IRON MAN #7: Inside The Issue

Tony Stark's dirty war gets much dirtier as the regime of Doctor Doom calls a meeting. Don't read this edition until you read the comic

Edited by Sam Thielman

BEFORE WE GET GOING WITH THIS EDITION, this coming Saturday, May 3, is Free Comic Book Day—and a second Spencer Ackerman appearance just hit Brooklyn comic shops. From 12:30pm to 2:30pm, I'll be signing at Flatbush's finest, Bulletproof Comics on Nostrand Ave., before heading over to Ditmas Park's dopest, Taylor & Co. on Cortelyou Rd., for another session from 3pm to 5pm. I'll sign IRON MAN, WALLER VS. WILDSTORM, REIGN OF TERROR, printouts of the Kissinger obit, whatever you want. Come through, hang out, yap with me, pick up some free comics and make sure you buy some of the many quality books, comics, video games, skateboard decks, trading cards and other items stocked at these two excellent Brooklyn small businesses! And have you preordered IRON MAN Vol. 1: The Stark-Roxxon War yet? Midtown Comics is offering 30 percent off if you wishlist it! 

VICTORIOUS' LINE IN THE PIC ABOVE IS MY FAVORITE LINE OF THE WHOLE SERIES. I like a whole lot of what you'll read coming up—and, for reference, shortly before I left on vacation I filed a first draft of issue #10—but Victorious playing the Saint-Just role for the Latverian Empire is unbeatable for me. Every now and then an intrusive thought tells me this panel should be my next tattoo. 

IRON MAN #7 was written the week of the presidential election. It starts out with the New York Stock Exchange giving Tony Stark a rapturous reception when he announces that Stark Unlimited is unapologetically a weapons manufacturer again. A streamer called Blake Thrust cheers Tony for curing himself of the Woke Mind Virus. Months after I drafted this issue, Mark Zuckerberg unveiled what Max Read termed his "vice-signalling" era and I thought of the speech Tony gives in the first scene. 

In other words, this issue immediately sets a certain tone. 

Doctor Doom is in power. Overthrowing him is going to be ugly and deceitful. People who hate Tony Stark are thrilled by his weapons reversal and rejoice at how rich he will make them. On Page 2, in the only panel of the opening scene that gives Tony's expression, Julius Ohta drew Tony looking pained, almost nauseous. Tony's cheekbones are emphasized, like he's clenching his jaw as he tells the world that making weapons is good, actually. It's an exquisite, subtle bit of character work and a quick demonstration of why Julius is the next superstar of comics art.

His work is more subtle than mine in this issue. Issue #7 is about grandiosity, ambition and desperation. It's filled with secrets and lies, some of which the reader learns for the first time, and others we'll learn about in later issues. And it's also got another of my favorite lines:

Many people, across two entire AMAs, have asked me what I think are the essential attributes of Iron Man. Here is one that cannot be overlooked: whatever else is happening around him, Iron Man has that shit on.

In this house, IRON MAN is a fashion lookbook. Writing him often starts with what this man is wearing, and then suffusing it with meaning. Julius and I have had to write memos to circulate around the Avengers editorial office detailing what the different iterations of the Improvised Armor can and cannot do, and when on the publication schedule it can and can't do them. ("But that's not the Improvised Armor, that's the Silver Centurion," you observe; more on this after the paywall.) Someone on-panel needs to recognize that this man has well and truly got that shit on. And he has never had that shit more on than when his chrome finish is applied by Alex Sinclair, the GOAT comics colorist who is making time for IRON MAN while coloring H2SH. 

Let's get into it after the paywall. These haven't even been the real spoilers. Those start now.