Marvel unveiled the new Iron Man armour set to be unveiled in Invincible Iron Man #25. Marvel credited series writer, Matt Fraction, and Ryan Meinerding, a designer from the Iron Man and Thor movies, as the minds behind the new look. Some more info and some thoughts after the jump.
"The inspiration for the new design came from thinking about a sleeker, leaner, tougher Iron Man. If technology is increasingly getting smaller and lighter it seems like the Iron Man should do the same: ergonomic and aerodynamic. We were looking for something that felt as sleek and glossy as a sports car Tony Stark would covet. I love what we've come up with. It feels like the next evolutionary step in the Iron Man's design." - Matt Fraction
My initial thoughts are that I like it. It is, as Fraction puts it, sleeker looking and has an Apple-like shiny quality to it that has become associated with new, cutting edge technology. However, the more I look at the armour, the less I like it. Something just keeps nagging at me.
At first I thought it might be the Extremis Iron Man helmet slapped on a Ezekiel Stane's armour and given a new paint job look that was throwing me for a loop.
There's also the complete lack of function to this armour. The Extremis armour looked modern, too, and, most importantly, functional. This armour doesn't really have any visible joints. It's just a mock-up, but take a look at one of Adi Granov's designs for Extremis and note how damn functional it looks. There's actual joints and you can visualize the armour actually being real and something that you could use. The new one, at least for now, looks like he's a statue that could never move out of that pose.
However, the thing that really bugs me with the armour is the lights. He's a goddamn walking spotlight. Here's an animated gif of how this thing will look in action:
Click to make with the shiny!
In all seriousness, lose all the lights except the center chest and on top of the hands and adjust the headpiece so it doesn't look like someone photoshopped the Extremis helmet onto this new suit and this is a snazzy upgrade for the Iron Man armour. What do you think?
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20 comments:
OH MY GOD...
Iron Man is going to be turned into...
a Twilight vampire.
Are they supposed to be (flash)light lenses or some sort of smaller repulsor ray portals?
If so, he'd light up like Goku instead of Iron Dazzler.
Also, may just be the drawing, but this Iron Man armor looks a lot more sad than all the other ones.
:-[
I think one of the problems with the way it looks is the way it's rendered in the pic. It looks like a digital rendering and not a something from a comic book. Granted, Granov's work does have a similar aspect but it also looks like something that was drawn in a comic book, something the pic of the new design doesn't have.
I know Christmas is over, but that looks like a tree ornament just waiting to be made! Twinkle, twinkle little Stark...
Jokes aside, he actually looks pretty good. Nice, streamlined and definitely enough man-under-the-machine for my tastes.
In all seriousness, here's what it looks like to me.
The gold here is not metal, it's just a suit, much like we have seen Iron Man wear before. The only metal parts are the red and the helmet. It'd certainly be lighter than other previous models.
It looks a lot like the mobility suits that the military and other companies seem to be working on, which help movement and strength of people with disability (let's remember that Stark just had a lobotomy).
Take a look at this one for example, and tell me that this Iron Man armor doesn't look like a futuristic version of it.
http://www.mobilitynow.co.uk/images/mobility_robots/hal_5_robot_suit.jpg
Of course, such a suit doesn't make sense story wise. Stark has had better and more efficient armors. If this was a new character, then maybe it could work, but instead a full body armor makes more sense.
I think it looks good.
Iron Man works as being redesigned more often than other heroes. Being a brilliant engineer, it would seem silly for Stark to stagnate with the same design.
I think as long as the core elements are there (red & gold, helmet, glowing circle on chest), changing it up semi-regularly isn't a bad thing.
Can I get the Sean Chen/George Perez armor design from after Heroes Return back?
Seriously, why make an armor that makes it EASIER to target you?
To be fair, he should be doing the entire thing by remote control by now. I really dont even see the reason for him to ever put the armour on unless he was in some kind of danger.
Kirk - How about DRAMATIC TENSION!!!
It looks easier to draw.
SPANdex style!
I don't get all the lights, either, but I actually didn't notice them until you pointed them out. The lighted strips of the Return armor was a better idea.
Otherwise I like it. It has many of the design asthetics (is that the word I want?) of the pre-Extremis armor (I just have an overwhelming bias against that armor that I can't give it credit--armor you excrete from your pores? Really, Ellis?), but in a sleeker package. I remember when Tony had to "bulk up" the armor to include all the shielding he needed to protect himself from the armor, which Pym describe as being INSIDE a power line, but I would think he'd find away to fix that issue eventually.
And it still looks like armor. Some designs (I like the modular armor more in concept) looked more like a costume than a suit of armor, but this looks like armor.
Overall, it's a nice job. Too bad I can't bring myself to read 616 stories since Civil War. (And no, I'm not holding a grudge. It just keeps going downhill from there with Eventitis and ruining Tony as a character.)
i feel as though youre being excessively nit-picky about it, i mean shit, if he needs to be in a situation (stealth) where the lights would give him away, im sure he can just...shut them off...
Check out the Iron Man film dvd special feature on the extremis armor. Ar Granov goes in detail about how he spent time designing joints and skeletal supports that wouldn't even be seen in the comic.
I have to say, just by looking at the armour, I like the colour scheme. It looks a little darker and that's fine by me, makes me think that it will herald a change in tone for the book and the character.
I like it. I LOVED the Extemis armor, but MAN, everyone was always complaining about how ugly it was for some crazy reason (I thought it was really slick! One of the best Iron Man armors ever, in my opinion!) So when they got rid of it, AND after seeing the RESCUE/Pepper Potts armor (which was an armor abortion. WORD that is one ugly costume!) I had grave reservations. So after seeing this, I was so happy!
I agree with Nathan, the extremis armor has been my favorite iteration since the all black stealth armor of Armor Wars. However, am I the only one that liked the Ultimate armor the most? Granted the helmet was fugly but it looked like armor, powerful, mechanical. Just look at this armor pictured at the top of this post. It has to be super thin and skin tight. It's no longer armor. It's spandex. No thank you.
Like you said about the new tech getting smaller wouldn't that make the joints smaller and wouldn't tony cover the joint for better protection.
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