The Armors Of The Invincible Iron Man

I’ve sent issue 10 — the wedding of Emma Frost and Tony Stark to press this week. Been very grateful to hear that these issues are selling out and going back to print. I think it’s a terrific Tony Stark and Iron Man story.

Kael Ngu’s Invincible Iron Man 9 cover.

It’s my privilege to help steward him in his 60th anniversary year, and I hope you’re all enjoying it as much as we are. I know Tony hasn’t enjoyed it up to this point, but you have to figure that will change.

The mandate I gave myself was to challenge Tony Stark as hard as we’d challenge Iron Man, and I’m proud of the results. I’m giving Tony a new struggle…perhaps his most confounding obstacle yet: attempting to be a writer. He’s writing his memoirs during these dark days, and it’s not quite as easy as building a suit of armor that can fly. I believe in him, though.

When you have wonderful editors and excellent artists, the job is a joy. From Kael Gnu on covers, Juan Frigeri’s amazing interior work and design, and all our talented guests — it’s a murderer’s row of incredible artists. The Model 70 was originally an Alex Ross design, and while Tony had been separated from his money and vast resources we wanted to feel like the armor was slowly being battered across our run. We gave it a hell of a sendoff before Feilong took possession of it.

After designing a weather armor from the Cantwell run, the next job was to design some of the villains that would define the run: the Stark Sentinels. Feilong put all of Tony’s tricks into the robots that would be the tip of the fear for the fascists in our story. Note the Model 70 for scale.

Now is a nice moment to shout out everyone that had a stake in this for dancing to our beat. Tom Brevoort and Jed Mackay and everyone that wrote Tony agreed that he’d work from the shadows in the stealth armor we named the MARK NIL. Or Model Nil. Dealer’s choice. It can cling to metal via magnets, and cloak like a Klingon Bird Of Prey and my favorite part of the armor: it’s also a suitcase.

The Model Nil Armor [Suitcase]

I was thrilled where we ended up with the Model Nil. We went back and forth on a few details, and while it’s different, it also feels very Iron Man. No easy feat, but Juan made it look easy.

So…where do Tony and Iron Man go from here? Well, that’s going to be an interesting tale. We’ll play our cards close to the vest on that one, but you do not want to miss the suit of armor that Tony has been tinkering on. When the bell rings and it’s time to fight Orchis directly…Tony’s going to be doing it in style.

Invincible Iron Man is on sale now.

More soon

GD

PS — My photo book Timing/Luck is available in limited quantities after fulfilling my crowdfunding effort.

And while my comps last — I’m signing a couple of random comics and placing them in the package. You might get a 1:100 Chrome Scotch McTiernan, or an X-Men comic, or you might even get the rare Batman comic I didn’t even wright — who knows!?