In our July solicitation round-up for Marvel, I noted that 8 books were missing, including but not limited to “Iron Man.” Some books came with later explanations, like “Loki” missing due to an upcoming extra crossover series billed as “Original Sin” #5.1-5.5. Other books, however, are missing because they’re ending.
From Kieron Gillen’s tumblr:
I’ve had a bunch of people asking about the absence of Iron Man from the new solicitations.
Basically, the situation is this. An enormous opportunity turned up.
We looked at my schedule. We realised that it just wasn’t going to work. The new book Marvel was offering was so utterly irresistible, I knew something had to give – and I realised that I was actually in a good place to bring my run to a conclusion. I realised the ORIGINAL SIN story would be a damn good climax for everything I’ve done, and between all I’ve put in play with the Mandarin War, Iron Metropolitan and where the HULK/IRON MAN story ends up, there’s a mass of toys for the next writer to play with. And hey – with the annual? That’s 31 issues total, which is exactly as long as my Uncanny X-men and Journey Into Mystery runs.
Yeah, there’s a pang about the other things I was going to play with, but when you hear of what this opportunity is, I suspect you’ll understand.
I’ll talk more when I can, obv. It’s been a ride.
And now I return to your usual service of hyping The Wicked + the Divine. Pre-order this weekend, etc.
“Iron Man” may continue with a new writer/artist, and it may reboot with a new #1 as per standard Marvel practice these days. We’re unsure. There is a bit of switching up happening at Marvel in general (Waid leaving “Hulk” already, Ellis/Shalvey/Bellaire’s “Moon Knight” wrapping), so it appears that some musical chairs/other shuffling is in order. It’d certainly be odd to see Marvel without an Iron Man ongoing, given the character’s star power.
However, for Gillen’s story, it appears that this is the end — and that’s a bit of a shame. I quite like it. But they say it’s best to know when to leave the stage, and apparently that’s now for Gillen on this series. What is the enormous opportunity he has coming up? No clue, but we look forward to it none the less.
Here are the June solicits for “Iron Man”:
IRON MAN #27 & 28
KIERON GILLEN (W) • JOE BENNETT (A)
Issue #27 Cover by CHRISTIAN WARD
Issue #28 Cover by IN-HYUK LEE
RINGS OF THE MANDARIN COMES TO A STARTLING CONCLUSION!!!
• The MANDARINS rampage reaches its climax. Who can TONY STARK count as an ally?
• The TRUTH behind the Mandarins.
• Can Tony’s Fellowship manage to defeat the Lords of the Rings?
32 PGS. (EACH)/Rated T+ …$3.99 (EACH)
Gillen’s last Iron Man story will appear in “Original Sin” #3.1-3.4, which also happens to be Mark Waid’s last Hulk story.
