IRON MAN: EXTREMIS by Warren Ellis and Adi Granov
Ellis and Granov’s story arc kicked off the fourth Iron Man series in late 2004, and although it appeared at an infamously slow rate (its six issues took nearly a year and a half), it formed the groundwork for the past half-decade’s worth of stories. Iron Man, at its best, is often a device for telling stories about the cutting edge of technology, and “Extremis” returned to that premise, and to the idea of a self-loathing genius given a renewed existence by integrating technology with his own body. The CGI effects of Granov’s artwork give the storyline a sort of video-game look; it’s also been adapted into a limited-animation “motion comic” serial that recently debuted. (Granov went on to draw the beginning of Iron Man: Viva Las Vegas, a miniseries written by Iron Man director Favreau, which abruptly went into limbo after its second issue.)
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IRON MAN: DOOMQUEST by David Michelinie, Bob Layton and John Romita Jr.
Michelinie and Layton collaborated on Iron Man longer than any other team–from 1979 to 1982, and again from 1987 to 1989. Their best-known storyline was probably “Demon in a Bottle,” in which Tony Stark’s drinking problem threatens to destroy him and his company, but it’s melodramatic and stern in a way that the first Iron Man movie distinctly isn’t. Much more fun: this tightly compressed little high-adventure double feature from 1981 and 1989, which involves time travel, Dr. Doom and King Arthur, and incidentally sets up a couple of plot points in Brian Michael Bendis’s recent Avengers comics.
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