Iron Man #1

History

Panini obtained its master license to publish translated Marvel Comics across Europe and selected Latin American countries; in France, that license — acquired under the 'Marvel France' banner in January 1997 — made Panini the exclusive local publisher of Marvel material. The Iron Man kiosque revue was part of Panini France's coordinated rollout of the full Marvel NOW! line in late 2012, mirroring similar simultaneous launches for Avengers, X-Men, and other relaunched titles. The American source material, Iron Man (2012) #1, was written by Kieron Gillen with art by Greg Land and was cover-dated November 2012 by Marvel. The French kiosque format collected and serialised these US issues for newsstand distribution, a model Panini France had used since the late 1990s.

Trivia · 8 facts

• Publisher: Panini Comics France, under the Marvel NOW! kiosque label; reprints the American Iron Man (2012) series launched under Marvel's 2012 line-wide Marvel NOW! initiative.
• Writer: Kieron Gillen; Artist: Greg Land — the creative team that succeeded Matt Fraction and Salvador Larroca, whose Invincible Iron Man run (2008–2012) spanned 60 issues and won the 2009 Eisner Award for Best New Series.
• Opening story arc ('Believe', collecting US #1–5): Tony Stark discovers the Extremis techno-virus — originally introduced by Warren Ellis and Adi Granov — has been sold on the black market and now threatens to fall into multiple hostile hands worldwide.
• The arc introduces several new antagonists including the Circle, a high-tech brotherhood of mech-knights operating out of 'New Camelot', alongside reappearances by established villains Vibro, Firebrand, and the Living Laser.
• Multiple new Iron Man armor variants debut across the opening arc: a stealth suit, a heavy-duty battle suit, and a space armor — the last of which pivots Tony's status quo toward outer space for the subsequent 'Godkiller' arc.
• Gillen's overall 29-issue run (Iron Man 2012 #1–28, all serialised in the Panini France revue) culminates in 'The Secret Origin of Tony Stark', a major revelation about Stark's parentage that directly influenced Brian Michael Bendis's later International Iron Man series.
• The Panini France revue ran as a multi-story kiosque magazine, sometimes bundling Iron Man issues with complementary Marvel NOW! content such as Nova and Guardians of the Galaxy episodes, reflecting Panini's standard European anthology format.
• Panini France is the exclusive licensed publisher of Marvel Comics in France, a status formalised in 1997 and renewed/expanded under a 2006 agreement between Marvel Entertainment and Panini S.p.A.

Full credits