Review: Superior Iron Man #1 by Tom Taylor and Yildiray Cinar

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Superior_Iron_Man_1

Superior Iron Man #1

Written by Tom Taylor

Art by Yildiray Cinar and Guru-eFX

 

The short of it:

With Axis in the books, Tony Stark has managed to avoid being turned back to normal (or so the recap page tells us), and the result is Extremis 3.0 in San Francisco; an app to make your life better, to make you into your perfect ideal self. That was a week ago, and now Iron Man and She Hulk are teaming up to fight Teen Abomination, who takes IM’s head off with a lightpost. Suit’s empty, and Iron Man completely shames the crap out of the kid for having a stupid name and not actually being important, I mean, Tony doesn’t even have time to be there in person, that’s how little the kid mattered. He’s at a pool party with the beautiful people, but Pepper needs to talk. She isn’t happy with how he’s acting, or that he’s drinking again, or that his brilliant new app just created a class divide.

He’s just stoked about his sexy new suit, which even has Pepper creeped out when he drops the word “symbiote”, but really, the point is that Pepper doesn’t like the app. And while she lectures him on it, across town, a group of beautiful people attack a homeless person for not being beautiful. The homeless lady is saved by Daredevil, who makes a speech only to be cut off by the beautiful people freaking out in massive pain. That’s when Tony tells Pepper that things will be back to normal soon enough, just as everyone at his pool party starts to scream.

How evil is Tony? Extremis 3.0 is the ultimate screw-you-membership app. A taste of perfection for free, and then $99.99 a day afterwards. Tony wants to see what happens. Pepper goes to see a mysterious figure to talk about Tony’s mental state, and the figure agrees that the contingency needs to be activated…though the identity of the figure just makes things confusing.

 

What I liked:

  • Alright, I like this version of Tony a lot more than I was expecting to. He’s not evil in the Dr. Doom sense, he’s evil in the Lex Luthor during 52 sense. Arrogance is a lot more fun when the character in question isn’t trying to be a hero.
  • I mean, the catch with him releasing Extremis in San Fran? Totally didn’t see it coming. Should have; didn’t.
  • Tony’s stance on Teen Abomination’s name. It’s hilarious and completely logical, why in the hell would someone make their name age-specific?
  • Great cameos. She Hulk and Daredevil? I mean, yes, DD is in San Fran now, but usually you get a cameo and it’s Hawkeye or Captain America. Nice to see Shulkie and Matt get the rub here.
  • The new armor is so much better than the black and gold version he had been wearing/opened the book with.
  • I might not know how to pronounce Yildiray’s name, but his art is fantastic. The book looks big time and blockbuster.
  • Same goes for the guys at Guru-eFX for the excellent coloring job.

 

What I didn’t like:

  • The issue opens up, essentially, with “Axis made the good guys bad and the bad guys good, but now it’s all better except for Tony and a few others”. For one, way to spoil the end of Axis by placing this book after it. For two, what are the odds that any other character of his magnitude makes the cut? It’ll probably just be Havok, Hobgoblin, Carnage, and Sabretooth.
  • It was over too quick. The issue feels like it’s hitting the halfway point, and then you turn the page and it’s over.

 

Final thoughts:

Here comes Tom Taylor, one of the fast rising stars of the industry. Until now you probably knew him as the guy who writes Injustice: Gods Among Us, the comic adaptation of the hit video game that has been so much better than it has any reason to be. He’s also the guy who took over Earth 2 from James Robinson and made it must read by going balls to the wall every issue. It’s absolutely fantastic to see him get a big time marquee book, because he’s an awesome writer, and he deserves to be promoted as such.

Why wouldn’t Tony put some sort of failsafe in his armor to make sure it won’t run on booze? I mean, this is something I’ve thought about for a while, dating back to when I first found out about Demon in a Bottle. Whenever something goes wrong and Tony hits rock bottom, they bring out the bottle. It happened in Fear Itself, and it’s happening here. Now, after Fear Itself he paid a hefty fine for his moment of weakness, and I imagine whatever comes about after this will be worse, but why would he not have a ‘breathalyzer’ installed in his suit?

On that note, why is Pepper not focused on that key detail being horrible wrong with him?

I’ll admit it, I thought mysterious figure was Black Panther. Sentient Armor wasn’t on my list, though it does make sense that Tony might have a backup of himself set up somewhere.

A smart phone app used with sinister purposes in mind. I can dig it. First South Park has Satan tear apart freemium games, and now we get Iron Man dealing tech drugs…I can totally dig it.

I’ll be back next issue, which, given that this is an Iron Man book, is saying a lot!


Overall: 9/10

A lifelong reader and self proclaimed continuity guru, Grey is the Editor in Chief of Comics Nexus. Known for his love of Booster Gold, Spider-Girl (the real one), Stephanie Brown, and The Boys. Don't miss The Gold Standard.