Iron Man - Volume 3: The Secret Origin of Tony Stark - Book 2 (Marvel Now) 2 (Marvel Now)

this run gets better and better this volume really brings into question just WHO IS Tony Start and its BRILLIANT, sosososoos good, just pick up this damn run already.

This volume collects issues 12 to 17 of Kieron Gillen's run on Iron Man, which has been building momentum since Marvel launched the NOW! series a little over a year ago. When I reviewed Iron Man Vol.2: The Secret Origin of Tony Stark I stated that Gillen had hit us with a revelation that changes what we thought we ever knew about Tony Stark. Well, volume 3 has blown that revelation out of the water with an even more dazzling shocker. There now may be spoilers ahead... The story flits between flashbacks of Howard Stark's dealings with the alien robot Recorder 451, and to the present day where Iron Man is still in outer space. We had earlier learned in volume 2 that 451 had tinkered with the unborn Tony to manipulate his genes in order to create a super genius that would save the world. The duplicitous 451 we now discover, had more plans. Enter the Godkiller, an ancient 5-mile tall celestial suit of armour designed to be a galactic weapon of mass destruction, which 451 has in his possession, and now that he has Tony in his possession too, he reveals that he engineered Stark in his mother's womb to become the Godkiller's pilot. His plan? Use the Godkiller to strike fear into the entire universe. Who dares attack Earth with the Godkiller defending it? Unfortunately, something has gone wrong with the plan. Tony is unable to synchronise with the Godkiller's interface, and is now hurtling towards the Earth at faster than light speed. It's up to Tony, with the help of alien bounty hunter robot Death's Head, returning from volume 2, to thwart Recorder 451 and stop the Godkiller from smashing into the planet Earth and destroying it totally. Then there's that extra revelation. Which. Will. Literally. Change. Your. Views. About. Iron Man. Well, all I can say is that so far this series, under Kieron Gillen, has gone from strength to strength. He's weaved and twisted and delivered unto us an Iron Man that has explored the absolute boundaries of his very existence. Forget demons in bottles, forget civil wars, forget cave beginnings - here we have a new aspect to Tony Stark's psyche and one that I've certainly never witnessed before (longer term IM readers may have, but I doubt it), and it all starts with his parents and ends with his parents. I'm not saying this is the best Iron Man story ever, but it's close enough, if you figure the revelation(s) into the equation. I could go on but I do not want to spoil things any more. You'll just have to dive in and read this fabulous story. It does start back in volume 1 - this is not a standalone story, so you will clearly need to purchase the other 2 volumes if you haven't already. The artwork by Greg Land is great and the colouring is superb. The whole team have come together to assist Gillen craft this amazing blockbuster story. It should knock your socks off.

Getting through this volume and the previous 2 was honestly a chore. Too much filler between plot points and it was all just very perfunctory. The ending, once we got there, at least brought something fun to the table.

Kieron Gillen’s Iron Man run continues to be an absolute train-wreck with the only positive being Greg Land’s absence from this book! It opens with the finale of Howard Stark’s Ocean’s 11-esque heist of an alien-run casino in Vegas before jumping back to the present where Tony and 451’s great space adventure continues with still more genocide! And then there’s the big reveal of Tony’s secret origin which is one of the worst I’ve read in any Marvel book in a long time. Gillen takes the central premise of this book from Pacific Rim by making 451’s plan revolve around Tony becoming the pilot of a 5-mile tall suit of Jaegar-esque armour called the Godkiller. The reason? So that Tony can use the armour to stop needless death across the cosmos as he’s been engineered from birth to be some kind of intergalactic saviour. But in order to convince Tony to bond with the armour, 451 is more than happy to kill off an entire planet full of life so… that makes no sense! Most of the book is set in the Godkiller armour as Tony and 451 drearily play cat and mouse, and for that alone this book’s a failure because it’s so boring. “Get him!”, “Ahhhh, runaway, runaway!”, “Grr, he escaped! Get him!”, “Nyah-nyah, can’t catch me, I’ve got flying armour!” x 3 chapters. But the secret origin part is where Gillen really drops the ball. I won’t go into spoilers but it’s a massive faux pas that also weirdly doesn’t satisfy as an origin story as it leaves further mystery of Tony’s beginnings! Gillen’s Iron Man has been one of the worst Marvel NOW! runs – it’s been consistently sub-par since the start and hasn’t shown any improvement over three books. I’ll probably read Iron Man again one day, but not with this writer in the driving seat. Iron Man, Wolverine – which Marvel character’s origin can Gillen screw with next?

Is he simply his father's son? And if he isn't, who is he? There has always been a degree of self invention to Iron Man, but this story takes it a step further.

Le plus c'est une suite qui répond aux attentes suscitées par le volume précédent, le moins c'est que ce volume est moins acces sur le passé d'Howard Stark que j'avais trouvé sympa. Une bonne série SF

If you haven't already, go back and read the previous volume of this book. Otherwise, you will be quite lost as to whats going on. The mystery of Tony Starks origin is revealed here, and I must say it is quite promising. 451's scheme for an unified universe under earth is kind of baffling, but I suppose the idea is that he has the same faith in humanity's potential that Tony himself has. I also really dug the cosmic backstory Gillen infuses in this, the idea of an apocalyptic war between the Celestials and an extinct race is really interesting, and the Godkiller armor they created looks awesome.Once again the art is really good as well, and i love deaths Head's cape. That robot has quite the fashion sense.

Okay.

Loved it great story