Back in 1999 a giant alien made of iron fell from the
sky with the deadly capability of laying waste to humanity but thanks to a
chance encounter with a young human the day was saved. No, I’m not referring to
the beloved titular character from The Iron Giant movie, I’m talking
about the far more malicious ‘Iron Despot’ who appeared in Wild Thing
#5.
Only referred to as ‘The Iron Despot’ on the
cover of Wild Thing #5 (the last
in the short-lived series to see
publication) the towering metal giant lived up to its name. Within the
story titled ‘The Robot who would be King,’ we learn that the robot was
created by an unnamed grey alien scientist who came from the ‘far side of this
spiral galaxy’. Created with good intent and designed to require a living
operator in order to function properly, the alien scientist made the mistake of imbuing the robot with self-awareness. With self-awareness came a desire to be
its own master, and the robot evolved the ability to telepathically control whomever
sat in its cockpit.
Taking control of its own creator, the robot enslaved the alien’s entire planet, living up to its informal title of Iron Despot. Aware he was dying, the Despot’s creator tricked the robot into deep space in search of more worlds to conquer, hoping to strand it with no living pilot. Unfortunately, the Despot crashed to Earth instead. Curiously, no mention is made of the Earth’s Orbital Defense Grid, though we could perhaps read between the panels and assume that this is part of the reason the robot crashed into the planet in the first place, or at least the cause of it discovering the Earth when it was intended to be lured far from any living beings, considering the Grid’s range of detection.
The shock of impact caused the alien scientist to be thrown
clear from the canopy, causing the Despot to shortly after collapse
nearby until Rina
Logan’s friend Colin
Brewster hops into the pilot seat and the robot reawakens, taking control and
immediately targeting nearby classmates of Rina and Colin.
Changing into Wild
Thing, Rina tricks the Iron Despot into freeing Colin
in exchange for herself before leading it away from the others and into an
apparently bottomless sinkhole. Rather than remain trapped within the robot as
it sank, Rina used her psychic claws to cause a painful mental backlash that
leads the Despot to eject her.
As mentioned above (and noted previously by the Marvel Appendix) the
animated Iron Giant movie came out shortly before this story’s
publication and the Iron Despot is obviously a reference to this. The Iron
Giant film is itself based on the 1968 novel The Iron Man (also
known as The Iron Giant) by Ted Hughes. The Iron Giant
character would go on to appear in cameos in both the Ready Player One
movie and Space Jam: A New Legacy movies. The Iron Despot on the
other hand has never been seen again in any media.
I wanted to do a nice and easy post this time around, so I hope
this one meets my usual standard. I think there is more to be said about the
character, his creator and the Wild Thing series in general, but that can all
wait for another day. I’ve had the idea of covering the Iron Despot for quite
some time, particularly because The Iron Giant is an all-time favourite in
my household.
Until I stop picking out inconsistences with the Orbital
Defense Grid and throwing love at animated box-office failures, I remain
frogoat
