Iron Man 3: The 9/11 Meme Comes Full Circle

Marvel Promo Poster.

By: Peter Parker

Sometime ago this writer made a discovery that was featured here on Jay’s Analysis concerning an episode of the 1990’s Iron Man animated series.  As is the case with numerous films and television shows, this episode contained scenes that seemed to eerily prefigure certain aspects of the 9-11 tragedy.  Interestingly, this particular episode featured not one, but two major parallels to the events of that fateful day, yet surprisingly, at the time, I had never seen this episode featured in any of the internet’s exhaustive lists of ‘9-11 predictive programming.’  I am not suggesting that its absence was due to any conspiracy within a conspiracy, presumably this was merely indicative of the extreme unpopularity of the 90s Iron Man cartoon.  However, its absence from most lists is still in some ways surprising, given how closely it resembled the September 11^th terror attacks. Arguably, of all the examples of ‘9-11 semiotic programming,’ perhaps only the infamous Lone Gunmen pilot came as close to mirroring the real life event.

The episode, which originally aired in 1994, was entitled “The Grim Reaper Wears a Teflon Coat.”  It opens with a control room of NORAD operatives panicking as the new experimental plane, the Grim Reaper, slips by their defenses and begins raining a volley of missiles on New York City.  Amongst the buildings hit in the attack are the Twin Towers.  Moments later it is revealed that this attack was nothing more than a video simulation being shown to high-ranking military officials, illustrating what might happen should the Grim Reaper, the military’s newest super weapon, fall into the wrong hands.  Unfortunately, fall into the wrong hands it does when the Mandarin, a shadowy super-villain who operates out of a secret base in the mountains of Tibet, has his agents steal the plane.  Viewers are treated to yet another simulated attack when the Mandarin shows his followers exactly how he plans to use the Grim Reaper; he will fly it into the Pentagon, destroying the heart of American military power!  Needless to say, the bad guy’s plans are foiled by Iron Man by the episode’s end.

Promo picture with Robert Downey, Jr. posing with the terrists

The 9-11 parallels are obviously quite strong; a plane is used to attack both the Twin Towers and the Pentagon and, linking up with ‘conspiracy theorist’ views of the event, both attacks are nothing more than simulations. However, since the episode’s release and indeed since the events of 9-11 itself, the Iron Man films have actually reinforced these resemblances.  This began with the first Iron Man movie in 2008, in which the hero battles a terrorist organization called The Ten Rings, which operates throughout Central Asia.  Read more of this post