Invincible Iron Man #1: Review

Tony Stark resemblance to actor Tom Cruise is remarkable. It's obvious artist Adi Granov uses 3D software at least as reference for poses. Backgrounds are photos or generated in 3D. The motion comic (coming April 2010) is proof of that.

Tony has been spending most of his time in his personal 'garage'. So-called because when he wants his Iron Man suit shipped home he crates it up and claims it's his car, to be returned to the garage. It's actually where he upgrades the suit, and does his other inventing. This series continues the fiction, established at the end of the last series, that Stark has resigned as Iron Man and handed the armour to a replacement 'bodyguard'. This new secret identity won't last long. It's possible the comic implies he's been drinking down there as well. Tony's been letting Stark International run itself. But Stark's new-to-us secretary Mrs Rennie (voice-only this time) doesn't mince words as she calls to remind him of the Pillinger interview. John Pillinger is meant to be real-life reporter and documentary maker John Pilger. Pillinger doesn't necessarily accuse Stark of being in the weapons business now. It seems more that, as per the established history of Iron Man, he started out designing weapons. But that tech also span off non-military applications. And the money enabled him to move away from weapons. But Pillinger points out that the legacy of his early work is still out there. This issue also starts to update Iron Man's origin, placing it in Afghanistan facing Al Qaeda. It also has Stark injured by one of his own weapons. Tony runs us through the story of initially needing to keep the Iron Man breastplate on because of his injured heart, but how his heart was later cured. He continued to be Iron Man even after that. He says it was to distance him from (or compensate for?) the weapons he'd created. A flashback shows how Tony met Maya Hansen long ago at a tech conference. They bonded over drinks and promised to always be there for each other. The name Aldrich Killian is used for a much bigger role in the Iron Man 3 movie which involves Maya Hansen and the Extremis process. He's the big baddie there.