Iron Man re: Ty Stone and the Controller

Has anyone noticed the similarities between Ty Stone character and the controller? In particular the controller stories from the Ironman issues of the 29X and the annual of around the same time drawn by Gene Colan.

I'd much rather see Controller than Ty Stone but apparently Mark Grell isn't very familiar with IM's history and opted to base his run on more recent issues. You can tell that he has only read the poorly-received Frank Tieri

I suspect the point of this arc was to reunite Tony and Rumiko, and as a necessary consequence, to get Ty Stone out of the way.

Although this issue he struck me as a cut-price Arcade-cum-Mysterio more than anything else.

I hope this means a return to Kurt B's take on Iron Man. More of a James Bond type of character with Rumiko very much involved as his accomplise. I believe that this issue had a reference to IM v3 #13 where Rumiko turns the power off on the Controller. I picked this up by Tony's reference to 'this is something that you can do.....and it is right up your alley.' If this is a reference then Mr. Grell is doing his homework on the

If it ain't Arcade, Paul, it can only be cut-price...