In ‘Iron Man’ #17 the secret origins of Tony Stark concluded. We found out a couple big things in the issue such as the fact that Tony Stark is really only a Stark in name only and there was a real heir to the legacy – Arno Stark. So Tony truly is the self made man he has always claimed to be. He had none of the genetic advantages from his parents he believed he had.
For most people, it would be a big deal to find out your parents weren’t who they thought they were. For someone with the ego and brainpower of Tony, it’s a humbling experience that would have the potential to change everything.
Now that we have two huge geniuses, things can change in a huge way. As “Iron Metropolitan” begins, we see just how huge it can be as we’re shown a future where the Stark Brothers have change the face of the Earth and forever changed humanity: Genetic engineering, space elevators, the world was not only better but forever changed. That is until an AI went mad and single-handedly changed things that crushed the Earth and doomed the human race.
As our glimpse into the future ended, we saw that it was all a presentation by Arno that clearly says that they cannot trust AI. Which he clearly showed he had just ignored a moment before as he had dispatched P.E.P.P.E.R. to go pretend to be Iron Man while they were working together.
Tony just wants to use his brain for making a better world instead of fighting crime right now. He’s worn out and he has an itch to create and make the world that he’s always dreamed of. We’ve been given so many hints over the years that Tony is responsible for either a perfect Utopia in the future or a Dystopian future run by sentinel sized Iron Man armors who are helping police humanity.
It’s interesting to see Arno here popping up out of the blue helping Tony and being the voice of reason. Speaking of a voice, he’s no longer without the ability to talk as Tony whipped up a little gadget that would allow his crippled brother to be able to communicate beyond just slowly tapping away at a keypad with one hand.
I’m interesting to see how these two are going to get along or how they’ll disagree. What probably stole the show was at the closure of the book where we saw one of The Mandarin’s rings apparently go off on its own to recruit someone to become a new Mandarin. Note I said a new Mandarin not The new Mandarin. We may have a slew of enemies for the Stark Brothers to square off against in the near future.
What I see here is Tony wanting to step back from his role as Iron Man and soon being forced to fall back into it full time to stop the new Mandarin threat. It’s an interesting new direction for the character though I’m not sure how it’ll fair when stacking up against Tony in whatever Avengers title that he’s currently in. This is a great issue that is leading into the next story arc and as just the right tone for a proper introduction.
IRON MAN #18
Writer: Kieron Gillen
Artist: Joe Bennett
