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During
my recent chat at COMIC BOOK RESOURCES on October
13th, the subject came up concerning how I imagined the Iron Man
armor evolving in the future. Here is an excerpt from that chat:
Brian
Cronin:
Do you think it is important to try to keep a character looking current?
Just thinking of your "Iron Man" runs, you made the characters'
appearance look very timely. Is that something you're a proponent of (as
compared to keeping things in a sort of "classical" sense, like
Clark Kent basically keeping the same look for 60 years)?
Bob Layton:
That's easy to answer.
Bob Layton:
My philosophy always has been that technology continues to evolve and
streamline. The one thing that Marvel doesn't seem to understand is that.
They keep making the armor more bulky more loaded with clunky crap.
Brian Cronin:
You mean, Iron Man is not still run on transistors?!?!?
Bob Layton: ROFL
Brian Cronin:
How annoying was it, on that note, to have to draw the bulky Iron Man in
Bad Blood?
Bob Layton:
It pretty much sucked.
Brian Cronin: And
Chen's Iron Man was a lot less bulky than some others
Brian Cronin: And
it was still pretty darn clunky.
skinnymikec: Yeah,
it's not getting any sleeker..
Bob Layton:
I always envisioned the Iron Man armor resembling the Silver Surfer by the
time it evolved to its peak
JohnThompson: Now
that is a direction I wish Marvel would take!
Bob Layton:
Look at the difference in iPods from the time they came out till now as an
example.
Brian Cronin: Makes
sense. Which makes it fairly interesting to note that Ultimate Iron Man
has taken the opposite approach, and made the armor bulkier.
Interesting, because it is the "ultimate" version.
Bob Layton:
Are you saying Marvel has their technology ass-backwards? :)
Petersen:
Not to start an argument, but don't you think Iron Man would be a much
less interesting looking character if he were sleeker?
Bob Layton:
I think that depends on the design and the technology.
Petersen: I
like the old bucket head version because it interesting & mechanical.
skinnymikec:
But isn't the real point in the character of Iron Man, not how many
missiles he can launch from his shoulder?
Bob Layton: Absofrigginlutely
After
that night, I got several requests to visualize my idea. This
drawing, beautifully colored by my pal--Ian Sokoliwski, is the result.
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