ULTIMATE IRON MAN II #1

[MattBrady]

Press Release

The untold origin of Ultimate Marvel’s most eccentric billionaire playboy continues in Ultimate Iron Man II #1! International best-selling author Orson Scott Card returns to Ultimate Universe to reveal how Tony Stark developed his taste for wine, women, and war machines. Card is joined by fan-favorite artist Pasqual Ferry (Ultimate Fantastic Four) and special guest cover artist Gabriele Dell’Otto!

When last we saw him, young Tony Stark was nearly blown to bits by his initial Iron Man trial run. How much of him survived -- and where does the young genius go from here? Three words: Ultimate War Machine! Plus, Tony fights to exonerate his father from a murder rap, and reveals his ultimate plan for the perfect fighting machine to Jim Rhodes. If you were shocked by the first series, you ain’t seen nothing yet!

“Tony is still on that path to becoming a hero,” said series editor Bill Rosemann. “He took the first steps in the first mini, but the road to glory is a long and painful journey. From James Rhodes to Howard Stark to Obadiah Stane, both longtime and new Shell-Head fans will find many intriguing characters impacting the still-developing hero that one day will lead the Ultimates.”

With a clandestine group targeting the young hero and Tony forced to battle his own demons, how can he possibly survive these torturous times in his life? And when he does, who will pay the price for Iron Man’s existence? One thing’s for sure—you can’t miss Ultimate Iron Man II #1, written by World Fantasy Award, two-time Nebula Award and Four-time Hugo Award-winning author Orson Scott Card (Ender’s Game) and featuring jaw dropping interiors by Pasqual Ferry!

For more on Orson Scott Card, visit http://www.hatrack.com

ULTIMATE IRON MAN II #1 (of 4) (OCT072070)
Written by ORSON SCOTT CARD
Pencils & Cover by PASQUAL FERRY
Variant Cover by GABRIELE DELL’OTTO
Rated A …$2.99
FOC – 11/20/07, On-Sale – 12/12/2007

[Marius665]

so where the heck is War Machine now, hopefullly we'll see him sometime in the Ultimates

[eltopo]

Ferry's Iron man looks really cool

[kalorama]

Great looking art, but an artist as good as Ferry should know enough to avoid awkward tangents like the one on panel 5 of page 2.

[-Armando523-]

looks pretty cool

[roguematt7]

Originally Posted by kalorama

Great looking art, but an artist as good as Ferry should know enough to avoid awkward tangents like the one on panel 5 of page 2.

Looks like he's barfing a hand into Iron Man's eye. But it's a pretty barf hand, so it's ok. I wish he (and other artists who get their pencils colored) would get an inker for their pages, his pencils are amazing and clean, but it's just not the same as having it inked.

[Tom Daylight]

That Dell'Otto cover is gorgeous... Marvel's distributed it as a poster, too, and despite my general ambivalence towards Ultimate Iron Man, I have stuck it to my wall because I like it so much.

[kingofcities]

It's about GD time.

[chrishaley]

These pages look absolutely incredible.

[RedRonin]

Love the look of these pages.

[jayvee]

Hallelujah!

The Ultimate Universe is going to really pick up in the next six months.

[MR2007]

Originally Posted by roguematt7

Looks like he's barfing a hand into Iron Man's eye. But it's a pretty barf hand, so it's ok. I wish he (and other artists who get their pencils colored) would get an inker for their pages, his pencils are amazing and clean, but it's just not the same as having it inked.

I agree whole-heartedly with you! I think the best example of this is Lenil Francis Yu on the New Avengers. He has some great page layouts and interesting angles, but he needs to be paired with an inker. I've talked with many many people who are becoming increasingly turned off to the book due to the art alone... and Yu is a good artist too! Look at Superman: Birthright and you will see that he's a good artist when he's partnered with a talented inker.

Sadly... after reading trade publications today, and talking with people in the industry, it's pretty apparent that the days of the inker are numbered. Pencils from the "Greats" of our youth would be considered unacceptable by today's editorial standards... considered "too loose." I'm speaking here as a comic artist myself and I can tell you that the pencils I have to do today leave almost nothing for the inker to "embelish upon." So the inker is relegated to the job of a "tracer." Now... that's a pretty sad thing to see in the comics industry... but you know what's sadder? That some publishers (who shall remain nameless) actually take the pages sent them by the penciller, scan them into the computer, adjust the grayscales to black and then send them to the colorist as-is! This way they can totally avoid going to the inker and only have to pay for ONE artist on the book instead of two. I agree that there are some artists who probably don't need an inker (mainly the ones that ink their own work... Bill Sienkiewicz, John Byrne, and Jae Lee to name a few who do).. but to eliminate an inker just to save a few pennies??? C'mon now!

[shj81]

i'm also not a big fan of the "scanned pencils" look that seems to be popping up more and more...sure, a handful of artist & colorist teams are able to pull it off, but most of the time the "technique," or as i see it increasingly becoming, the "fad" ends up looking like a rushed, sloppy, muddy, unprofessional finished product.

having said that, yeah, these iron man pages do look pretty good, but having an inker work on these pages would make them great.

[darthdad]

I love Orson Scott Card's prose work, and the original Ultimate Iron Man was great so I'm looking forward to the follow-up. Should be alot of fun!

[Jettison]

Pasqual back in action!

Nice!

[Faust]

The first one wasn't that good. I do not have hope for this.