ARMOR WARS #1
JAMES ROBINSON (W)
MARCIO TAKARA (A)
COVER BY PAUL RIVOCHE
A SHADOW FALLS OVER AN ARMORED UTOPIA!
• TECHNOPOLIS: Amazing Domain of science and wonder created by rival genius brothers TONY AND ARNO STARK. A utopia except…a unique disease forces EVERYONE to wear armor to live and breathe
• In this armored land a hero is murdered and the killer’s identity a mystery Baron Tony Stark must solve.
• But in doing so, will Technopolis be forced into a civil war?
32 PGS./Rated T+ ...$3.99
ComicsAlliance: To what extent does your Armor Wars tie in to the classic Iron Man Armor Wars storyline of the late ’80s?
James Robinson: Well the original series was a (relatively) short saga that featured Tony, fearing that his armor designs were being misused, going after/defeating all his armor designs that were out there in the Marvel Universe being worn by others. It was a simple tale with a beginning and end.
When it came to turning this title “Armor Wars” into enough of a concept it was worthy of a whole area of Battleworld, I felt there should be more to it. So there will be a lot of Armor Vs. Armor action in it, but this tale is so much more than the original series in terms of its scope.
CA: How do you describe the high-tech setting of Technopolis? How is it different to the world we know?
JR: For reasons that will be revealed in the story, Technopolis is a world where every single person living here has to wear armor all the time. It’s a super-high-tech world of armor and robotics and science, very much advanced to ours or even the normal Marvel Universe. And all of it overseen by Tony Stark and the resident Thor who acts as the chief of police here, maintaining order.
CA: I notice this domain’s version of Thor has a surprising alter ego in Jim Rhodes. Is this a world without magic, and should we prepare for any similar surprises?
JR: No magic. This is a world of science. And yes, you’ll see a few more surprises like the identity of Technopolis’ Thor. A few familiar characters in unfamiliar roles… most specifically our murder victim who starts the whole drama in the first place.
CA: Marcio, designing all these armored characters sounds like a great gig. How do you approach the design aspect?
Marcio Takara: It is an awesome project to be part of. The idea was to incorporate as many Iron Man visuals as possible to each character. Since everyone has armor, I did my best to make at least the most important characters visually distinct from each other. I usually spend hours just picking reference from all over the place. So for Armor Wars, I have folders like “steampunk”, “dieselpunk” and “noir”. Along with lots and lots of Iron Man armors from the past. I love it.