Buy Marvel toys, get an 'Armor Wars' comic
Iron Man is back on the big screen with Avengers: Age of Ultron this weekend, but folks can get introduced to a very, very different Tony Stark just by buying some toys.
Those who purchase $25 or more worth of Marvel action figures and playsets at Toys R Us stores or online at toysrus.com between Sunday and May 9 will receive a free Secret Wars: Armor Wars #½ comic book, a prologue to the upcoming series tying into the crossover Secret Wars event (debuting Wednesday).
Armor Wars takes place in the high-tech utopia of Technopolis, where the residents are forced to wear a suit of armor to live thanks to a mysterious epidemic and Baron Tony Stark and his rival, brother Arno, are the top businessmen in town.
The 16-page special issue, written by James Robinson (Starman) and drawn by Mark Bagley (Ultimate Spider-Man), sets up the backstory and motivation of the various characters in Technopolis, one of Battleworld's many Warzones in Secret Wars. James Rhodes, the grand marshal of the city armed with a hammer reminiscent of Thor's Mjolnir, plays an integral role alongside other familiar faces who factor into Robinson's Armor Wars series, debuting in June.
Robinson describes the Tony Stark he's working with as a quieter guy than the one seen regularly in Marvel comics and on screen played by Robert Downey Jr.
"He's had the yoke of responsibility on his shoulders his whole life, inheriting 'the throne' of Technopolis from his father Howard and 'ruling' the place with strength and calm. So here he isn't the playboy," Robinson explains. "He's happily with Pepper who's his Baroness. He's more regal. But that wild Tony Stark attitude will manifest itself in other ways — especially during combat."
Growing up in the '80s, the writer recalls loving the "Armor Wars" plot line in Iron Man that found Tony fighting against all his armor that had been spread through the Marvel Universe. Robinson's tweaked that concept for his Secret Wars story and he's putting a version of the Iron Man suit on everyone, be it main character or supporting player.
While Rhodes still holds the mantle of War Machine as the city's chief of police, Arno Stark plots his sibling's downfall in his own area of Technopolis. "It's all quite Shakespearian actually," Robinson says. "With repulsor rays."
He's also giving readers a mystery to go along with the armored escapades.
"At the start of our tale someone has learned the dark secret of why everyone is sick and so forced to wear the armor to stay alive," Robinson says. "That person is murdered and it's Jim Rhodes' job to get answers as to who is the murderer and what the secrets are behind everything."
The series and Secret Wars in general is all about showcasing different versions of Marvel favorites in alternate timelines, but what Robinson enjoys most about the event is that it's not throw-away at all.
"So many events and series such as this — from all the companies — come with much fanfare and yet seem to end with just an out-of-tune sad trombone heard faintly in the distance," the writer says. "But we have a mandate to make this matter and have elements of our stories that will matter in the main Marvel Universe coming out the other side of it.