By John Barber

Titan Books, out now

Titan’s reissue of the Art of Books for the MCU series continues with coverage of the first sequel in the MCU.

Iron Man 2, for a long time, was regarded as Marvel’s first misstep. It’s easy to see why: Mickey Rourke is a divisive figure at the best of times and his work here is as strident as his accent. Likewise the ending could be argued, convincingly, as the first example of the third act scope creep that’s dogged Marvel for years now.

But reading this excellent archive reminded me that there’s actually a lot to enjoy about the MCU’s first sequel. The entire story is built from the consequences of the first movie, and the book does a great job of centring and exploring that. The fundamental dichotomy of Tony Stark is central to the story and was from the start as we see here. The book does especially good work exploring how everything from the last movie is built upon. The iconic design of Tony’s house is expanded, but in context with the original movie. The Hall of Armours is continually explored as both an iconic part of Tony’s character and a landmark for the movie. Best of all, the evolution of the War Machine has a huge amount of the book devoted to it and for good reason. Stark’s constant evolution and instinctive genius is a stark contrast to Justin Hammer’s More Is More approach. There’s also a moment of biting, dark irony as the book touches on the work SpaceX did with the movie. Justin Hammer or Tony Stark. There are no good billionaires except, perhaps, fictional ones.

As is always the case with books like this, there are delightful snippets of information that change how you look at things. The fact Tony’s garage and lab really is the set from the first movie is a nice moment of synchronicity between production and story as both modify the location for their needs. The relatively late addition of Whiplash to the movie is interesting too, the shape of the story present but only focusing in when the decision to make Whiplash a dark mirror of Tony is made. Best of all is the reveal that Samurai Jack’s creator Genndy Tartakovsky consulted on the burly, bloody knuckled closing fight scene.

Verdict: History has been kind to Iron Man 2. It’s a fun, clever movie whose missteps are balanced by the sheer energy thrown into its production. This book is a testament to that energy and the movie that it created, one that’s rife for rediscovery. 9/10

Alasdair Stuart