Clearly the MSM is working hard to find ways to build up Robert Downey Junior’s turn as Iron Man in the upcoming film of the same name. This usually means the movie will suck but in a cool yet ironic historical exegesis the Boston Globe’s Joshua Glenn explores the roots of Iron Man the comic book and “Iron Man” the song.
The Black Sabbath song is actually about a lead-booted monster rampaging through a horrified city. I originally thought that the song was about something like a golem and Glenn discovers that the Iron Man connection is fairly specious. In the song, the Iron Man “turned to steel in a great magnetic field” while in the comic book Tony Stark builds his iron suit while captive in an evil mastermind’s prison camp. It is possible that the band read the comic books, but excessive readings the origin story to find direct correlations are bit of a stretch. Read further down in the article and you also discover the song could be about homophobia, Freudian yonism, or a children’s book by Ted Hughes. I just hope they don’t screw this movie up like they did Daredevil.