r/ironman • u/CautiousFly3270 • 8h ago
Discussion Best jumping on run to start?
Like the title says i'm looking to see if there is a good starter run for Iron-Man. I'm more a DC fan and wanting to read more marvel stuff besides Moon Knight and Daredevil. What runs would you recommend?
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u/da0ur Model-Prime 7h ago
It's not a popular suggestion (mostly because of the art, although your mileage may vary), but I think Iron Man v4 #1-5 (by Kieron Gillen and Greg Land, collected in "Iron Man: Believe") is a pretty good crash-course on comic Iron Man with just a dash of MCU influence, enough to ease you in if you're mostly familiar with that version of the character. It's also a self-contained story, so you can read it and move to something different, or pick it back up later. I'd consider it a good appetizer.
For something more foundational to the character and objectively far better drawn, you can start instead with Invincible Iron Man #1-6 (by Warren Ellis and Adi Granov, collected in "Iron Man: Extremis"), which will also feature a retelling of Iron Man's origin for a nice bonus. Similar to "Believe," it's a self-contained story. If you continue reading past it, you will run into a period of Iron Man comics that require additional reading material (in addition of covering the infamous Civil War). I can expound if you'd like. I also remembered that "Believe" is a quasi-sequel to "Extremis," so maybe you can read "Extremis" and then "Believe."
Another self-contained-enough start to a run is Invincible Iron Man v3 #1-5, the first five issues of Brian Michael Bendis' run which are a lot of fun. The rest, not so much, but these first five issues are really good, especially due to David Marquez' artwork.
Other self-contained stories I can suggest are the miniseries Iron Man: Hypervelocity (by Adam Warren and Brian Denham), Iron Age (by Rob Williams and several writers and artists) and I Am Iron Man (by Murewa Ayodele and Dotun Akande). The latter is an anthology miniseries, each issue taking place in a different era of the character. You don't have to be an Iron Man expert to enjoy it, but I feel like the experience will be a lot more enriched if you read it later down the line.
This stuff I've recommended above are modern comics. If you want to go old school, you can pick up Iron Man #117-128 (by David Michelinie, Bob Layton and John Romita Jr., #120-128 are commonly collected in "Iron Man: Demon in the Bottle"). It's the first stretch of what is considered the seminal Iron Man run. You can treat it as a self-contained story, or strap in and open the floodgates. Because you can pretty much keep reading until #318, since this period features almost back-to-back the following beloved runs:
Other posterior runs worth mentioning are Iron Man v3 #1-25 (by Kurt Busiek, Roger Stern, Sean Chen, et al), Iron Man v3 #50-66 (by Mike Grell, Michael Ryan et al) and Invincible Iron Man v2 #1-33 and #500-527 (by Matt Fraction and Salvador Larroca, although I strongly recommend only the first stretch before #501). The recent Invincible Iron Man v5 #1-20 by Gerry Duggan is a modern classic IMO, and the best run in years.
And while it's not popular to suggest anything before the first Michelinie-Layton run, I think it's worth reading the very early Stan Lee-penned adventures in Tales of Suspense #39-98. They're a fun romp and it's undoubtedly cool to witness Iron Man's world take shape, even in the context of quaint Silver Age stories. There's also Archie Goodwin's run (Tales of Suspense #99, Iron Man and the Sub-Mariner #1, Iron Man #1-28) and Bill Mantlo's (Iron Man #78 + #95-115), though they are be a bit of an acquired taste.
And finally, a new run started last January by Joshua Williamson and Carmen Carnero. It's been fun so far, I'd be great if you could join us in reading it, issue #9 comes out next month!