In the first issue of ‘Superior Iron Man‘ we saw that Tony Stark has apparently pulled through the events of AXIS unscathed from being cured as most of his compatriots are surely set to be. That’s leaving him in a booze filled world, a new sybmtiote based nano-tech suit, and a new version of Extremis out in the open! Only, this isn’t your daddy’s super villain or hero Extremis. No, this is an Extremis for the public and by the end of the first issue he’s gone with the proven drug dealer’s choice of offering something that is highly addictive – the first taste is free.

With Tony in California he’s picked the perfect venue for those who want to be a star by offering youth, good health, and beauty to everyone that can afford it. Tom Taylor has really picked a way to keep in the spirit of a lot of Tony’s history on being an inventor, a futurist, and a visionary and twist it on its AXIS as the ongoing series has done to his character. He has a solid understanding of Tony’s positive points and vices with the ability to mix them perfectly. Also, a huge bonus of Daredevil in how he is fitting into the story.

Yildiray Cinar does a great job at Tony’s new armor as well as the look on Tony’s entourage as well as Daredevil in costume. California is beautifully rendered. The characters being outstanding and the fear on a variety of citizens’ faces is great, however after the characters themselves the art falls a little short. Tony’s new Stark Tower looks great, however the rest of San Francisco looks painfully bland for such an iconic American city.

This issue contains two central themes with undertones of real world problems. While just below the surface you can see hints to the parallel of real life tech companies and the public currently having issues in California which I hope is something that they follow up in on later issues. Past that we see two confrontations between Iron Man and The Man Without Fear which are handled pretty perfectly, especially on how the end of the second one plays out. Also on the docket? Another look of how Extremis let loose on the wild for pay is affecting the general population and is quite possibly actually increasing crime instead of helping humanity.

Overall the first issue had an amazing twist that really started to show us the evil that is growing in Tony’s personality and this one had a completely different twist. Tony gives an amazing gift that will most likely not be appreciated and the look on his face before it is delivered looks very contemplative. For as much bad as everything he is doing is leading into this is one of those moments that could almost be thought of as good, if his gift wasn’t forced on the recipient. I don’t think this is by any means perfect but I am so curious as to where it’s going I’m easily able to overlook some of the misses.

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SUPERIOR IRON MAN #2
Writer: Tom Taylor
Artist: Yildiray Cinar