The American Comic publisher, Marvel Entertainment has timely accepted that the red and golden armored Iron Man is its hottest property courtesy the streaking success, Iron Man movies have fired at the box office. Not only has Robert Downey Jr. brought on his gravitas to the Marvel character with his sleek wittiness but has given Marvel another direction to play around with the genius and billionaire playboy superhero Tony Stark.
Handing over the pen to the Marvel veteran and five times Eisner Award winning writer, Brian Michael Bendis, and artist David Marquez, Tony Stark’s comic world is all set for a re-launch in the ‘All New, All-Different Marvel’ this fall. The creative duo will be penning the new series issue, The Invincible Iron Man #1 which will take place post the events of the mini-series Secret Wars.
Marvel Editor-in-chief, Axel Alonso acknowledges the popularity of Iron Man and comments that, “….he’s (Iron Man) so indelibly burned into our consciousness now, thanks to Robert Downey Jr. having an inspired Bendis tackling that character and bringing his gift for gab – not only crafting great stories but that ear for great dialogueis going to bring a whole new dimension to the comic-book page.”
Bendis has confirmed that he has big plans for Tony Stark, exploring newer angles of Tony’s character including adding new love interests, formidable foes and building more on supporting character arcs while also introducing more to Iron Man’s story line.
Bendis and Marquez have earlier worked on building the Ultimate Spider Man universe which created a wild fan following for the web-slinger. Bendis’ work has also been greatly appreciated in for re-launching the Avengers back in 2004 with New Avengers and has credible work to his name in some of the epic Marvel storylines including Secret War (2004), House of M (2005), Secret Invasion (2008), Siege (2010) and Age of Ultron (2013). Even Guardians of the Galaxy became a fan-favourite much before the box-office tent-pole in 2014.
With Marvel’s hopes running high on Bendis to increase the comic popularity of Iron Man, much is line with the movies’ craze, David Gabriel, Senior Vice-President, Sales and Marketing added that, “The one way you did that at Marvel is put Brian Bendis on the book. We really want to see Iron Man at the top of the sales charts the way we see him at the top of the movie charts all over the world.”
Hinting at what’s in store for comic readers in The Invincible Iron Man, Bendis hinted at a creative re-design to Iron Man’s armor. While keeping the iron-suit loaded with the latest tech and weaponry, the duo have re-fashioned the helmet’s lookto an old-school medieval-knight.“It’s like a brand-new kind of technology but it still brings out the classic Iron Man. You just get all the Iron Mans at once, plus some new ones,” says Bendis.
Apart from the suit, Bendis is all excited to explore newer character arcs while definitely keeping in the old ones including Pepper Pots, James Rhodey and Happy Hogan. Playing upon Tony’s geniuses and his witty charm, fans can expect a new love interest for Tony who Bendis states would be ‘smarter than him and Tony can’t just be snarky to woo her. He’s got to earn her, and even that’s a challenge.’
Developing more on the weakest link of Iron Man comics, the villains, Bendis adds that the new Invincible Iron Man would surely give readers some joy with the added rogue gallery in Tony’s book. Fans have always complained that the villains in Iron Man have always beenunexplored, something which has even plagued the Iron Man movies, something Bendis would be paying attention too.
Also with newer arcs and foes, Tony’s true character would undergo a radical change in the new issues bringing in more depth to his character.
With all this new exciting stuff in store unveiling an all new Iron Man, The Invincible Iron Man is all set to hit the shelves this October.