When I first learned of the “.1” series of books from Marvel I was thoroughly underwhelmed.  I did not need yet another re-telling of the the origin of certain characters again.  The last one I experienced was the Superman one recently, I felt that to stretch the origin, that most people know, over a mini-series to be a bit long winded and unnecessary. But on the other hand there was this issue of Iron Man #500.1, my initial thought was “Here we go again”, but this was done so fluid and effortlessly that it wasn’t so much a retelling, but more like a look through a photo album.  Every signpost was hit, both good and bad (the teenage Stark was not a good time to be a reader). And the setting in which the story was presented re-visited an aspect of the character that has been ignored for awhile, and while not being preachy, it faced that issue squarely but the story kept moving. This story was very well crafted both story wise and the art was perfect, it wasn’t flashy and it helped moved the story along which is what I prefer in an artist.  This was well done and to me has set the bar for the remaining books in the “.1” line very high.