The Marvel Cinematic Universe is perhaps one of the most ambitious cinematic landscapes to have ever been attempted. Currently sitting at 33 films, and 21 television shows, it’s one of the largest interconnected universes to be put to the screen, and whilst it pales in comparison to its comic book counterpart, you can’t deny that it’s impressive. It’s sometimes hard to remember how it all began, with Iron Man, a film that ended up being better than it had any right to be, that shocked viewers when at the end a super spy appeared on screen, talking about the Avengers. No one expected what would come next, and the MCU has grown beyond that humble beginning in many surprising ways.
Marvel Studios’ The Infinity Saga series is a new, twenty four volume set of large sized art books that aim to take a look at each of the films in the first three phases of the MCU, showing that progression from design stage to what we got to see on the big screen. And, much like the series that it’s chronicling, it begins with Iron Man.
The new book is split across several chapters, each of which covers a different aspect of the films designs. After an opening chapter that gives a brief introduction to the character and his comic book origins we enter one of the most important chapters of the book, something that in many ways the entire film rests upon: Iron Man’s armour. It’s easy now to think of the design from the film whenever you think about Iron Man, but at the time there wasn’t really a definitive, iconic look to the character that would work well on screen, and most of his more well known looks were a little too goofy to make the leap to the big screen.
The designs for the suits in this chapter show a long process, one where the art team seem to be trying a little bit of everything in order to land on that perfect look. Some of the suit designs are very realistic, almost to the point of being too real world to be believable (after all, without a little bit of fantasy included it just doesn’t work). There are a couple of designs that show a much more comic accurate look, and there’s one in particular that draws its look from the classic ‘turtleneck’ suit that I’d have loved to see on the screen. In the end, the designs drew a fair bit of influence from the then recently made Iron Man: Extremis comic, and the artist from that book, Adi Granov, contributes several pieces of art to this book. The evolution of the suit designs is sure to be a big draw to this book, and those picking it up to see the various designs and alternate suits won’t go away disappointed.
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But the book doesn’t just limit itself to showing designs, as we also get to see some behind the scenes making of the actual suit used on screen itself. Whilst later entries into the MCU would forgo any kind of practical suits for the character, this film did use them, and we get to see how the Mark I armour was constructed, including models and the on-screen suit, as well as tiny details that most people would miss when watching the film, such as the mechanical components on the inside of the mask. It’s great that the book includes these parts too, as a lot of art books forget this stage of filmmaking, and seem to not include practically built art.
The rest of the book focuses on the other aspects of the film; everything from the Ten Rings tunnel system where Tony Stark is held, to Tony’s home. Every part of the film that further builds the world, that creates the foundation for the MCU, is shown here. There are tiny things, such as the holographic keyboards and fancy computers that Tony has in his home that are small, background details in this film that viewers might not think twice about, but would go on to shape the way the entire world is created. The computers are a prime example of this, as without them being all over Tony’s home, would the tech on the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier in Avengers look the way it does? Whilst the designs in this part of the book might not be as exciting as the flashy super hero suit, they may actually be the more important ones for the design of the entire universe spawned from this film.
Marvel Studios’ The Infinity Saga – Iron Man: The Art of the Movie is an impressive book. After you get over the sheer size of the thing you find that it’s packed full of stuff that goes a lot deeper into the design and production of the film than you’d first expect. With this being the first of many volumes it sets an impressive precedent for quality to come, and it’s a book that any Marvel fan would be foolish to miss out on.
Marvel Studios’ The Infinity Saga – Iron Man: The Art of the Movie is out now from Titan Books.
