Iron Man's New Outfit Heralds Movie Sequel

CBL alumnus and current New Jersey Herald reporter Phil Molnar has been continuing the comic book thing and most recently got an exclusive with Matt Fraction on Iron Man's upcoming new armor! Check it out!

Iron Man's New Outfit Heralds Movie Sequel

By PHILLIP MOLNAR
pmolnar@njherald.com
Taking spring fashion to a new level, the Marvel Comics superhero Iron Man will get some new duds in April, just in time for "Iron Man 2" hitting movie theaters.
Tony Stark, Iron Man's alter ego, will create the new costume in Invincible Iron Man issue #25, due April 28.
The writer of Invincible Iron Man, Matt Fraction, had a simple explanation for the change.
"Well, we'd blown up all the other ones," he said of the sleek new outfit. "He sort of had nothing left and needed to start over."
Iron Man's armor has changed more than a dozen times since his 1963 debut.
"Unlike Superman or the X-Men, who are born with their powers ... Tony can give himself new 'powers' in the form of new tech," said the writer of the Iron Man Legacy series, Fred Van Lente. "He's just like James Bond, except unlike Bond, he creates the gadgets he uses."
The new costume comes on the heels of a storyline in which Stark systematically deleted his own memories so bad guy Norman Osborn could not discover the secret identities of America's superheroes. Movie fans might remember Norman Osborn, played by Willem Dafoe, from the Spider-Man movies.
The costume was designed by Ryan Meinerding, who designed Iron Man's costume in the first film.
"He sketched around. ... When he hit it, everybody kind of knew," Fraction said. "It was there all along, we just had to find out where we put it."
Peter DeFelice, owner of Pyramid Comics & Cards in Sparta, said the Iron Man comic became one of his best sellers after the movie came out.
"We saw a big pop in sales, which is typically not the case," DeFelice said. He said that "The Dark Knight," the Spider-Man films and all the other superhero movies did not increase sales for their respective comics.
The Invincible Iron Man series began a month after the movie came out in summer 2008 and has continued to be a favorite of fans and critics. It won the Eisner award -- the comic book industry's highest honor -- for Best New Series in 2009. The previous Iron Man series, which had been retitled War Machine, ended a few months later.
DeFelice is hoping for another increase in sales when "Iron Man 2" comes out May 7 and is also excited about the new armor.
"Change is good," he said. "New armor is always fun."
Fraction also hopes the movie will increase book sales.
"You can do a lot worse than having the most anticipated movie of the summer be your lead," he said.
The first Iron Man movie grossed $318,412,101 in the United States, according to BoxOfficeMojo.com. The film was nominated for Best Visual Effects and Best Sound Editing at the Academy Awards.
Fraction was also a consultant on "Iron Man 2" and assures new readers the comic series will sync up.
"The vibe is there," he said. "If you dig the movie, you'll dig the book."
The villain for the sequel will be Whiplash, played by Mickey Rourke. The character first became a recurring Iron Man foe in Marvel Team-Up #145 in January 1974, when Spider-Man and Iron Man fought him as he tried to rob a casino in Atlantic City.
Fraction said he had no current plans to bring Iron Man to New Jersey, but didn't rule it out.
"He's still in the Avengers so he won't be away from the East Coast for long," he said of the New York City-based superhero squad. "Besides, the rents are so much more affordable over the river."