For a publisher that inherited a sturdy self-promotion streak from its very earliest days under the stewardship of consummate salesman Stan Lee, Marvel has been surprisingly cagey about its plans for the latter half of 2015. Almost their entire line of titles is currently mired in Secret Wars, after which nobody's quite sure what's going to happen. Marvel hasn't told anybody. During a panel at the Special Edition: NYC Comic-Con, however, Uncanny X-Men writer Brian Michael Bendis revealed that he would be teaming with his former Ultimate Spider-Man artist David Marquez on a new Invincible Iron Man title. He also confirmed that it would be Tony Stark as the shell head, which has answered some questions and thrown up others. Prior to Secret Wars, Tony was starring in the Superior Iron Man book, where a switch of morality in the previous Axis crossover saw him acting more like a villain than a hero. Using his genius to get all of San Francisco hooked on a form of superpower-granting Extremis delivered through their phones, but dependant on micro-transactions to keep working, that sort of thing. Obviously that's now over, but most fans were speculating the Iron Man that appears post-Secret Wars would have a different alter ego (Marvel Editor-In-Chief suggested some characters would be different to what people expected, including hints at a new Hulk and Wolverine). Indeed, the All-New All-Different Avengers preview released on Free Comic Book Day had the team bemoaning their lack of "Stark money". With new armour, a new status quo, a new creative team, and a whole new title launching with a new first issue, it looks like this Tony Stark will still be pretty different from the one you're used to...
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
