William David Lee, ESQ.

For those of you unable to attend Comic-Con, this is the closest you'll probably get to the amazing Iron Man 2 footage...



Personally, I think it's 100 times better than any crappy bootleg footage you'll find.

So, MTV sucks swollen donkey cock nowadays, but this was teh awesome.

Christian Bale would kick his ass? No, I don't think so.

Still need some more iron in your diet?

Invincible Iron Man #1 (Marvel Comics)

Iron Man, Matt Fraction-style. Picking up the threads of his recently ended series, The Order, Fraction brings an all-new menace to Tony Stark's life. His name is Ezekiel Stane, the son of Obadiah, and he's younger, smarter, and more ruthless than Stark. Stane has already decimated Tony's new superteam in California, causing the deaths of several members and nearly drove the entire city of L.A. to kill itself. All just to fuck with our hero. Now, Stane has made one of Tony's worst nightmares a reality. He's stolen Stark technology and improved upon it, creating an army of armorless Iron Man suicide bombers to unleash on the world.

Iron Man: Viva Las Vegas #1 (Marvel Comics

Iron Man director Jon Favreau resurrects some of his unused ideas for the film in this 4-issue miniseries (set outside established continuity) with artist Adi Granov, who was instrumental in designing the armor for the movie. Swinging playboy Tony Stark hits Las Vegas just as the whole town gears up for the grand opening of a new casino, the Golden Dragon. And they've purchased a 1000 year-old golden dragon from ancient China has its centerpiece. Can you say, Fin Fang Foom? The $3.99 price tag might be a bit steep and the story (more set-up than action) is a little light, but it's Iron Man versus a giant dragon.

More recommended Iron Man reading...

Iron Man #128 (Marvel Comics)

Tony Stark enjoys a good, stiff drink every now and then, but he turns to the bottle more often as his personal and professional life hit a downward spiral. SHIELD attempts to gain controlling interest in Stark Industries to turn it into their personal weapons manufacturer. Rival industrialist Justin Hammer has sent wave after wave of supervillains to attack Stark, culminating in Hammer gaining remote control of the Iron Man armor causing him to murder an innocent man. Sauced to the gills, Stark snaps at his friends while as Iron Man, he drunkenly causes a train accident. It's up to his former flame Bethany Cabe and loyal butler Jarvis to pull Tony out of his alcoholic funk.

Iron Man #200 (Marvel Comics)

The realization of nearly 40 issues worth of storylines. Obadiah Stane has declared a hostile takeover of Stark Industries, kicking Tony out of his own company and blocking his finances. Hitting rock bottom, Tony hands the Iron Man suit to Rhodey and becomes a drunken bum. He pulls himself back up after befriending a homeless woman who dies giving birth in the snowy streets of NYC. Tony sobers up and forms his own company to combat Stane. With his enemy still standing, Stane initiates endgame, teaming with Madame Masque to kidnap Tony's best friends while building his own suit of armor from leftover blueprints. It's Iron Man vs. Iron Monger.

Iron Man: Extremis (Marvel Comics)

Another great Iron Man story for those who dug the film. Extremis collects the first 6 issues of the latest Iron Man series, reimagining Shellhead's origins and giving him new powers for the 21st Century. Ambushed in Afghanistan, Tony and Dr. Yinsen build a suit of armor to escape their captors. Flash forward to today where Tony's old flame, Maya Hansen, has devised a nanotech virus that rewires and improves human DNA a thousandfold. Now, it's in the hands of a right-wing radical bent on mass murder. After soundly being defeated, Tony takes a dose of Extremis himself, fully integrating his entire body with the Iron Man armor. Featuring two of writer Warren Ellis's trademarks, snappy banter and crazy-ass technology.

Well, Iron Man pretty much cleaned up at the box office. Just under $200 million worldwide? Not too shabby. It proves a comic property doesn't need name recognition, so long as you get an A-list cast, a competant director, and a kickass story.

No surprise, the sequel has been given the greenlight for 2010. And we all know Robert Downey Jr. can pull this one off...



Yahoo Finance has a report on Marvel Studios' upcoming slate amidst all the financial mumbo jumbo. Fox's Wolverine will be the only Marvel flick coming out next year. After that, it's all in-house stuff with Iron Man 2 and Thor set for 2010. Captain America and Avengers is set for 2011. Ant-Man is listed with no release date announced.

I'm hoping they bring back Favreau for Avengers since he did such an awesome job on Iron Man. Personally, I'd set the Cap movie in World War II and drop him into the ice at the end so they can thaw him out for Avengers.

And I just read an interview over at Empire Online. Apparently, the Superbad team of Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg will be adapting the movie version of The Boys. Now, my hopes are up that it'll be halfway decent.

Dare I say that Iron Man just might be the best comic book superhero movie ever? Rotten Tomatoes seems to think so as the site gives it a 94% Fresh rating, achieving a higher approval rating than Batman Begins, Spider-Man 2, Sin City, and the entire X-Franchise. At the moment, I’m still riding the high of a healthy dose of iron, but I don’t have any major quibbles with Iron Man the same way I did with the above mentioned films.

Iron Man is the first film produced under the Marvel Studios banner, allowing the comic book company to churn their live-action adaptations in house while giving them tighter creative control. If this spectacularly fun effort is any indication, Marvel made the right decision. The last few Marvel films were the hugely disappointing Spider-Man 3, the mess that was X-Men: The Last Stand, and the, to be blunt, completely retarded Ghost Rider and Fantastic Four (both of them). But, finally, finally, finally, Marvel zombies have a film they don’t have to be ashamed about.



It’s been a long, hard road to the big screen for Tony Stark. Noted comic book fan Nicolas Cage and noted kook Tom Cruise were both in serious running to play the character. Neither choice panned out nor did Nick Cassavetes who was attached to direct from a script by Smallville creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar. This was definitely a fine example of, “Everything happens for a reason.” Jon Favreau hopped on board as director and fought for Robert Downey Jr. as his star, despite both men’s lack of experience in big-budget blockbusters. Shock of all shocks, Favreau made the decision to put characters and story first while remaining faithful to the original source material. I know, crazy idea, don’t know if it’ll catch on. The only real deviations from the comic are the updated locale change of Iron Man's origins from Vietnam to Afghanistan and the change of Stark's butler, Jarvis, into an advanced AI system voiced by an uncredited Paul Bettany.

In the most surprising move, Favreau cited Robert Altman as an influence in his process of filmmaking. Who would have thought I'd be saying Robert Altman and superhero movie in the same sentence? Five different screenwriters may have had a hand in the script, but much of the dialogue comes from improvisation from the A-list cast. Owing much to Favreau's experience on Swingers and Made. They don't treat the origin story as something that's forced upon. That they have to tell it before the real action starts. It isn't the overly long, slightly clunky preamble from Batman Begins.



Downey absolutely inhabits the character. He IS Tony Stark. Downey definitely taps into his past as a good-time boy to perform as the hard partying billionaire. His genius industrialist is more Richard Branson than Bill Gates. Unlike other superheroes, Tony Stark never wallows in a sea of forced angst. There's just the right mix of drama, conflict, and humor. Dude has a stripper pole built into his private plane, for Odin's sake. And whoever thought Tony should listen to Suicidal Tendencies? Kudos to you, sir. They've also done a splendid job in setting up Tony's eventual fall from grace as everybody involved have all but confirmed that the inevitable sequel would be based on Demon in a Bottle storyline.

Some purists might complain that Tony Stark was never this much of a smart aleck, but Tony Stark was never this interesting. Downey is just on and everybody else in the film is attempting to play catch up. I'm not that big a fan of Gwyneth Paltrow, but she's the liviest and hottest she's ever been with her Howard Hawks-esque interplay with Downey. Terrence Howard didn't have much to do, so we'll have to wait for the sequel for him to get a meatier role.

Jeff Bridges is just fuckin' on as Obadiah Stane. Who better to be a thorn in the Golden Avenger's side than an evil Big Lebowski? It's a credit to him and Downey when they can make a minor bit involving a pizza box one of the film's more enjoyable scenes. I kept waiting for the Iron Monger to run screaming into the night, "He peed on my rug!"

Favreau isn't quite the most stylish in the visual department. The final battle between the iron warriors was slightly disappointing. Still, the CGI is great (with only one or two iffy shots) and the practical armors designed by Stan Winston are incredible. Adding frosting tot the cake, the filmmakers throw a few bones for the fanboys such as the foreshadowing of Rhodey becoming War Machine ("Next time, baby"), the introduction of S.H.I.E.L.D., a Mandarin reference (The Ten Rings), Stan Lee's best cameo ever, and the theme from the 1960's Iron Man cartoon as Rhodey's ringtone. Hell, even the ending credits are awesome.

BTW, stick around until the credits finish rolling for a cameo by a certain badass motherfucker with an eyepatch...



AH! No, not that one.



Yeah, that's what I'm talkin' about.

If I have any tiny nits to pick, it is the rather generic score, which was passable if not unremarkable. Also, as great as Jeff Bridges was, I thought the villain was a bit weak. That may be a problem for the sequels as Iron Man has a decent rogues gallery, but none of them are particularly cinematic, save for archnemesis, The Mandarin.

FINAL THOUGHTS: I was expecting Iron Man to be a great flick, but I had no idea it would whoop this much ass and be one of the best comic films ever. Taken on the surface, Iron Man is pure, undiluted, unadulterated, popcorn entertainment. The script may not be the most innovative, but it's strong and elevated by great performances across the board. It's the rare action film that wins at both the critical and financial fronts. Lately, a lot of these big-budget spectacles have run 2 1/2-3 hours and most of the time, the films drag and feel arbitrarily stretched out. Iron Man runs just over 2 hours and I wouldn't have minded one bit if they tacked on an extra 15-20 minutes.

The summer blockbuster season kicks off on a high note and I truly hope this is the beginning of a brand-new, lucrative franchise. Bring on Iron Man 2 and you sure as Hell better bring on The Avengers. I'm using the classic red & gold armor in giving this one 4 Shellheads out of a possible 5.

RATING:

Well, this is one down and three more to go as the summer still has The Incredible Hulk, Wanted and The Dark Knight to go. Punisher: War Zone? Yeah, that doesn't count. I think Hulk might be pretty good, but I haven't gotten near as excited for it as I have Iron Man. And Wanted just takes a dump over what I was preaching earlier about faithfulness to the source material. Dark Knight is going to be insanely awesome. And Hellboy II should be cool. God, July is going to be great, Dark Knight followed by Comic-Con.

And before I go, if you dug the movie then check out Iron Man: Viva Las Vegas which comes out this upcoming Wednesday. It features a story written by Favreau with art by Adi Granov, who did conceptual art for the film.

Tony tests his new bootjets.


Tony takes the Mark 02 Armor for a spin.


Iron Man vs. the United States Air Force.

We are less than a month away from one of the most anticipated movies of the year, Iron Man. I never thought I'd be this excited for an Iron Man movie, but all the footage I've seen looks tremendous. They've got a great director in Jon Favreau (Made, Elf) and a fantastic cast. We've got Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Terrence Howard, Jeff Bridges, Leslie Bibb, Samuel L. Jackson in a cameo as Nick Fury, and Hilary Swank in yet-to-be announced role. Bethany Cabe? Janet Van Dyne? Plus, Marvel is setting up the foundation for a future Avengers film.

The figures have just started hitting stores in the last couple weeks. I don't usually go for movie toy lines, but these were too cool to pass up. Toy Biz did a pretty good job when they had the Marvel license, even if stores were clogged with unwanted Hulk and Fantastic Four stuff. Since taking over, Hasbro has met with mixed emotions from toy collectors. Their Spider-Man 3 figures were pretty stinky, but their Iron Man line looks to redeem the company.



Packaging - ***
Hasbro did some snazzy designing for the packages. There's a real high-tech armor look to the blisters and the red will definitely draw the attention of any youngsters wandering into the toy aisle with mom and dad. The logo is boldly stamped on top right next to the Iron Man drawn by Adi Granov. For those of you who prefer keeping your toys in the box, these will look cool hung up on your wall. For those of you who prefer PLAYING with your toys, these are easy to open (much easier than the clamshells) and there aren't any annoying twistie ties to trap your figure.



SCULPTING - ****
I like these figures so much, I'm just gonna go ahead and give them four stars across the board. There's a ton of detail put into each figure. No half-assing here. The Mark 01 armor looks spot-on from what I've seen of the real deal from the trailers. The same goes for the red and gold Mark 03 armor. The toy appears to have leapt right off the pages of Adi Granov's sketchbook, the Iron Man artist instrumental in designing the movie version. If I have an issue with the Mark 03, it's that it looks rather skinny compared to some of the past Iron Man toys. The Iron Monger might be my favorite, it is a beast. The Monger is bigger and bulkier than its compatriots, a slicker, much improved version of the Mark 01. Some might make a bigger issue of it, but the Monger does have a slightly softer feel to his details compared to the Mark 01. It's only a minor nitpick for me.

PAINT - Mark 01 & Mark 03 ***, Iron Monger **
As awesome as the Iron Monger is, it could have been better. I don't care for the brownish gray they did him in. I'd have preferred a much nicer, sterling silver coat. The Monger's paint job is done uniformly so there isn't much detail to him which adds to his soft look. The Mark 01 is very well done. There's no slop and the detail missing in the Monger can be found here. The Mark 01 looks beat up and rusty, exactly the way it should. The Mark 03 is excellent, at least mine is. The red and gold armor has a real shiny look to it. It will definitely stand out in your collection. There is some slight bleed between the red and gold on one of the arms and there's a tiny red splotch on the back of the left leg.



I will warn you all to choose your Mark 03 very carefully. I went through a bunch of them at several stores and only found maybe 2 or 3 that weren't painted in a sloppy manner. Lots of smudging and splotches. I was tempted to knock off a star and a half because of this. So, examine your figure closely before plunking down your cash.

ARTICULATION - Mark 03 **1/2, Mark 1 & Iron Monger *1/2
The Mark 03 armor isn't the well-articulated figure that collectors are used to from the Marvel Legends line. It features the basic articulation with ball joints at the leg and shoulders along with joints at the elbows, wrist, neck, waist, torso, knees, and ankles. Not super-poseable, but good enough.

The Mark 01 armor has basically the same articulation as its successor, except it's not nearly as poseable due to the design. The arms at the elbows can't move much as the armor gets in the way. There appear to be ball joints for the legs of the Iron Monger, but they can't move at all. The Monger features a DC Super Powers style action feature. Squeeze the legs together for "Super Fist Smash" action. The action feature definitely hinders movement at the waist and shoulders as well.



ACCESSORIES - *
The Mark 03 comes with two shoulder pad attachments, a wrist mounted rocket launcher, and rocket. The Mark 01 comes with only a flame projectile, while the Monger comes with bupkis. I would have liked the figures to come with some sort of stand or mini-poster.

VALUE - ***
These are available at Target, Toys R Us, and Wal-Mart for 9.99. That's a fair price though I do wish we could have gotten some more accessories. With the cost of oil rising, toy prices are going to be bumped up. 10 bucks is looking a lot better compared to 11 or 12.





OVERALL - ***
These are some quality action figures and they'll fit in well on the shelves with your other Marvel characters. The Mark 03 gets high recommendations (if you can find one with a clean paint job) and the Iron Monger is my favorite, but might be harder to find as it comes only one per case. Aside from the figures I've reviewed, there is also an Iron Man Prototype which comes with removable face plate and snap-on armor and a Mark 02 which is the Mark 03 with an all silver paint job. Also available, are a Target exclusive of the Mark 03 in Silver Centurion colors and a Wal-Mart exclusive War Machine. The second wave will feature another Iron Monger and Titanium Man.