The Crossing

**PatrickG** · 09-25-2006, 03:06 PM

Is anybody having flashbacks to the early 90s story "The Crossing" in which the original Tony Stark died and was replaced by the teenage version who was transformed by Franklin Richards into the Tony we have now?

Marvel's glossed over that a lot... But technically Teen Tony is the current Tony and the Tony who founded the Avengers died after being brainwashed by kang into becoming a traitor.

I hate to see such a story revisited on some level and yet I think you could PARTIALLY redeem Tony by swapping back to the traitor who worked for Kang.

I mean, sure, he took DNA samples from heroes with the idea of cloning them... But he wasn't the one who acted on it.

You could bring back the "original" Tony and have him horrified at what the "current" Tony did with the plans he set into motion. Thus, the emotional consequence of being a rat bastard would weigh on Tony Stark but you'd be free of the Secretary of Defense baggage as well as the baggage of being an outright fascist.

And along the way, you finally iron out the wrinkle that the Iron Man we have isn't technically the original Tony Stark.

Reed's a bit trickier to redeem but the words "Dark Raider", "Brute" and "Ovoid Mindmeld" all seem like the start of copouts I'd accept to get the FF back together.

**TheCrow13** · 09-25-2006, 03:09 PM

All the histort that the "fake" tony had in the last 13 years would be pointless....

**kalorama** · 09-25-2006, 03:11 PM

Originally Posted by TheCrow13

All the histort that the "fake" tony had in the last 13 years would be pointless....

Is that necessarily a bad thing?

**Nick MB** · 09-25-2006, 03:17 PM

Wow, an actual Iron Man Clone Saga... good luck with that...

Seriously, I'm curious whether you could pull that on a character less high profile than Spidey and get away with it...

**PatrickG** · 09-25-2006, 03:28 PM

Originally Posted by Nick MB

Wow, an actual Iron Man Clone Saga... good luck with that...

Seriously, I'm curious whether you could pull that on a character less high profile than Spidey and get away with it...

Well, the difference this time is that while the Spider-clone story played with which Peter was real, people who know the continuity know that this Tony isn't. Even if he's exactly what Tony WOULD be, he's TECHNICALLY not Tony.

**Locue** · 09-25-2006, 03:38 PM

I learn something new every day on these forums.

**spyridona** · 09-25-2006, 04:41 PM

Whoa. Wait. WHAT?

Current Tony = (Former) Teen Tony?

How could TEEN TONY get the Thor samples if he was brought to the future and his aging process speed up until his then current age.

**XPac** · 09-25-2006, 04:46 PM

I know Busiek kind of resolved that whole teen Tony thing, but I was always sort of confused about it. When Franklin did the Heroes reborn thing, did he just age the teen Tony to fit the Tony he knew, or did he bring back the old Tony? Or did he just kind of merge both. That whole thing was pretty weird.

**StoneGold** · 09-25-2006, 06:20 PM

Originally Posted by XPac

I know Busiek kind of resolved that whole teen Tony thing, but I was always sort of confused about it. When Franklin did the Heroes reborn thing, did he just age the teen Tony to fit the Tony he knew, or did he bring back the old Tony? Or did he just kind of merge both. That whole thing was pretty weird.

Let's put it this way, when he came back, Tony checked his grave and no one was there. Even when it happened, it was basically a Principal Tamzarian retcon: "And we shall never mention this again, under penalty of torture!"

**Mean Mr Mustard** · 09-25-2006, 07:59 PM

Current Tony is basically Old Tony with the memories of both Teen Tony and original Tony.
I guess you could make the point that he's actually teen Tony with the memories of both original Tony and Teen Tony but who would want that?
:/