The Armored Avenger is back with a new creative team and new armor, but is the upgrade worth the read?

Here is Marvel’s summary:

Tony Stark—Iron Man: Technological visionary, wealthy playboy, unparalleled engineer, and armored Avenger. His greatest invention becomes his greatest mistake. Iron Man must act fast…and Tony Stark must build faster! The lethal techno virus Extremis is out in the wild and out for grabs to the highest bidder! It’s up to Tony Stark to contain it and that means creating a new suit of armor…NOW!

Coming hot off the heels of Matt Fraction’s stellar run, Tony Stark is back as Iron Man, but he doesn’t have anytime to relax now that an old threat has reered it’s ugly. Extremis, the virus that enhanced Tony’s Iron Man capabilities, has returned and has been upgraded to an even more dangerous level than before. Maya Hansen, Tony’s former friend and creator of Exteremis has been killed and with her last wish, she has charged Tony with tracking down the virus and destroying it before it causes more chaos than it did before. Stark tracks down one of the virus signals to a high end auction, only to find out that the virus is being sold by the criminal organization Advanced Idea Mechanics (A.I.M.). Now it is up to Iron Man and his new armor to track down and eliminate the enhanced virus once and for all.

Kieron Gillen (former writer of Uncanny X-Men), picks up right where Fraction left off. He takes the ball and runs with it, giving us a five issue story line where he throws Tony Stark right into another conflict which will question his faith as he confronts one of his biggest fears again; “What if he was forced to create devices used for evil?”  While this is going on the author gives us insight into the burden that has once again been placed on his shoulders by Maya.

Greg Land takes over for Salvador Larroca, and while I’m not a fan of his art it’s not that bad here. The Iron Man suit looks sleek, Tony looks suave as usual, and the Extremis enhanced thugs look intimidating. The colors in the book pop, as the gold and black armor really jumps off the page.  Each line is also inked well offering an enhanced result: the armor looking more cutting edge and high tech.

Iron Man is a pretty enjoyable read for fans of the character. Kieron Gillen has started the book off pretty good so far and I’m anxious to see how this five part arc plays out.

4/5