whitewash his image, some said he was trying to fool the public, and others said he was just trying to satisfy his own vanity. In any case, there was nothing good to say about him.
This media offensive was more than ten times stronger than the last one. Stark seemed to have been labeled a hypocrite, and Iron Man's identity was also brought down from its pedestal, plummeting into the mud.
Given Stark's personality, he should have been furious and ready to retaliate at any moment, but now he's locked the lab door, ignoring all the mundane matters and refusing to listen.
Throughout history, in any kind of drama, there has always been a concept called "opponent acting." If your opponent doesn't engage, you're likely to become a Joker performing a one-man show. This is the current state of the military.
A major problem with media attacks is that once the hype dies down, people start to forget about them. Therefore, the best way to deal with media attacks is not to clarify or retaliate, but to play dead.
Having come to terms with things, Stark grasped this key principle without being taught. "You can criticize me all you want, but as long as I don't listen, see, or feel anything, all public opinion is irrelevant to me."
Stark's performance exceeded many people's expectations. Pepper was prepared to clean up his mess, Obadiah's staff had prepared three or four public relations plans. However, the military hyped up the issue for three days, while Stark remained as steady as a rock and never left the laboratory. It was like putting on a show for the blind.
When one plan failed, another was devised. The military approached the Osborn Group, hoping to persuade them to join forces with them to fight against Stark by offering them benefits.
As a result, they couldn't even get inside the Osborn Group.
Although Osborn is a businessman, he harbors a deep grudge against the military for prioritizing Stark and treating Osborn Group's biotechnology as a backup plan. Furthermore, with his Immortality Factor industry, which he is now collaborating with Stark on, he would rather lose his mind than go back to begging from the military.
With the Osborn Group unwilling to cooperate, the military had few options left. Coincidentally, Drake, the boss of the Life Foundation, was sent to S.H.I.E.L.D..'s black room along with Riot. The military wanted to take this opportunity to take over the Life Foundation's assets and support new agents.
After much effort, they finally found a reasonably good proxy who inherited some of Drake's reputation and claimed to be a scientist working for the benefit of ordinary people, which was used to make Stark appear even more evil.
Just two days after he took office, Eddie used his connections to expose the detailed data that Dora had of the Life Foundation's experiments on homeless people. As a result, the Life Foundation also sent the data.
The military's competence is not very good, but their perseverance is very strong. They are so-called "incompetent but addicted". Several well-known companies were unwilling to cooperate with them, so they came to Hammer Industries again. Or rather, Hammer Industries was originally a dog kept by the military, which could be ordered around at their beck and call.
Hammer Industries is eager to impress the military and secure more orders, but compared to behemoths like Stark or Osborn, their size is not impressive.
Hammer Industries had no choice but to find another way, and began searching the world for any possible dirt on Stark. Their efforts paid off, and they actually found one.
A few days ago, a car bomb exploded in the underground parking garage of Stark Tower. The incident did not cause much of a stir because no one was injured. The person in the car was neither Stark nor Stark Tower employee. The One living thing in the car was Jarvis.
Most people thought it was an accident caused by a car test, but Justin Hammer, the boss of Hammer Industries, keenly realized that it might be a deliberately caused accident.
He thought the person who caused this accident would be a crazy fan who turned against him after leaving the fandom, but he didn't expect to catch a big fish instead.
Ivan Vanko, who claims to be Stark's enemy, tells Justin Hammer's version of the story that his father and Stark's father worked together to develop the Arc Reactor, but the research results were ultimately taken by Stark's father, and his father was also murdered.
The authenticity of this story is difficult to prove because it happened so long ago, but Hammer Industries and the military treasure it, precisely because it cannot be proven that it is easier to exploit.
Stark ignored the defamatory comments about him and went into seclusion in his laboratory to conduct research, but the military bet that he couldn't ignore the news defaming his father, so the story spread widely at an extremely fast pace.
The military exaggerated Howard's past achievements tenfold. In the story, all of Howard's research results were negated, and it was changed to say that the results of Ivan Vanko's father were stolen by the evil Howard.
The One thing that remains is Howard's failed hovercar demonstration, which has been described as Howard's true skill level.
"It seems they've successfully exploited your weakness." In the Stark Tower's laboratory, Schiller and Steve talked while playing checkers, while Stark sat on the other side of the lab table, pretending to be engrossed in reading data.
"That makes sense," Schiller continued, "If they portray your father as a loser, then you, who were desperately trying to prove you were better than Howard, would look like a Joker."
"I want to make it clear beforehand that I did not use mind reading. This is a problem that anyone with eyes can see. You seem to keep trying to emphasize that Howard is not as talented as you, but you still get angry when someone says Howard is an idiot. If I'm not mistaken, you should be thinking about why you're angry now."
"But I can give you the answer directly, because you don't actually dislike..."
"Enough!" Stark slammed his hand on the table and stood up.
He strode out from behind the lab bench and stood next to the table where the two were playing checkers. Then he suddenly stopped. He looked at the two who were fiercely battling it out on the checkers board and wondered if it was beneath him to argue with such people.
Then he held out One Hand and said, "Okay, I'll hold a Stark Expo and let them see the latest Stark achievements."
"I will tell them that any Stark is thousands of times better than those idiots."
"I know that Ivan also has Arc Reactor, and I know he came up with an incredibly stupid idea to use it; he actually made a..."
"Do you know what kind of people my sanatorium least welcomes?" Schiller suddenly interrupted Stark.
Stark asked, "What kind of person?"
"Someone who spoils the plot."
I've been so busy lately that I haven't written anything in a while.
I will summarize the plot that is completely consistent with the movie or comic book. I don't want to be a broken record. If you are interested in specific plots, you can read the original work, such as the relationship between Ivan's father and Howard.
In my opinion, writing fanfiction that repeats the original plot is a bit like ripping people off, and it hurts my conscience. But if I don't write it at all, many people might not understand it, so I'll just write a simple version.