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Mireya Navarro

Prospectus Draft

Professor Carmen Acevedo Butcher

28 October 2022

Prospectus Draft

After completing Project 1 and spending time exploring myself and my goals, I came to

the conclusion that a main inspiration in life was Iron Man (Tony Stark). The reason is I grew up

watching Marvel movies, but seeing Tony Stark going through many traumatic experiences and

hardships in his life but still using his intelligence and skills to make a suit and help others is

what made me want to become like him. The main question that I will be exploring is how this

character was the best representation of humanity, being human, in the marvel universe, and how

he was liked and inspired by many people both fictional and realistic.

Tony Stark not only inspired many people in the Marvel Universe, but he was also able to

inspire viewers due to his universal elements of humanity that make him so relatable. For me he

was a reason why I want to become an engineer, the fact that our brains and creativity can create

new technology to save lives, I want to do that, and also his passion for serving the Universe

motivated me to work towards entering the Air Force and serving my country. I was also able to

relate some parts of him to my father, I could see a version of Iron Man in him. They were both

engineers, sarcastic, funny, smart, overcame their fears, and sacrificed a lot for those they love.

Tony Stark died in the movie “Avengers: Endgame”, a movie directed by Anthony Russo

and Joe Russo. I watched this movie in theaters and I cried when that scene appeared, I went

home and continued to cry. For weeks I was devastated because this character meant so much to

me. So the idea of appreciating how amazing human life is came to mind, I want to understand
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why Tony Stark became part of me and how his life impacted mine. The theme of what humanity

is was also brought up in “Speak, Memory”, an article written by founder and editor of

Platformer Casey Newton, in it he explains the amazing story of how Eugenia Kuyda and her

team created a bot with multiple messages of Roman Mazurenko to remember him when he

passed away. This reminded me of how Tony Stark left a message, knowing he was going to die,

to his daughter and wife in the movie, and how he left behind gifts to his closest friends and

teammates. Death is part of being human, but sacrificing is something incredible that humans do

for many reasons, for him it was to bring hope to humanity back and prove that we are

unstoppable when the motivation is there.

My thesis statement then would be to explain that Iron Man (Tony Stark) was the best

representation of humanity in the Marvel Universe. We have 6 original characters, the Avengers,

and even though 2 of them are also human, Tony Stark was different. He had a tragic loss of his

parents, then gets injured during a kidnapping event, and uses his intelligence to break free by

creating a suit. During such event he learns that his equipment is being used for the wrong

purposes, so he makes a suit to save people using his intelligence and tools. From there on he

becomes part of the Avengers and multiple times he faces near-death experiences. He had fears,

and nightmares, and made mistakes, which made him human. He knew that he could die at any

moment but he continued to fight for the sake of people even though he didn’t have to. And at

the end he gave his life to save the entire Earth, even though he had a daughter and wife, he was

selfless and gave it his all.

Therefore, the idea of this research paper is to be able to explore and explain how Tony

Stark had universal elements and themes of humanity that allowed him to be relatable to his

viewers and inspire them as well. I want to explore the ideas of being human, what it means to be
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human, and humanity. I also plan to explore what and how you become a superhero and connect

it all together to explain how Iron Man was human but still served and sacrificed it all for

everyone. I want to target Marvel fans, but also psychology and film-related majors by using a

conceptual lens and case study lens.

Annotated Bibliography

Brockmeier, Erica K. “Iron Man: The Engineer Who Became a Superhero.” Penn Today, 24 July

2019,

https://penntoday.upenn.edu/news/iron-man-engineer-who-became-superhero?

utm_source=Primary&utm_campaign=f19c4b4fbd-

EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_07_23_11_35_COPY_02&utm_medium=email&

utm_term=0_3777f2ca8f-f19c4b4fbd-44419169

- This article written by Ph.D.-trained toxicologist and science writer wrote an article that

was a Q&A with assistant professor of electrical and systems engineering Marc Miskin

and assistant professor of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics James Pikul

by Penn Today (University of Pennsylvania) to talk about the engineering challenges that

we face today that limit us to create a fully functional Iron Man suit. Throughout the

article, we learn more about the current technology that we can use to accomplish the suit

and how Iron Man himself was an inspiration to many engineers to start building a suit

just like the character.

- Tony Stark was an inspiration to many characters in the Marvel Universe, but his

intelligence and creativity are what really allowed him to step into the superhero world.

He didn’t have superpowers or proper fighting training, he used his brain to create an

amazing suit. His technology became an inspiration to many in the real world to

challenge our skills in order to create a replica of his suit. It was also a motivation for me

to become an engineer.

Marvel Entertainment. “Iron Man (Tony Stark): Characters: Marvel.” Marvel Entertainment,

https://www.marvel.com/characters/iron-man-tony-stark
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- This page talks about Tony Stark or Iron Man. As stated on the website, "Inventor Tony

Stark applies his genius for high-tech solutions to problems as Iron Man, the armored

Avenger", and in this website, we get an overview of this character, the on-screen profile,

full report, and the in comics profile with the full report. They go into detail about how

Iron Man is in the comics and the adaptation taken to the films, and how they do their

best to portray Iron Man in the comics.

- As I am talking about Iron Man, I need to get more information of who he is and about

his past to explain how he can be human. I need to know what inspired him and what

made him feel afraid in many cases.

Mittermeier, Sabrina. Review of Avengers: Endgame. Science Fiction Film and Television, vol.

14 no. 3, 2021, p. 423-429. Project MUSE muse.jhu.edu/article/815929.

- This article is a review and an analysis of the movie “Avengers: Endgame” from Sabrina

Mittermeier, postdoc in American cultural history at the University of Kassel, Germany,

and author. Here she explains how parts of the movie were expected and how some fans

reacted to certain parts of the movie, but most importantly how even though this movie

was mainly focused on ending the cycle of the original 6 Avengers, it was an ending and

main focus on Captain American (Steve Rogers) and Iron Man (Tony Stark).

- This movie was the ending of the ‘Infinity Saga’ in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but

the author explains how this movie has a focus on Tony Stark and Steve Rogers, and how

it was in a way obvious that Tony Stark would sacrifice himself and his reasoning behind

it. The ending of a human superhero. It all fit together, the past, present, and future, all

thanks to Tony Stark. This emphasizes how important he was to the story and the

character development we see in him as a hero and a human.

Taylor, James C. "Reading the Marvel Cinematic Universe: The Avengers’ Intertextual

Aesthetic." JCMS: Journal of Cinema and Media Studies, vol. 60 no. 3, 2021, p.

129-156. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/cj.2021.0030.

- Teaching fellow at the University of Warwick’s Department of Film and Television

Studies James C. Taylor wrote an article explaining how Marvel Studios films use the

original stories and comic books to create their films by connecting the characters to the

original story and the universe overall but also including modified intertextuality which

can be applied to human values and sociopolitical implications.

- This article goes into detail on how Marvel worked to bring to life the Marvel comics,

and it explains how Iron Man was a character that was represented with the original story

in the Marvel comics but how Marvel Studio films changed certain aspects to fit to

current world problems and trends.

Y. Leung, Artificial Intelligence and Expert Systems, International Encyclopedia of Human

Geography, Elsevier, 2009, Pages 207-213, ISBN 9780080449104,

https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-008044910-4.00402-8.

- This source explains how new technology can use different sources from geographical

knowledge from investigation and analysis of human behavior to create systems that can

solve complex decision-making problems just like humans do. An author from the

University of Hong Kong Yeehong Leung explores databases and structures that can be

implemented in technology in many fields to support human decision-making problems

throughout his article.

- This source relates to Tony Stark, as he had very limited time during his kidnapping to

find a way to escape, with no sources but just his knowledge. After he created the suit he
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was able to develop more improvements to help his decision-making, this article can

explain more connections between how artificial intelligence and technology can help

humans in decision-making problems. Since Tony Stark is still in command of his suit

but needs to make quick decisions in many fights, an emotional and logical issue humans

have.
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Works Cited

Brockmeier, Erica K. “Iron Man: The Engineer Who Became a Superhero.” Penn Today, 24 July

2019,

https://penntoday.upenn.edu/news/iron-man-engineer-who-became-superhero?

utm_source=Primary&utm_campaign=f19c4b4fbd-

EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_07_23_11_35_COPY_02&utm_medium=email&

utm_term=0_3777f2ca8f-f19c4b4fbd-44419169

Marvel Entertainment. “Iron Man (Tony Stark): Characters: Marvel.” Marvel Entertainment,

https://www.marvel.com/characters/iron-man-tony-stark

Mittermeier, Sabrina. Review of Avengers: Endgame. Science Fiction Film and Television, vol.

14 no. 3, 2021, p. 423-429. Project MUSE muse.jhu.edu/article/815929.

Taylor, James C. "Reading the Marvel Cinematic Universe: The Avengers’ Intertextual

Aesthetic." JCMS: Journal of Cinema and Media Studies, vol. 60 no. 3, 2021, p.

129-156. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/cj.2021.0030.

Y. Leung, Artificial Intelligence and Expert Systems, International Encyclopedia of Human

Geography, Elsevier, 2009, Pages 207-213, ISBN 9780080449104,

https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-008044910-4.00402-8.