Superior Iron Man Volume 1- Infamous (2020)

Writer – Tom Taylor

Artists – Yildiray Cinar and Laura Braga

Do you ever wonder to yourself – what if Tony Stark was evil? Well, the answer, my friend, is in these pages.

Back in the mid-2010s Marvel had a string of bad luck with their crossovers. Some were just sequels to previously published crossovers (like Civil War II) and others were part of ongoing storylines like Uncanny Avengers. Red Skull, with Charles Xavier’s brain implanted in his body, turned into Onslaught. Heroes and villains teamed up to stop this version of Red Skull but at a terrible cost – heroes and villains’ personalities where inverted. This was corrected but there were some characters that were unaffected. One of them was Tony Stark who became the Superior Iron Man!

Tony moves to San Francisco and releases Extremis to the public as a smart phone app, which makes the populace young, beautiful, and vivacious but at a cost – the first day is free but to continue with the service, it will cost the user an arm and a leg. Pepper Potts and Daredevil both know something is rotten with Tony and they will do whatever they can to find the reason and try to fix it before it’s too late.

I read the first few issues of this series when it originally came out and I decided to re-read this volume through Hoopla. I liked the idea of Tony using Extremis as a way to make money, preying on the ills of society to increase his bankroll. Tom Taylor does a great job showing Stark at his worst and how he actually feels about people that aren’t as smart and successful as him. We have seen Tony as the egotistical smartass that we have grown to love and appreciate but to see the billionaire playboy philanthropist giving into his darker natures is a breath of fresh air.

I like when we see heroes set up in different locales in the Marvel Universe and its always a pleasure to see what happens on the West Coast for a change. Having Daredevil as Tony’s foil is also something we haven’t seen before and to have these two heroes do battle with one another needs to be seen to be believed. You would think Matt Murdock is outmatched but he is able to give Tony a run for his money over the course of the first four issues. I won’t reveal who the last man standing is but the way they win is a shocker! The fifth issue of this volume features the origin of Teen Abomination, a legacy character that has ties to Tony Stark and his inner circle of friends.

Tom Taylor has had a string of hit titles over the past few years and I think this run of Iron Man is overlooked and deserves to be read. Although short-lived at only nine issues, we get a glimpse of a hero turned ruthless megalomaniac that would do anything to stroke his own ego and feed his own self interests. Heaven help the Marvel Universe if he was a ruthless bad guy from the very beginning.

There was a lot of hype that Superior Iron Man was going to be featured in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and if you want to know why fanboys and girls were chomping at the bit to see this version of Tony Stark on the big screen, check out Superior Iron Man Volume 1- Infamous as soon as possible!