It's Time for Elon Musk to Channel His Inner Tony Stark

How much danger is the Elon Musk brand in?

When Tony Stark - the fictional Iron Man - got captured by Islamic terrorists in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, he didn’t get high and call them “boring.”

Tesla CEO Elon Musk - who is often compared with Stark's character in publications like Time and the Guardian - did pretty much exactly that.

And he wasn’t even captured by Islamic terrorists.

Musk was merely bothered by what he apparently considered impertinent questions raised by financial analysts about his stewardship of Tesla, his struggling electric car company.

For example, when Joe Spak of RBC Capital Markets asked him about the true cost of the Model 3 - sans the subsidies - and why Tesla hasn’t been able to meet its stated production numbers - Musk dismissed the question as "so dry" and imperiously decreed, “next.”

When Toni Sacconaghi of Sanford Bernstein queried about Tesla’s capital requirements, Musk’s response was similarly evasive - and juvenile: “Bonehead questions are not cool.”

He then lectured Sacconaghi to “not make a federal case” out of Tesla’s failure to achieve the 25 percent gross profit margin on the Model 3 which Elon had promised it would and upon which promise the financial viability of the company depends.

If the Model 3 - Tesla's first mass-production car - fails, then so does Tesla. As someone who specializes in the brand management of people, products and ideas, this stunner about Tesla is an image disaster.

The questions asked by Spak, Sacconaghi and many others are not only reasonable questions, they are questions which Musk has a moral as well as fiduciary obligation to answer - with details, not denunciations. Tesla is a publicly traded company. The people who’ve invested their money in it have every right to answers about how their money is being spent.

Instead, the ersatz Iron Man belittles anyone who fails to buy into the hype, which increasingly appears to be Tesla's main product.

That worked for a long time - almost 15 years now. That’s how long Tesla has been making electric cars, losing an estimated $5.4 billion to date - including a record $739 million cash burn last quarter.

Marvel's Iron Man made made money with Stark Industries; right now Elon is losing it.

And the street is beginning to clue in.

While Tesla stock achieved truly spectacular valuation - at its peak, the company was worth more on paper than General Motors or Ford - Musk's sloppy handling of serious and legitimate questions about his brand by serious and legitimate people is beginning to have an effect on the value of Tesla's stock. And Musk's increasingly erratic pubic behavior - and statements - are beginning to raise questions about his mental faculties.

For example, the bizarre Tweet earlier this summer about Vernon Unsworth, the British cave diver who helped rescue Thai children trapped in a flooded cave complex several weeks ago. When Musk's offer of assistance with the rescue effort was declined, Musk publicly called Unsworth a "pedo guy" and accused him of having a 12-year-old "child bride."

In fact, Unsworth, 63, is married to a 40-year-old woman and none of Musk's vile assertions have been even slightly substantiated. Instead of briskly walking his accusations back and offering Unsworth an apology, Musk has doubled-down, telling Buzzfeed reporter Ryan Mac last week that he should "call people you know in Thailand . . . and stop defending child rapists."

Unsworth, who initially blew off Musk's comments as the fulminations of a frustrated CEO denied a PR opportunity - Musk claimed his mini-sub could rescue the trapped kids - is reportedly going to sue Musk, another distraction of great concern to people with money tied up in Tesla.

A couple of weeks ago, Musk publicly Tweeted that he was thinking about taking the company private - perhaps not so much as a way to raise capital but to shut down the growing chorus of public questions about how he is running the company, as well as about his state of mind.

This triggered another uproar as well as an SEC investigation and a class-action lawsuit by investors, who accused the electric car CEO of attempting to deliberately manipulate the value of Tesla stock. About two weeks later - after some very odd talk about the Saudis buying Tesla - Musk suddenly reversed course and said the company will remain publicly traded.

All of this is beginning to have consequences within Tesla, too.

Just last week, two key executives - Chief Accounting Officer Dave Morton and Gabrielle Toledano announced their resignations; Morton's coming after less than a month with the company. One wonders what they know - about Tesla or about Musk - that caused them both to walk away from very lucrative contracts; in Morton's case a $10 million new hire equity grant that would have been vested after four years with the company.

Morton released a statement in which he talked about "the level of public attention" as well as "the pace within the company" as being among the reasons for his sudden departure.

As he and Toledano beat feet, Musk toked Mary Jane. On the Internet. The CEO of a billion-dollar publicly traded company appeared on a Podcast with Joe Rogan (Who I am fan of) in a cloud of marijuana smoke, holding a joint in one hand and a tumbler of whiskey in the other.

He looked more like Tommy Chong - and nothing like Tony Stark. No surprise, Tesla stock plummeted to its lowest close in five months - with worse likely to come . . . unless Elon gets hold of himself and his public persona.

I'm a fan of tech driven revolutionary thinkers. I want Tony Stark to be real, but sadly we haven't found him yet.