This is an Iron Man novel penned by a very famous children's author - and I bet you've never even heard about it before!...
...for a good reason, actually.
I read Eoin Colfer's "Artemis Fowl" and a couple of its sequels a few years ago and fell in love with them. They were fun, creative, funny, and pretty much hit the right spot for me, even with their occasional bathroom humor and such.
Later, I fell in love with the Marvel movies (so many of us have...) and Iron Man was among my favorites - despite Iron Man 2, also known as "fuck, did you really have Tony Stark pee in his suit?"
So, naturally, when I came across "The Gauntlet" in a bookstore, I was surprised. I mean, I haven't been keeping up with Eoin Colfer's work, but you'd think I'd have heard about THIS. I grabbed it, took it home, and a few months later I got around to it, only to be disappointed.
I mean, not as disappointed as when I tried reading the Assassin's Creed books by Oliver Bowden, but still. I'd never heard of Oliver Bowden before, but I knew enough of Colfer to expect more.
"The Gauntlet" reads like a comic book - but not one written by Neil Gaiman, Frank Miller, or any of the greats. It has a decent-ish plot, a lot of pow-bang-boom, some humor (a few jokes feel a bit forced) and little characterization.
I can only assume the story is meant to fit either in the comics universe somewhere, or in that hazy place where comics universes tend to resign, where we know the elements and we can combine the blocks in all sorts of ways, without bothering to tell a single, coherent story.
Tony Stark is off to attend a party, and then an environmental convention on the next day, so he's flying his suit to Ireland. Little does he know that his suit's been hacked and that he's about to be delivered into the hands of his enemy, the Mandarin - who is actually himself in this one, not an actor hired by some other guy who is the REAL bad guy.
The Mandarin is the head of an assassination squad of sorts, and he's been hired to kill the people at the environmental convention in order to further the plan of the eeeeevil unknown people who want to make money at the expense of the planet (or just kill people they dislike). And what he wants to do is frame Iron Man for it. So he needs the suit.
Shenanigans ensue, complete with escapes, running about, lots of fighting, and the good guys winning in the end, but nothing that's likely to blow too many people's minds.