Iron Man’s New Suit: Basically Void Of Change

“There’s never been a superhero like the new Iron Man!” …Except for the old Iron Man, who was exactly the same, only in a slightly different suit.

Yesterday, Marvel posted photos of Tony Stark’s new alter-ego duds, and to be honest, I can’t really tell the difference. Overall, that’s probably a good thing. You just don’t overhaul the suits of iconic superheroes without some serious backlash. (One Halloween, my mother had spent weeks sewing a pretty impressive Green Ranger costume for my brother, who ran around our house throwing high-kicks and “morphing” in most of his free time. At some point between the completion of her mostly-felt-and-puffy-paint masterpiece and Halloween, the Green Ranger became the White Ranger, and my mom cried.)

Anyway. Good call for not making any mothers cry, Marvel.

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And now for the suit: It’s shinier, and his shoes – thank god – don’t look like clunky Doc Martin’s any longer. Instead it looks like they gave him a built-in pair of Vibram Five Fingers. (Endorsement deal?) The suit also seems to be more of a single piece (I’m assuming this is where the “sleekness” was added).

The redesign credit goes to Matt Fraction and Ryan Meinerding, designers of the Iron Man and Thor film series. As for the reason behind the change, Fraction makes a good case:”If technology is increasingly getting smaller and lighter it seems like the Iron Man should do the same: ergonomic and aerodynamic.”

Marvel’s new(ish) Iron Man will debut in “Invincible Iron Man #25″ on sale in April.

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Mike Williams

This is ridiculous. The Iron Man armor gets revamped about twice a year already. There have been dozens of armors over the years. This ‘new, sleeker’ version will be revamped by the end of Summer I’m sure. The last time Iron Man went sleek was the whole Extremis story line. That didn’t last too long.