Iron Man: Crash

by Mike Saenz, Archie Goodwin (Editor)

The first computer generated graphic novel.

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

72 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1988

Reviews

[Gianfranco Mancini · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

The Good
The story: an old Tony Stark retired from his Iron Man career, using a drug keeping him young but dulling his emotions, reminds a lot Frank Miller's Dark Knight.
The setting: it is cyberpunk at its best. Iron Man 2 robotic armor gaining sentience inspired a lot Joe Quesada's golden avenger run.
Bill Sienkiewicz's S.H.I.E.L.D logo from Elektra Assassin was a very nice touch too.

The Bad
This was the first computer generated graphic novel ever: DOS, 1988.
It not aged well at all.

The Ugly
Instead of his trademark repulsor rays and gadgets Tony uses a huge gun...WTF???
The future Iron Man armor design is the same of 80s... Really???
Sometimes the techno talk is almost unreadble... *GROAN*

VOTE:3,5. For die-hard Iron Man fans and Cyberpunk lovers.

[Tony Calder · Rating 3 out of 5]

Significant for being the first computer-generated graphic novel, but, not surprisingly, it hasn't aged well. Computer graphics of the time (1988) were not capable of creating the level of art that a good comic artist could. Both are a series of still drawings on a page, but a good comics artist is capable of instilling a sense of motion and dynamism that just isn't there with the CG of the day.

Story-wise, it is far more of a cyberpunk story than a superhero story. Set in the distant future (for the time of writing) of the latter years of the second decade of the 21st century, it is a story of corporations at war with each other, of industrial espionage rather than world domination - there are no supervillains, only corporate warriors with biochips implanted in their skulls.

Also, this is not the Iron Man that would be familiar to comics readers of the time - gone are his repulsor beams, replaced by a kinetic energy rail gun, gone too, are most of the tech gadgets that Tony had built into the armour. And way too much technobabble.

Interesting as a piece of comics history, but not much else.

[Jefferson · Rating 1 out of 5]

An early experiment in using computer-generated art for comics -- unfortunately it utterly fails on every level. The artwork is anemic at best, alternating between crudely drawn figures floating in bland gradient backgrounds and blurry 3D models, and the story is an incomprehensible flood of meaningless technobabble. It's a huge disappointment after Shatter, the writer/artist's much more entertaining earlier work.

[catechism · Rating 4 out of 5]

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHA. Okay. This is the world's first computer-generated graphic novel, and the pages at the end about how it was made are really interesting. There are screenshots of the 1988 Mac OS! Ah, memories. That said, obviously you pretty much have to ignore the art, or at least your expectations need to be pretty firmly set with "1988 computer graphics." Which gets us to the story.

Allow me to repeat myself: AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHA.

This has all my very favorite Tony plotlines! A sentient suit THAT WRITES HIM LETTERS. I would like the collected letters of the Iron Man suit, please and thank you. Also, Tony is like 70 and has had a stroke but keeps himself young with the help of shooting some addictive youth-keeping drug, but that drug also dulls his feeeeeeeelings. I can't even, you guys. I can't even.

[to'c · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite an interesting book on many levels. I definitely enjoyed seeing the "future" Tony Stark, future being 2015. Comic book heroes never age (else what would become of their series?) yet always live in the modern age. Seeing 1988's vision of the modern age *and* an aging Stark is priceless. Good thing we have multiple universes!

The graphics have, of course, not aged well. But curiously enough most of them are still quite striking. A comic produced today with some of these techniques would be praised for it's style.

And I absolutely loved the technobabble! Technobabble is difficult to pull off and Saenz did a masterful job. I almost caught myself wondering if some of it didn't actually make sense...

Oh yeah, good story too.

[Matt Piechocinski · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this book was creepy in the vein of Neuromancer, because it was presaging stuff that didn't happen until 20 years later ... not so much the story, but the art and the production.

The story, on the other hand, is also great! It's probably my favorite of the the Marvel OGN series.

[Sineala · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is a full-length original graphic novel from 1988 that bills itself as "the first computer-generated graphic novel" by Mike Saenz, who is best known for creating the 1986 erotic computer game MacPlaymate, which I have to say is a hell of a resume. I would actually recommend reading this book by skipping to the end, where Mr. Saenz explains his creative vision as well as his artistic process. That will (sort of) prepare you for what this is going to look like.

I think the most charitable thing I can say about this book is that the technology just doesn't seem to have been capable of delivering on his artistic vision, unless somehow this was actually what he wanted, because oh my God it's... not good. I think having a human letterer letter this would really have helped, for starters. Or at least if a human had asked themselves, "Is this a good font choice?"

But the plot, you ask? Is the plot good? Well... no.

Here on Earth-97082, an older Tony Stark has decided to sell off some of his inventions. But somehow his armor is also stolen? Maybe by the people he's selling it to? In which case I'm not sure it's stealing? And there's weird and gratuitous racism because Nick Fury doesn't want him selling his armor to a Japanese company. Also there are sexy women. Of course there are. Then Tony fights a bunch of armor copies along with -- you guessed it -- another one of his armors that has acquired sentience. So I guess if you like Sentient Armor stories, this one's another one. I guess the actual Sentient Armor arc was years in the future but this goes with the Silver Age stories about Tony's LMD problems.

Mostly I just read this and stared at all the weird sound effects.

But the thing is... I think it's still not as bad as The Crossing.

[Rick Ray · Rating 2 out of 5]

The main claim to fame here is that Iron Man: Crash is the first computer generated graphic novel, and it is unsurprisingly a pretty ugly looking comic decades later. And while it does drag for significant portions of the book, there were moments that made for a surprisingly entertaining read. There is a bit of a "cyberpunk" edge to this story, along with some The Dark Knight Returns aspects to it. Tony Stark, aging out of his role as Iron Man, takes pharmaceutical products to keep himself youthful though aloof. He plans to sell his armor and technology to a Japanese competitor to the chagrin of Nick Fury and SHIELD. There is a LOT of nonsense "technobabble" happening here, but the sci-fi edge to the story is pretty entertaining. The sentient armor plot was kind of fun as was the part where Iron Man just straight up uses a gun.

A lot of Iron Man: Crash is pretty dry reading with some awful looking artwork, but if you lean into the nonsensical plot stuff you might actually have a good time with this one.

[Andreas Acevedo Dunlop Strom · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very very boring. Even the climactic battle is full of numbing technobabble. Not very impressed with the art either. A landmark comic they say, but only because it was computer generated. It shows, there is no soul to this at all.

[Daniel · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's historically interesting in being the first computer generated graphic novel. But the graphics (predictably) look terrible today. The story's also odd, set in the future, a kind of Dark Knight Returns but with Iron Man. All adds up to just OK.

[Rob S. · Rating 1 out of 5]

Computer generated. Not sure what's meant by that but I assume it means Saenz drew everything in whatever drawing software was available in 1988. Interesting idea and it showed Marvel had some sense of what was to come. But none of this isn't very good.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

This comic (graphic novel) is generally regarded as “not very good,” and that's true. It’s of it's time. The art is rushed, chaotic, uneven, and not great. That said, this probably got me into computing.

[Reyel2107 · Rating 3 out of 5]

not so bad for the 80´s !!!!!

[George · Rating 3 out of 5]

For my full review check https://www.comicsbeat.com/the-marvel...

[Aidan Sullivan]

One of the weirder comics I've ever read, with charmingly crappy art and boilerplate cyberpunk storyline with a lot of genre hallmarks: cyborgs, future drugs, corporate conspiracy, the works.

[Andrei · Rating 1 out of 5]

1.5 stars

This book was almost unreadable. Not because of the CG art, which obviously hasn't aged well. As a matter of fact, that was actually interesting to look at. However, the writing style was atrocious for me. First, he book is filled with technobabble about how the Iron Man suit works or what it does at a certain moment - and this is not there to explain the science; no, it's just there for the sake of being there. Second, the story itself has a decent premise, but the way in which the plot advances is muddy and eventually it turned confusing for me. In the end, I barely understood what happened and why, and made for a stale and pointless read.

[Gonzalo Oyanedel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Siglo XXI: A sus 74 años y tras las guerras informáticas que asolaron el ciberespacio, Anthony Stark se recluye en su torre a vigilar cómo crecen sus negocios. Hace mucho que ya no es Iron Man, refugiándose en una droga que le mantiene joven al costo de mermar sus emociones. Por eso, la decisión de vender tecnología a un consorcio rival japonés despierta el recelo de S.H.I.E.L.D., donde temen las consecuencias de que su legendaria armadura comience a producirse en serie; tras revelarse cierto tráfico de datos y una nueva guerra tecnológica desde Japón, Stark prepara una brutal represalia enfrentado a sus propias creaciones.

Publicada en 1988 bajo el sello Epic, Iron Man: Crash suscitó inmediatas discrepancias que van desde su violento guión - muy sintonizado a la corriente cyberpunk - hasta la validez de usar técnicas digitales en el cómic. Cruda y pixelada para los estándares actuales, detenta en cambio el ser la primera novela gráfica realizada íntegramente por computador, anticipando las técnicas digitales que años más tarde inundaron la industria del cómic. Difícilmente recomendable al lector casual; fascinante para el estudioso y el nostálgico.

[Indah Threez Lestari · Rating 2 out of 5]

Umm...

Tahun 1988 komik computer generated ini mungkin kelihatan canggih. Tapi sekarang rasanya jadul banget. Teknologi digitalnya antik, tapi lumayan ada handphone yang bisa video-call dengan nama WALKPHONE. Itu canggihlah, untuk dua puluh lima tahun lalu.

Memang begini ya kalau baca komik lama yang temanya bertumpu pada teknologi canggih pada zamannya, yang dengan berlalunya waktu jadi ketinggalan zaman. Kisah origin Iron Man tahun 60-an saja teknologi andalan Stark Industries masih teknologi transistor.