My Epoch Times Contest Entry:

Why I Love America

I love America because of Iron Man.

Wait! Before you put this little missive down and seek out an entry with a little more “gravitas,” allow me to explain. For you see, I do believe, sincerely, that Iron Man is emblematic of what is great about America — and I believe, in this essay, that I can conclusively present my case.

Iron Man - who first appeared in the pages of Marvel’s Tales of Suspense in 1963 at the height of the so-called “Silver Age of Comics” - was the brainchild of four New Yorkers who, essentially, wanted to stretch themselves by creating an “unlikely” superhero whose backstory fell well outside their usual comfort zone. In what way was the Golden Avenger a challenge? Tony Stark – the man inside the Iron Man armor – was a defense contractor, a wealthy industrialist, and a man-about-town who embodied everything Marvel’s generally left-leaning readership was ideologically inclined to despise. “I thought it would be fun,” Stan Lee once remarked, “to take the kind of character that nobody would like, none of our readers would like, and shove him down their throats and make them like him.” And did Lee and his compatriots succeed in this endeavor? Yes! While Iron Man has never been a leader when it comes to comic book sales, he has nonetheless endured for almost sixty years and - thanks mostly to the Marvel Cinematic Universe - has become a globally famous icon.

So how exactly does Iron Man embody what makes America exceptional?

Let us first consider biography. Iron Man’s creators – Lee, Larry Lieber (Lee’s younger brother), Jack Kirby, and Don Heck – all hailed from working class backgrounds. None of these men grew up in fancy digs or attended tony art schools. Each had to climb his way up the societal ladder through hard work, determination, and vision. Yet in America, Lee and the rest ultimately found their paths to prosperity — because in America, even the children of poor urban immigrants can rise.

Consider too what it says about America that a fellow can make it big by selling cheaply printed – and admittedly melodramatic – four-color fantasies. Such a seemingly ridiculous occupation can only exist in a place that is free. To put it another way, the fecundity and ever-present joy behind Iron Man and his fellow Silver Age superheroes have as their necessary antecedent a culture that values open artistic expression and economic liberty. The Soviet Union of the same era could not have created Iron Man — and neither could Maoist China.

But the most important reason why Iron Man perfectly exemplifies America’s singular personality is the broad-mindedness that animated his origin. As noted above, his creators did not settle for crafting heroes with whom they could readily identify. Instead, they deliberately sought to understand the Other — and in the process, they imbued Iron Man with a profound and genuinely moving humanity that transcended his externals. Even a well-to-do “playboy” who seems to have it all, the comics said, can still struggle with chronic illness, alcoholism, and a gnawing, desperate loneliness. Even a well-to-do “playboy,” the comics argued, can have a heart. In the earliest Iron Man comics, no space is given for Marxist diatribes about the evils of the rich; there is only recognition of the universal travails of all mankind. If that’s not a terrific illustration of the American soul, I don’t know what is.

Unfortunately, there is a significant faction in the America of 2020 that wants to do away with the special “American-ness” that made Iron Man great in his original incarnation. This faction wants to limit what we may write and draw, wall off former avenues of advancement and restrict our taste for risk and enterprise, stick us in homogeneous ghettos based on our immutable characteristics, and sow conflict between the supposedly “privileged” and the “marginalized” for the purpose of effectuating revolution. And sadly, this faction now commands the heights of the entertainment industry, including the editorial staff of Marvel Comics. I suppose that’s one unconscious reason why I keep reading and re-reading the old Silver and Bronze Age Iron Man issues; in a way, I suppose I’m trying to remind myself what precisely, as a classical liberal, I value most.