Or This Title Needs to Sell Better Because Iron Man is Our Biggest Film Franchise, So Here is a Story Revisiting His Origin. There's some fun dialogue between PEPPER and Tony, since Tony programmed it to think like his assistant Pepper Potts, so it works really well in telling Tony all the wrong decisions he's making.And then we start Gillen's big arc: The Secret Origin of Tony Stark. The P.E.P.P.E.R in the suite is a nice touch, but it's short lived when the over arching villain of the piece, a robot called 451, takes over the armour and makes it obey his will. He gets a new armour and a new interactive A.I to play with. Your trip into space might not have been the best idea after all. Tony has to deal with an alien race who worshipped the Phoenix force as a God and hold him responsible for killing it. Review 2: Thanks to Dale Eaglesham being on art for a few issues, this volume is better, but there are still 3 issues of Greg Land to get through first. If you're a real Iron Man, you may enjoy this different take here.

The art is nothing very special, though the cover.

But Gillen is having to much fun to be a humbug about it. There are some plot holes with how an alien controls Stark's suit, and some of the dialogue feels clunky - especially with his suit's computer which he has now programmed to react to him like Pepper. It's not my kind of thing, BUT it's just done so well. These days I prefer a heavy dose of reality in my comics with an acknowledgment of the mythical role these stories play. This is NOT my kind of comic book except that it features Iron Man.

Review 1: Here's the deal: If you're going to put out a comic book about Tony Stark being somehow connected to an alien race and little grey martians owning most of Vegas, better have Kieron Gillen write it.

Iron Man, Vol. 2 by Kieron Gillen