Steel yourself!

okay, so maybe a metals joke wasn't the best title for a two-part IRON MAN review. yayyyy puns.


with all the Iron Man paraphernalia on the shelves these days, it's hard for a non-fan or a casual Iron-ite to want to pick any of it up because of the sheer volume of literature. But if I could recommend only one, this would be it...

IRON MAN:NOIR

a quick intro to the NOIR universe: Marvel has created a "what if?" scenario where all of the familiar faces have been transplanted, sans the usual superpowers, into the gritty early-20th-century America, circa the gangster-heavy depression era.

IRON MAN: NOIR further dives into this fun pulpy 'verse by bringing us the wild, Indiana-Jones-like adventures of one Anthony Stark, a millionaire playboy looking to feel alive. His daring outings are chronicled as fiction for a local pulp magazine but we learn from the get-go that most of these "stories" are fairly accurate takes on what happens when Tony leaves the country.

I say "Indy-like" because the first issue literally starts with nazis, a rare artifact, some backstabbing, and big explosions. We're off like a bullet from there, into this somewhat fairytale lifestyle, and we learn most of the usual stuff but now set to World War I instead of a later tech-advancement era in warfare. We get a nice peek at the Iron Man suit in motion, but then the issue ends.

Part two came out this past week and I'm actually kind of pleased to say we didn't even see the suit at work; Instead we're on a dive to the fabled city of Atlantis- which it turns out has some basis in fact (again, Indy-like parallels) and we're launching right into the overall plot once more.

While it's only halfway through this four part starter to the Iron Man vein of the NOIR 'verse, I am thoroughly enjoying it and highly recommend it. It's got a very action flavor, and is very reminiscent of those old Pulp scifi adventures of the era it's set during. Major props continue for the the shout-outs to classic Marvel stuff (Baron Zemo, Namor, more on the way I'm sure) as all the NOIR series have effectively done. Personally, I can't wait to see the Iron Armor in action next issue :)