I’m not the only one saying the Ablative Armor is a weird Iron Man armor
Some people think that the weirdest thing about Axol (my name for Iron Man’s Ablative Armor) is that it’s made up of hundreds of ceramic tiles. At first glance, sure, that’s pretty weird. That’s a peculiar idea for any suit of armor, let alone an Iron Man suit. But it’s not the weirdest thing about it.
No, the weirdest thing about it is that it’s carrying around an oven on its back.
That’s awesome.
Pictured: awesome (also his butt)
I’m not the only one who thinks that the Model 23 armor is all-around weird. I wasn’t reading Iron Man in 2003, so I was probably introduced to the Ablative Armor from one of the lists below. I thought it would be fun to pay homage to other sites that think Axol is one of the weirdest Iron Man armors ever.
Fandango
Fandango released the article 20 Suits of Iron Man Armor we probably won’t see in Iron Man 3 not long before the movie’s release. The very first suit in the sideshow is Axol. They give him props by saying “It’s a cool concept, sure – but it could stretch the believability of the live-action Marvel movie-verse a little too much.” I would agree with this at the time of publication, since Iron Man 3 was only the seventh MCU movie. But considering we ended up with the nano-suits (Marks 50 and 85), the audience was obviously much more accommodating of new tech by Infinity War and Endgame.
It’s interesting to note what this article gets wrong. While the title suggests suits that “we probably won’t see,” we did end up getting some version of the following: Anti-Radiation Armor (Mark 26, Gamma), Golden Avenger (Mark 21, Midas), and Hydro Armor (Mark 37, Hammerhead).
Screen Rant
In Iron Man: Tony Stark’s Weirdest Armors of All Time, Screen Rant starts by saying “So hey, how about an armor composed entirely of little moving tiles?” That sounds like a pitch I’d buy. Green lit. Here’s $100 million. Make it happen.
The article gives a pretty accurate description of the Ablative Armor, and ends by saying, “There's no doubt that it's a unique concept, and perhaps one that Tony could come back to later on.” You’ve been reading my diary, Screen Rant…
CBR
I just need Jian-Yang to tweak his app to “Axol / Not Axol”
I have an issue with 20 Weird Armors Only True Iron Man Fans Know He’s Worn. No, not with the quote, “This was supposed to be a good idea, but ultimately it just looked like a mess of a suit that was barely holding itself together, even though it was a good idea to have the tiles on the suit double as projectiles and chaff depending on the situation.” Everyone is entitled to their opinion, and I can even get behind some of that. The suit did fall apart and was knocked out of commission pretty easily. Then again, it wasn’t built as a battle suit or even designed to work in-atmosphere as well as most armors.
No, I don’t mind what CBR said. I mind what they showed. They didn’t even show an actual image of the Ablative Armor. They just showed an Alex Ross painting of Iron Man busting through a wall. If you ever want to update that article, CBR, do I have some pictures for you!
(EDIT: I have found another CBR article called Iron Man’s Craziest Armors Ever that had a proper piece of art for the Ablative Armor.)
i09 / Gizmodo
I09 is where I go every day to get my geek card punched. I got excited about six months ago when they ran Just Some Really Silly Iron Man Armors (aka 11 Very Silly Iron Man Armor Suits From Marvel’s Past. “Iron Man Armor Suits,” because keywords).
You can imagine my anticipation. Will the Model 23 Ablative show up on the list? What will they say about him? Will the author of the list respond when I tell him about my site? (Spoiler: no.)
But yes, Axol the Ablative Armor, Iron Man’s weirdest and strangest Iron Man armor suit defense protection clothing sizes 9-15 works with iPhone 10 SHIPS FREE (I can keyword too) shows up in the slideshow. The author, James Whitbrook, agrees with many other articles, saying that the idea is a pretty cool one. He ends by saying, “The execution of it is ugly as hell though. That mask is nightmare-inducing.” The image is a close-up of Axol’s first panel.
Better or worse, i09? BETTER OR WORSE?!
The faceplate certainly is a departure from other designs, and I’ve often wanted to talk to Robert Teranishi about it. He’s right-next-to impossible to get ahold of, so we might never know where the design came from. If you can get me in touch with him, please send me a message.
I want to beat them all!
Seriously, I enjoyed every one of those articles / slideshows, but I really want to get above all of them when it comes to search. When people search for “weird iron man armors,” I want to show up in the top three. When they search for “iron man ablative armor,” – well, I want to be at least top two. And when they search for “Axol the Ablative Armor, Iron Man’s weirdest and strangest Iron Man armor suit defense protection clothing sizes 9-15 works with iPhone 10,” – they get FREE SHIPPING!
