I don’t read Ultimate Marvel books.

Ultimate Iron Man

I don’t have anything against the Ultimate Universe, and I’m glad that Marvel has found success with it. It just isn’t my thing. One reason I stay away from it is money. With the cover price of comic books being what it is, I’m always looking for a reason not to buy something (it’s a shame, but that’s reality folks). But the biggest reason is that I am so personally invested in the main Marvel U (the 616 Universe for my fellow Marvelites out there). I just figured that characters who are almost the same as the characters I know, but not quite, would be difficult for me to enjoy. It turns out that I was right.

You see, after much deliberation, I decided to read Ultimate Iron Man. Ultimate Iron Man is written by Orson Scott Card (author of Ender’s Game) and illustrated by Andy Kubert and Mark Bagley. This is not a lightweight creative team. I really enjoyed Ender’s Game and I’m a huge Iron Man fan. My curiosity finally got the better of me, and I had to see what Card could do with Iron Man.

I had a hard time enjoying it.

The thing is, it was well written and beautifully illustrated. If I wasn’t an old school Iron Man fan, I think I would have really enjoyed the book. And therein lies the problem. It wasn’t Iron Man. At least not the Iron Man I know. The person in the book was so different from the Tony Stark/Iron Man that I’m used to that I couldn’t get into it. I guess that’s the double-edged sword of iconic characters. If they just changed the name so it wasn’t Tony Stark and Iron Man, I probably would have said it is an Iron Man rip-off but I really liked it. Although, I probably wouldn’t have bought the book if it wasn’t called Iron Man.

I applaud Marvel for trying new ideas and I hope their Ultimate line continues to sell well and bring in new readers. I’m actually glad that I don’t love everything Marvel publishes. Diversity in comic books is healthy for the industry.

However, if you are an Orson Scott Card and/or Andy Kubert fan and you are not too steeped in classic Iron Man continuity then I can recommend giving this book a try. But if like me, you are a big fan of the 616 Iron Man, then you might want to try something else.

I don’t read Ultimate Marvel books.

Ultimate Iron Man

I don’t have anything against the Ultimate Universe, and I’m glad that Marvel has found success with it. It just isn’t my thing. One reason I stay away from it is money. With the cover price of comic books being what it is, I’m always looking for a reason not to buy something (it’s a shame, but that’s reality folks). But the biggest reason is that I am so personally invested in the main Marvel U (the 616 Universe for my fellow Marvelites out there). I just figured that characters who are almost the same as the characters I know, but not quite, would be difficult for me to enjoy. It turns out that I was right.

You see, after much deliberation, I decided to read Ultimate Iron Man. Ultimate Iron Man is written by Orson Scott Card (author of Ender’s Game) and illustrated by Andy Kubert and Mark Bagley. This is not a lightweight creative team. I really enjoyed Ender’s Game and I’m a huge Iron Man fan. My curiosity finally got the better of me, and I had to see what Card could do with Iron Man.

I had a hard time enjoying it.

The thing is, it was well written and beautifully illustrated. If I wasn’t an old school Iron Man fan, I think I would have really enjoyed the book. And therein lies the problem. It wasn’t Iron Man. At least not the Iron Man I know. The person in the book was so different from the Tony Stark/Iron Man that I’m used to that I couldn’t get into it. I guess that’s the double-edged sword of iconic characters. If they just changed the name so it wasn’t Tony Stark and Iron Man, I probably would have said it is an Iron Man rip-off but I really liked it. Although, I probably wouldn’t have bought the book if it wasn’t called Iron Man.

I applaud Marvel for trying new ideas and I hope their Ultimate line continues to sell well and bring in new readers. I’m actually glad that I don’t love everything Marvel publishes. Diversity in comic books is healthy for the industry.

However, if you are an Orson Scott Card and/or Andy Kubert fan and you are not too steeped in classic Iron Man continuity then I can recommend giving this book a try. But if like me, you are a big fan of the 616 Iron Man, then you might want to try something else.