I feel like Iron Man has needed a big, bold new run for a while now. Not to downplay the work of the creative teams who’ve worked on the Armored Avenger’s titles over the last few years (there’s a lot to enjoy), but I’m talking about a big, genre-shifting approach to Tony Stark’s legacy, similar to the way Al Ewing highlighted the inherent body horror of the Hulk that’s always been there with Immortal Hulk.
With this latest Iron Man #1, I think we finally have a run like that for this character, as Spencer Ackerman and Julius Ohta recontextualize Tony Stark as a “knight in shining armor” for the modern age. It really does make sense, if you think about it. Iron Man’s longtime rival is a sorcerer with rings from outer space. He regularly fights an alien dragon. The people he fights are either other people in armor or monsters, like the beastly duo of security guards that transform into trolls in the beginning of the issue. It’s kind of genius to blend the genres of science fiction and fantasy like that, because it all retroactively fits so neatly. Of course Iron Man’s foes would eventually attack him with real magic, and of course he’d come back at them with a giant fucking sword.
However, this is very much also an Iron Man story for today. I can’t lie, when one of the trollish guards initially called Tony “woke”, my initial instinct was to cringe. After all, there have been plenty of times where comic writers over the age of thirty have tried tapping into the language of the terminally-online and ultimately made characters sound inauthentic. However, it quickly hit me: we’re all terminally online, and this is just how actual people talk now. I live in a stupid hicktown in Florida where people complain about “DEI” and “wokeness” and whatever other buzzword they learned from YouTube that means nothing more than “gosh, I sure do miss slurs”. There’s actually a kind of hyper-authenticity to the posts that Tony doomscrolls through using his helmet, and it can’t be said that Ackerman doesn’t have his finger on the pulse.
Speaking of Ackerman’s writing, I really like his approach to Tony. He’s a man who’s quite literally coming apart at the seams, painfully aware of his own image and determined to save the world no matter how much he has to destroy himself in the process. It’s how he remains likable– relatable, even– despite the last decade showing how cartoonishly evil and out-of-touch with humanity actual billionaires are. Tony genuinely wants to help, as we see when he personally visits a factory and learns about the consequences his continued struggle for his company has on ordinary people. There’s no security or consistency for these people’s career with all the corporate reshuffling and shifting back and forth from manufacturing weapons: despite Tony’s efforts, they’re still “an afterthought”. Tony promises things will change, but then he immediately falls out of the sky and gets so badly injured that he loses control of his company again in the weeks he spends in the hospital. With none of Tony’s suits– or efforts to fix things– working anymore, Ackerman puts Tony in the perfect position to go back to his roots. Before the nanotech or AI assistants, there was a desperate man at his lowest point who forged a suit of armor.
Ackerman really taps into the cyclical nature of Iron Man stories. Most of the pieces are familiar, the majority of the characters are people that Tony already knows, but it’s the perspective that’s new. That’s the variable that makes this feel like such a fresh start. That’s what pushes Tony to radically reinvent himself, and that’s what got me excited for Ackerman writing Iron Man based solely on his guest appearances on the Cerebro podcast.
Ohta’s art really sells Tony as this broken man held together by staples and obsession. Tony has this scraggly, malnourished look that you usually associate with his time in the cave, reinforcing the idea that he’s returned to start in more ways than he’d like to admit.
We don’t actually see much of the new Iron Man suit that Ohta designed in this first issue, but based on promotional material and Yasmine Putri’s covers, I love the rustic, quasi-medieval feel of this thing. In our interview with Ackerman, he said they made “a very deliberate decision to pivot away from every Extremis-influenced Iron Man design”, and you can definitely tell from all the rivets and leather straps. That said, Ohta does get to show off his artistic prowess with some iconic Iron Man suits, such as the Model 37 (designed by Ryan Meinerding) and the Model 51 (designed by David Marquez). Ohta brings so much personality to these suits through the fluid ways they transform and Tony’s body language, since the faceplate prevents him from expressing emotions with his face most of the time. We see Tony go through confusion and rage without even seeing his eyes, and that’s no easy feat. Also, the glowing effects from Alex Sinclair’s colors greatly complement all the lasers and arc reactors in Ohta’s art. They’re both great at capturing sunlight, which highlights a particularly memorable panel where the power turns off in Iron Man’s suit and he’s about to plummet from the heavens.
Oh, and Ohta’s Iron Monger design kicks ass. I don’t want to spoil anything about who’s inside the armor, but the look of the suit is so cool. It evokes some of the better Larrocca villain designs from Invincible Iron Man with its smooth, round plates and abundance of cables inside each joint. It’s a delightful anime nightmare machine that contrasts well against Tony’s new medieval-looking armor.
This is an incredible start for a new era of Iron Man. It’s a great jumping-on point that gives you a pretty good idea of what Tony Stark has been up to these last few years, while also setting up something really exciting. I’m eager to see where Ackerman and Ohta take things next.
