Welcome to the brand spankin' new Advanced Iron

Here at A.I. we're super excited about everything Iron Man and this is a great time to be a fan! Whether you like Tony Stark or not, over the last year or so he (and his armored alter-ego Iron Man) has come back from the depths of relative obscurity in the Marvel Universe to a position at the leading edge of what's new, pivotal and exciting at Marvel Comics.

Over the course of recent years, Iron Man has been depowered, easily beaten and marginalized... but all of that came to an end with the Civil War saga and no doubt will continue with the upcoming World War Hulk storyline. The founder of the Illuminati and the architect of the 50 State Initiative, Tony Stark has foreseen what the future held for the superhero community in the eyes of the civilian population, and it was not pretty. Love him or hate him, he stepped up to the plate and took charge of the situation when no one else would. We still don't know what the long term ramifications of Civil War will be, but you can bet that Iron Man will be found right at the center of them.

Thanks to Warren Ellis and Adi Granov and their reboot of the title, Iron Man has found new legions of fans who were never interested in the character before. With his new Extremis armor, Tony Stark is once again at the top of the list of the most powerful superheroes in the Marvel Universe.

If that isn't enough, the Ellis/Granov series paved the way for the highly anticipated Iron Man movie. We're not talkin' some straight to DVD schlock-fest, folks. We've got Jon Favreau directing Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark, Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts, Terrence Howard as James "Rhodey" Rhodes, and Jeff Bridges as Obadiah Stane! If that's not enough to tweak your boot jets, they had  the cream of the crop prop designer Stan Winston build the mechanical armor and Industrial Light & Magic doing the visual effects.

Given all of the above (and that's a LOT!), we here at Advanced Iron thought "What better time to finally update the website and bring it into the 21st century"? And to complete our Phoenix-like rising from the ashes we present to you a brand new issue of our venerable Zine, also completely redesigned with a brand new look.

So go ahead and download Issue #71, have a look around the site, and don't forget to come back often for the latest in Iron Man news and to join in on discussions on our forum. BTW, if you have any suggestions or find things that need fixing, please tell us on the forum. We want your feedback and input!!

Having said all that, once again welcome to the Advanced Iron: The Ultimate Iron Man Experience!