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Jon Favreau, the genius behind the hit Iron Man movie, takes another look at the character in Iron Man: Viva Las Vegas 1. Set in the Marvel Knights universe, it's not part of the current Marvel storylines which allows Favreau to take Tony Stark back to his roots. He's a womanizer, a joker, and more importantly, not the leader of the free world's security force, S.H.I.E.L.D. We're able to see the true Tony Stark in action, and that's a great thing.
The issue first starts with a mysterious statue found deep inside Chinese ruins. A woman decides to buy it for her employer. We later find out that the employer is Tony Stark, who installs the statue in his Las Vegas casino. The story shifts to Stark who is on a Stark Airlines jet over Paris attempting hit on the woman seated next to him. A terrorist makes the mistake of attempting to hijack the airliner, prompting Tony to don the Iron Man armor. After taking the fight outside and dealing with the terrorist, Iron Man returns to the plane only to be booed by the French citizens who call Iron Man a brute. Stark declares that he needs a vacation, and he's off to his casino in Vegas. It's a funny juxtaposition and awesome swipe at the French, but it also shows the imagination of Jon Favreau and gives a taste of what his Iron Movie offered.
The art is supplied by Adi Granov, the man responsible to designing the armor for the movie and Iron Man cover artist extrordanaire. While his art is sleek and very realistic and he has done interior art in the past, it's very clear that his art lacks a certain energy. While by no means bad, and of course the armor looks as good as it's ever going to get, it's still somewhat flat and lifeless. The people often look as robotic as Iron Man's armor.
On the whole, it's a fun read and there's some neat stuff going in here. The $3.99 cover price is a bit higher than your average comic these days, but it is printed on high quality paper and wrapped in a nice cardstock cover. It's only a 4 issue series, so if you aren't sure you want to buy into an Iron Man epic right now, this bite-sized series should be perfect for you.