Reviewing the 6 Iron Manuals (spoiler: the Ablative Suit only appears in 2)
There might not be a more perfect title that Iron Manual. You could try to call something Spider Manual, but until the Iron Spider, Peter wasn’t exactly known for being technology-driven beyond his web shooters. It would work pretty well if you chose to have a Bat Manual, since Batman has a lot of gear. (It only works as a Batmanuel if you’re a fan of the 2001 The Tick television show.)
But with Iron Man, it…just…works. There aren’t many superheroes more interested in tech than Tony Stark, and that’s why we get the Iron Manual again and again and again and again and again. (See me in five year for another “again.”) I picked up the original Iron Manual back in 1993, because I love behind-the-scenes information even if it’s fictional. I also like the fact that two of the books below feature rare appearances of Axol (Iron Man’s Ablative Suit), so I figured I’d take a look at all of them and let you know where Ablative Armor Iron Man shows up.
Iron Manual
Published: 1993
Original Price: $1.75
Format: Traditional comic
Material: Completely new
Does the Ablative Armor Appear: No
This issue started it all. Written and drawn by Eliot R. Brown, it includes a behind-the-scenes look at the Iron Man armors and what goes into making them: weapons, suit layers, aerodynamics, and the laboratories Tony uses to test them.
This would have been on the shelves like any other comics at the time, but since it doesn’t have a specific month I’m guessing it stuck around for a while. It is 32 pages long, and the last armor it details is War Machine.
All-New Iron Manual
Published: July 2008
Original Price: $4.99
Format: Traditional comic
Material: Mostly new
Does the Ablative Armor Appear: Yes
Fifteen years went by before the second Iron Manual hit the shelves. This one-shot released just as the hype for the first Iron Man movie hit, so people who never read Iron Man before needed a primer if they were going to start reading the comics…because Iron Man was about to be in a lot of comics.
Marvel commissioned Carlo Pagulayan (with Jeffrey Huet and Rainier Beredo) to pencil all 38 comic armors up to that point, including the second-most-recognized image of Iron Man’s Ablative Armor. The armor is not mentioned in the text.
Much of the material is a review of Tony Stark’s history up until 2008, with the bulk of the rest using an “Official Handbook To the Marvel Universe” format. Villains, friends, A.I., companies, and armors are all explained.
This book used the numbering system that counted the Modular and Hulkbuster armors as two separate suits, which labeled the Ablative Armor as Model 24. That numbering system changed (and some would say corrected) just a few months later with the Iron Man TPB in November. See this article for more information.
The same interior picture of Axol appears on the back cover. This is the only cover (front or back) on which the Ablative Suit appears in Marvel comics.
Iron Manual TPB
Published: November 2008
Original Price: $19.99
Format: Trade paperback (TPB)
Material: Only new material is the front and back covers and the first page. Official statement from the inside front cover: “Contains material originally published in magazine form as IRON MANUAL, ALL-NEW IRON MANUAL, MARVEL SPOTLIGHT: IRON MAN MOVIE and IRON MAN/FORCE WORKS COLLECTOR’S PREVIEW.”
Does the Ablative Armor Appear: Yes
Iron Man was a much bigger hit than anyone thought when it dropped on May 2, 2008. (Who’a’thunk we’d be 23 movies into the universe it helped create?) Everything Iron Man was suddenly hot, so the Iron Manual TPB released later that year. Instead of a comic cover to lure in comic readers, the trade paperback had a photo from the movie set.
This volume brings together material from All-New Iron Manual (2008), Marvel Spotlight: Iron Man Movie (2008) and Iron Manual (1993). Basically what they did was smash together those three books (covers and all!) and then toss in a few pages of Iron Man/Force Works Collector’s Preview at the end. I’d call it a money-grab, but it honestly does a good job of bringing everything together in one place. (Having a “reader copy” of this stops me from having to juggle a bunch of bagged comics.)
Axol does appear twice but is not mentioned in the text. Both times it is the same Pagulayan art from the All-New Iron Manual, but this time it is called Model 23 and its first appearance is identified as “Iron Man #71 (2003)”
The TPB had a different editorial staff from the All-New Iron Manual, and they decided that the Hulkbuster was not its own armor because it needed to be formed around the Modular suit. This dropped the Ablative Armor to Model 23. To read more about this numbering change, here’s another link to this blog.
Iron Manual Mark 3
Published: June 2010
Original Price: $3.99
Format: Traditional comic
Material: Mostly reused
Does the Ablative Armor Appear: No
So for the release of the Iron Man 2 movie we have…the Iron Manual Mark 3? I could buy it if it actually were the third Iron Manual, but in reality it’s the fourth (Someone from Microsoft must have numbered it.) Iron Manual Mark 3 is the first to be clever and use the “Mark” in its title…even if Mark 3 was the armor in the first Iron Man movie and Iron Man 2 features Marks 4, 5, and 6. Clear as mud.
While it has what looks like an Iron Man 2 cover (and even advertises the movie in the lower left corner), this 64-page one-shot is entirely comic-based. The entire volume is just bios from the All-New Iron Manual, and all of the Pagulayan art has been removed. The only new material added are new armors/characters such as Rescue.
Iron Man Manual
Published: December 2013
Original Price: $50.00
Format: Hardcover book
Material: Gathers art from the Iron Man movies, does not reprint from any other sources on this list.
Does the Ablative Armor Appear: No
This 152-page hardcover book by Daniel Wallace is completely movie-centered, so of course there’s no mention of the Ablative Armor. The book covers the first three Iron Man movies.
Technically, I guess it’s not an Iron Manual, but an Iron Man Manual. This is one of those books that has lots of inserts included, such as schematics, flyers, and notes as if the events of the movie were real. It also includes excellent images of the Iron Legion and expands on other armors. Someone on YouTube put up a video of a flip-through if you’d like to see more of it.
This is also the most expensive all of Iron Manuals, both when it was released and in the aftermarket. This book regularly sells for $50-100 or more.
Iron Manual 2020
Published: March 2020
Original Price: Free
Format: 7.25” x 5”
Material: Mostly new
Does the Ablative Armor Appear: No
This mini-comic is known as Iron Manual 2020 on the cover and 2020 Iron Manual #1 in the indicia. It starts off with a preview of the latest Iron Man #1 reboot (featuring Iron Man 2020), then has short bios of Iron Man characters. It also doubles as an advertisement for collected works: See a charter you like? Here are the graphic novels you can find them in.
Of all of these books, this is the one least worthy of bearing the Iron Manual name. It’s only 16 pages long and looks like one of those comics you’d get with an action figure in the 1980s. Then again, this was free at comic book shops and has new material, and I’m glad to have it despite being so weird in every way.
Final Total —
Axol: 2 No Axol: 4
As great as Pagulayan’s drawing of the Ablative Suit is, it’s still only one image (one image for which I don’t have the original art! Grrrrr!). Considering there have been four volumes called Iron Manual since he drew that single image, I think it’s time for a completely new (and complete) Iron Manual that features all-new art and finally clears up the numbering system.
Until then, you’ll just have to get all of your Axol fixes here in my site. Check out the gallery to see nearly every image — licensed or not — of the Ablative Armor that’s ever been on the web.
