Iron Man: Legacy #1-5 (2010)

Iron Man II just hit theaters so … Time for another Iron Man ongoing. This one starts with the story, “War of the Iron Men.” And it is clearly designed to be more accessible than Matt Fraction and Salvador Larocca’s deeply thoughtful and intricate ongoing Iron Man book. It almost reads like an all-ages book. There’s nothing wrong with that–I’m just noting the intended audience and tonal difference. I’m not sure it’s canon–it doesn’t fully connect to the main Iron Man mythology. For one thing, it starts with him reforming Stark Enterprises (which in the Fraction title is called Stark Resilient). But the mission is similar–it leans to altruism and helping the world. The new campus is attacked by mercenaries and Iron Man fights them off (see the sequence above). After that action scene, Tony can’t resist getting involved in an international incident–despite having just done a press conference about how the new Stark Enterprises is all about being a force for peace. All that tracks with Tony’s personality. The international incident draws in Doctor Doom, and Tony learns that the bad guys are kidnapping scientists and forcing them to build armor to secure their own freedom–just as Tony ...