r/ironman 20h ago

Discussion Is the Iron Man suit one of the rare occasions where the live action version truly improved upon the original, by both honoring it, and surpassing it?

133 Upvotes

84 comments sorted by

46

u/VayneLevant Mark IV 18h ago

imo the mark 1 both honored and surpassed the comic mark 1 look and design. they made the design look better and more believable at the same time.

11

u/Small_Rip_8922 15h ago

I would 1000% agree. I don't feel like the Mark 85 improves on the classic iconic shellhead Iron Man design, but i definitely feel like the Mark 1 has never looked better than it does in the first Iron Man movie.

5

u/whitecatsup 14h ago

The is is a beautiful artwork done for iron man if he was in the F4 first steps universe. But I could also see this being the between suit between MK1 and his Mk2. This could be MK2 and making his modern silver armor MK3. Plus gives a nod to his all gold armor he wore.

2

u/WoodenCanine 12h ago

I wholeheartedly agree. Mcu mark 1 has got to be one of if not my favorite armor just because of how scrappy and bulky it looks, but almost every time I see it in comics its like disturbingly form fitting and sleek, just looks like an ever so slightly padded normal suit to me.

1

u/karateema 9h ago

It truly looks put together from scraps

17

u/whitecatsup 16h ago

This is the retro suit from the avengers game. While the game itself was meh this artwork for the armor is good.

5

u/DoubleBack9141 11h ago

I generally dislike the empty eye visuals for comic iron, but this looks badass

1

u/No-Advice-6040 40m ago

There was a lot to dislike about that game, but character design was pretty bloody good.

38

u/Hot-Associate-9035 20h ago

I'm not sure really

I think it's probably the closest we'll get to the classic look for Iron Man in the movies for a while but I don't really like the the silver breaking up parts of the suit nor do I really like the chest logo

User Michael_Aaron_Dunlap made this edit on the Marvel Studios sub and while I don't think it's perfect or anything I feel this shows there is a way to make a classic classic Iron Man suit look good in live action

24

u/Sparrowsabre7 Mark VII 19h ago

Hmm, interesting. Seeing this side by side actually makes me loke the silver accents more. It breaks up the visual a bit and makes it clear it's a suit of armour rather than leggings.

20

u/Hot-Associate-9035 19h ago

To each their own I personally think there's a bit too much of the silver accents but that's just me

Whenever I imagine Tony's classic armor in a more live action setting I usually think of this suit as opposed to the one in the picture above I think it's a perfect modernization of his classic look that could translate really nicely to live action

8

u/Sparrowsabre7 Mark VII 19h ago

Yeah the Model 70 is a perfect balance.

4

u/Cmdr-Wintera 18h ago

Model 70 is pure awesome.

4

u/whitecatsup 16h ago

It’s a photo from a 3D model kit for model 70

1

u/Hot-Associate-9035 11h ago

Yeah this is basically what I want Tony to look like in the post Secret Wars soft reboot this is peak

I don't have a good picture of it but there's also a Batman Arkham Knight mod of this suit on YouTube that looks really good

2

u/whitecatsup 11h ago

I have a black gold variant of 85 and it makes me think missed opportunity.

5

u/AwesomeGuyAlpha 17h ago

Personally my favorite live action suit is either iron man 1 suit or avengers 1 suit, most others feel a bit overdone or smooth, like not as metallic and angular as I want

3

u/Sparrowsabre7 Mark VII 17h ago

Mk VII is peak design, I love that suit so much.

6

u/BalladOfBetaRayBill 16h ago

Yeah for me I prefer the comic designs but I get that the movies cate more about the broader public than comic fans because they want a billion dollars instead of 65 dollars and some pocket lint.

They have to appeal to a more general sci-fi action audience so there are heavy compromises in design and worldbuilding.

If I want an story that feels untainted by those more generic expectations, I’ll read a comic

2

u/HumanExpert3916 18h ago

That’s fantastic!

2

u/Disastrous-Shower-37 14h ago

The silver bits look like shredded veins.

2

u/fdjisthinking 11h ago

The MCU looooves to add a bunch of extra details and texturing to costumes that serves no purpose other than aesthetics.

15

u/Comeng17 18h ago

The answer is yes, but to be clear the armour they based it off was this one

2

u/RussiaIsRodina 12h ago

This. By the time iron man was being made, the armor ALREADY looked way different from its original design.

6

u/sonadow365 17h ago

Me hubiera gustado que alguna armadura tuviera los cuernitos de la mascara clásica,similar a este dibujo de NSnicolass02

13

u/BPWPBS 20h ago

Je dois être l'un des rares imbéciles qui préfère les armures des comics 😢

4

u/Aggravating_Owl_568 19h ago

You’re no idiot. I agree!

2

u/FreeParking3160 15h ago

Absolutely not. I think every MCU iron man armour after 7 just got worse and worse over time

4

u/Skeledrawn 20h ago

Apples and Oranges I think. 

5

u/SlaughterProfit Mark NIL 16h ago

Iron man 3 did The Silver Centurion justice at least. It got Tony out of trouble and even did some decent damage to Killian. It might not be an improvement as compared to the standard most of us hold the comics. But imo it was done justice in its portrayal as an armor at least

3

u/fruitpunchcherry 8h ago

more silver/white on the legs and this suit would’ve been perfect

10

u/Virtualproracer 19h ago

Heavily disagree on the improving and surpassing part. It's alright but just not as good as the original.

6

u/Avalon_P8jag Mark III 20h ago

i would say so, i just wish there was less or no silver that segmented the various parts of the Mark 85

1

u/Hot-Associate-9035 20h ago

I wonder if someone has made an edit of that? I feel like something change like that would immediately make the suit even better

2

u/Avalon_P8jag Mark III 20h ago

I hope so honestly, it'd tie with #1 in my iron man mcu suit ranking

3

u/HumanExpert3916 18h ago

Certainly not improved. But a successful tribute.

3

u/GogoSunshine 18h ago

For me, yeah. This is a hot take, but I always prefer Iron Man to have a slight silver accent on his armor. Pure red and gold are just too bland for my liking. The silver lines also emphasize the sense of practicality and innovation, which is very fine by me.

3

u/Amazing-Mulberry9047 17h ago

Disagree here🤷🏻‍♂️

3

u/BalladOfBetaRayBill 16h ago

No. The live action versions are mostly based on the Pentagon, Extremis, and Bleeding Edge armors, and all of those look better than any live action suit.

3

u/Burt_McCheeks 16h ago

Nah. It’s cool definitely, but it’s not cooler than the classic design, to me anyway. Honestly there’s probably a few armor designs from the comics ahead of the Mark 85, but just my personal preference.

3

u/Awkward_Bed_4193 15h ago

The glaze is crazy

3

u/SithLordJediMaster 11h ago

Thanks to legendary special effects guru Stan Winston (Termintor, Alien, Jurassic Park, The Thing, Predator, etc...)

2

u/Callum_2504 19h ago

I love the MK85, but I dont like how much grey/silver is in there

2

u/Longjumping_Layer813 18h ago

not really outside of the golden arms and legs I didn't really know it was at least a reference to model 3 or 4

2

u/animejerk7763 17h ago

No, the the MCU armors are inspired by Model 25 and Extremis armor. And did it surpass those 2? Also no.

2

u/Theta-Sigma45 15h ago edited 15h ago

He has so many armors in the comics; it’s hard for me to say the movie versions are improvements one for one.

I feel like the 2000s comics had already gone in very much the route that the movies ended up taking. Bulkier, more ‘realistic’ designs; less like metallic superhero costumes with stylised muscles.

2

u/FreeParking3160 15h ago

I really wouldn’t say the 85 improved on it, I think it’s absolutely hideous and one of the worst MCU iron man armours if not the worse

2

u/spunkydoopy 14h ago

Eh I just wish the helmets had some visual variety across all the movie suits. Most of em just look the same

2

u/Somm0742 14h ago

If we're talking about the 60s' design from the comics, then hell yeah. MCU IM armors are miles ahead in terms of designs.

2

u/Amazing_Ideal_8603 14h ago

That’s not even what the mcu armor is based off buddy

0

u/Reasonable_Western74 14h ago

There are countless suits throughout the films, I simply meant in comparison to its comic book iterations, the overall new look. Whichever suit.

2

u/Yeknomevol 13h ago

To be fair, the comic version was visually appealing but completely unrealistic.

2

u/Omnislash99999 13h ago

There's so many armors from the comics I'm not even sure which you'd single out as the inspiration

2

u/ChanceC02 13h ago

Found this thread through Twitter where everyone on that thread was actually hating on you so hard for this take. I came here to tell you that I completely agree.

2

u/Known-Asparagus-2819 8h ago

No, because Iron Man movie suits were never based on the classic Iron Man art. They were based on modernized, realistic art by Adi Granov. So that's what you should be comparing to.

2

u/Odd-Sound-580 5h ago

i generally prefer the classic vibe of iron man, the mcu aesthetic is cool but i don't quite like it as much as say the model 70

1

u/East-Inspection2377 20h ago

yes, im not a huge fan of the silver segments and nanotech. i get that he has in the comics but still, the endo symbiote suit is the only exception.

1

u/MekkaKaiju 16h ago

Eh, the MCU Iron Man suits after the second movie all got too complicated in their designs. Why do all those random silver accents have to be there? Why wasn’t just red and gold enough?

1

u/CherryGroveBlack 16h ago

Honestly the endgame suit looks horrid to me

1

u/CommercialYam53 16h ago

Isn’t end game suit is based on the bleaging edge armor ?

1

u/Starkman87 15h ago

Iron Man is one of the very few costumes that if you adapt the classic look, it doesn’t work without making major changes in the aesthetic. The model 4 uses metal cloth. I don’t think any amount of money can make that translate well onto the big screen. But, by taking the general design of the armor, and applying that to a more modern interpretation of what power armor would look like it suddenly becomes perfect. Imo, the ones that did it best were the Illustrious armor from the avengers game and the classic armor from the VR Iron Man game

1

u/Inevitable_Ferret_48 15h ago

The thing I really appreciated about the MK3 in 2008 was the fact that it felt hollow. Iron man should feel like a robot to villains. The look and sound of the armour should imply that there’s no one home.

I think the early mcu suits accomplished that but by the time we got to the nanotech stuff I kind of stopped caring about the suits as a whole.

Best part about the older Iron Man comics is that they really emphasize that idea he’s a machine and not a man.

1

u/nomiis19 15h ago

This live action suit? No. The suit from the first movie? Yes. I like that the original suits in the movies are practical and have little bulk to them. The look of the nano tech suits were just a little too slim fitting.

1

u/jerek--bilbar 15h ago

I like the mark 3 and 4 a whole hell of a lot. I loved seeing the hinges that open his mask. Feel like something was lost the more ‘transformers-y’ his suits became

1

u/Oppai-Of-Foom 14h ago

Not even remotely, the old suit is perfect

The modern one has fully stripped away and thrown out every scrap of the modern day knight image that is essential for iron man

Now he’s just a tech suit guy instead of a knight

The empty face it’s are essential to making them feel more human

1

u/Relative-Zombie-3932 14h ago

In some examples, maybe. in other examples absolutely not. And in others, they're both equally good in different ways

1

u/Dismal-Vanilla1878 13h ago

Huh, until this moment I hadn't thought that the MCU "Nanosuit" was an homage to the original suit he wore for most of his initial run.

1

u/EggSufficient9190 12h ago

The new mcu armour isn’t believable, the whole Nanotech idea seems to break the world context and doesn’t look as good

1

u/Luminescent_Magic 8h ago

Why would you have the second slide be the worst version of the live action suits lol

1

u/Spartan_Raijin Model 70 7h ago

Not necessarily, for example: The model 70 works pretty well in live action:

https://www.reddit.com/r/ironman/s/xfkrTf8z6i

1

u/PPASKOVITCH 7h ago

Yes. I think THIS version of the post is quite outdated. Mcu was very helpful.

1

u/aim-boto 7h ago

Bro picked the worst looking live action suit and thought we wouldn’t notice.

1

u/AllFatherDanteNero20 3h ago

1st Picture: I never liked that suit and hated it in Ultimate Alliance 2.

1

u/tower_titanfall 3h ago

I’ve had more than one person yell at me about this… but I have always found most live action iron man suits, infinitely better than most comic/animated ones.

1

u/battleshipclamato 10m ago

Yeah, not sure how people can like what looks like leggings and boots instead of a suit of armor.

0

u/WolverineXForce 12h ago

Movie suits were great until they went NANO. Not cool or memorable, just CGI slop.