Written by: Tom Taylor
Art by: Yildiray Cinar
Publisher: Marvel
The last issue of Superior Iron Man was a great introduction to the new “improved” Tony Stark and his plans for San Francisco. This issue paints Stark through the eyes of a fellow hero, Dardevil. This leads to an interesting issue that casts Tony Stark as an actual villain rather than arrogant hero.
While Marvel may be intentionally using the “superior” tag in an attempt to draw in the Superior Spider-Man crowd (which in my case has worked), Tony is not the misguided hero SpOck was and is instead an actual villain whose actions no one should be able to sympathise with. While this may upset some fans and turn them away, I actually think this is a very interesting direction to take the character in. Tony has never exactly been the most moral super-hero in the marvel universe, so the switch to villain (even if affected by outside influences) actually feels like a very natural place to take him and could lead to some great story potential. His plans for San Francisco already seem rather twisted in the way only Stark could do so I’m cautiously excited to see what else he’s got prepared.
What makes the villain role work even more for me is the introduction of Daredevil, having a hero we can follow through the story and sympathise with allows Taylor to ratchet up the evil in Tony this issue, and I mean EVIL. I really want to see what the fallout of all Tony’s decisions will be when (if) he turns back to the way he was. While he may be great at writing villains, Taylor also writes a really good Daredevil, especially since he has the unwelcome task of writing him during one of the best runs in years for the character, and at times I actually felt I was reading a Daredevil comic rather than an Iron Man one.
Yildiray Cinar’s art is a perfect fit for this book and really brings out the emotion in the characters. It’s weird that I think of him as such a DC artist, and he actually does bring a style similar to DC’s in-house stuff, yet still manages to make it look great as a Marvel universe tale. This opinion may also be pretty controversial, but I’m a big fan of his Iron Man armour design (or iExtremis as I will call it, without snark and hoping that it hasn’t already been used). I really like the more organic style armour like the bleeding edge stuff in Fraction’s Invincible Iron Man as it seems highly futuristic and alien, something I feel suits the character well rather than the grounded movie-verse style armour we’ve seen recently. iExtremis really brings out the arrogance and fiercer personality of the new Stark and is a design I hope stays for a while.
Really my only complaint with this issue is how short it feels. It went by really fast and ends just as the most exciting confrontations come into play. Thankfully what is there is enjoyable and funny despite the darker take on the title character, and the cliffhanger was truly a shock and has made me really excited to continue the story. You can bet I’m now in this series for the long haul.
In conclusion, this will certainly be a controversial series and I’m sure many fans of the character are already feeling hurt over the changes, however I am very much on board with the new direction Taylor is taking and am more excited than I have been in a while to read an Iron Man comic. This series come highly recommended to fans looking for a new take on the character, however if you’re a traditional type then this series may not be for you.
