Iron Man Motion Comic

More Iron Man hype!

Marvel.com unveiled their newest motion comic, Iron Man: Extremis, a story by Warren Ellis and Adi Granov.

“Tony Stark faces his greatest threat ever-a terrorist transformed into an unstoppable force with the powerful bio-engineered Extremis super-soldier serum! Now Tony Stark redefines Iron Man’s mission for the 21st century, setting the Armored Avenger on a new direction that’ll alter his life forever…if he can find a way to defeat a modern day nightmare!”

Ellis and Granov’s Extremis is hailed as one of the best Iron Man stories, redefining Iron Man and his origin; it is the book on which the 2008 movie Iron Man is loosely based (see Wikipedia). While a good choice for an Iron Man motion comic, it’s a simultaneous plug for Iron Man 2, coming out in May.

As always, Marvel takes motion comic art to new heights; it looks less like a motion comic and more like a visually stunning animated film. Also, Iron Man works really well with the motion comic art. In X-Men, the characters looked wooden and jerky; but a metal suit hides these flaws perfectly, and actually makes it look better.

Stark’s voice is awful, though. He sounds like Cyclops. Ew. Granted, it would take a whole lot of cash to sign on Downey Jr, but can you imagine how many people would buy it? It just makes the whole thing seem rather second-tier. Motion comics isn’t a household medium yet, but Marvel could still generate a whole lot of interest outside the comic book world…and putting some stars in the voice acting roles could absolutely, totally, no question be the first giant leap for motion comic-kind.

The first episode of Extremis will be available April 16th. It’ll cost you $2.99 to download it from iTunes, Zune or Xbox; new episodes will be available bi-weekly through June.

Will you buy the first episode of Iron Man: Extremis?