Ultimate Iron Man: Biografía no Autorizada

Ultimate Iron Man (Collected Editions) #1-2

by Orson Scott Card, Andy Kubert (Illustrator), Mark Bagley (Illustrator)

El legendario novelista de ciencia ficción, ganador de los premios Hugo y Nebula, Orson Scott Card (El juego de Ender), se une a la Casa de las Ideas y a los espectaculares artistas Andy Kubert (1602, Lobezno: Origen) y Pasqual Ferry (Thor) para narrar el más imaginativo e imprevisible cómic del año. ¡Aquí está la historia jamás contada del Hombre de Hierro definitivo, desde la mismísima concepción de Tony Stark hasta que construyó la armadura de Iron Man... y más allá! ¡Descubre aquí todo lo que no cuentan en The Ultimates!

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Marvel, Superheroes, Fiction, Graphic Novels Comics, Science Fiction

240 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Orson Scott Card is an American writer known best for his science fiction works. He is (as of 2023) the only person to have won a Hugo Award and a Nebula Award in consecutive years, winning both awards for his novel Ender's Game (1985) and its sequel Speaker for the Dead (1986). A feature film adaptation of Ender's Game, which Card co-produced, was released in 2013. Card also wrote the Locus Fantasy Award-winning series The Tales of Alvin Maker (1987–2003).
Card's fiction often features characters with exceptional gifts who make difficult choices with high stakes. Card has also written political, religious, and social commentary in his columns and other writing; his opposition to homosexuality has provoked public criticism.
Card, who is a great-great-grandson of Brigham Young, was born in Richland, Washington, and grew up in Utah and California. While he was a student at Brigham Young University (BYU), his plays were performed on stage. He served in Brazil as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and headed a community theater for two summers. Card had 27 short stories published between 1978 and 1979, and he won the John W. Campbell Award for best new writer in 1978. He earned a master's degree in English from the University of Utah in 1981 and wrote novels in science fiction, fantasy, non-fiction, and historical fiction genres starting in 1979. Card continued to write prolifically, and he has published over 50 novels and 45 short stories.
Card teaches English at Southern Virginia University; he has written two books on creative writing and serves as a judge in the Writers of the Future contest. He has taught many successful writers at his "literary boot camps". He remains a practicing member of the LDS Church and Mormon fiction writers Stephenie Meyer, Brandon Sanderson, and Dave Wolverton have cited his works as a major influence.

Reviews

[Baba · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you're reading chronologically, this is where the Ultimate Universe starts with established and critically acclaimed sci-fi/fantasy writer Orson Scott Card's sound interpretation of the Ultimate Iron man and Tony Stark. Marvel holds nothing back, by giving Andy Kubert the art duties. Good stuff. Three years later a lesser (story sand art wise) second season was released with Pascual Ferry on the art.

Ultimate Iron Man, Vol. 1 is the first half of the origin of Tony Stark, (Ultimate) Iron-Man, and big hats off to the creative team for completely ignoring the mainstream Iron Man story and creating a completely different and far more interesting tale; this is worth reading for just how different it is, and for its superb origin of Stark's alcoholism! Ultimate Iron Man, Vol. 2 continues where the previous volume left off, a young Tony Stark trying to come to terms with his family being in some danger from enemies not fully realised. I do like the insertion dark comedic quips in both volumes, and Obadiah is a great character for me to love to hate. A highly original Iron Man but a pretty weak conspiracy plot. Overall a steady Three Star, 7 out of 12.

2022 read; 2017 read; 2011 read

[Chris Greensmith · Rating 3 out of 5]

They're taking Obadiah hostage.
Hostage? They can't possibly imagine that we'd want him back!"

[Nemo · Rating 2 out of 5]

...Honestly? I don't know. It was readable, and I liked some parts, but to me it wasn't really Iron Man. This was my first time venturing into the Ultimate universe and I'm pretty certain it'll be the last. The storyline was obvious, if not weak, though it was wrapped up with somewhat of a disappointing conclusion, and Tony and Howard are so not how they are supposed to be with one another. All in all, it was readable as a one-off standalone, but in the bigger scheme of things I could have lived without ever reading it.

[Noah Litle · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read this as Ultimate Iron Man, Vol. 1 , and Ultimate Iron Man, Vol. 2 . But since it's all one story, I'll just review it all at the same time.
~
Very interesting... Not sure what else to say about it besides that. This is the Iron Man legend unlike any I've ever heard before. Of course, I haven't really read any Iron Man before this...
~
It makes me wonder how much creative license they gave Card for the writing of this story. Like, were the nano-armor + regeneration superpowers Marvel's idea, or Card's?
~
The art wasn't that great. Sometimes I couldn't tell what was supposed to be happening in a picture, or sequence. Though I got the gist of the story, it was still confusing in a couple spots. Made me want to take a look at the scripts. Which kind of defeats the purpose of the "graphic" bit...
~
Anyway. Very weird premise. Story structure was pretty good. Art was on the brink of atrocious. I probably won't be looking at any of the other Ultimate series. Unless it's Ultimate Spider-Man .

[José Ignacio · Rating 2 out of 5]

Deserved to be retconned and decanonized

Holy balls, I have never read a book that seems so embarrassed to even be associated with superheroes.

There’s barely any Iron Man in it, instead being replaced by some very weird and poorly executed sci-fi nonsense. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not opposed to a new or bizarre take on established characters, that was the whole point of the Ultimate Universe after all; but this one kind of forgoes that little detail where it has to at least be entertaining in a bizarre manner and not completely boring and paced horribly.

The plot for both miniseries are somehow dead simple to follow, but also completely convoluted and so, so dumb. The whole angle of Tony being essentially a living brain is cool in theory, but ultimately just a thinly-veiled excuse to give him Deadpool-like regenerative powers. The dialogue is so utterly asinine as well, they genuinely use "They didn’t do [X], until they did" line and it’s so poorly written.

One of the biggest problems with it is the decompressed storytelling, you can tell Scott Card is used to just writing novels and doesn’t understand how comic books pace themselves, so it leads to very little happening over the span of each issue.

The only thing it has going for it is that at least some of the art is pretty good and at least you can laugh at it in the sense of it being a poorly executed bizarre sci-fi thing about a guy who can regenerate and occasionally wears an Iron Man suit.

Just watch Iron Man: Armored Adventures if you want a decent take on a younger Tony Stark.

[Ramón Nogueras Pérez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Voy a empezar diciendo que, en general, Orson Scott Card es una persona con una ideología de mierda. Las cosas como son, no sé si es su religión la causa o la consecuencia, pero es una persona de mierda con ideas homófobas de mierda. Una enorme decepción, porque sus obras me trajeron mucha felicidad muchos años, desde Esperanza del venado, que fue la primera para mí, antes de El juego de Ender.

Dicho esto, no se puede negar que el tipo es un genio con una enorme creatividad e imaginación, y su origen de Iron Man es una de las cimas de lo que llevo leído del Universo Ultimate, una cualidad casi alucinógena que de hecho se verían obligados a sacar de la continuidad por ser demasiado rompedora, pero ese Tony Stark con poderes debido a que su cerebro está por todo su cuerpo y puede regenerar heridas pero tiene dolor constante que le obliga a beber y... En definitiva, Card es un maestro pese a todo, y la obra merece la pena por eso. No lo hubiera comprado, por el trozo de mierda que es el autor, pero no sabía que estaba en la colección, aquí lo tenemos.

[Gabriellaa Stark · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's telling the origin story of Iron Man, a genius, billionaire, philanthropist, playboy superhero.

This book is so, so confusing. The whole blue virus thing didn't even register with me and how his mother knew about it, his limbs growing back, brain tissue all over his body, etc. So. Confusing. So many explanations just went over my head.

Also, kind of disappointing. Thought it's going to be a masterpiece, since it was written by Scott Card, but no. I liked it, but the story was at some times really confusing and it went in all kinds of ways. It had some plot holes and some what-the-hell-is-happening moments, but at least, the art was good.

[Caleb Anderson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oof. This was extortionately mediocre. Just really nothing too special here. It started off pretty strong but boy did it sink. Those last two issues were just terrible. I’m currently reading the Ultimate universe in order and boy do I hope it gets better. Obviously Ultimate Spider-Man is a masterpiece but this along with Daredevil and Elektra have been such a let down. I’m hopeful but weary as I continue.

[Oscar López Santos · Rating 3 out of 5]

Me ha interesado únicamente por el autor Orson Scott Card... Y la narración de la historia sin duda me atrapó durante mucho rato...

Sin embargo, creo que esperaba mas acción, algún enfrentamiento más épico. Se siente simplemente como esas ya conocidas historias de origen que no emocionan para nada.

Creo que sigo prefiriendo leer las historias de los 4 Fantásticos.

[B · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a . . . strange take. It was like he kind of wanted to write Ender's Game? And then kind of didn't?

And he turned Iron Man into Wolverine Bean maybe?

And he armor seems kind of unnecessary? And there's . . . a lot of Howard Stark.

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was just weird. The backstory for Tony Stark was strange. He looked like a Smurf. The whole thing was just...odd. Very unsatisfying.

[Paxton Holley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mini-series about the origins of the ultimate version of Tony Stark/Iron Man. Very good. Not as good as Ultimate Armour Wars, but still pretty good.

[Isi · Rating 1 out of 5]

El folleto de publicidad del Lidl me ha parecido más interesante que este comic

[Dony Grayman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tomo 27 del coleccionable de "El universo definitivo". Recopila las dos miniseries del Iron Man Ultimate que creo que nunca tuve en ninguna edición.

[Gabriel James Maurice Rodriguez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four stars for pure nihilism

Racist and hateful pretty much throughout. But more successful than not in many weird little ways. Not recommended. But not exactly trash, either

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

Started interestingly enough but then became about something it wasn't about. Tony Start nor the Ultimate Universe are really on show here.
If this was an Elsewords tale, set in it's OWN universe, it works as an entertaining scifi re-imaging of the character with varying qualities of art.

[Ashe Catlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

The cover is a little misleading, as Tony is never old enough to grow facial hair in this. Weird choice that they used this for the cover, he doesn't have metal limbs either.

Ultimate Iron Man, Vol. 1
This is a very good story but not really an Iron Man story, it main revolves around Howard Stark developing the perfect amour and Tony Starks birth. For what it is it's really interesting, especially the cheating and war aspect. You'd expect him to be a cut throat businessman but he's quite softly spoken and very empathic towards people. I did enjoy that he valued Tony over everything else even his business, as usually it's the other way around, I definably prefer this interpretation of him.

As for Tony it doesn't really focus on him until the last 2 issues, where he actually starts to develop as a character. He meets Rhodey, kind of what you expect him to be doing as a kid genius. Glad they left Pepper Potts out of the mix in favor of another character. The last thing this story needed was a love story crammed in, I just when they force it into small runs like this. The whole idea of building the armour was quite interesting, it's never fully developed as why Tony wants to build it. He just comes up with the idea on a fly even though he doesn't really need it.

Even though it's not really much of an Iron Man, I would say it's worth a read for any Iron Man fan.

Ultimate Iron Man, Vol. 2
Taking place briefly after the events of the first series, Tony dives more into the world of Iron Man. Taking on a mission for the government, which indirectly leads to three villains getting involved. It starts to play a who done it game with them, being that it takes place after the first, you suspect Stane. But the reveal later on is quite disappointing, the adventures that Iron and War Machine have is quite good though, the whole thing with his father being imprisoned is rather interesting as well.

Unfortunately the kind of loses way in the last 2 issues, it finally reveals who the puppet master is. It was the ex wife all along It was kind of out of the blue because throughout all of the story these three villains are built up and it just throws it away. If you've only picked up this one and not read the first, it won't have any impact whatso ever. Heck I read both together and I still found the reveal to very lack luster, if you made the series bigger instead of having two 5 issue mine series. It could have worked a lot better and cut away the fat that wasn't really needed, the whole ending isn't explained that well either, granted there was a pretty badass scene with Tony but not real pay off. So you've killed his ex wife the supposed mastermind behind the whole thing, but Howard escarped prison and you killed the person who could have confessed to the whole thing. Instead you have her boy with you, who will likely stab you in the back first chance he gets. Howard a supposed murder and a robot, who's really Tony so it's going to look a bit dodgy to say the least. Doesn't really come off as the happy ending it's implying it is.

I did quite enjoy this but the whole ending ruined the story for me, it just didn't work in the narrative. The first volume was an easy 4 star book but the second would be 2 only because of the last 2 issues otherwise it'd be a 3. It just left a sour taste in my mouth, where as the first was much more of a heartfelt and engaging story. The latter chose to focus on the action element and just chatting about nonsense. Altogether I did really enjoy reading this, definitely worth a read if you love Iron Man as it's a very interesting take on the character.

[Mei Ridorsa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Força meh, però no tan terrible com m'ho havien pintat. Funciona millor si no penses que és Iron Man. Tot i així, hi ha massa coses sense sentit:

* Ens diuen que és més intel·ligent que ningú, però els altres fan millors invents.
* No passa res quan li disparen al cervell perquè té les neurones repartides pel tot el cos, però tota l'estona està perdent i recuperant extremitats sense problema.
* El tema de l'alcoholisme s'havia d'abordar perquè va amb el personatge, però mai ho he vist pitjor portat. El seu pare li diu en una festa que no provi de beure pel tema de l'excés de neurones. A la següent vinyeta el pare ha de marxar i literalment a la mateixa vinyeta Tony agafa una copa de cava. A partir d'aquí, instaalcoholism.

Apart d'això, ja es pot veure que la història és bastant pirada. I no vull fer spoilers, però el final és digne de peli de sobretaula d'Antena 3. Què per què no és tan terrible? Perquè és la mar d'entretingut.

[Santiago L. Moreno · Rating 3 out of 5]

Una lectura entretenida que se resiente del cambio de dibujante entre los volúmenes 1 y 2. Andy Kubert es bastante mejor narrador que Pasqual Ferry, y se nota. Esta disformidad coincide, además, con que el guión es más interesante en la presentación que en el desenlace, lo cual resulta en un desequilibrio notable entre los dos volúmenes integrados en este tomo. La historia ideada por Card contiene algunos de los puntos más reconocibles por sus fans, especialmente en el tratamiento de esos niños tan inteligentes como competitivos. El problema es que siendo un tebeo de Iron Man hay poco Iron Man.

[Letizia Loi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Non so bene da dove cominciare.
Mettiamola così: sarebbe una storia fighissima, se non fosse una storia su Iron Man.
E' avvincente, il ritmo è incalzante e tiene incollato il lettore alle pagine, le tavole sono molto belle - in particolare quelle di Pasqual Ferry; adoro il suo stile - ma... MA questo non è Antonio Stark degli Ultimates. Per quanto mi riguarda non è davvero Iron Man, punto. A prescindere dall'universo in cui è ambientata. La caratteristica che ha sempre reso Iron Man speciale, per me, è che non ha superpoteri, è umano, non una persona comune, okay, ma pur sempre umano. Un genio certificato, che per una causa traumatica rivoluziona la sua vita e decide si usare tutto il suo incredibile cervello per salvare il mondo. E il Tony degli Ultimates, in particolare, era il mio preferito del team perché nonostante tutti i suoi problemi - alcolismo, cancro al cervello, fratello psicopatico, fidanzata omicida - è il più mentalmente stabile lì dentro e ha il cuore più grande del suo conto in banca (!)
La domanda sorge spontanea: Mr. Card li ha letti i fumetti ai quali doveva fare da prequel? Perché il Tony degli Ultimates non ha nessuna delle caratteristiche che lui ha dato a questo qui. Ma se anche potessi concedere che le abbia e le abbia tenute nascoste al resto del team - non si sa bene come, visto che non passano di certo inosservate! - e si sia comunque ammalato di canro, mi si pone una domanda ancora più pressante: che fine ha fatto Gregory Stark? In un volume che racconta l'infanzia di Tony e le sue prime avventure come bambino/ragazzo prodigio, ci si aspetterebbe di trovare il suo gemello (cattivo?) ancora più geniale di lui. Evidentemente Mr. Card deve essersi perso la notifica riguardante l'esistenza di un altro Stark.
Palesemente mancante è anche il sarcasmo di Tony, che è un'altra delle caratteristiche che amo di più di questo personaggio. E' triste quando vedi un giovane Obadiah Stane fargli quattro a zero in ironia e chiacchiericcio.
Il volume si legge bene, sicuramente molto bello per chi non abbia mai letto altro su Iron Man - Ultimates o Avengers che sia - ma per chiunque altro non vedo come possa non essere una enorme delusione.

[Toshi · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not a fan of this reboot of the Iron Man origins story. Many of the elements were too heavy handed and obvious, the worst of which was Tony's instant addiction to alcoholism. I get that his addiction and personality make that battle a key one to his character in many ways, but if you're overhauling the character and changing so much of who he is it felt pretty weak the way they shoe horned that element in. There was no subtlety to it either. H takes one drink then bam, he's going for it whenever he can. Alcohol addiction isn't like being hooked on heroine, it usually takes time. At least make it take a couple occasions of drinking. Even then it wouldn't just be him drinking all the time, more that he can't control how much he drinks when he does drink, then how he can't go too long without a drink. All I'm saying is there's a serious lack of development.
The super genius school kind of annoyed me as well. Tony has some kind of weird mutation that gave him extra brain cells everywhere meaning he should be waaay smarter than everyone else there but he's creating stuff that looks like it was rejected from junkyard wars while kids his age are creating stuff that looks like it came out of an Apple store. It just didn't add up.

[Sharon]

I wanted to like this book, but I just couldn't finish reading it. I had to put it down partway through issue 4 because Card's handling of black characters made me too intensely uncomfortable.

Rhodes and Stark attend the same prep school when they're young, and Rhodes gets picked on by some white teenagers for being the "Quota Boy." Yes, I understand that portraying racists is not automatically the same thing as the author being racist. But it felt excessive to me, beyond what was needed to move the story along.

Sometime after that encounter, Stark jokes around about fried chicken and watermelon and other such stereotypes. Rhodes glares at him briefly and Stark keeps grinning, then Rhodes smiles too. Nothing in their story background up to this point convinces me that Rhodes would actually be comfortable with this. If anything, I felt like the scene was there to reassure white readers who find themselves making the same kinds of jokes.

What made me finally give up is when Rhodes and a black girl told Stark in unison, "You don't know how it feels to be black!" and Stark replies flippantly, "You don't know how it feels to be blue." That line makes sense in context, but I was still worried that the rest of the script would be similarly trope-y.

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

3 stars, 4 stars... It's a fun superhero comic - don't expect too much more than that.

One thing I find really interesting about 'mainstream' superhero comics (I put 'mainstream' in quotes, as only in the world of American/UK comics can 'mainstream' mean the genre of stories about vigilantes in garish costumes) is how the backstories of long-established characters morph over time. Little small changes are thrown into the mix, some fall away, and some survive to become part of the canon.

The Ultimates universe kinda differs from that process as these stories are deliberate reinterpretations of the characters, but it is interesting to see what they keep and what they change. I _think_ that the Ultimates themselves have had a significant influence on the Marvel Films, and those in turn will influence the canonical line of Marvel comics. Probably less so with Ultimate Iron Man (particularly this volume, dealing, as it does, with Tony Stark's early life), but the comics are still a good, quick, diverting read.

[Jin · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Since I am an "Iron Man character fan", I decided to buy this book to be able to have a comparative collection of Iron Man in different realities of stories. From the Invincible series of 616 (which I'm enjoying the most), to Noir and Marvel Knights limited. Now enter... the Ultimate version. I like the armor design and concept. I kind of appreciated what they did to the plot to reinvent the character. But I was fairly disappointed with the way it went (especially in book 2). I was expecting a little more deep Sci-Fi twist from the pages of this book since this was written by Orson Scott Card himself only to realize that the story turned out to be more like a nightly "soap operas" shown in our local tv stations. With a limited budget, I am having regrets since I chose this title over the newly released Batman Arkham City (which is definitely cheaper and better). A neat collection anyway. (2.8 to be exact)"

[Labyrinth Rossiter · Rating 2 out of 5]

As a fan of Ender's Game, I'm not sure what I was expecting from Orson Scott Card. He's an SF writer. I understand that the Ultimate line is supposed to be a "reboot" or another alternate Marvel Universe, but this just...wasn't MY Iron Man. My Iron Man is a "billionaire, genius, playboy, philanthropist" in a rockin' suit. This Iron Man was also a mutant whose brain cells were spread all over his body, and he could grow back limbs like a salamander. The suit was gratuitous, and it looked like Iron Giant. I kept wondering, "When parts of him get blown off, does his IQ go down?" I mean...that's what happens when you get shot in the head, right? The story had a lot of plot holes and felt rushed. The art work looked a little too...cartoonish? It was mildly entertaining, but on the whole, I was disappointed.

[Jay · Rating 3 out of 5]

I honestly dont know what to think about this, to me it reads like a lot of little stories that dont really go anywhere.


Overall i guess I enjoyed it but i was left feeling like the whole book lacked any importance at all throughout all the things that happen in the book there is little character development and at the end they're left pretty much exactly as it started except with an iron man suit everything else seems uneccessery


I cant really comment on the artwork as Ive only read ultimate titles but it matches the style of the other comics ive read so thats good


Its not a bad choice for a different take on iron man but not at all important, if you want an origin story you can make up whatever reason you want for iron man existing and it would have the same amount of impact on the universe as a whole


Next: Ultimate Spider-man, Power and Responsibility

[Bryan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I guess I didn't know what to expect with this one. I was hoping for a good "jumping" on point for the Iron Man story, and this didn't deliver that. Part of the "Ultimates Initiative" seems to be really catering to the teenage market. And it is very evident in these 10 issues of Tony Stark. It focused a lot on his teenage years and childhood. I am much more interested in the "Man" side of "Iron Man" and his own demons with alcoholism and being a "superhero". The plot of this also felt like a very bad action movie that just meandered in the middle and had a very abrupt ending. I expected more from Orson Scott Card (loved Ender's Game) and he just doesn't seem to get, or even like, these characters. If anyone has any better Iron Man Origin Stories, or jumping on points, I'm all ears.

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ultimate Iron Man, by Orson Scott Card, is a graphic novel about wealthy businessman Howard Stark, and his son Tony. Tony is an abnormal child because he has brain tissue throughout his entire body. He becomes an abnormal child who is a genius, and meets an unexpected friend named Rhodey. In the book, Tony and Rhodey are building a special Iron Man suit at a special school, where Howard’s ex-wife’s dumb annoying son Obadiah also attends. This book is packed with action and the theme is to not meddle with things that shouldn’t be meddled with. I would give this book a four out of five, because it was interesting and action packed.

[Christopher O'brien]

Ultimate Iron Man by Orson Scott Card is a graphic novel about wealthy businessman Howard Stark, and his son Tony. Tony is an abnormal child because he has brain tissue throughout his entire body. He becomes an abnormal child who is a genius, and meets an unexpected friend named Rhodey. In the book, Tony and Rhodey are building a special Iron Man suit at school where Howard’s ex-wife’s annoying son Obadiah also attends. This book is packed with action and is very exciting!

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

Art was great, especially the first half though the second half wasn't bad. I really like Tony and his attitude. The story would have been okay, had it not been for the whole.... blue-baby-regrows-limbs-brain-all-over-body crap... Insane crazy stuff like that is why I avoided super heroes in the first place.