Iron Man [2020] #1 - Marvel Comics

IRON MAN No. 1, November 2020

Dealing with issues such as Tony Stark suffering a mid-life crisis, the brutality of social media’s unforgiving audience, and the theft of a fifteenth-century bible from the New York Public Library, Christopher Cantwell’s script for this thirty-page periodical probably landed reasonably well with fans of the armoured avenger. True, the comic’s opening half is rather dialogue-driven, courtesy of the billionaire desperately trying to rid himself of both “his high-tech toys and high-profile image” by selling his stocks in Stark Unlimited. But once Patsy Walker arrives at the industrialist’s celebratory party, the pace of this publication soon speeds up.

Indeed, arguably the highlight of Issue One of “Iron Man” is the television producer’s pairing of Hellcat alongside the titular character, as the ‘dynamic duo’ participate in “a little jaunt through the Big Apple” together, and stumble upon the Unicorn attempting a late night burglary. Enjoyably violent, and definitely not the one-sided affair readers might have expected from a battle involving such an old school villain, the American author definitely depicts the energy projecting criminal as a fearsome force to be reckoned with, rather than simply having him appear as harmless fodder for Stark to effortlessly trash; “I know that one of the twenty-one existing Gutenberg Bibles was destroyed in our battle with Unicorn, but there was really nothing I could do.”  

Cantwell’s handling of Iron Man’s ‘Twitter’ account is also cleverly interwoven throughout the story-telling, and does a good job of illustrating just how ungrateful humanity can be when a verbal few are inconvenienced by Tony’s efforts to save the planet. Spiteful, jealous and all-too quick to leap upon the hateful hindsight bandwagon, it soon becomes clear that Shell-head is in a no-win situation when it comes to justifying his actions to these people, and resultantly it comes as no surprise by the end of “Rest Your Brains” that the former Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. decides to delete his account.

Similarly as agreeable as Cantwell’s penmanship, is Cafu’s pencilling, which really begins to pack a punch by the time Iron Man has teamed up with Hellcat in order to defeat the Unicorn. The “Marvel Comics exclusive” artist’s style seems to particularly suit Alex Ross’ newly designed "vintage" armour, and really makes the energy blasts zing once the heroes begin their nocturnal battle atop the public library’s rooftop.

The regular cover art of "IRON MAN" #1 by Alex Ross