How Marvel's New Iron Man Armor Became A 'Darker Version' Of The Suit You Know

Contains spoilers for "Invincible Iron Man" #16 (by Gerry Duggan, Juan Friegeri, Bryan Valenza, and VC's Joe Caramagna)

Iron Man is about to get a significant armor upgrade in "Invincible Iron Man" #16 with the new, dark Mark 72 suit, and artist Pepe Larraz has explained how it came to be. 

In the current "Invincible Iron Man" ongoing series from Marvel Comics, Tony Stark and Emma Frost are working together to try to stop the villain Feilong, who took over Stark Unlimited in his mission to wipe out mutants. To stop Feilong's forces, Stark, Frost, and Iron Heart are constructing something out of Mysterium, a precious and hard-to-find metal with origins tied to the White Hot Room and Howard Stark. Mysterium represents one of their only chances to overcome Feilong and Orchis' advanced armies, and Stark is about to create a new suit made entirely from the metal.

On X (formerly Twitter), Larraz broke down how he designed Iron Man's new armor, which he initially wanted to pattern after a "high end sports car." After some revisions and suggestions from Marvel editorial, Larraz landed on the look he wanted: "We decided for the chromed version, more minimal and it looks more expensive and sophisticated. All very Tony Stark," he explained, adding, "I loved the chance of doing a darker version of the suit, applying the gold lines from the cars' design to remark the high end, exclusive custom trait of the object. It's an Iron Man armor, it's priceless."

Although Pepe Larraz initially was thinking along the lines of a sports car when he first began designing Tony Stark's new Iron Man armor, he said on X that he quickly pivoted from that idea after getting some guidance from a friend. "My first drafts were headed in that direction until my friend @davizlopez told me that it looked like a Transformer." He also discarded a black faceplate for Stark's suit, saying it veered too close to the mask worn by War Machine.

Larraz admited that he had no previous experience drawing Iron Man's armor, but wanted to hone in on the most important parts of past iterations — the chest and legs — in coming up with his Mysterium suit. He focused on finding the right shapes for Iron Man's chest, arc reactor, waist, and silhouette, carefully avoiding designs that would make the armor look like swimwear or, worse, a diaper. In the end, he embraced the dark side of the metal: "I decided to leave that part in a complete black area of articulated plates, both to solve the trouble of the waist and to create a black shape which makes easy to draw him and follow him around the page. Made sense as a reference to the darkness of the Mysterium."

There's little doubt that Iron Man's Mysterium suit will be one of his most durable and powerful ever, as the metal's advanced (and somewhat unknown) properties give the hero something new and impressive to work with. However, if Mysterium falls into the wrong hands, such as Feilong's, Iron Man could unintentionally arm him with one of the universe's most desired resources. Given Feilong's vast wealth, doing so would likely have catastrophic results for mutants. 

Additionally, Feilong or any other foe using Mysterium might gain more control over other Marvel heroes. Mysterium's anti-magic effects could weaken heroes like Doctor Strange and Scarlet Witch. Considering the magic users are some of the heaviest hitters in the Marvel Universe, accidentally making villains aware of Mysterium's existence and effectiveness against them would be a massive mistake.

Iron Man and Emma Frost want to permanently take Feilong off the map, but if he gets his hands on Mysterium, that turns a bad situation into an even worse one. Also, without significant testing on the metal, there's no telling what effects it could have on Stark while he's wearing armor made from it. On the plus side, Mysterium's value could help Stark regain his lost fortune. But for now, he'll need to worry about stopping Feilong and Orchis with the new Mysterium armor and hope it lives up to its potential.

Iron Man's Mysterium armor officially debuts in "Invincible Iron Man" #16, which will arrive in comic book stores on March 20, 2024.