The Noir craze has well and truly swept through the Marvel Universe. What began with X-Men, Daredevil and Spider-Man has expanded to the realms of Luke Cage, Wolverine, The Punisher and further X-Men and Spider-Man stories. Now it's Iron Man's turn as Scott Snyder and Manuel Garcia tackle the billionaire playboy. The series is sure to sell a boat load of comics thanks to its timely release, only a few weeks before Iron Man 2 hits theaters, but is the series worth picking up?
In short, yes. Snyder and Garcia have done a fantastic job of transforming the technology-minded, cutting-edge Tony Stark of today into a 1930's era adventurer and billionaire industrialist.
For those of you that don't know, the Noir series takes your favorite Marvel heroes and villains and transports them back to the roaring 30's. Sometimes the series undertakes a drastic change, like X-Men, or sometimes it's more of a scene change. The stories also rely more on the crime and mystery aspects than superpowers. Iron Man Noir has an added bonus of being set in 1939, allowing the backdrop of World War II to hang over it. It has a more pulp comic focus than a crime noir focus due to the Tony-Stark-as-adventurer story they have going. It gives the story a different feel and focus to some of the other stories.
From the first time I saw Tony Stark up close I liked him. He looked like a 1930's adventurer with his 5 o'clock shadow and mustache and goatee. All he needed was a hat, and, hell, I'd almost mistake him for Indiana Jones. Funnily enough that Indiana Jones feeling stayed with me almost the entire issue. There are some serious similarities between the two, although Tony Stark isn't scared of snakes. The whole 1930's adventurer thing was the obvious similarity, but the ability for the two of them to be sucked in and played by a gorgeous woman was also very similar and, ya know, those damn Nazis.
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