In a farewell letter at the end of Invincible Iron Man by Gerry Duggan Vol. 3: Iron & Diamonds, writer Gerry Duggan briefly discusses initial fan concerns that, due to his commitments over in the Krakoa X-Office, Iron Man would be cast as an X-Men support character. Duggan’s stance is that he and the rest of the Iron Man team avoided that pitfall, relying more on narrative similarities to the classic Armor Wars.
I hate to disagree with him – I am staunchly pro-Duggan – but the comics collected in Iron & Diamonds are 100% X-Men support comics.
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Throughout the 20 issues of this volume of the book, Tony Stark’s primary concerns are the same concerns of Krakoa. Our Big Bad of the series, the supergenius, anti-mutant fanatic Feilong, debuted in Duggan’s own X-Men #1, and though the Armor Wars parallels are strong, Tony’s stolen technology results in the most X-Men of consequences: mutant-hunting Sentinels.
This is a Hellfire Club book, an arms race to save the mutant population, and a book about Tony Stark’s terror of being smooshed in his armor by the wave of Magneto’s hand. It is very much an X-Men title.
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Luckily, Duggan and crew never lose sight of Tony Stark himself. These may be X-Men concerns, but it’s Tony’s insufferable insecurity that drives our narrative. Tony’s solutions are always big, patently ridiculous, and unwieldy; in Iron & Diamonds that solution is a giant mech suit crafted in outer space by cosmic dwarves. His solution to big, angry robots is a big, angry robot. Only Tony Stark would result to such an over-the-top Hail Mary; only Tony Stark would succeed in such an over-the-top endeavor.
Marvel Comics
One great aspect of Iron Man comics is watching the Iron Man suit grow and change, the technical aspects as much inspired by the sleek designs as the story’s narrative. The giant robot issue, illustrated in massive, full-page panels by Creees Lee, is a non-stop barrage of amazing Iron Man imagery, a constant spotlight of those Iron evolutions. Our giant – the Sentinel-buster, or Mark 73 – is bombarded by the classically-influenced Iron Sentinels, and also by Feilong’s personal Sentinel-sized War Machine armor. The issue is a Marvel Legends wish list catalog.
And for all the X-Men supporting cast (Emma Frost at her most arch badassery, Forge, Magneto himself), Iron & Diamonds doesn’t skimp on the Iron Man classics. Rhodey’s here in his classic War Machine armor, as is Riri Williams (in space, forging giant robot armor). One of our key backup characters is – delightfully and ridiculously – the Living Laser.
All of this is to say that it doesn’t matter that Iron Man was, briefly, an X-Men book. It’s a book full of big action and a true love for the classic Bronze Age stories, and it succeeds in hitting all the hallmarks of a Tony Stark spectacular.
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