Review: Iron Man Vol. 1- Believe

Quick Summary

Pros: Tony Starks character is developed well. The Iron Man suit is utilized great. There is a lot of potential being built up.

Cons: The story just is not that interesting on its own. The villains are generic and immediately forgettable.

Overall: While there are a lot of positives to this comic, the story does not have enough depth or excitement to make this a great book on its own. It is an interesting and exploratory look at Tony Stark’s personality and what the Iron Man armor can do, which provides the bulk of the book’s positives. However, this relegates the book to simply being a good introduction and little more than that.

Story

Iron Man Vol. 1: Believe is an interesting and creative reintroduction to Tony Stark and a solid revaluation of what he wants to do in life. However, outside of being an introduction, the story leaves a lot to be desired. There isn’t anything keeping readers interested in reading further, as both the villains and overall plot have very little below the surface. It does manage to introduce some potentially viable characters and plot lines for the future but ultimately the success of the next volume will decide whether this introduction is worth it or not.

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The main storyline involves Iron Man seeking out and destroying four instances of a powerful bio-weapon that have fallen into the hands of potentially dangerous people. This means that each issue, besides the first one, involves him taking down a different villain with different motives. This creates a very segmented storyline, with each issue being thematically different in terms of who the enemies are and what they represent. In some ways this works well and in some ways it hurts the book as a whole.

On the positive end of things, this structure allows for readers to get a better introduction to who Tony Stark is at this point in his life. His values and how he feels about the creation of new technology are examined and viewed through the lens of his villains. For example, when confronted by those using extremis as a weapon he is disgusted but when confronted by those using it as medicine he is almost jealous. It shows readers that this is a man who regrets his past and is unsure of how to make up for it.

It also allows Kieron Gillen to demonstrate exactly how versatile the Iron Man armor can be. Each villain requires Tony to adjust his armor in a different manner and leads to a different fighting style. Liquid armor for versatility, stealth armor for quiet missions, extremely shielded armor for close combat, and electric shielded space armor for the stars. In addition to just being cool, this use of the armor also shows off Tony’s intellect and strategic mind in a way that feels perfect for his character.

However, this segmented story telling also has some major drawbacks. Villains have next to no time to be built up as a threat and thus leave all of Tony’s victories feeling hollow. Each issue also ends with no reason for readers to read the next issue, because they know that it will simply be a different version of what they just read. It hurts the overall story significantly and makes the book feel like a highlight reel of cool Tony Stark moments rather than anything deeper.

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Art

Iron Man Vol. 1: Believe features pencils from Greg Land, inks from Jay Leisten, and colors from Gru-eFX. Together these artists present a crisp and clean looking book with relatively little to complain about. Characters look nice, contain a good level of detail, and have distinct features and clothing to distinguish them. In addition, backgrounds are well done and are colored in a way that helps set the tone of the story. Overall, this is a nice looking book with plenty of positives in the visual department.

Continuity

Iron Man Vol. 1: Believe is the first volume of the Iron Man Marvel Now! series. Marvel Now! is not a continuity reset at all; it is more of just a good jumping on point for readers. This means that, although there are stories that come before this, an in depth knowledge of Iron Man’s past is not really required to enjoy this series.

The story started here continues in Iron Man Volume 2: The Secret Origin of Tony Stark Book 1 (Review)

This volume also references stories from other comic books, all of which are detailed below.

• A large portion of the plot in this book contains extensive references to the “Extremis” storyline, collected in Iron Man: Extremis.