Posted in: Comics | Tagged: iron man, tony stark

Paul Weller – A Millionaire Thief In Today's Invincible Iron Man #594

Paul Weller formed The Jam in 1972 after seeing Status Quo in concert, playing bass guitar with his best friends Steve Brookes (lead guitar) and Dave Waller (rhythm guitar). Weller's father, acting as their manager, began booking the band into local working men's clubs. Joined by Rick Buckler on drums, and with Bruce Foxton soon replacing Waller on rhythm guitar, the four-piece band began to forge a local reputation, playing a mixture of Beatles covers and a number of compositions written by Weller and Brookes. Brookes left the band in 1976, and Weller and Foxton decided they would swap guitar roles.

On the back of that, The Jam's first single, In the City took them into the UK Top 40 in May 1977. Every subsequent single had a placing within the Top 40, but in 1979 they released the political The Eton Rifles (David Cameron's favourite, possibly missing the underlying messages) that would break into the UK Top Ten, reaching No 3 in November 1979. Their first number one single, Going Underground, was released in in March 1980.

As the band's popularity increased, however, Weller became restless and wanted to explore a more soulful, melodic style of music with a broader instrumentation, and in consequence in 1982 he announced that The Jam would disband. Their final single, Beat Surrender went to No. 1 in its first week, and had a series of sell out final concerts in Wembley.

In 1983, Paul Weller teamed up with keyboard player Mick Talbot to form a new group called The Style Council. Weller brought in Steve White to play drums, as well as singer Dee C. Lee, who had previously been a backing singer with Wham! Weller was able to experiment with a wide range of music, from pop and jazz to Soul/R&B, house and folk-styled ballads. The band was at the vanguard of a jazz/pop revival that would continue with the emergence of bands like Matt Bianco, Sade, and Everything but the Girl, whose members Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt contributed vocals and guitar to the 1984 The Style Council song Paris Match.

Many of The Style Council's early singles performed well in the charts, and Weller would also experience his first success in North America, when My Ever Changing Moods and You're The Best Thing entered the US Billboard Hot 100.

So when Weller appeared on 1984's Band Aid record Do They Know It's Christmas, was called upon to mime the absent Bono's lyrics on Top of the Pops and the Style Council were the second act to appear in the British half of Live Aid at Wembley Stadium in 1985, he was a major pop star. Rich, successful, with two big-name bands to his name.

Which is where today's Invincible Iron Man #594 comes in, And  musician-turned-producer, and biological mother of Tony Stark, Amanda Armstrong comes in. With quite the allegation.

Going through her purse backstage at Band Aid? Presuambly she means Live Aid, but at a charity concert? From a man already involved in raising money for other charities supporting the miners' strike at the time?

Now, in his autobiography, Paul Weller talks about shoplifting as a teenager to fund his glue habit. But by then, he could have afforded as much as he wanted.

We know that Brian Bendis hasn't had the greatest knowledge of British geography on the Iron Man titles. I guess we can add the finances of British pop stars at various stages in their lives to that as well…

Keith Moon, however… no, that's absolutely fine.

INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #594 LEG
(W) Brian Michael Bendis (A) Stefano Caselli, Alex Maleev (CA) R. B. Silva
THE SEARCH FOR TONY STARK Part 2
•  THE SEARCH FOR TONY STARK continues, as some very surprising people from his present, past and future come together to help.
•  Who will wield the power of Iron Man?
•  It's all building to one of the most-anticipated moments in Iron Man history!
Rated T+In Shops: Nov 22, 2017
SRP: $3.99

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!