Elon Musk as Tony Stark

[Philip Chee]

SpaceX wants its astronauts to look like superheroes

Between SpaceX’s successful launch and landing of its reusable Falcon 9
rocket and its increasingly likely odds of putting humans on Mars soon,
the house that Musk built is on a hot streak not unlike the Marvel
Cinematic Universe. After all, Elon Musk was the inspiration for Robert
Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark.

The SpaceX/Marvel connection is about to get even more explicit. The
aerospace manufacturer has hired superhero movie costume designer Jose
Fernandez to sculpt the new SpaceX spacesuits.

Fernandez is the owner of Ironhead Studio, and if you’re even a casual
fan of superhero movies, DC or Marvel, you’ve seen his designs.
Fernandez crafted costumes for both of this year’s
superhero-on-superhero brawls, Captain America: Civil War and Batman v
Superman: Dawn of Justice. Specifically he created concepts for Black
Panther, Ben Affleck’s Batman, and Wonder Woman. But his work in the
genre goes back even further. He’s responsible for Catwoman’s and The
Penguin’s iconic looks in Batman Returns as well as the controversial
black rubber suits of the early X-Men films. He even collaborated with
Daft Punk for their cameo in Tron: Legacy.

Suffice it to say, Fernandez has experience making stylish, heroic
costumes. And stylish, heroic costumes are exactly what Musk wants his
SpaceX astronauts to be wearing when they head for Mars sometime before
2025. Fernandez will come up with the designs before engineers make them
a reality.

Obviously spacesuits have a lot of restrictions and requirements to
adhere to in order to function, but it’s interesting Musk also cares
about the aesthetics of the outfits. Maybe that’s the luxury of being a
private company. Compare this to NASA’s plans for decidedly more
utilitarian 3D-printed Z-2 suits for its 2030s manned Mars missions.

If you’re looking for more hints as to what the astronauts of the future
might look like, check out more designs from Ironhead Studio, including
unused designs like a comics-accurate Apocalypse. As science fiction
starts to become science fact, it’s good we’re not forgetting that the
future should look cool, too. Going to Mars should look as stylish and
heroic as it actually is.

<http://www.geek.com/science/spacex-wants-its-astronauts-to-look-like-superheroes-1654237/>

Phil (Waiting for Elon Musk's Ironman suit)

--
Philip Chee <phi...@aleytys.pc.my>, <phili...@gmail.com>
http://flashblock.mozdev.org/ http://xsidebar.mozdev.org
Guard us from the she-wolf and the wolf, and guard us from the thief,
oh Night, and so be good for us to pass.

[Evelyn Leeper]

On 5/6/16 12:03 PM, Philip Chee wrote:
> SpaceX wants its astronauts to look like superheroes
>
> Between SpaceX’s successful launch and landing of its reusable Falcon 9
> rocket and its increasingly likely odds of putting humans on Mars soon,
> the house that Musk built is on a hot streak not unlike the Marvel
> Cinematic Universe. After all, Elon Musk was the inspiration for Robert
> Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark.
>
> The SpaceX/Marvel connection is about to get even more explicit. The
> aerospace manufacturer has hired superhero movie costume designer Jose
> Fernandez to sculpt the new SpaceX spacesuits.

Well, heck, he named his platforms after ships from Iain M. Banks's
"Culture" series: "Just Read the Instructions" and "Of Course I Still
Love You".

--
Evelyn C. Leeper
Global consciousness is that thing responsible for deciding that
decaffeinated coffeepots should be orange. --Danny Hillis

[Kevrob]

On Friday, May 6, 2016 at 1:38:19 PM UTC-4, ele...@optonline.net wrote:
> On 5/6/16 12:03 PM, Philip Chee wrote:
> > SpaceX wants its astronauts to look like superheroes
> >
> > Between SpaceX's successful launch and landing of its reusable Falcon 9
> > rocket and its increasingly likely odds of putting humans on Mars soon,
> > the house that Musk built is on a hot streak not unlike the Marvel
> > Cinematic Universe. After all, Elon Musk was the inspiration for Robert
> > Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark.
> >
> > The SpaceX/Marvel connection is about to get even more explicit. The
> > aerospace manufacturer has hired superhero movie costume designer Jose
> > Fernandez to sculpt the new SpaceX spacesuits.
>
> Well, heck, he named his platforms after ships from Iain M. Banks's
> "Culture" series: "Just Read the Instructions" and "Of Course I Still
> Love You".

One might hazard a guess that Tony Stark inspired Elon Musk?
What Marvel comics were available in the RSA when he was a kid?

..and it's "Iron Man" not Ironman. I think without the space you are
talking about triathletes, which would still be cool. Just put on
the suit and you can run, swim and bike like a champion, right?

People always forget Spider-Man's hyphen, too.

Kevin R

[lal_truckee]

On 5/6/16 9:03 AM, Philip Chee wrote:
> After all, Elon Musk was the inspiration for Robert
> Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark.

Howard Hughes.

Howard Hughes has to be the inspiration. After all, Iron Man predates
Elon Musk's notoriety by decades.

[Gutless Umbrella Carrying Sissy]

lal_truckee <lal_t...@yahoo.com> wrote in
news:ngim7k$suu$1...@dont-email.me:

NO the inspriation for Tony Stark, the inspiration for *Robert*
*Downey* *Jr.'s* Tony Stark.

The original inspiration, yeah, Howard Hughes had to be a big part of
it.

--
Terry Austin

"Terry Austin: like the polio vaccine, only with more asshole."
-- David Bilek

Jesus forgives sinners, not criminals.

[Kevrob]

On Friday, May 6, 2016 at 2:25:34 PM UTC-4, Gutless Umbrella Carrying Sissy wrote:
> lal_truckee <lal_t...@yahoo.com> wrote in
> news:ngim7k$suu$1...@dont-email.me:
>
> > On 5/6/16 9:03 AM, Philip Chee wrote:
> >> After all, Elon Musk was the inspiration for Robert
> >> Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark.
> >
> > Howard Hughes.
> >
> > Howard Hughes has to be the inspiration. After all, Iron Man
> > predates Elon Musk's notoriety by decades.
> >
> NO the inspriation for Tony Stark, the inspiration for *Robert*
> *Downey* *Jr.'s* Tony Stark.
>
> The original inspiration, yeah, Howard Hughes had to be a big part of
> it.
>

And, as Marvel adapted "comic book time" starting in the 1970s,
eventually it became plausible for Tony Stark's Dad, who ran Stark
Industries before him, to be a Hughes stand-in.

The Marvel Movies, notably Iron Man 2, the first Captain America
film and the Agent Carter TV series make this very plain.

See:

http://www.reviewjournal.com/columns-blogs/news/iron-man-howard-hughes

Tony's dad is even _Howard_ Stark, and that was from the comics,
well before the movies.

First appearance (a flashback) IRON MAN #28, Aug 1970 cover date

http://www.comics.org/issue/23654/

Story: Archie Goodwin
Pencils: Don Heck
Inks: Johnny Craig


Kevin R

[David Goldfarb]

In article <7d24b913-f201-4a2d...@googlegroups.com>,

Kevrob <kev...@my-deja.com> wrote:
>..and it's "Iron Man" not Ironman. I think without the space you are
>talking about triathletes, which would still be cool. Just put on
>the suit and you can run, swim and bike like a champion, right?
>
>People always forget Spider-Man's hyphen, too.

I blame Superman and Batman, for being the highest-profile "-man"
characters, so that everyone assumes all characters follow the
same naming pattern.

--
David Goldfarb |"I weep for the death of the spirit and soul."
goldf...@gmail.com | "Hey, who doesn't? We'll be right back."
gold...@ocf.berkeley.edu | -- Mystery Science Theatre 3000

[Scott Dorsey]

David Goldfarb <goldf...@gmail.com> wrote:
>In article <7d24b913-f201-4a2d...@googlegroups.com>,
>Kevrob <kev...@my-deja.com> wrote:
>>..and it's "Iron Man" not Ironman. I think without the space you are
>>talking about triathletes, which would still be cool. Just put on
>>the suit and you can run, swim and bike like a champion, right?
>>
>>People always forget Spider-Man's hyphen, too.
>
>I blame Superman and Batman, for being the highest-profile "-man"
>characters, so that everyone assumes all characters follow the
>same naming pattern.

All the great superheros are Indian! Hanuman! Briberyman! Khatman-du....
well, skip that last one.
--scott


--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

[Kevrob]

No, they're Jewish*. Most of their creators were, having been
shut out of higher paying illustration work by prejudice, or,
in some cases, lack of talent. :)

Kevin R

Not an original observation. Goes back at least to Robert Mayer's
1977 "Super Folks."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superfolks

[Kevrob]

Mayer may have gotten the meme from Paul Krassner.

http://articles.latimes.com/2004/sep/19/books/bk-krassner19

Kevin R

[Keith F. Lynch]

lal_truckee <lal_t...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Philip Chee wrote:

>> After all, Elon Musk was the inspiration for Robert Downey Jr.\222s
>> Tony Stark.

> Howard Hughes has to be the inspiration. After all, Iron Man
> predates Elon Musk's notoriety by decades.

He did say Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark. (Well, okay, he said
"Robert Downey Jr.\222s Tony Stark," but he's hardly the only person
here who's unable to combat a persistent infestation of Microsoft
roaches in his texts.)

I think that version of Iron Man is derivative of a movie from 17
years earlier, The Rocketeer. That movie actually featured Howard
Hughes as a character, though not as the character who flew around
in the rocket suit.
--
Keith F. Lynch - http://keithlynch.net/
Please see http://keithlynch.net/email.html before emailing me.

[Kevrob]

On Saturday, May 7, 2016 at 2:19:50 PM UTC-4, Keith F. Lynch wrote:
> lal_truckee <lal_t...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> > Philip Chee wrote:
> >> After all, Elon Musk was the inspiration for Robert Downey Jr.\222s
> >> Tony Stark.
>
> > Howard Hughes has to be the inspiration. After all, Iron Man
> > predates Elon Musk's notoriety by decades.
>
> He did say Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark. (Well, okay, he said
> "Robert Downey Jr.\222s Tony Stark," but he's hardly the only person
> here who's unable to combat a persistent infestation of Microsoft
> roaches in his texts.)
>
> I think that version of Iron Man is derivative of a movie from 17
> years earlier, The Rocketeer. That movie actually featured Howard
> Hughes as a character, though not as the character who flew around
> in the rocket suit.

That was a "change the character so we don't get sued" situation.
In the original comics stories, the unnamed rocket-pack inventor
and was very plainly Clark Savage, Jr., M.D.

Kevin R

[Philip Chee]

On 08/05/2016 02:19, Keith F. Lynch wrote:
> lal_truckee <lal_t...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>> Philip Chee wrote:
>>> After all, Elon Musk was the inspiration for Robert Downey Jr.\222s
>>> Tony Stark.
>
>> Howard Hughes has to be the inspiration. After all, Iron Man
>> predates Elon Musk's notoriety by decades.
>
> He did say Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark. (Well, okay, he said
> "Robert Downey Jr.\222s Tony Stark," but he's hardly the only person
> here who's unable to combat a persistent infestation of Microsoft
> roaches in his texts.)
>
> I think that version of Iron Man is derivative of a movie from 17
> years earlier, The Rocketeer.

You do know that Disney's The Rocketeer is based on an earlier work
don't you?

> That movie actually featured Howard Hughes as a character,

IIRC, in the original graphic novel, it was a thinly disguised Doc
Savage Jr.

> though not as the character who flew around in the rocket suit.

This is not exactly a secret (You *can* look things up you know?). In
many interviews, RDJ specifically cites Elon Musk as his model for Tony
Stark:

Also life imitates art imitates life. After the release of IRON MAN,
Musk started being more like the screen Tony Stark.

[[
AS HE PREPARED TO BEGIN FILMING IRON MAN IN EARLY 2007, the director
Jon Favreau rented out a complex in Los Angeles that once belonged to
Hughes Aircraft, the aerospace and defense contractor started about
eighty years earlier by Howard Hughes. The facility had a series of
interlocking hangars and served as a production office for the movie. It
also supplied Robert Downey Jr., who was to play Iron Man and his human
creator Tony Stark, with a splash of inspiration. Downey felt nostalgic
looking at one of the larger hangars, which had fallen into a state of
disrepair. Not too long ago, that building had played host to the big
ideas of a big man who shook up industries and did things his own way.

Downey heard some rumblings about a Hughes-like figure named Elon
Musk who had constructed his own, modern-day industrial complex about
ten miles away. Instead of visualizing how life might have been for
Hughes, Downey could perhaps get a taste of the real thing. He set off
in March 2007 for SpaceX’s headquarters in El Segundo and wound up
receiving a personal tour from Musk. “My mind is not easily blown, but
this place and this guy were amazing,” Downey said.

To Downey, the SpaceX facility looked like a giant, exotic hardware
store. Enthusiastic employees were zipping about, fiddling with an
assortment of machines. Young white-collar engineers interacted with
blue-collar assembly line workers, and they all seemed to share a
genuine excitement for what they were doing. “It felt like a radical
start-up company,” Downey said. After the initial tour, Downey came away
pleased that the sets being hammered out at the Hughes factory did have
parallels to the SpaceX factory. “Things didn’t feel out of place,” he
said.

Beyond the surroundings, Downey really wanted a peek inside Musk’s
psyche. The men walked, sat in Musk’s office, and had lunch. Downey
appreciated that Musk was not a foul-smelling, fidgety, coder whack job.
What Downey picked up on instead were Musk’s “accessible eccentricities”
and the feeling that he was an unpretentious sort who could work
alongside the people in the factory. Both Musk and Stark were the type
of men, according to Downey, who “had seized an idea to live by and
something to dedicate themselves to” and were not going to waste a moment.

When he returned to the Iron Man production office, Downey asked
that Favreau be sure to place a Tesla Roadster in Tony Stark’s workshop.
On a superficial level, this would symbolize that Stark was so cool and
connected that he could get a Road- ster before it even went on sale. On
a deeper level, the car was to be placed as the nearest object to
Stark’s desk so that it formed something of a bond between the actor,
the character, and Musk. “After meeting Elon and making him real to me,
I felt like having his presence in the workshop,” Downey said. “They
became contemporaries. Elon was someone Tony probably hung out with and
partied with or more likely they went on some weird jungle trek together
to drink concoctions with the shamans.”

After Iron Man came out, Favreau began talking up Musk’s role as the
inspiration for Downey’s interpretation of Tony Stark. It was a stretch
on many levels. Musk is not exactly the type of guy who downs scotch in
the back of a Humvee while part of a military convoy in Afghanistan. But
the press lapped up the comparison, and Musk started to become more of a
public fig- ure. People who sort of knew him as “that PayPal guy” began
to think of him as the rich, eccentric businessman behind SpaceX and Tesla.

Musk enjoyed his rising profile. It fed his ego and provided some fun.
]]

Phil

[Philip Chee]

On 08/05/2016 14:34, Philip Chee wrote:
> On 08/05/2016 02:19, Keith F. Lynch wrote:

> This is not exactly a secret (You *can* look things up you know?). In
> many interviews, RDJ specifically cites Elon Musk as his model for Tony
> Stark:

Ooops forgot to insert the link:

<https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/true-story-elon-musk-robert-downey-jr-tony-stark-ashlee-vance>

Here's another:

<http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2011/08/robert-downey-jr-modeled-his-portrayal-of-tony-stark-after-elon-musk-one-of-the-founders-of-zip2-paypal-tesla-motors-and-spacex/>

One day Keith will discover the concept of a search engine, but probably
not just yet.

[Scott Dorsey]

Kevrob <kev...@my-deja.com> wrote:
>On Friday, May 6, 2016 at 9:50:51 PM UTC-4, Scott Dorsey wrote:
>> David Goldfarb <goldf...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> >In article <7d24b913-f201-4a2d...@googlegroups.com>,
>> >Kevrob <kev...@my-deja.com> wrote:
>> >>..and it's "Iron Man" not Ironman. I think without the space you are
>> >>talking about triathletes, which would still be cool. Just put on
>> >>the suit and you can run, swim and bike like a champion, right?
>> >>
>> >>People always forget Spider-Man's hyphen, too.
>> >
>> >I blame Superman and Batman, for being the highest-profile "-man"
>> >characters, so that everyone assumes all characters follow the
>> >same naming pattern.
>>
>> All the great superheros are Indian! Hanuman! Briberyman! Khatman-du....
>> well, skip that last one.
>
>No, they're Jewish*. Most of their creators were, having been
>shut out of higher paying illustration work by prejudice, or,
>in some cases, lack of talent. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GC_Q2YKNR0

[Kevrob]

That's funny, but Krassner's routine is probably 30 years older.

Mongoose Man? Well, the origin story of Marvel's Flash knockoff,
the Whizzer, involved a transfusion of mongoose blood - not even
radioactive mongoose blood!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whizzer_(Robert_Frank)

I don't think Bob Frank was supposed to be Indian, though.

As for Indian Superman....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5Pjo0WjBcs

Kevin R


Kevin R

[Keith F. Lynch]

Kevrob <kev...@my-deja.com> wrote:
> As for Indian Superman....

Well, people in India *are* aryans. :-)

[Scott Dorsey]

Kevrob <kev...@my-deja.com> wrote:
>
>As for Indian Superman....
>
>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5Pjo0WjBcs

This is truly spectacular. I would love to have seen a higher image quality
version of this.

This is my absolute second best superhero ripoff film of all time now.