Comics: Iron Manual

Iron Manual

Writing and art chores by a variety of people, published by Marvel Comics

Overview

The Iron Manual is kind of a weird little book. There is no story to speak of, and the art varies by which part of the book you’re looking at, so I’m going to do this review a bit differently and cover it section by section.

It collects the All-New Iron Manual from 2008, which was really an updated Handbook for characters in the Iron Man part of the Marvel Universe. Many of these entries were obsolete as soon as the book hit the stands, because the writers didn’t want to spoil ongoing stories. It’s a good snapshot of what the characters looked like at that time, though.

Also collected here is Marvel Spotlight: Iron Man Movie from 2008, which is basically a bunch of interviews with writers and artists on the book (people like Matt Fraction and Adi Granov) and people involved with the movie (Terrence Howard and Shane Mahan from Stan Winston Studios). Not a lot of substance, particularly looking back from five years later.

The highlight is really the original 1993 Iron Manual reprinted within, with art and writing being handled by the incomparable Eliot R. Brown, whose work you may recognize from the Punisher Armory books, the GI Joe Order of Battle vehicle book, or from any number of other technical drawings in DC or Marvel’s stable. While he does a few illustrations in the first part of the book, he did everything in here. It’s worth at least checking out for the tech stuff alone, if you’re into things like maps and schematics and other highly-technical stuff.

Art

Various artists.