Iron Man #4

[chrismarker]

Finally got it! Think I brought to much anticipation to it. Having Mallen rant like a KKK idiot is a potential stroke -- I jut hope it goes further. And, obviously Adi's art is still spectacular -- the scenes with Mallen trying to befriend that goth chick really stick out (really like the lighting Adi!).

What also struck me in those same scenes was the writing and related idea of how common it is that white racists presume that other white folks are down with them: Stuff happens all the time. I mean, this white guy doing some work in my neighborhood made this matter of fact comment to me and my wife that "Detroit would be great if not for the 'Nigs'" --I'm not bullshitting. Stuff happens all the time. So, yeah, the fact that Mallen kills an innocent girl after she confronts him for being a racist asshole is no doubt a probability, but there's also a probability that she might just chime in on his cause.

My only detraction -- if you can call it that -- is that the book seemed rushed. Too many otherwise big moments -- when Tony reveals himself as Iron Man; when Tony tells Maya to dose him with Extremis -- happen without much effect, culminating in an almost anti-climatic cliff hanger ("Is Tony alive? Or Dead").

Still hoping Maya doses -- lots to play with there: She should. She invented it. And she should be more than the girl who is just smarter than Tony...

[dEnny!]

It's funny, the new issue came out and I still heard complaints...as everyone gobbled them up. :roll:

[Jason Truong]

I bought, I liked, I wonder when issue 5 will be released.

[dEnny!]

I bought, I liked, I wonder when issue 5 will be released.

Quit wondering, enjoy issue 4, go reread all four again and pick up some other comics in the meantime...don't worry, we'll be here to hold you. ;)

[Dan]

Fantastic looking issue. I would buy this just for the art, it's a good thing I get the added benefit of an Ellis story.

[chrismarker]

Some more comments: love the intro scenes where Iron Man loses power and can't even hold up the car -- really funny. And those three bottom panels where his arms lose power -- cool. That panel where Maya stares at the "last live dose" of Extremis is strangely interesting. Still wish Tony's reason for being was a bit more satisfying than "all I have is...stopping animals," esepcially given Sal's piercing brilliance in #2. Here's hoping Sal makes more than a cameo appearance in the final two issues because he really, really, launched this arc into something special for me.

Adi --I think the cover is great. I just saw the cover of "New Avengers" #8, by "Finch" or "fgd" -- sorry, I don't know who he is. But anyway, what do you think of his Iron Man? It actually almost looks molten and ugly, no?

Thanks!

[dimeshop]

Absolutely gorgeous and worth the wait.

[DeleriumTremens]

This issue could not have looked any better.

[Boss Hogg]

Adi I thank you sir... your art has made me feel like a lesser person in its pressence and makes all other books moderatly jealous. Good on you sir.... good on you.

[Dan]

As I was taking the train out of Penn Station last night, some guy sitting across from me was reading IM #4, and folding the book over backwards! Doesn't he realize that he's manhandling precious art?

He was a big guy, too. Would have been a good Luke Cage actor.

[Jason]

Definitely worth the wait. Adi's art is awesome beyond words and the story is really picking up. I can understand what you mean about some of the big mements happening so rapid fire, but honestly I never even thought of that when I was reading it.

I was so caught up in it all and enjoying it that the big reveal, etc. didn't bother me. I'm still freaking out about the idea of Tony being injected with the Extremis. If this leads to a permanent change...then, wow...imagine the possibilities. A whole new paradigm for Iron Man.

Good stuff and I can't wait for issue #5. This story has been so good, I'm thinking of buying the trade even though I'm already picking up the singles.

Jason

[Brandon191]

Great job Adi! You and Ellis make a great team.

The shot of Stark's hand really made me want to barf. :Oops:

[Boris the Blade]

#4 was easily the best issue yet.

[Adi Granov]

Thanks everyone! I am really glad you liked it. I haven't seen the finished product yet myself as I've just returned from Chicago and hadn't had time to go to the store.

Yeah, Warren is really kicking Tony's ass, but I think it's absolutely necessary in order to take Iron Man into the future and make him able to keep up with all of the modern superheros. I mean, as much as I love IM, he has pretty much been stuck in the 70's as far as the technology goes.

I am very excited about issue 5, it's probably the most pivotal part of our run. Plus there is something very special to make all of the old school IM fans very happy. I was jumping out of my chair when I read the script because it made the fanboy in me super excited (my wife thought I was nuts).

I really appreciate you guys reading it and I am super glad you liked it.

[ds9]

It's funny, the new issue came out and I still heard complaints...as everyone gobbled them up. :roll:Come on Denny you know marvel deserves the complaints about this book.

[Dannñ B]

Wow, it wasn't with my pulls. I didn't notice it on the rack either. Very strange.

[the last ronin]

I really liked it, i think it's awesome what's going to happen to Tony.

[JABSEN]

That was a fucking amazing issue.

[Boris the Blade]

Thanks everyone! I am really glad you liked it. I haven't seen the finished product yet myself as I've just returned from Chicago and hadn't had time to go to the store.

Yeah, Warren is really kicking Tony's ass, but I think it's absolutely necessary in order to take Iron Man into the future and make him able to keep up with all of the modern superheros. I mean, as much as I love IM, he has pretty much been stuck in the 70's as far as the technology goes.

I am very excited about issue 5, it's probably the most pivotal part of our run. Plus there is something very special to make all of the old school IM fans very happy. I was jumping out of my chair when I read the script because it made the fanboy in me super excited (my wife thought I was nuts).

I really appreciate you guys reading it and I am super glad you liked it.
You don't get a comped issue of the book you're working on?

[Adi Granov]

I get comp copies but only long after they are on the stands, sometimes up to two months later. Not sure why. So I go and buy a copy for myself, and give the rest to friends...

Although sometimes I get two comp batches of the same issue. I got #3 back before I moved, and I just got 4 more copies in the mail two months later. heh.

[Boris the Blade]

I get comp copies but only long after they are on the stands, sometimes up to two months later. Not sure why. So I go and buy a copy for myself, and give the rest to friends...

Although sometimes I get two comp batches of the same issue. I got #3 back before I moved, and I just got 4 more copies in the mail two months later. heh.
That makes sense. I had no idea that you had to wait so long for 'em.

[chrismarker]

-- just saw these old IronMan's at my mom's, when he had a silver and red suit (and "Rhodey" was still flying as the Golden Avenger)...made me think of how Adi's work is so "hyper-real." Like Richard Estes in comic art? So, Adi, I was thinking how that "hyper-realism" inlfects the character. I don't know any criticisms of your work in the field, but I'm guessing maybe people have said the work feels "static"? Because of its photgraphic quality? In that book, Camera Lucida, Barthes says that all photographs are at some level about death. That's it.

[Adi Granov]

Well, yeah, I'd have to agree with that. For instance, the first issue is painfully static to me now because I was pushing it in a certain direction, a cold perfection if you will. But it ended up not quite as appealing as I thought it might.

But starting with issue 2, I have actually broken completely off from actual realism, and while certain elements are so familiar and adhere to the laws of nature (like lighting and volume) it is all very much stylized to fit the particular purpose in the book. Some of it, obviously, more successful than other, but progress nonetheless.

My thinking behind my style is to try to present something utterly unbelievable in a manner where the viewer will accept it because it's grounded in familiar reality. People look like real people even when they are spitting fire and smashing cars with bare hands. I think it's more striking and scary, if you will, than having unreal, fantasticaly proportioned people in tights, doing the same. So when you see a superhuman fight it doesn't look heroic, it looks nasty and violent, like it might in real life. So when Iron Man's hand gets crushed it looks crushed, like a truck went over it.

Certain styles work for certain types of genres and moods. I like to think that my approach fits the bill for this kind of technical and violent, "realistic", sci-fi.

[chrismarker]

"But starting with issue 2, I have actually broken completely off from actual realism, and while certain elements are so familiar and adhere to the laws of nature (like lighting and volume) it is all very much stylized to fit the particular purpose in the book. Some of it, obviously, more successful than other, but progress nonetheless."

Can you point out specific examples? Issue #1 is actually my favorite as far as art. The cover is amazing and then the subway scenes with Mallen and co. just jump of the pages. Then, again, there are those piercing two panels of Tony staring in the mirror after he says "What are you looking at?" -- and then the great full page revealing the Iron Man suit (followed by that great lift-off scene): there's just so much substantial detail to every panel of the book. (And, incidentially -- and I can't believe I missed this after all this time! -- but the two panels of Mallen laying on the floor, completely scabbed over like a mummy Giger might imagine -- that's how I imagine how Iron Man should look.

But anway : The cover of issue#2 is phenonmenal! -- and I think the arc's strongest and most sustaining dialgue (so far) is in this issue. But I don't see the stylistic departure you're describing.

The fight scene between Mallen and Iron Man in Issue#3 is as good as I've ever seen -- really powerful and effective for exactly what you say about grounding the fantastic in the real. (I wish that classic Wolverine issue in that genius Claremont-Brood arc of the X-men in the 80's had more attempted this). Also have to note the brilliant sequence you did in #3 where Mallen's (?) mother (?) gets shot in the head as he's sitting in the corner -- OKAY got it -- that last panel of him as a child sitting in the corner -- that's what you mean about the change in style? 'cause, yeah, that feels like an oil painting: a really dark painting...