Original Air Date
- June 6, 2023
Part 1 Begins
Hero Song (3:20)
- “Everyday Superhero” by Steve Harwell
Superhero Smash (0:30)
- Featuring the best in “Superhero Music and Comic Book Lore”
- Focusing on current superhero movies and popular culture
- I’m your host, Dr. Gian Pagnucci, a.k.a. The New Professor X
- Playing the best music that features superheroes and is highlighted in superhero movies and shows
- Also playing great music that is tied to the idea of heroism
Audio Episode Theme: Iron Man (3:00)
- Last week, I was talking about
- Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse which just came out!
- Don’t worry, this is a NO SPOILERS show!
- Release Date: June 2, 2023
- The movie is amazing
- As I mentioned, Spider-Man a.k.a. Peter Parker was raised by his Aunt May and Uncle Ben, until Ben’s tragic death
- His parents were not even mentioned until much later in the comics
- Lacking a father figure, Peter is drawn to Tony Stark, a.k.a. Iron Man
- Tony is a brilliant scientist, and of course Peter loves science
- Marvel did a great job developing this relationship
- In Avengers Endgame, Tony even tells Captain America, “I lost the kid” referring to Peter disintegrating along with half of all sentient life in the universe when Thanos gained control of all the Infinity Stones
- So in honor of that important father/son relationship, this week I’m featuring Iron Man!
Instrumental Theme Music (2:23)
- “Iron Man 3” by Brian Tyler
- Gotta love the ringing sound of the hammer as Tony pounds his armor into shape
Collector’s Item Classic Comic Book (4:00)
- First Appearance: Tales of Suspense #39
- Publication Date: Aug. 1, 1962
- Publisher: Marvel Comics
- Editor/Story Plot: Stan Lee
- Cover Artist/Character-Designer: Jack Kirby
- Story-Artist: Don Heck
- Scripter: Larry Lieber
- Value on eBay today: Low cost copy for $3000 (very tempting) and a really nice copy for $38,000
- Tony Stark is rich, brash, and egotistical
- Tony Stark: “Is it better to be feared or respected? And I say, ‘Is it too much to ask for both?'” he says as he goes about selling the latest high tech missiles to the U.S. military
- And his musical taste, to match that boldness? AC/DC of course!
Theme Song (4:18)
- “Back in Black” from AC/DC
- AC/DC did the whole soundtrack to Iron Man 2
- But “Back in Black” is actually featured in the opening scene of Iron Man
Show ID: Superhero Smash (2:00)
- WIUP FM 90.1
- Alternative music for the MCU, the DCU, and our own universe too!
- Check out pagnucci.org and click the big Superhero Smash button
- Or email Professor X using the address superherosmash2023@gmail.com
- Lots of great shows coming up
- I would love to get your input
Part 1 Ends (@20 minutes)
Part 2 Begins
Origin Story (5:00)
- Iron Man
- Tony Stark is an inventor, industrialist, and wealthy lady’s man.
- Stan Lee said he based Tony’s suave good looks and personality on Howard Hughes, publisher of Playboy magazine: “Howard Hughes was one of the most colorful men of our time. He was an inventor, an adventurer, a multi-billionaire, a ladies’ man and finally a nutcase…Without being crazy, [Tony Stark] was Howard Hughes,” Lee said.
- In the original comic, Tony invents micro-transistors that increase magnetic force 1000 fold.
- Tony goes to Vietnam to see his invention tested by soldiers, but trips a landmine in the jungle. Chinese communists then capture him.
- A piece of shrapnel lodges in his chest and begins moving toward his heart. The shrapnel will kill him if it reaches his heart.
- A villainous communist leader named Wong-Chu promises to have surgeons save Stark if he will invent high tech. weapons for their army. He is, of course, lying. Stark agrees to make the weapons, but instead builds an iron body suit with a chest plate that will keep the shrapnel at bay using his transistor-powered magnets.
- Stark is assisted by Professor Yinsen, a famous physicist.
- Yinsen ends up sacrificing himself to give Stark enough time to power up his armor before Wong-Chu’s men can stop him.
- Iron Man then escapes from Wong-Chu’s clutches
- Stan Lee said of creating Iron Man: “I think I gave myself a dare. It was the height of the Cold War. The readers, 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 providing 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, none of our readers would like, and shove him down their throats and make them like him … And he became very popular.”
- Jack Kirby did the cover and designed the costume. Covers were done first. Don Heck designed the characters like Tony Stark and his secretary, Pepper Potts.
- The writer Gerry Conway (who did a lot of work for DC Comics) said, “Here you have this character, who on the outside is invulnerable, I mean, just can’t be touched, but inside is a wounded figure. Stan made it very much an in-your-face wound, you know, his heart was broken, you know, literally broken. But there’s a metaphor going on there. And that’s, I think, what made that character interesting.”
- Iron Man goes on to become one of the most powerful and important characters in the Marvel Universe.
Iron Man Song 1 (3:30)
- “Tin Man” by America
Public Service Announcement (PSA) #1 (5:00)
- Shout out for the Forest County Bigfoot Festival which just happened this past weekend up in Marienville, PA
- Great fun
- Lots of vendors, a Bigfoot 5k, and an appearance by Bigfoot in all his life-size hairy glory
- Something to check out next year!
- Bigfoot, a.k.a. Sasquatch, is a Marvel character in the Canadian superhero team Alpha Flight
- Iron Man met Alpha Flight in a comic called Marvel Adventures #11
- Also a Bigfoot hunt in the Allegheny National Forest
- Beautiful forest, worth visiting. Lots of horseback riding opportunities there.
- The Bigfoot hunt was super difficult
- Pennsylvania ranks third in the nation for Bigfoot sightings
- There have been many sightings at Kinzu Bridge State Park as well as the Allegheny National Forest
- John Stoneman took pictures of 2 Bigfeet in that area
- Plus lots of fun Bigfoot swag for sale in the Kinzu Bridge State Park gift shop
- If you do see a Bigfoot, try to get a good picture instead of getting thunderstruck!
Iron Man Song (4:54)
- “Thunderstruck” by AC/DC
- Song selected by my son Cormac which he first heard in Iron Man 2
Station ID: WIUP FM 90.1 (2:00)
- Alternative music for Indiana County and beyond
- Check out pagnucci.org and click the big Superhero Smash button
- Or email Professor X using the address superherosmash2023@gmail.com
PSA #2 (:30)
- AARP Heroes
Part 2 Ends (@40 minutes)
Part 3 Begins
Long Lost Hero: Tony Stark
- “Demon in a Bottle!” is a 9 issue story arc
- It runs from Iron Man #120-#128
- Written by David Michelinie and Bob Layton and illustrated by John Romita, Jr., Bob Layton, and Carmine Infantino.
- I met both John Romita, Jr. and Carmine Infantino at comicons. Romita drew a lot of Spider-Man comics and Infantino drew one of my favorite titles from when I was a kid, The Invaders, which was a World War II team of superheroes: Captain America, his sidekick Bucky, the Human Torch, his sidekick Toro, and Prince Namor the Sub-Mariner (who was featured in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever).
- In the story arc, Iron Man’s armor malfunctions and accidentally kills a foreign ambassador. The police demand that Iron Man turn over his armor. Stark begins to drink more heavily in response. Then he is asked by the Avengers to step down as team leader. Then he loses control of his company, Stark International, when S.H.I.E.L.D. buys up enough stock to take control of the company. All of this leads Stark to drink more and more heavily. He eventually is confronted by Bethany Cabe, his love interest at the time, about his drinking. Beth helps Tony to quit drinking and to get through withdrawal. The story arc ends with Tony conquering his alcoholism and optimistic about the future and regaining control of his company.
- As a kid, I hated the idea of Iron Man drinking. I didn’t understand why he was doing it and why he wouldn’t stop.
- The writer of the story, Bob Layton, said they were not trying to write a relevant story. They were just treating alcohol as the villain of the month and felt it was relevant to life in the high pressure corporate world.
- “Demon in a Bottle” has been recognized by critics as “the quintessential Iron Man story and one of the best super-hero sagas of the 1970s. The storyline won a 1980 Eagle Award for “Favorite Single Comic Book Story.”
- Later, knowing how much Robert Downey Jr. had gone through with his own addiction problems, I thought he was the perfect person to play Tony Stark before the first movie ever got made
- History shows he was indeed the ideal person to cast in the role, as Iron Man became the perfect start to the wondrous journey that was the MCU for its first decade
Long Lost Hero Song (3:52)
- “Highway to Hell” by AC/DC from Iron Man 2
Romantic Interlude (3:00)
- Tony Stark and Pepper Potts
- Movie called Duets about a hustler who scams people to win karaoke contests
- Who knew there were karaoke contests
- The film stars Huey Lewis and Gwyneth Paltro
- Lewis said he was amazed how well Paltro could sing
- Robert Downey Jr. who played Tony Stark also has a jazz album called The Futurist, but I wasn’t crazy about that one, so you’ll have to check it out yourself
- Instead, I’m going to give you the treat of Gwyneth who is the one of the greatest heroines in the MCU and great singer too!
Romantic Melody (4:21)
- “Bette Davis Eyes” by Gwyneth Paltro from the Duets Soundtrack
PSA #3 (3:00)
- Hope people had fun at Sci-Fi Valley Con in Altoona this past weekend
- Looking for another great comicon to attend: I’m heading to Awesome Con in Washington, D.C.
- Sam and Frodo will be there along with the new female Doctor Who, and Karen Gillan who plays Nebula in the Guardians of the Galaxy movies
- Remember I featured Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 a few weeks ago on Superhero Smash–the movie is probably still out if you didn’t get to see it yet; it was great!
- Shout out to the good folks who run The Washington Center Internship Program
- This program lets college students from across the country live in D.C. for the summer and do an internship
- My son Loughlin is there now doing an internship with Mid Atlantic Sports Consultants, LLC
To Be Continued Next Issue (1:00)
- Same Bat Time, same Bat Channel–Tune in next time for: The Flash
- The Flash premiers on June 16 and it looks really good
- Rebooting the DCU, including dumping the tired old name, DCEU (DC Extended Universe)
- Songs with Stephanie coming up at noon
- Contact me, the new Professor X, via email: SuperheroSmash2023@gmail.com
- And remember…
- You don’t need superpowers to be a hero. The only thing it takes to be a hero is the courage to do what’s right when someone needs your help.
End Credits Song (5:55)
- “Iron Man” by Black Sabbath
Part 3 Ends (@60 minutes)