Welcome back to The First 10, folks. In this series, we look at the first ten issues of a comic book series to see what happened, when it found its voice, and why it either did or didn't succeed. This time, we look at our shortest running series yet. Marvel Adventures Iron Man ran from July of 2007 to July of 2008, and was shepherded by writer Fred Van Lente the entire time. Van Lente would go on to become one of Marvel's (and later Valiant's) best writers, and seeing his early work like this should prove fascinating. Plus, Marvel and DC's kids comics have always been criminally underrated, and they both deserve some time in the spotlight.
Note: All images are credited to Comicvine.gamespot.com.
1. Hearts of Steel
Writer: Fred Van Lente
Artist: James Cordeiro
And we're off!
As you might expect, our first issue is an origin. But it’s not the same origin that we've seen a thousand times before. Tony Stark is a billionaire industrialist who is also a total a-hole. And this Tony really is a true jerk. He recently finished developing a new metal skin-type implement that he intends to use for ultralight aircraft.
Dr. Ho Yinsen – a scientist whose country was destroyed by Stark's inventions – is in attendance as Stark makes his presentation. Stark blows him off, and leaves to fly around the world in his new plane. But the plane crashes, and Stark is taken prisoner by"¦AIM! It turns out that AIM is a huge Stark International stockholder, and they’ve been using their tech to ravage various nations. So Stark and his fellow kidnap-ee Yinsen have to work for AIM. But they build the Iron Man suit…blah blah…you know this part. Except you don’t.
Because, in the first of what I hope will be many Van Lente twists, Tony and Yinsen both build their own Iron Man suits. That's awesome. That's such a great idea that its weird that no one's thought of it before. Yinsen dies, and Tony realizes that he needs to fight evil. Overall, a decent start with hints of real promise.
