viewing Iron Man's origin in IR's perspective:

- in Tales of Suspense #39 (1959) Tony Stark was captured by Vietnamese warlord and was forced to make weapons for them.
- in Iron Man (2008) Tony Stark was captured by an Afghanistan warlord and was forced to make weapons for them
while have the same underlying premise, both stories depict the antagonist based on who the US view as the enemy at the time; the former was told during the Vietnam War, while the latter during post-9/11 era.

This is what IR students know as implementing Popular Geopolitics (PG)
Dittmer & Dodds defined PG as geographical framing and associated ideas about power danger and
identity that are embedded within popular culture and mass medias to represent an actor's view in IR.

it's also conceptualized as a tool of nationalism, as you can see in this case.
Seeing through Marvel's entertainment, it's apparent that the industry were (or may still are) trying to represent the enemy of the US as a threat to the human world. Thus it constructs, if not, amplifies the audience views towards certain state or group outside the US.
Additionally, Marvel has wide varieties of bad guys in its universe, they have monsters, aliens, cosmic beings. Among humans, they have mad scientists, secret societies, and dictator of a fictional state.
they could've chosen one of those, but went for the US' enemy instead.
again, looking at MCU's idea of adapting another one of Iron Man's enemies, The Mandarin. He was depicted as a Middle Eastern guerrilla tyrant that still goes by its comicbook counterpart's name, despite not being a superpowered Chinese.

you can tell that Marvel's still at it.
I know full well that Ben Kingsley's character here isn't exactly The Mandarin himself.. but the idea of adapting the character that way is still interesting nonetheless.

Besides, they could've adapted The Mandarin the way he is supposed to be in the comics. But they didn't.
Now my point of making this thread isn't to say "Marvel--> US propaganda--> BAD!" by all means, no.

To put it simply..

I just missed making IR journals, and GeoGeo happens to be my favorite subject to write, that's all lololol
also, when discussing about Popular Geopolitics, I remember wanting to explain the geopolitical alterations of Iron Man's origin in the class. But one of the 10 asdoses there was like "psshh.. not this Marvel shit again, sit down boi!"

ah well, there ya go.
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