Marvel NOW! is coming soon and with it we will see the relaunch of Iron Man by Kierron Gillen and Greg Land. Check out a first look at the book as well as excerpts from the interview with Gillen telling us what to expect from the series.
Gillen on what to expect from the book theme wise:
It’s funny, he’s moved his position a bit and his heart roams but the main thing is the question of belief. Anyone reading AvX can see what Tony is going through and he’s wrestling with stuff he doesn’t normally touch. It’s him looking at two plus two and asking why it equals four. That’s kind of the heart, the underlying theme of [IRON MAN], the idea that Tony Stark starts prodding areas where he hasn’t prodded as much before, while at the same time being a clear scientific, technological book. I stress, I’m not trying to turn Iron Man into Mystic Knight in issue one. That was the joke for a while actually, I had a list of ideas of everything I could possibly do and after looking at it I thought, “This is the worst thing I can possibly do.”
The symbolism that I bring immediately into the book [is] a lot like the Arthurian concept of the grail-knight: the idea that Tony Stark is the grail-knight, or at least aspiring to be the grail-knight. When we meet him he’s left Resilient and he’s digging into what’s going on. Pepper has a line in the first issue saying, “Oh, you’re not having a midlife crisis are you? Just buy yourself a suit of armor.” That’s where we start and he begins to ask questions.
The story will focus on him questioning things about himself and trying to find out exactly how the universe ticks, what’s this all about and why he does this anyway. It’s going to be one of the major themes of the book going forward. For as long as I’m on the book it will be one of the two major themes I’m working on, like on UNCANNY X-MEN [with] the theme of power and the corruption thereof.
On exploring Tony’s relationships with women and single issue stories:
Oh hell yeah. It’s actually a key part of my second theme. I’m going to explore Tony and his relationship with women. I’m interested in Tony’s selection of women in everything, from his mom, to Pepper, to the random people he’s sleeping with and everything that relates to them. He’s a complicated guy and he does bad things occasionally without thinking. Well, not [without] thinking exactly but he’s not always thinking about the right thing. He’s not the distracted genius but he always has something else going on.
Matt Fraction did a brilliant take on the corporate figure and his run is a defining arc, so I’m staying away from it. Tony is still a scientist and will still be working on the armor but it’s all about him going out into the world and the whole grail-knight comparison. All the traditional corporate motifs are there but they’re not the primary drive of the book. Tony will be in the armor a lot, he’ll be going out into the world.
The first five issues will be single stories that will share [both] a defining motif and a plot but it will be Iron Man facing new instances of technology and each is basically a new villain. Each issue will illuminate something about Tony and they’re all very different. Issue two is a lot like the Bruce Lee Kung-Fu Island story; it’s like a joust, it’s all about the knight imagery, essentially going to a tournament. Issue three is like a ninja story, Tony Stark trying to be a full-on stealth master, issue four is a horror story and issue five is something a little more romantic and scientific but I’m going to keep that one under wraps.
I really want to mix it up with single issue stories because I think that quite a few people are feeling the same way. Single issues are an exciting place to go and anyone can jump on with any of the first five issues, not just issue #1. [In] each of those issues I introduce Iron Man; I say something meaningful about a character that you may know already and I want it to be accessible and to pop. That’s the thing with Greg Land: his photorealistic style really pops and it’s a glamorous book in that way.
On Greg Land’s art and if he can draw a “pretty glamorous party”:
He can! Issue #2 is Tony at the top of a hotel sitting in a recliner next to a pool working on an Iron Man helmet with people enjoying a party around him. That’s just how Tony would roll. That stuff is going to be really interesting. The opening scene of the first issue has Tony admiring a view and telling himself that he’s seen so much that any man would question what’s before him and yet he never did. That’s what the end of the five issues [is] going to be like.
As opposed to doing the [morphing] armor, he’s doing precision-based tech. He’ll have to switch out arms and legs. His argument being that you can get more kick out of a specific tool and the theme [of it will] be about making choices and living with it. It will be like choosing a specific suit for a specific mission, taking a certain arm configuration and taking a different piece off. There will be a lot of changes in the armor throughout the series; in the first five issues there will be a different armor every issue.
Source: Marvel