Rating: 5/5- Tony Stark as Messiah to a ‘Perfect’ San Francisco.
by ComicSpectrum reviewer Gabe Bustamantez.
Iron Man is a character that’s not supposed to be likable. He’s the opposite of Peter Parker. He’s arrogant, super rich, has dependency issues, and is a war profiteer. Over the years his character’s development has made him into one of Marvel’s and Hollywood’s most charming and well liked stars. The success of Marvel’s cinematic universe started with the Iron Man films and helped make Iron Man, and Tony Stark, a household name. But, that Iron Man we know and love is no longer around. This is the Superior Iron Man.
The events of Axis have changed Iron Man into an even more self absorbed and sinister Tony Stark with twisted plans for mankind, plans that exploit one of our greatest faults, our vanity. Iron Man has given everyone in San Francisco an app that exposes you to a 3.0 version of Extremis that gives you the gift of becoming the perfect version of yourself, which turns Tony Stark into the new perfect people’s messiah. At the same time, what Tony Stark gives you he can also take away. What is the price of perfect? And what are the people of San Francisco willing to do to pay the price to stay perfect? Answers to those questions, which are sure to be answered in upcoming issues of Superior Iron Man, are just some of the great story elements that we’re given in issue 1. This is my first time reading a comic written by Tom Taylor, and he has done a great job getting me pulled into the story right away, especially with that crazy cliffhanger on the last page. Everything about the story in this issue has set up a new version of Iron Man. An Iron Man that is so disconnected from the world that he’s sending Iron Man drones on missions that he feels are too low on his list of priorities, manipulating the public by monetizing perfection and immortality with a “Freemium” app.
Superior Iron Man #1 is Turkish artist Yildiray Cinar’s first Marvel Comic assignment and just like Taylor, he has came screaming out of the gate with beautifully rendered art. I’ve always felt that drawing Iron Man could be a harsh job for artists. For an artist to be successful on an Iron Man title they have to be a jack of all trades. There’s a lot of technology to draw, like sophisticated armor, and lots of that tech is made up and exists in a fantasy world, so there is little to no reference to look up. Plus, they still need to have the ability to draw sequential art and human emotion. Trust me, Cinar can do all of this like a master. We also get a few guest appearances from other Marvel characters that are drawn so well, that I hope to see Yildiray Cinar do a mini-series with more of these characters one day.
I came into this issue with a somewhat negative preconceived notion, since we’ve already seen “Superior” versions of another Marvel character and we’re seen “bad” Tony Stark during Civil War, but writer Tom Taylor and artist Yildiray Cinar have really stepped up to the plate with this new Superior Iron Man series and made me love this issue. It’s been a long time since I’ve felt a new take on Iron Man has been done so well in the comics. They have created a story that is not just a tale of super heroes punching bad guys, but a deep story about how evil people can be and about our society’s view of self worth, our need of instant gratification and what could happen if we’re given everything we wanted. Even taking the story so far as to include class warfare between the perfect people and those who don’t have access to the Extremis 3.0 app and what people would do to stay perfect. If you were like me, and felt skeptical about another comic with another “hero turned bad” story, then allow Tom Taylor and Yildiray Cinar a chance to win you over with a perfect first issue that has a cliffhanger ending that will make you want to add this title to your pull list just to make sure issue 2 is there for you.
Reviewed by: Gabe Bustamantez
(gabe@comicspectrum.com)
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