''Iron Man: Sound Effects'' is a one-issue comic book written by

Marc Sumerak Marc Sumerak (born 1978 in Solon, Ohio) is a freelance comic book writer from Cleveland, Ohio. He graduated from Bowling Green State University in 2000 and worked as an editor at Marvel Comics before becoming a freelance writer. His credits includ ...

, published by

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is an American comic book publishing, publisher and the flagship property of Marvel Entertainment, a divsion of The Walt Disney Company since September 1, 2009. Evolving from Timely Comics in 1939, ''Magazine Management/Atlas Co ...

. It features Blue Ear, a character created in honor of Anthony Smith, a

hard-of-hearing Hearing loss is a partial or total inability to hear. Hearing loss may be present at birth or acquired at any time afterwards. Hearing loss may occur in one or both ears. In children, hearing problems can affect the ability to acquire spoken l ...

4-year-old comic book fan from

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New Hampshire New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

, USA. Smith has no hearing in his right ear and minimal hearing in his left because he has Mosaic

trisomy 22 Trisomy 22 is a chromosomal disorder in which three copies of chromosome 22 are present rather than two. It is a frequent cause of spontaneous abortion during the first trimester of pregnancy. Progression to the second trimester and live birth ...

Publication history

Smith was given a

hearing aid A hearing aid is a device designed to improve hearing by making sound audible to a person with hearing loss. Hearing aids are classified as medical devices in most countries, and regulated by the respective regulations. Small audio amplifiers su ...

by his mother, Christina D'Allesandro, and was using it regularly until he became depressed and refused to wear it to school in 2012. According to Smith, "superheroes don't wear blue ears". D'Allesandro was alarmed by this and emailed Marvel Comics in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

for assistance with the situation. Designer and assistant editor, Nelson Ribeiro, then created the original image of the Blue Ear and sent it to the D'Allesandro family. Later, production artist Manny Mederos started working on a sketch of Blue Ear as a kid. Mederos told ''

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'' that during the creative process, Mederos had an idea: "Why not have the superhero be a young kid himself?" Marvel Comics responded by sending D'Allesandro comics of Hawkeye from the 1980s, when the superhero lost 80% of his hearing and had to wear hearing aids, along with a drawing of "The Blue Ear", a superhero based on Anthony, saying, "Thanks to my listening device I hear someone in trouble!" D'Allesandro stated that Smith took the comic book pictures to his preschool, which pushed teachers to have a "superhero week". Smith's grandfather, New Hampshire senator

Lou D'Allesandro Lou D'Allesandro (born July 30, 1938) is a Democratic member of the New Hampshire Senate, representing the 20th district since 1998. D'Allesandro has served as chair of Senate Finance and vice chair of the Ways & Means and Capital Budget commi ...

, stated, "This is a feel good moment, it's a feel good story, and we've got to get the world to recognize that." In March 2013, Smith attended an event at the Center for Hearing and Communication to debut a poster. The Blue Ear character returned for his comic debut in a Team-up Marvel Custom Solutions Iron Man Issue, along with the titular Iron Man & new character named Sapheara, for another campaign for deaf kids. Under the costumes based on Nelson Ribeiro's design, Blue Ear this time was written under the name 'Dr. Pedro Perez', & was given an origin for his heroic identity. Blue Ear returns with Sapheara under a four-part, one-page 'Limited Comic Strip Series' called ''Blue Ear & Sapheara'' in celebration for Better Hearing & Speech Month.

References

{{Iron Man Marvel Comics titles 2014 comics debuts Comics based on real people Comics characters introduced in 2012 Fictional deaf characters Iron Man storylines