Ultimate Iron Man

I have been reading comic books since the late '70's. Since then comics have gone from selling for Still Only $.35 to $3.95 for many titles. I've recently stopped buying comics on a monthly basis, as I feel the price is too much for what I get. However, one other change in comic publishing had been the rise of the graphic novel. It used to be that Marvel or DC would publish a special graphic novel once in awhile, but over the past few years, they have begun publishing omnibus editions of their regular comics a lot more often. Some of them even in nice hardcover editions.

Ultimate Iron Man is one of these. For those not familiar with the Ultimate Universe, let me give you a brief overview. Marvel has been publishing super hero comics since 1960, which of course gives their trademark characters like the Fantastic Four and Spider-man huge histories. Every writer needs to try and keep continuity with what every writer before has done, and this can certainly stifle creativity. What's more it can be imposing to new readers. So Marvel launched the Ultimate Universe, and treated all the characters then in as if they were brand new. They updated origin stories, and from what I've read Iron Man's update is one of the most extreme.

I was interested to read this seeing that Card who wrote the wonderful Ender's Game, was the scripter. I've really enjoyed some comics penned by big names in entertainment like Kevin Smith, Joss Whedon, and J Michael Stryzinski. One of the best Graphic Novels I've read was Richard Morgan's run on Black Widow. I wasn't disappointed in Card.

The reimaging of Tony actually begins before his birth and involves an accident effecting his geneticist mother. The only way to save Tony is by utilizing some experimental technology developed by his father Howard. Quite the change from the original story of Tony being taken prisoner and forced to develop the armour to keep a bullet lodged in his chest from reaching his heart. Of course we do eventually get to the Iron Man armour, but that ends up being fairly secondary to the main storyline.

I don't believe that the series has gone beyond the first 5 issues, but I'm hoping it does eventually, as the story ends rather abruptly. There is certainly more to tell, and I hope that Card gets to do it.

8 out of 10