Bit of a light comics week this week for me, which is a boon this month as money’s tight following my trip to London. The standout issue from the few I picked up though, was definitely Iron Man: The End.
I’ve been looking forward to this one for a while. Originally pitched back in 2000, Bob Layton and David Michelinie’s story was the last Iron Man story. For various reasons, the project never went ahead, however Bob Layton did eventually make the plot outline available on his website for anyone who was interested. I really enjoyed the story from the outline, so was very happy when I heard that it was finally going ahead.
The story focuses on an elderly Tony Stark as he struggles against the realisation that he’s getting older, and that a lifetime of superheroing has caught up with him. He’s attempting to complete one last big project, his gift to the world. The world’s first orbital elevator that will allow cheap travel to the stars for all of humanity. Its his final legacy to mankind, but the project has been riddled with problems that continually force Tony to don his Iron Man armour, despite his ailing health.
Its a great story, with Tony struggling against his old age and having to try and accept that he can’t keep doing what he did in his 30s. He’s on medication for a condition that resulted from the continual knocks he took as Iron Man, and his judgement is slowly, resulting in some near-catastrophic mistakes.
I loved some of the ideas with the future armour as well. While the reconfiguring armour was used a lot in the cartoons, I loved the liquid armour idea, and how when he wasn’t wearing it, it formed into a briefcase. A nice nod to how Tony always used to carry his armour.
This is very much the final story of Tony Stark as Iron Man, and while it doesn’t mesh with some of the other looks to the future of Iron Man we’ve seen (thinking specifically of the Iron Man 2020 stuff from years ago) its a great read, and makes for a brilliant final story (of course, the nature of comics means this is really more of a “What If” type affair. It’ll be endlessly contradicted in years to come). Its poignant and hopeful, with Tony looking to the future. Which is entirely appropriate for the character.
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