Iron Man becomes Prison Man in October Marvel Darkhold special
The Darkhold is going to turn Tony Stark into a 'Prison Man' in October's The Darkhold: Iron Man #1, one of five one-shots serving as the middle portion of The Darkhold event that begins with an Alpha bookend one-shot in September and concludes with an Omega bookend one-shot later in 2021.
The Iron Man one-shot, which Marvel calls "the body-horror tale of the century," will be written by Ryan North, the usually more comedic writer of The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl and Dinosaur Comics.
"Ryan North turns his talents to a brand-new genre!" reads Marvel's description of Darkhold: Iron Man #1. "Called forth to face the dread god Chthon, Iron Man reads from the ancient ill-fated text the Darkhold…and it changes the course of his entire life. The armor that has saved him countless times is about to become a prison — one whose only escape is a fate worse than death."
Yikes!
The one-shot is illustrated by Guillermo Sanna with a cover by Valerio Giangiordano (seen in full right here).
For North, the chance to write Tony Stark, even one as seemingly messed up like this one, was too good to pass up.
Basically, North hearts Iron Man.
"Tony Stark is one of my all-time favorite Marvel characters: brilliant, charismatic, and a total jerk sometimes," North says. "It's a hard mix to pull off but Tony does it really well. What got me so excited about Darkhold was the chance it offered to really spend time with Tony, and then see what might happen to him if he took a small step sideways into a slightly different genre. I'm sorry, Tony. I love you, Tony."
Now that's a man in touch with his feelings.
Iron Man is again one of five one-shots in October starring characters who will read from the Darkhold, and if the Iron Man edition is any indication, really really go through some things.
The other characters that will get one-shots are the Wasp, Black Bolt, Spider-Man, and Blade.
Peter Parker is either dying in the early fall or getting so gravely injured he won't continue as Spider-Man and will be replaced by Ben Reilly (or Ben Reillys), so Darkhold, do your worst.
But given Wasp's powers is based on an insect (and she kinda/sorta was an insect at one time, but we don't like to talk about that anymore) and her past with Henry Pym, the fact that if Black Bolt speaks he can blow @#$% up, and that Blade is a half-vampire, Marvel writers can probably think of some messed up stuff to torture them with.
Of course, the overarching storyline by Steve Orlando and Cian Tormey finds Doctor Doom and Wanda Maximoff, AKA the Scarlet Witch going head-to-head to gain possession of the Darkhold.
The five heroes in the one-shots try to help Wanda while Doom has the Elder god (and the Darkhold's original author) Chthon on his side.
Doom is a newlywed and Wanda is unfortunately dead (murdered in the X-books recently), but Marvel recently confirmed the Darkhold event - which was originally slated to be published in 2020 before the pandemic did a number on Marvel's schedule - takes place prior to these more recent events in whatever is left of post-COVID-continuity.
Look for more information about the other Darkhold character one-shots and Omega when it becomes available.
North's affection for Tony may give him a leg-up on making Newsarama's list of the best Iron Man stories of all time.
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