Comic Review: Iron Man 2020 (2020) #1

Comic Review: Iron Man 2020 (2020) #1

Marvel Comics

Writer: Dan Slott and Christos Gage

Artist: Pete Woods

The future is now: giant impractical shoulder gears are finally in fashion as Marvel Comics and writers Dan Slott and Christos Gage relaunch the Iron Man of 2020. Following the December finale of Slott’s Tony Stark: Iron Man, Slott, and Gage waste no time introducing new threats and a new armored hero.

As the title would suggest, this new Iron Man 2020 series follows the Earth-616 version of Arno Stark, who in this continuity is the biological son of Howard and Maria Stark as well as Tony Stark’s adoptive brother rather than a distant relative as he was in his 1980s introduction (this is all explained in the 2013 Iron Man series as well as in a convenient timeline in this issue’s background material). The series picks up where Tony Stark: Iron Man left off, with Tony revealing to the world that he is in fact an AI with an artificial body and Arno taking advantage of the reveal to take over Tony’s company and assets. Convinced that it is his destiny to defend Earth from an impending extinction event, Arno assumes the mantle of Iron Man in preparation for the battle but must also contend with a machine uprising and rumors of the reappearance of Tony Stark. Putting aside the weirdness and divisiveness of Iron Man stories of the past decade –Tony’s adoption, all of Civil War II, and the introduction of Ironheart to name some major examples –Iron Man 2020 #1 feels like a return to relative basics. Tony and Arno’s backstories to date are relevant but they don’t feel essential for understanding this story, and the backmatter timeline does a decent enough job at catching readers up to speed. The story itself is, for the most part, a straightforward introduction to Arno’s new status quo as Iron Man including his world and objectives. Slott and Gage come right out of the gates with an overarching threat for Arno to confront while also devoting a decent amount of time to showing how Arno operates both as the new head of Stark Unlimited and as Iron Man. As common as world-ending threats are in comics, the stakes still feel decently high for Arno, who has never been tested in this way.

If there is a weakness in this issue, it is in Arno’s characterization. This version of Arno has a fairly complex and traumatic backstory that could be built upon to differentiate him from Tony, but apart from a few pages early on, it feels like Tony and Arno operate in more or less the same ways. Their personalities are similarly abrasive, and Arno isn’t shown struggling at all with the Iron Man technology, suggesting that he has acclimated to it pretty easily. In short, Arno feels a bit too much like Tony at the moment, though this is something that Slott and Gage could fix easily in the coming issues. On a more positive note, Arno at least feels like a developed, if not wholly unique, character: elements of his backstory (and the chip on his shoulder that came of it) are referenced here, hopefully, to be followed up on in the future, and his objectives are simple and clear. Some of the side characters are a bit less interesting but the issue’s villain, Machine Man, is sufficiently entertaining.

The art by Pete Woods is solid: the characters have distinguishable and expressive faces, the action is dynamic, and the level of detail is high, especially on the redesigned Iron Man 2020 armor. The new design still feels recognizable as a modern Iron Man suit while retaining and updating elements of the original 1980s Iron Man 2020 suit, specifically the large gears separating the armor’s torso and arms. As ridiculous and impractical as that feature is now, it’s charming to see the gears make it into a 21st century Iron Man comic, and the armor just wouldn’t be Arno’s without it. A late-page appearance by a version of the Model 1 Iron Man armor is also fairly visually appealing, taking some cues from the cobbled-together paneled appearance of the MCU’s Iron Man Mark 1 in contrast with Arno’s more streamlined and colorful armor.

Iron Man 2020 (2020) #1 is a solid start to a new decade and a new generation of Iron Man stories. Dan Slott and Christos Gage craft an entertaining story that elevates this debut issue beyond its current-year gimmick, establishing the new Iron Man and his enemies with not a page going to waste. Pete Woods’ art is appealing and the new Iron Man armor is a great bit of fanservice. The issue’s one weakness is Arno’s lack of a separate personality from his brother Tony, but otherwise, this is definitely an issue worth picking up.