Where to start with Iron Man?

[Avarax]

I'm a DC guy, but am very interested in Iron Man. Where is a good place to start reading? I'd like to read some origin/early years stories first and get into newer stuff. For instance, the sort of stuff that is like Year One, Long Halloween, Dark Victory, Monster Men, Mad Monk etc., etc. for Batman.


Thanks Marvel Guys

[JumpingJupiter]

No clue about where to start for his back story but Invincible Iron Man is a title easy to Jump into. The first arc is wrapping up next month.

[StoneGold]

I'm a DC guy, but am very interested in Iron Man. Where is a good place to start reading? I'd like to read some origin/early years stories first and get into newer stuff. For instance, the sort of stuff that is like Year One, Long Halloween, Dark Victory, Monster Men, Mad Monk etc., etc. for Batman.


Thanks Marvel Guys

It doesn't really exist for Iron Man. There was something Joe Casey did relatively recently with the Mandarin, but there's not a ton of revisionist stuff for Tony beyond that and Iron Age.

[Will.S]

I'm a DC guy, but am very interested in Iron Man. Where is a good place to start reading? I'd like to read some origin/early years stories first and get into newer stuff. For instance, the sort of stuff that is like Year One, Long Halloween, Dark Victory, Monster Men, Mad Monk etc., etc. for Batman.


Thanks Marvel Guys

Warren Ellis and Adi Granov's Extremis updates Tony's origin and moves him forward into the Iron Man of today.



Joe Casey and Eric Canete's Enter the Mandarin is incredibly well done and revolves around Mandarin's first meeting with Iron Man.



The Iron Man Omnibus is also a great way to get into his very first appearances and seeing him evolve his armor.

[artiepants]

Warren Ellis and Adi Granov's Extremis updates Tony's origin and moves him forward into the Iron Man of today.

this. it's really good. and probably the clsoes thing to "year one" for IM. (you'll see they cribbed quite a bit of the movies origin story straight out of here)

there is also Premiere HCs of Armor Wars and Demon in a Bottle which are kinda the 2 most important IM stories of the 80s.

the Knaufs run post Civil War is really great. #15-26 or in the Iron Man: Director of SHIELD and Iron Man: Haunted Trades.

Edit: oh yeah, and Invincible Iron Man (the new series) is great and is more-or-less designed for folks who saw the movie and want to jump on board. Like J.J. said above, the first arc is just about wrapped up, so it should be easy to find the issues...

[JumpingJupiter]

What about Demon in a Bottle? Not an origin but an important story...

[DC906270-BIL]

Id say get the Iron Man omnibus, and Demon in a Bottle, then buy back issues from the 1st Invinicible series 70's/80's/90's from #150 onwards, they generally sell for fairly cheap.

[DannyV_El_Acme]

And, of course, any major storyarc wit the Avengers involves Tony in an important capacity, so be sure to look for those to see not only the man in actioon, but his interaction with the other big heroes(and villains) in the Marvel U.

[Will.S]

What about Demon in a Bottle? Not an origin but an important story...

Demon in a bottle does update the Origin to certain degrees and it certainly explains Tony's addiction to alcohol but the book is a little misleading in that regard since everyone expects him to be more drunken than he actually gets throughout that story.

And, of course, any major storyarc wit the Avengers involves Tony in an important capacity, so be sure to look for those to see not only the man in actioon, but his interaction with the other big heroes(and villains) in the Marvel U.

Yeah definitely, in this case I would recommend the Avengers Classic issues that Marvel released which showed his early relationship with the Avengers as well as the book referencing continuity with other early titles like Hulk and Iron Man on top of the Namor stuff.

[Splatt]

Joe Casey and Eric Canete's Enter the Mandarin is incredibly well done and revolves around Mandarin's first meeting with Iron Man.

+1

A great read. What suprised me the most was art. It was very fluid and very easy to follow. One of my favorite Iron Man stories.

[HaroldAllnut]

All you really need to know is:

Tony Stark, now Director of SHIELD after the whole Civil War fiasco, has a new sort of armor stored in his bones called "Extremis," which essentially forms a gold armor sheath over his skin and calls the rest of the Iron Man armor to him. He's still got a do-we-or-don't-we, hotsy-totsy sort of relationship with Pepper Potts; Maria Hill, his second-in-command, is a jingoistic douchebag who he's almost always at odds with, and Zeke Stane, son of Tony's former nemesis Obadiah, is a brilliant psychotic who pirates black-market pieces of Iron Man armor to create what Stark calls "Iron Man 2.0."

Oh, and Tony has a wicked cool chess game(s) going with Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four.

Aaaaaand hey presto! Now you're caught up.

Warren Ellis and Adi Granov's Extremis updates Tony's origin and moves him forward into the Iron Man of today.

I'd recommend this. It's a good jumping-on point for the revamped Tony Stark, since it kind of revolutionizes his power set-up and whatnot. After that, I'd just pick up all the available issues of Matt Fraction and Salvador Larocca's Invincible Iron Man. The storytelling and dialogue are snappy as hell (c'mon... it's Matt Fraction), and Larocca's art is picture-perfect.

[XPac]

I'm not a huge hardcore Iron Man guy... but I always thought the only past Iron Man stories that were really essential reading were Demon in a Bottle and Armor Wars. Beyond that, the real essential Iron Man reading comes from CW and everything afterwards.

[SquidSquod]

Extremis, Invincible Iron Man and Iron Man: Director of Shield. Especially with Extremis, this one really defines current Iron Man including the movie version as a man who wants to clean his past sins. God bless for Warren Ellis on this.

Don't read too much on Civil War as the writer (Millar) doesn't really understand Shellhead and in the latest Wizard, he still thinks Tony as a drunkard. What a doofus.

[Spaceman Spiff]

Extremis is pretty much the only mememorable story that I can think of. The new Invisible Iron Man ongoing is pretty good too.

[timomcshade]

Warren Ellis and Adi Granov's Extremis updates Tony's origin and moves him forward into the Iron Man of today.

Yeah this is a damn good book and perfect Iron Man book to jump in on. If you like this follow it all the way to issue 32(Trades are: Execute Program, Civil War, Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., Haunted, With Iron Hands) then jump to Five Nightmare's which is the current Invincible Iron Man arc.

See, Extremis marks Vol 4 of Invincible Iron Man. After Civil War the Iron Man book changed it's name to Iron Man Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. and they started a new Invincible Iron Man book. Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. is now going to be War Machine: Weapon of S.H.I.E.L.D. War Machine is another Iron Man suit that Tony's friend James "Rhodey" Rhodes(Terrence Howard played him in the movie) pilots. Invincible is an awesome book and Director was great until With Iron Hands.

Iron Man is everywhere in Marvel though, he is about as exposed as Wolverine is, so you can find him in pretty much every Marvel book not titled Daredevil, Iron Fist, X-Men or Ghost Rider.