Marvel Graphic Novel Collection Review Issue 3
Hello there, and welcome to the review of the third book released from the Marvel’s ultimate Graphic Novel Collection. This week sees the first issue at the full price of £9.99, that’s right folks, from here on out it gets expensive.
So, what is the third book? It’s Warren Ellis and Adi Granov’s Iron Man: Extremis. This story reprints the first six issues of Iron Man Volume four which ran from 2005-2008 (one year before Civil War and up until the end of Secret Invasion). Warren Ellis is known for his work on Astonishing X-men, Excalibur, and Nextwave. Adi Granov is primarily known for illustrating covers, providing work for titles such as X-men during the second coming crossover, New Avengers, and Black Widow.
The story itself is very good, it puts Tony Stark at the forefront of the tale, with his Iron Man persona only being used when necessary. It begins with him being challenged by a reporter regarding his manufacturing of weapons, and despite Tony trying to be medica savvy and put the reporter in his place, none of his replies really work.
Whilst this is happening we are introduced to some thieves who have injected a colleague with something that we later discover is the Extremis project. This poor individual goes through some nasty changes during the first few chapters.
We are introduced to Dr Maya Hansen, an old friend of Tony’s who is working on the Extremis Project and calls Tony for help following the theft of Extremis.
The book goes on to have numerous fights, which Iron Man doesn’t always win. ultimately we get a new status quo for Tony and a new Iron Man armour, which last all the way until the Secret Invasion crossover.
The writing in this book is superb, with Ellis providing a new insight into the mind of Tony Stark, as well as writing an amended origin moving the timescale from Vietnam to Afghanistan. Adi Granov’s artwork is fresh and clear, providing superb visuals during the Extremis transformation, and draws the armour beautifully when Iron Man is in the thick of the action.
So what are the extras in this book? Well firstly this book does not have a “previously in Iron Man” section, i suppose that is because it was issue one of series four, but it would have been nice to know what he was doing prior to this. We get an armour gallery over two pages which showcases some of the various suits we have seen over the years including a Thor Buster suit which I had never seen before.
We then get information about Warren Ellis and Adi Granov which touches on how they worked out what would happen in the this book following then Editor in chief Joe Queseda’s difficulty in making the character popular.
Finally we have the recommended reading section which provides us with other works connected to Iron Man and by Warren Ellis. We also have sneak peaks which indicate that Iron Man: Demon in a bottle will be book one, and Thunderbolts:Faith in monsters will be book 56.
So after some fiddling about that puts the book order as follows:
Book 01: Iron Man: Demon in a bottle
Book 02: Uncanny X-men: Dark Phoenix
Book 21: Spider-man: Coming Home
Book 22: Spider-man: Revelations
Book 36: Astonishing X-men: Gifted
Book 40: House of M
Book 43: Iron Man: Extremis
Book 53: The Eternals
Book 55: World War Hulk
Book 56: Thunderbolts: Faith in Monsters
Next issue The Ultimates: Super Human (Ultimates Volume 1)
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