I'm a huge fan of the Ultimates and the Ultimate line of comics, but the Ultimate Iron is just terrible.

Everything about it undoes everything you liked about the iconic Iron Man. Instead of being a genius who built an Iron Man suit with all sorts of powers, we find out that Tony was born with a strange skin disease. Oh - and he's blue and always in pain.

And the kids bully him and put him in a furnace and burn his legs off... which he regenerates.

This is the exact opposite oh what Iron Man fans want to see. Rather than having a super hero with a technology based origin, we are given some sort of blue mutant who can regenerate. It really feels like it has nothing to do with Iron Man at all.

I'm so disappointed with this story because now it's going to have to be integrated with the rest of the Ultimate Universe... when it really should be put away and never referenced again.

This TPB (also available in hardcover), collecting the entire five-issue run of the first Ultimate Iron Man volume, has come under quite a bit of fire. However, I applaud the unique take that Orson Scott card took on this iconic Marvel character. The Ultimate Universe is all about recreating the world of Marvel for contemporary readers, many of whom are completely new to comics in general. As such, it provides a wonderful opportunity for the writers who are fortunate enough to work on these projects to try something new (the Bendis origin for Venom- lab project gone awry, rather than extraterrestrial- is a perfect example). Card was tasked with adding a whole new take on the Iron Man canon, making the story unique and accessible for new readers all the while. Not a particularly easy assignment, but my personal verdict is that he succeeded.

There are three reasons in particular why I feel this book is valuable not only to the Iron Man character, but the entire Ultimate Universe. It masterfully explains the root causes for 1) Stark's genius, and why he displays almost inhuman levels of productivity and innovation, 2) why he is obsessed with constantly building and improving armor, and 3) his affinity for the consumption of alcohol. I will not reveal any specifics or spoilers here, but for those of you who have read the book (or plan on reading it), pay close attention to those three points, and ask yourself if Card did not do an excellent job of giving credence to Stark's character. For instance, after reading this volume, it seems that Stark's drinking is not a way for him to escape the burdens of reality (which would make no sense for a man so driven by the need to constantly build his empire and legacy), but is in actuality a means of enhancing his productivity. This may sound like an implausible theory to those who have not yet read the story, but once you learn of Stark's origin in the Ultimate Universe, and his unique genetic makeup, it all comes together (it also explains how he can drink so much without suffering any permanent damage).

The Ultimate Universe is all about new ideas for old characters. It runs parallel (exists outside of) the original Marvel Universe, and so a new take on a character like Iron Man should not offend any of the die-hard fans. For those of us who do not have the benefit of having been around the past 40+ years to absorb all the background of Marvel, this is like being a kid again, and witnessing the birth of legends.

This collection stops abruptly with issue #5 of the Ultimate Iron Man limited series, and is picked up again in Card's Ultimate Iron Man II. Therefore, I'll reserve judgment on some of the stranger elements (Tony Stark as infected by a limb-regenerating virus and spray-painted in a blue bio-armor) until the full story is told.

But judging this collection by itself, Card has really nailed Tony Stark's personality and built up a deep supporting cast for Ultimate Iron Man. It's not the regular Marvel Universe Iron Man, or the upcoming movie version of Iron Man. Whether or not this story works, though, won't be known until Ultimate Iron Man II is published.

As an Iron Man reader from the early days (IronMan #160 all the way through the Armor Wars), I appreciated what Orson Scott Card did with Ultimate Iron Man. Making Tony Stark a mutant (but not) made his character a more believable fit in the Ultimate Universe.

I mean, let's all keep in mind that Tony Stark eventually teams up with a super soldier from WWII, a woman who turns into a human wasp, a norse god, a man who grows fifty feet tall AND shrinks to the size of an ant, and a mad scientist who can swell into a nearly-unstoppable juggernaut. To me, just being really really smart doesn't earn enough cred to hang with that kind of crowd. So I give Orson Scott Card points for making Tony Stark "fit" into that world.

Another point is that the Ultimate Universe is supposed to be a modernization of the original Marvel Universe. Look back at the early issues of Ultimate X-Men, for instance. Everything from the design of the characters to the storytelling said "this is Marvel in the real world," kind of like watching a movie. One of the reasons why I stopped reading Ultimate X-Men is because the artists got away from jackets and leathers and went right back to the tights and spandex of the original universe. And the storytelling followed suit.

My point is that Orson Scott Card brought the "Ultimate" in Ultimate Iron Man. The entire story arc felt like a movie to me and that's what the Ultimate Universe is supposed to be about, isn't it?

This book earned it's two stars solely because of it's art. The writing, despite the name on the cover, is absolutely horrible, and makes me think Card just wrote something really general on a napkin and then let the artist flesh everything out. There's a lot of stupid concepts here, like Tony Stark's healing factor, an explanation for his alcoholism that really takes away from an interesting character, etc. The story is also only HALF of Ultimate Iron Man's origins, ending at a completly inopportune moment, having spent more time establishing a healing factor that Stark shouldn't have as opposed to establishing how he became Iron Man. Avoid this book unless it's given to you as a gift.