SDCC 2012: Nathan Edmondson Introduces Ultimate Mandarin in New ULTIMATE COMICS IRON MAN Series

Cover to Ultimate Comics Iron Man #1 (of 4)

Although it’s no Stark Expo, this year’s Comic-Con International: San Diego has it’s share of Tony Stark-related material now that news is out that Marvel’s giving the character’s Ultimate iteration his own new miniseries. Scheduled to launch this October, Ultimate Comics Iron Man is a four-issue series wherein we finally see the ultimate face-off between Stark and his biggest arch-nemesis, the Mandarin.

As announced just now in the “Marvel: Ultimate Comics” panel, this four-issue series is reportedly subtitled “Demon In The Armor,” wittingly referencing the classic 616 Iron Man storyarc “Demon In A Bottle”; somehow I doubt this series will see Tony drunk on engine oil instead of alcohol. The series will instead delve into the real motivations on why Tony Stark wanted to become a super hero and how the Mandarin plays into that. To date, the Mandarin has only appeared once in the Ultimate universe, in an all-too-brief flashback inside last year’s Ultimate Avengers vs. New Ultimates.

Writer Nathan Edmondson has been on a winning streak on the independent scene since his debut, notching successes with books like Olympus, The Light and Who is Jake Ellis?. While Edmondson’s first stab at work-for-hire, DC’s Grifter, was short-lived, it’s no surprise he’s popping up at Marvel. In addition to Ultimate Comics Iron Man, he’s also doing an issue of Untold Tales of Punisher MAX while also balancing his two creator-owned projects at Image, Dancer and The Activity.

Edmondson is joined on this four-issue series by Matteo Buffagni, who has been used as a fill-in artist by Marvel on series like X-23, Daken: Dark Wolverine and Captain America & Hawkeye. This new series could be framed well as part of the “changing of the guard” in the Ultimate universe, with the Bendis/Hickman/Spencer triumvirate of writers ceding to Bendis, Wood, Humphries and Edmondson. And I’m not complaining.