Iron Man #1
Author : Joshua Williamson
Artist : Carmen Carnero
Colourist : Nolan Woodard
I Am Iron Man! : Issue #1 Summary
I am a big Iron Man fan, and I will admit it was the Iron Man of the MCU that really got me into comics. Robert Downey Jr. was Iron Man to me until I read the comics and found that he was Tony Stark: cocky, confident, and charismatic—the guy you do not want your girl to meet.
That is exactly what superstar writer Joshua Williamson gives back to us. It is a fresh new story with a rejuvenated Tony Stark. Carmen Carnero gives us a shiny, sexy, and spectacular Iron Man suit. A.I.M. want the tech of Tony, but that is just scratching the surface in Iron Man #1. A great deal of connective tissue being sewn together by Joshua Williamson results in a banging first issue in his Iron Man run.
Sometimes You’ve Got To Run Before You Can Walk : Issue #1 Review
WARNING SPOILERS!
Refresh
I loved this issue; that is what I am going to start with. There is some "Iron Man fan" in that for sure, but after reading Iron Man #1 from beginning to end, I felt excited, energized, and refreshed. I have read the Superman run of Joshua Williamson from the start, and I think it has been brilliant. Writing for one of the most famous entities on planet Earth must be difficult. Especially to write stories for an alien-like god with few vulnerabilities besides Kryptonite, Williamson has had to work overtime to make the reader really care about not just Superman, but Clark Kent too.
Now Joshua Williamson has the opposite: a mere mortal with many weaknesses, not just as a human being in flesh and blood, but psychologically as Tony Stark. The writing of the Armored Avenger by Joshua Williamson was the perfect start to Iron Man #1. His dialogue is witty, sharp, and comically condescending, which makes you believe that Tony Stark is the smartest man in the room.
Hot diggity! I was so excited for Iron Man #1, and Joshua Williamson, Carmen Carnero, and David Woodard totally delivered. The opening scene of Iron Man #1 was the perfect tone setter for the rest of the book. We are taken through the Iron Man origin: a man in a cave in the middle of nowhere, welding scrap metal together to make a giant suit of armor, breaks out to attack his captors. However, it is not Tony Stark at all. It is a smart man who was not clever enough for Madame Masque. He is now working with A.I.M. to find more than just another Iron Man suit; they are looking for a new Tony Stark.
This phenomenal twist at such an early stage caught me off guard in the most beautiful way. I was ready to rock.
Reintroduction
Joshua Williamson has made Iron Man feel super again. This is one of the big names in Marvel and a founder of the Avengers; in recent runs, the character has felt stale. I mean no ill will toward Spencer Ackerman, but that run featured too much geopolitical drama and tension. It lacked the "rock and roll" energy of Iron Man: shooting repulsor rays, rescuing people, and doing it in the coolest way possible. That is his gimmick. I believe that is the joint main point of Iron Man #1: to have a compelling storyline that will hook the reader while reintroducing the audience to a version of Iron Man they can truly like.
In the opening pages, Williamson writes Tony Stark in top form: humorous, intelligent, and possessing a level of charisma that hits the reader with a sense of entitlement. Carmen Carnero and Nolan Woodard are key to bringing the importance back to Iron Man with their epic drawing and coloring of him. They instantly make the character look and feel like the S-Tier Marvel superhero and Avenger he is meant to be.
Joshua Williamson introduces us to the Tony Stark Award: all of the brightest minds, in the opinion of Tony, have been chosen to build something great for the world with the financial backing of Tony Stark himself. Therefore, the reward will be given to the brightest of those bright minds. This is bait too tasty for Madame Masque to ignore. Pure mayhem ensues as A.I.M. crashes the ceremony and destroys nearly everything in sight. Great storytelling from Williamson gave me, as a reader, clever misdirection; while Iron Man was chasing Madame Masque and A.I.M., he was in fact going after lifelike models. In fact, Madame Masque escaped with Adam Ware, the winner of the first-ever Tony Stark Award.
Now Tony must figure out what Madame Masque wants with Adam Ware, where in the world they are, and how he is going to get Adam Ware back safe and sound. I really liked the strong and fast-paced action to kick off Iron Man #1 because it immediately gave me something to care about. I wanted to see Iron Man in "rip-roaring" action, and I wanted this poor kid saved from the clutches of A.I.M. and the madness of Madame Masque.
Revenge
What I really liked about Williamson’s plot writing is that he gave me as the reader just enough of what’s going on—Madame Masque wants the next “Tony Stark”, but we don’t know why yet, I like how Williamson engaged the reader with that underlying question, why? Is it for a new suit, a weapon—Adam Ware after all specialises in Education Resources, so that leaves a lot of cleverly created ambiguity for the reader to ponder on.
Then Williamson turns up the temperature on these here stakes—it’s not just Adam Ware who’s been kidnapped by A.I.M, but every single person that was handpicked by Tony Stark for the Tony Stark Award. Staying true to Tony’s character, Williamson writes that Stark blames himself for this, nothing new, but—here’s what I loved about Iron Man #1’s writing, there was no wasted motion. After Tony blames himself like every superhero does, WHOOSH! He’s off, direct, and to the point, just like Marvel’s Living Weapon should be.
Iron Man’s on the hunt to find the world’s brightest minds and bring them home, and he’s going to visit every single A.I.M HQ in the world to do so. A clearly constructed agenda in this plot, which in my opinion is great from Williamson—he’s not overcomplicating it, he’s giving us a strong, engaging, and emotionally connective Iron Man story arc.
Reconnection
If Iron Man #1 wasn’t awesome enough, Williamson does what Hickman and Zdarsky are wanting to do with the Marvel Universe: connect it. Every story has felt separate—the complete opposite of what we have in DC right now. Williamson gets to mending those cracks by welding them together with red-hot repulsor beams.
Iron Man can’t locate these people by himself so he calls in a favour to somebody he can trust: Captain America, Steve Rogers. Williamson builds intrigue by letting the reader know that Tony had an idea a long time ago and set up contingencies for it—Tony thinks Madame Masque and A.I.M have this plan. Williamson has provided peaks for this plot in the beginning, middle, and end, leaving me as the reader totally engrossed in this story arc.
Then there’s the biggest twist of Iron Man #1—Steve Rogers wasn’t listening to Tony’s call by himself. Williamson reveals that it was in fact a room filled with some of Marvel’s greatest heroes and minds: Captain Marvel, War Machine, Amadeus Cho, Sue Storm, Reed Richards, and Norman Osborn. Cap’s words to this group, “…how do we take down Tony Stark?” I cannot wait to read Iron Man #2.
Remarkable
Carmen Carnero’s drawing of Tony Stark is, first and foremost, fantastic, totally on the money for the billionaire playboy philanthropist. In nearly every panel Tony is drawn, he has this cocksure smirk that oozes confidence. Before even reading the dialogue, as the reader looks at the art, you just feel like he’s going to say the right thing. The subtle details of Tony’s eyebrows from Carnero are telling as well—they create an aura of playfulness. Tony’s so rich and so smart, he’s just here to have a good time and enjoy doing it.
The colouring from Nolan Woodard is superb and perfect for Williamson’s representation of Tony Stark and Iron Man—the colours used in the backgrounds and surroundings of Tony Stark are deep reds and oranges, and subtle blues, a nod to the famous colours of Iron Man. Then there’s the colouring of Iron Man’s suit, Woodard makes it look like a trillion bucks. It shines and gleams off the page and makes you think you might need your sunglasses just to look at the suit directly.
There were so many amazing panels and pages I could’ve picked as my favourite from Iron Man #1, but the double-page spread and one-page splash of Iron Man in full flight was just epic—a beautifully drawn love letter from Carnero and Woodard to the eyes of the reader. The double-page spread shows off Carnero’s ability to capture speed and urgency, with Woodard’s colouring giving me the feeling Iron Man was going to fly right off the page. The one-page splash is a classic snapshot of Iron Man in all his glory—in flight, repulsor’s full blast and the sun glaring off Tony’s incredible armour.
Conclusion & Rating
Bravo, Mr. Williamson, for bringing us Iron Man #1—he’s so back! This story popped right from the first page to the last, what do I mean by ‘popped’—it just hit home; it felt authentic, it was engaging, and above all else, in my opinion, it felt like Joshua Williamson understood Tony Stark and cared about Iron Man.
Williamson used an effective structure for Iron Man #1’s plot—he gave us three twists in the beginning, middle, and end. That made me, as a reader, feel like I wasn’t in control in a good way. I was enjoying this ride, but I wasn’t in the driver’s seat—no, that was Joshua Williamson.
I could’ve written an entire review on the artwork alone, Carmen Carnero and Nolan Woodard made this comic feel like a superhero story. That might sound simple, but I think in today’s world a lot of things get overthought and over complicated. I’ve said this in my reviews for Doctor Strange, Rogue, and Sorcerer Supreme; the artwork in the recent Marvel #1 reboots has felt akin to the 90s.
Larger than life drawing, bold colours that transport you from your world into the comic, and most of all, they’ve done the heroes justice. Straight away, showing off their powers and heroism, because in its simplest form that’s what they’re supposed to do—be heroic.