Review by C.J. Bunce
It’s not that Iron Man 3 was the first movie after the first big Marvel team-up Marvel’s Avengers. It’s not that it set up Robert Downey, Jr.’s Tony Stark to lead the Avengers for the next five films. And it’s not that it delivered Sir Ben Kingsley as the Mandarin who we’d later learn really wasn’t the Mandarin. What Iron Man 3 did most notably was showcase the costume and propmakers, and the concept artists behind them, who made all those fantastic versions of Iron Man armor. More than 50 versions of armor developed for Iron Man, War Machine, and all those drones can be found in The Art of Marvel Studios’ Iron Man 3, the sixth book in Titan Books’ library of behind the scenes books, revisiting the editions first released just after each film in one collection.
It’s available for pre-order now here at Amazon, coming to bookstores and comic shops August 27, 2024. Take a look inside the book with images from the publisher below.
If you were lucky enough to be at San Diego Comic-Con when they showcased the Iron Man costumes in person, you could see first hand how solid, authentic–how real–they appeared. The very idea of putting Tony Stark’s collection of every edition, from Mark I to Mark LX and beyond, in a room in his mansion was brilliant, the kind of eye candy comic books fans have dreamed about for nearly an entire century. Putting them out front at a convention was just perfect. Iron Man 3 leaned into the power of the variant suits visually.
Written by Marie Javins and Stuart Moore, The Art of Marvel Studios’ Iron Man 3 takes readers through director Shane Black’s journey in putting the film together, relying on comic book-inspired concept artwork developed in the past films, while finishing Iron Man’s trilogy of movies focusing on Stark and his path as a character. Like past editions reviewed here at borg, this volume includes concept artwork as its major content, but it also features some storyboards, behind-the-scenes photographs, and production stills. But the best parts explore all those designs of the Iron Man suits.
It also includes, interviews with production designer Bill Brzeski, costume designer Louise Frogley, director of photography John Toll, visual development supervisor Ryan Meinerding,visual effects supervisor Christopher Townsend, and several concept artists who contributed to the production.
The Art of Marvel Studios’ Iron Man 3 is the sixth of 24 books in its re-sized, re-issued MCU library coming from Titan Books (check out our review of Captain America: The First Avenger–The Art of the Movie, earlier here at borg and our review of The Art of Marvel Studios’ The Avengers here). A great feature of the series is how each book doesn’t just re-hash the same information for each film, instead digging into what makes the movie unique in the Marvel catalogue.
Fans of the film and the Infinity Saga will not want to miss The Art of Marvel Studios’ Iron Man 3, available for pre-order now here at Amazon and coming to bookstores and comic shops August 27, 2024.
