Iron Man 6, Iron Man 3 Prelude 2

Iron Man 6
Gillen (w) and Land (a) and Guru eFX (c)

Tony Stark has flown to deep space to explore and be inspired to do more great things. It's a good premise Kieron Gillen has come up with for Iron Man, driving him to places he really should be going. Iron Man is certainly a protector of Earth, but he's left it in good hands. I've said before that the sense of time in Marvel isn't something I ever want to explore, but it does beg some questions. Iron Man will pop up in half of the Avengers books while also journeying to the farthest reaches to space? When does he have time? LOOK, it's not that big a deal. It's one of those things where you have to say "it's not worth me thinking about, I want to read a good story and if this book and the other ones he appears in are all good stories, I can't be upset about how their timeline works out." I think that's a fair sacrifice. It could also end in a situation where, you know, it turns out he was only gone for twenty minutes because science. I almost prefer the first option.

Anyway, he's in space and he's helping because that's what he does. On top of helping being what he does, what he also does is inventing, so he spends a lot of time marveling in this issue at all of the advancements of this ancient alien race he's protecting. On top of helping and inventing, Tony Stark also does sex so, when not helping or marveling, he spends much of the issue flirting. I think it's safe to say Gillen knows this character. In a fun little twist, the alien woman who wants Tony as much as he wants her ends up vomiting after he takes of his helmet and reveals facial hair. Dejected, Tony leaves and is set upon by space cops! Space cops! Sorry, I need to have an exclamation point after "space cops!" They're not much of a challenge to take down but Tony doesn't realize they're space cops! until after he dispatches them. He's wanted for deicide (not "decide," don't read it that way or else you'll be confused, TRUST ME), which he doesn't understand. He turns himself in and makes his way to the pseudo-courtroom. He denies killing any gods but eventually comes to realize that the god of the people he's so recently saved is the Phoenix, which he had as big a part as anyone in destroying way back in AvX.

This issue is more a set-up of things to come but it still works. Like I said, Gillen seems keyed in on Stark's character and I think sending him to space is a good idea. First, it takes him out of the comfort zone of Earth, where he has a reliable supporting cast and he's kind of a big deal. Now he's in the unknown and has the chance to either get himself into huge trouble or, as he and the F4 are both trying to do right now, learn something new. On top of all the little pieces that make sense for Stark's character, the drive to go out and find something new and exciting is a defining choice. Everything else (helping, inventing, sex) represents a piece of the Tony Stark puzzle but it should be treated exactly as that. It's a piece. Sending him to space because he needs inspiration and needs to be bigger and better is the picture as a whole, what the completed puzzle looks like. Now's a pretty good time to jump on this book if you're trying to delve into the story of one of Marvel's most popular heroes.

Iron Man 3 Prelude 2
Gage (w) and Kurth (a) and Sotocolor (c)

There's not a ton left to say about this mini after everything I said here. It does a lot of what the first one did, shows off Rhodey's armor and his intelligence while also showing a bit of the enemy set to appear in Iron Man 3. There's another nod to The Avengers with a quick scene of their battle and a kind of predictable shot of the team eating shawarma JUST LIKE IN THE MOVIE. I can't really hold any kind of cutesy nod like that against this book because that's entirely what this book is supposed to be. It's for the Cinematic Universe, it's hyping up that world, OF COURSE it's going to make reference to established things from that world.

In truth, what I said last time about this book remains the case. It's still a bit better than average for a movie tie-in kind of book. I do have to believe that we're seeing more pertinent things about Iron Man 3 than I would have guessed before reading the book, i.e. the attempt at stealing Iron Man's tech, the use of easier-to-obtain Hammer Tech, the willingness to do harm to civilians, Tony's response to this whole situation, and so forth. If you're not terribly into comics yet but you're interested because of the movies, this isn't a bad place to start. You'll get useful shout-outs to the movies and to characters you know from the movies like Pepper and Coulson and it's only two books. Can't ask much more from a tie-in than that.