Last time I gave my noob tale of how I went about reading Iron Man.
What a fool I was to miss out stories like "Director of S.H.I.E.L.D." and "Secret Invasion" (I should have read these right after "Extremis") The former might not be everyone's cup of tea. Tony Stark as head of S.H.I.E.L.D. may seem a strange idea for some of us, and many readers out there would rather read something a bit more, how shall we put it?
Something more like Iron Man.
Seeing Tony Stark take on the burden of being the head of S.H.I.E.L.D and assume all the responsibilities is interesting, but that very divergence from the more familiar type of story might put off some readers. However Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. does develop up into an incredibly compelling tale, building up to an epic return of the Mandarin in "Haunted" and the events of "Secret Invasion." *
"Secret Invasion." This may seem a daunting read, especially considering that it's one of those crossover events Marvel seem to love doing every once in a while. My solution? I just read the Iron Man stories and kind of didn't bother with anything else. The great thing about the internet is I can get the gist of what happened during the Skrull invasion without chasing up so many other titles. Comics cost money and there are too many Marvel characters I don't care for.
So, that's my personal foray into the world of Iron Man in glorious print. Read the more recent stories, give the "Iron Monger" and "Armour Wars" stories a go, and avoid making 1968 your first stop.
*Tony Stark as head of S.H.I.E.L.D. also makes sense if you consider that this is shortly after the events of Civil War.
P.S. I went back and read some New Avengers paperbacks. Apparently, these are pivotal to "Secret Invasion." After reading these, the Iron Man centered stories made a lot more sense. Come to think of it, I'm glad I never made "Secret Invasion" one of my early reads. Cross over events are not for noobs.
Oct. 2013
Oct. 2013
Comments