Iron Man and Patriotism

In Vicki Karamina's "No Capes!" Über Fashion and How "Luck Favours the Prepared:" Constructing Contemporary Superhero Identities in American Popular Culture, she took time to stop writing incredibly long titles and eventually got around to analyzing the costumes of our culture's dominant superheroes. She had this to say about the role of superhero costumes/suits in conjunction with patriotism:

"...entire people are simply embeded in their national symbols. Their flags flutter as adornments to public buildings; the news categorizes events as home affairs or foreign reports; the weather-forecast reinforces the awareness of political geography and boundaries; sporting heroes embody national virtues and mobilize collective loyalties; moments of crisis -- especially war -- produce patriotic addresses from political leaders and national languages and historics, through their transmission constitute a sense of community."

"...the contemporary positions signalled by the red, white and blue outfits of Captain America, Superman, and Wonder Woman circulate in a network of signs, where the garments themselves are transformed into the signs of America."

This is something I was thinking about a lot while screening Iron Man. The politics of this movie sort of puzzle me -- I'm still trying to work them out in my head, so maybe blogging through them will help.

How does Iron Man's costume stand as a symbol in the time of crisis in which the film was made? Does it, like the "red, white and blue outfits of Captain America, Superman, and Wonder Woman" become a prized American image? The film's wild popularity, as well as the success of its sequel and the franchise's merchandising craze seems to suggest that iconography has definitely been achieved.

But Iron Man definitely isn't the all-American hero.

Tony Stark's playboy lifestyle may be the appeal for adults (I forgot just how perfect Downey Jr. was in this role), but for the younger crowd, the sleekness and simplification of extremely advanced technology has to be the attention-grabber. Through this mastery of tech, the film makes a couple of statements (and exclusions) that both champion and undermine America. Firstly, other countries are represented as being lightyears behind American tech development. America is -- apparently -- the technological hub of the universe, specifically Tony Stark's basement. But muddying the issue is the fact that Stark Industries' long history of war profiteering is fine and dandy with the US Government, and everyone involved in the corporation outside of Tony. So, America is the best at technology and the worst at moral values.

His suit itself is conflicted and reflective of his personality; (relatively) small, sleek, and sexy, the Iron Man suit is built not for consumerist purposes, but reflects American consumerism. Its "hot rod red" and gold create an aesthetic of wealthy excess, and seeing it fight the clunky, bulky model that The Dude uses in the film's third act shares a lot of the same consumer trends of "smaller and sharper is better" that we're seeing in televisions and automobiles.

This feels in no way wrapped up. But, that's a wrap. It's 3:00 AM, after all.