Last weekend we heard the news about Brian Michael Bendis and David Marquez jumping on the relaunch of INVINCIBLE IRON MAN this fall. When SECRET WARS ends, every title will jump forward 8 months. All books can hit the ground running and set up new mysteries and villains.
Marvel held a press conference with the creative team to discuss what's coming up.
Justin Ponsor will also be coloring the series marking a reunion of the MILES MORALES, ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN creative team. Tom Brevoort will be editing.
It was mentioned that the fact that Iron Man was front and center in both of the All-New, All-Different Marvel promos was a deliberate choice. Every year around this time Marvel releases a promo with characters readers should keep an eye out for.
All-New, All-Different Marvel is going to unleash some changes in the Marvel Universe. They are "all in" with Iron Man now.
David Marquez, who drew the new designs with colorist Matthew Wilson, was asked if he had any favorites.
"I'm partial to Miles and seeing him in there. Also, getting to design the new Iron Man armor. I love that one and also the new Wolverine."
This marks Brevoort's return to editing Iron Man since Marvel Now. He used to edit it years back. He was asked what made this creative the team the right choice.
"As Brian will tell you, I've been trying to talk him into doing Iron Man for a long time. Really going back to, I guess, the early days on AVENGERS. It wasn't even AVENGERS that put the bug in my head. It was Brian's DAREDEVIL run. He took the Matt Murdock character, a character for who there'd been a bunch of big important classic DAREDEVIL runs before that point. He took that character and pushed him into new territory and found new things to say about him and new ways to express him and the world he lived in. He was great on that run with being able to constantly surprise me just as a reader. I thought these were all traits that would be useful in the world of Tony Stark.
David's work I've loved since the FANTASTIC FOUR SEASON ONE that he did. I think he's got a great super-slick, super-clean style. He's a terrific storyteller, does terrific page layouts and character composition. You can really see it in the design of the new Iron Man armor."
There was talk on the new Iron Man armor. It's sleek but you can immediately recognize it's Iron Man. The suit can create different things, including a sword of sorts. They wanted the armor to be new and fresh. It can also transform into whatever situation they require at the time. There was also the idea about technology getting smaller, slimmer, and lighter over time. Marquez didn't want it to be too busy with too much detail. As the series progresses, there will opportunities for the armor to do different things. Artist will be able to be creative with the design.
Bendis brought up how we've seen in many recent runs, including the movies, where Tony has called up all the different armors. But with the advancement of technology, why not have an armor that can do it all. Bendis also claimed it will still have the roller skates.
At a recent Marvel retreat, they went through all the characters and asked, besides the fact that Marvel owns the characters, why do they publish them? What are they about? They want to break the characters down to who and what they are. Tony is a boy with a toy. He's like a teen with his hot rod.
With the story, one of the things they'll look at is from Kieron Gillen's run where it was revealed that Tony was adopted. The book is sort of a new start and beginning for Tony. They'll delve into the mystery of who are his birth parents? Adoption is a big part of Brian’s non-comic life. He always shied away from the idea but loves what Gillen set up. There’s a new armor but it’s almost like there’s a new man as well. What made him who he is?
There will be a "major Marvel player" on the last page that will be a "whopper and a doosey." It will mark a dramatic change in the Marvel Universe. We'll also see Tony try to grow up and have an actual relationship. He may have met his match and a women, for him, worth growing up for. There will also be a new surprising supporting cast member who is a major Marvel character who hasn't been in Tony's life before.
Press Questions
QUESTION: With the adoption angle, is Arno Stark going to be in the book?
BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS: Yes. There's some things I'm just going to be yes or no or coy about. Not only do I not want to spoil SECRET WARS, there's other things in other books and tie ins that I don't want to either.
QUESTION: What about Tony's new supporting cast?
BENDIS: Again, I gotta be a little cool here because of SECRET WARS and other things. As I said before, there'll be one new member of the team that's someone you've seen in other books but not in Tony's book. The new A.I. of the armor is quite sassy. Tony kind of developed it to challenge him intellectually and morally. Their conversations will be a lot of fun. There are other elements that'll be coming in. By the end of issue #2, you'll see a lot of the pieces have come together and go, "Wow, look at all this new shit for Tony to do."
QUESTION: Tom Taylor just wrapped up SUPERIOR IRON MAN. How directly does that series feed into this one in terms of his personality? How much are you building from that?
BENDIS: I've been on top of this since he started SUPERIOR. Everything from there will be touched upon. The choices being made in our book are because of things that have happened in there. That's kind of all I can say at the moment. Nothing that has gone on in Tony's life in continuity will be ignored or pushed aside. This is a brand new chapter in Tony's life but it's because he's gotten to a place where he needs a new chapter.
QUESTION: Will we see in your book or elsewhere the resolution of Future Tony you set up in AVENGERS? Is that something we'll see soon or is that still to come?
BENDIS: Still to come but there's other things that I've danced around in other books. Like I've shown a future where Tony is the Sorcerer Supreme. All that is coming. There's a lot of interesting paths for Tony to go down.
QUESTION: How long will the first arc be?
BENDIS: Not unlike my work on SPIDER-MAN or DAREDEVIL, I think you're going to look at a big multi-year storyline that is easily digestible in chapters. As one drama brings itself to conclusion, I like that another one pops up. This is the genius of Stan Lee. The story keeps going. Tony has so many balls in the air so even if he knocks down one villain, there's another one coming.
QUESTION: Brian, you're known for doing the occasional crossovers, do you have any plans to cross this over into other books?
BENDIS: Not at the moment but there's a lot we're working on. One of the reasons I wanted Tom shepherding this along is because Tony is so involved in so many aspects of the Marvel Universe, the least of which are the Avengers, I just wanted to be sure you felt all of that going on in the book itself. One of the reasons I'm excited about doing Tony's book is because every time I've written Tony, it's been part of a big event or he's been part of a big team. I've had some personally great moments with the character, like CIVIL WAR: CONFESSION, the idea here is to really to get under Tony's skin and examine Tony. You will feel his place in the Marvel Universe but I want these storylines to stand on their own. I think that's what fans of Tony want in this book. It's what I want.
QUESTION: Before SECRET WARS, we saw Tony locked in combat with Steve Rogers. Are we going to see any of that played with in the new book?
BENDIS: Yes. I like their relationship. I think they bring out the best in each other and sometimes challenge each other in the way others do not. I think with Steve's status quo being what it is, their relationship has new layers to discover.
QUESTION: Any teases for the villains we'll see.
BENDIS: We'll have some brand new technological villains, some people who have created tech way beyond what Tony has. We also have some...organic or mystical types of villains. It'll be something harder for technology to deal with. With futurists, there's always the fight with how they think the world should be. Basically, Tony needs his Magneto. Someone who doesn't believe in things differently, they just have a different way to go about it. All these ideas are very exciting for me.
QUESTION: If this is your Iron Man 4, does that mean you guys might be introducing the Marvel Comics version of Trevor Slattery?
BENDIS: [laughs] Yes.QUESTION: Where did the idea come to bring back the idea of including INVINCIBLE in the title?
BENDIS: That was all Tom.
BREVOORT: I'm an old guy, I'm a 70s guy. To me, that was always the book. All through that era, there was that one line. It's what I think of, at my core. He's Iron Man. At the same time, one of the things I asked for when we were designing the suit was that we go back to its core form with red and gold. Having been away from it for a while, all of a sudden it looks new and exciting. To me, it's just as much a part of the book as AMAZING is to Spider-Man or INCREDIBLE is to Hulk. So we're going back to INVINCIBLE IRON MAN.
BENDIS: I didn't tell Tom this but when I wrote the first issue, I just wrote "Iron Man" on the script. By the second issue, I knew it was going to be "Invincible Iron Man" and I changed it. And it did, it looked good.
QUESTION: Now that the Ultimate Universe is no more, are we going to see the police detectives that look suspiciously like Brian Michael Bendis and David Marquez in INVINCIBLE IRON MAN?
BENDIS: Honestly we thought it was cute. We made a huge mistake. We found out Disney now owns us, lock, stock, and barrel. Detectives Marquez and Bendis will be showing up in episodes of Jessie and Phineas and Ferb...it's, you know. And in Star Wars! I found out we'll be in Episode VIII.
Also, since we announced it at the convention last weekend, a lot of people have been guessing who the biological parents of Tony are. I'm very interested in all of them. As I said at the convention, it is Thomas and Martha Wayne. Don't let the fact that I'm spoiling it here take away from any enjoyment you have with the book.
INVINCIBLE IRON MAN will be on sale in October. Stay tuned for more announcements later this month and heading into San Diego.
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