Iron Man, who represents an imperial America, can only win Pyrrhic victories. Spencer Ackerman of Tapped Online has a nice history of the Iron Man comics that reads the character's alcoholism, Civil-War overzealousness, and persistent blundering "into a hell of unintended consequences" as a symbol and subtle critique of American exceptionalism and what Jonathan Schell among others has called "impotent omnipotence".
posted by gerryblog on May 16, 2008 - 123 comments

The Washington Independent went beta a few weeks ago. The site employs several reporters to do investigative journalism on topics of national importance. [more inside]
posted by shothotbot on Feb 8, 2008 - 14 comments