Iron Man: Crash

Rating:
Summary: Is this book crashed? Not at all...
Review: The first computer generated Graphic Novel (But not the first computer generated comic) Iron Man CRASH was a bold undertaking that just couldn't stand the test of time. It was created in 1988 by the technocratic author Mike Saenz who believed computers would eliminate the grunt work it takes to make comics. However in 1988 computer graphics were still in their infancy and though they are acceptable they are pixilated and crude by today's standards. Still the art remains passable and impressive in some places with what they had to work with.

Story wise CRASH attempts to take the same starting idea of the classic "Batman: The Dark Knight Returns". Tony Stark is in his seventies and has retired from the role of Iron Man but retains his good looks through an addictive youth drug. He decides that he's taken his designs as far as he can so he sells them to a Japanese company which gets him a lot of flack from SHIELD and Nick Fury who is also brought back from retirement. Apparently there is also some kind of underground technology war going on but the book never makes this point very clear. All of this forces Tony to don his red and gold armor again. There is a lot of techno babble in this book that is almost unreadable at times and you won't see Iron Man using his trademarked tricks, instead he has a huge machine rail gun which is very unfitting of the character in my opinion. Also the book is short for a graphic novel, only 65 pages of story and 7 pages on the making of the book.

Though I can't recommend this book to everyone, die-hard Iron Man fans may find a lot to like in this interesting short story about their favorite hero in his old age. My only major complaints are the dated art and the interesting espionage story that starts off the book with the secret techwars falling apart near the end when the run and gun action that is very wrong for Iron Man starts though the ending of the book is a surprise twist as a new Iron Man is born to continue the legacy.

Rating:
Summary: Way ahead of its time -- at the time
Review: This was the first-ever totally computer generated comic graphic novel, and it was done in the late 80s when computer technology was a piddly fraction of what it is today. One must be aware of this going in, or you'll be a bit disappointed. Nevertheless, technology lovers will salivate at the copious amount of tech talk between its pages. The premise is as follows: an aged Tony Stark is about to sell some of his most prized inventions to a Japanese competitor, against the wishes of one Nick Fury and SHIELD. Fury's concerns turn out to be valid, and Stark-Iron Man, along with a robotic Iron Man, set out to make things right. Unfortunately, the bad guys' contingency plan results in the robotic armor gaining sentience (current Marvel editor-in-chief Joe Quesada must've gotten ideas from this), and Stark has no choice but to let it be free. Leaves the door open for a sequel....?