Iron Man 1: Believe Paperback – January 1, 2013

I picked up the hardcover edition of this book on a whim since I liked Gillen's X-Men run from before AVX. Fistly, as other reviews have stated, this follows up on the Extremis formula from a previous story of the same name. In Believe, Tony finds that the creator of Extremis has been kidnapped by the mad science organization AIM, and she was forced to recreate the serum before dying in an escape attempt. So past issue 1, this trade is Tony going after the specialized extremis strains that AIM sold before Tony could shut them down. With an issue a strain, this volume is slightly formulaic, with Tony and Pepper talking about the situation, finding the location on a map, then Tony goes in, each time with a specialized suit. I think the first strain, which is bing used my a modern day group of Arthurian Knights, was the best, because the knight who narrates the issue is rather interesting. I really hope she comes back at some later point, as maybe another iron character. The other strains arent bad per say, but nothing really that memorable. I do really like what each represents though, as each user of extremis trys to remake the world for a better future. The art is also quite nice, Greg Land draws his women all rather uniformly, but i dont find that too troublesome. I also think its interesting the direction Gillen takes Tony by the end of the volume, with him deciding to explore space to find ideas for a better tomorrow. I also really dig the new suit design for Space-Tony, its alot more noteworthy than the black and gold suit he wears for most of it.

I like this book. It is a unique direction for an Iron Man series. The Tony Stark that is portrayed in this book is complex, but with brevity to the complexity. What I mean by this is that there is the presence of introspection, humor, flirtatiousness, confidence, doubt, genius, innovation, and humaneness to the Tony Stark of this series and it's all portrayed very simply and briefly in the various challenges he faces in this book.I mostly enjoyed that the meta-narrative of this book is an arc about Tony's character development. It starts with him stating that he struggles with vacillating between strong self-confidence and self doubt, and that it makes him nervous that he never questioned the fundamentals of life. Then it ends with, not a resolve, but the beginning of the quest for personal resolve for the fundamentals of life.This might be a little too deep for an Iron Man volume....just realizing all these thoughts are about Tony Stark's journey to find himself. There's a lot of fun action in it too. Love the array of suits and modifications to the suits. Love the suit that evolves toward the end of the book.I like it, don't love it. Don't love it because it's just a good beginning to a series. I hope I love the next book. This book allows for volume 2 to be a great book with the appropriate writers. Great art in this book as well.

Solid story and wonderful art. There were moments that took me back to the great Bob Layton issues from the late 70's. A great read!!!

Ever since I became a fan of Marvel Comics, I've been a fan of Iron Man. In the same manner, I've also been a huge fan of Kieron Gillen's writing at Marvel. His works on the likes of Thor, the X-Men, and others has been amazing. So when I found out that there was an Iron Man series written by Gillen, I couldn't have been more excited. But as far as the end result for his first volume, it was good but not great. There really is no full arc in this volume. Instead the issues collected are independent stories connected by the presence of Extremis, A bio-virus first introduced by Warren Ellis in Iron Man: Extremis. You'll need to know that story, as well as Matt Fraction's previous run to get a better picture of where the book starts. Gillen has admitted that he didn't know where he wanted to go with the series, and that shows here. But the following volumes do get much better. Greg Land does the art for this book and... it's alright. It has a slightly off look about it, but that's likely because Land is known for tracing his figures out from other sources. This does give it a static feel. But despite all that it doesn't detract from the story. I recommend this series for people who want to see Iron Man try something new. The best is yet to come.

Liked this take on Iron Man and the payoff in the next story is good.

I have been reading dc comic's since mummy installed the app.on her iPad l installed a app called marvel comics on mum's original iPad by accident.

This is Ironman pursuing those who have acquired extremis technology. Tony Stark, like Maya, believes that their unique inventions (his repulsor rays, her regenerating tissue) should not be allowed to fall into the wrong hands. With Maya's death, Stark goes off on several missions to recover her stolen technology.It is not quite as straightforward as that. There are ambiguities here and there. People with extremis technology are termed enhanciles. Some can be fought in contests but it isn't clear as to why Tony was even training them in the first place. Some have vampire-like abilities but all smile creepily. The artwork is stupid and doesn't salvage this messy script. Potts tries to flirt with Tony but manages to end up looking like one of the enhanciles.If you think that this review was disjointed, try reading this book.

Didn't smack of the revisionism that Marvel seems to have taken up as their business model recently. Art is good, story is solid, dialogue is decent and largely in character. I'm interested in seeing where Gillen takes this.