Thanks to barnesandnoble.com for the image.

IRON MAN: BENEATH THE ARMOR

DEL REY
AUTHOR: Andy Mangels
ISBN: 978-0-345-50615-3; paperback
216 pp., Color, $19.95

When superhero movies such as Spider-Man, Hulk, or Batman have arrived at movie theatres, these flicks were accompanied by the arrival in bookstores of large format, hardcover encyclopedias which were not so much informational as they were simply coffee table books.

To accompany Paramount Pictures/Marvel Studios’ highly-anticipated Iron Man film, Del Rey has released Iron Man: Beneath the Armor.  Written by prolific pop culture writer and former comic book scribe Andy Mangels, this movie tie-in (which it essentially is) offers any current or former reader a handbook to the history of Iron Man.  It’s also something of a guidebook to the many characters that have populated the series, including friends, former lovers, villains, etc.  People who only read a few issues of an Iron Man comic book 20, 30, or even 40 to 45 years ago and have fond memories of the character will find Iron Man: Beneath the Armor something of a gift.

Mangels uses the first seven chapters (about a 133 pages) for the history of Iron Man, but this is more like a documentary.  Mangels turns the dry history of Iron Man into storytelling, exploring rather than going on a straight line.  This is more than just a blow by blow account of the character’s various comic book appearances.  Mangels leaves the main road, ducking into the nooks and crannies or going off-the-beaten path for odds and ends and trivia.  Beneath the Armor is insightful, but with sprinklings of nerdiness.  Did you know that it was Stan Lee’s brother, Larry Leiber, who gave Iron Man his civilian moniker, Tony Stark?  Or that the great Steve Ditko designed Iron Man’s signature gold and red armor?  Certainly modern readers will enjoy Mangel’s detailed discussions with Tom Brevoort about Warren Ellis and Adi Granov’s redefining Iron Man storyline, Extremis.

Mangels interviews a host of creators who’ve worked on Iron Man including Stan Lee, Gene Colan, David Michelinie, Bob Layton, John Byrne, Larry Leiber, and more.  The book reprints the four-page, Stan Lee-Don Heck tale, “All about Iron Man,” which has Tony Stark showing the reader how his armor works.  There’s also a two-page overview of the development of the Iron Man film from the first attempt in 1988 to the upcoming Jon Favreau-helmed movie.  Of course, Iron Man: Beneath the Armor wouldn’t be complete without an Iron Man “Armor Gallery,” and it’s here – 12 suits, each with its own one-page dossier.