As everybody knows, black is the coolest, most badass of the colors. So maybe that’s why Iron Man is ditching his traditional red and gold armor in favor of a new black and gold variant this fall as part of his Marvel NOW! relaunch. Because why not take this opportunity to make him look different from the multi-million dollar movie version?

Title on the bottom? You’re crazy, Marvel Comics!

Marvel Comics is finally rolling out information about their new comic initiative, or at least more than they have in the past. I skipped over a few creative team announcements last week because I just never got around to it. Now that we have some pretty covers to look at, I’m all over this. Hopefully we’ll see some more this week.

The new Iron Man will be written by Kieron Gillen, with art by Greg Land. Despite a lot of dislike on the Internet, I’m a fan of Greg Land’s work, and I have no problem with the tracing he often gets picked on about. I think that will work well in the world of Tony Stark. I’m less familiar with Gillen’s work, having only really read his Uncanny X-Men stuff, and then not really being able to tell the different between his X-Men work and everybody else’s X-Men work. But I’m sure Gillen is up for the task.

They are replacing a stellar run on Iron Man by Matt Fraction and Salvador Larocca, which started just after the first Iron Man movie, and has been kicking total ass. I’ve been a big fan of that series, so maybe, just maybe, I’ll be willing to give Gillen’s a try this fall. I usually buy my comics based on the character, and I’ve never particularly cared for Iron Man. I bought Fraction’s comic on a lark, and just happened to like that lark enough to stick around. So it’s also possible I may just not pick up Gillen’s version.

You can click here for an interview he gave Marvel.com about what his series is going to feature.

The symbolism that I bring immediately into the book [is] a lot like the Arthurian concept of the grail-knight: the idea that Tony Stark is the grail-knight, or at least aspiring to be the grail-knight. When we meet him he’s left Resilient and he’s digging into what’s going on. Pepper has a line in the first issue saying, “Oh, you’re not having a midlife crisis are you? Just buy yourself a suit of armor.” That’s where we start and he begins to ask questions.

The story will focus on him questioning things about himself and trying to find out exactly how the universe ticks, what’s this all about and why he does this anyway. It’s going to be one of the major themes of the book going forward. It’s actually a key part of my second theme. I’m going to explore Tony and his relationship with women. I’m interested in Tony’s selection of women in everything, from his mom, to Pepper, to the random people he’s sleeping with and everything that relates to them. He’s a complicated guy and he does bad things occasionally without thinking. Well, not [without] thinking exactly but he’s not always thinking about the right thing. He’s not the distracted genius but he always has something else going on.

Gillen also says his opening arc will feature a few stand alone stories as he spreads his wings with Iron Man.

The first five issues will be single stories that will share [both] a defining motif and a plot but it will be Iron Man facing new instances of technology and each is basically a new villain. Each issue will illuminate something about Tony and they’re all very different. Issue two is a lot like the Bruce Lee Kung-Fu Island story; it’s like a joust, it’s all about the knight imagery, essentially going to a tournament. Issue three is like a ninja story, Tony Stark trying to be a full-on stealth master, issue four is a horror story and issue five is something a little more romantic and scientific but I’m going to keep that one under wraps.

I really want to mix it up with single issue stories because I think that quite a few people are feeling the same way. Single issues are an exciting place to go and anyone can jump on with any of the first five issues, not just issue #1. [In] each of those issues I introduce Iron Man; I say something meaningful about a character that you may know already and I want it to be accessible and to pop. That’s the thing with Greg Land: his photorealistic style really pops and it’s a glamorous book in that way.

So yeah, maybe that kind of stuff interests you. We’ll find out this fall.

I just think it’s a silly idea to have him wearing black armor, especially considering he has a big new movie coming out next year. Is this going to be the case where Iron Man is in the black armor just long enough to have a big “Return of the red armor” comic in time for the movie? Because that reeks of editorial insanity.

Not that black armor is without precedent. In Matt Fraction’s current storyline, Tony Stark has given up on being Iron Man, but it’s all part of a big plan to defeat the Mandarin. In his place, James Rhodes is posing as a new Iron Man who is supposed to be unaffiliated with Stark. It helps that everybody thinks Rhody is dead. And this new Rhody-controlled Iron Man has a black armor…but it’s not the same black armor that we see in this new Iron Man #1 cover. So why does Tony start wearing a new version of Rhody’s black armor when he returns to being Iron Man? Is there a reason for not going back to red?

Maybe I’ll have to pick up the new #1 to find out…