For reasons that aren't yet clear, Tony Stark is about to regress back to the egocentric capitalist that he was before he became Iron Man.
The change comes in November's Superior Iron Man #1, when Tony pulls up stakes and moves to San Francisco. He's got the brand new Extremis 3.0 technology, and he's determined to use it to transform the city into his version of a perfect metropolis. Tony promises to make San Franciscans smarter, better looking, healthier and maybe even immortal — if they can afford his product.
But there's another hero in town who's not down with this new Tony Stark. Marvel fans know that Daredevil also made a fresh start a while back by moving to SanFran. Matthew Murdock sees Tony's advancements as a threat to his adopted hometown, and he sets out to prove it.
Additionally, Tony has a brand new version of his Iron Man armor, likely thanks to that third version of Extremis. It's hard to look at it and not think of the gleaming white products designed by Apple. Which, coincidentally, is located in the San Francisco bay area.
All these changes are coming courtesy of writer Tom Taylor and artist Yıldıray Çınar, the new creative team in charge of Iron Man for the foreseeable future. And Superior Iron Man is part of Marvel's "All New Avengers NOW" initiative, which also includes the new female Thor and Falcon taking over as Captain America. It's enough change to make your head spin.
But why? Why after all these years of character growth, would Marvel's braintrust choose to have Tony regress back into his old self? Tony Stark started as a capitalist arms manufacturer and an alcoholic. He became a hero, a humanitarian, a futurist and an Avenger. Isn't moving forward always more interesting than moving back?
Gotta admit, though, that new armor is pretty sweet.
All we know for sure about the story is that this boatload of changes happens because of something that occurs in Avengers & X-Men: AXIS. What could leave Tony so disillusioned about altruism that he would revert to his old ruthless, greedy ways? Hopefully Marvel has come up with a compelling answer to that question.
Marvel Senior Editor Mark Paniccia believes that this will appeal to "even the most loyal Iron Man fans" as a "guilty pleasure." Do you think he's right? Do you welcome these changes, or are you saddened to see Tony move backwards?
Superior Iron Man #1 goes on sale November 12, 2014.
