To perhaps make it more clear, take a look at these quick'n'dirty renderings of an Iron Man model I made a few years back. This is from a version of his armor that had no surrounding ring on the chest light, so you can actually see even better how it changes shape as the angle of the chest plate inclines more steeply toward the viewer.

Iron Man has been my favorite character for as long as I can remember.

Being a sci-fi geek, how can you not love a futuristic suit of armor loaded with all sorts of gagetry?

Tony is a self-made hero, often using brains over brawn in defeating his opponents.

The guy is rich, successful and has ladies crawling all over him...yet he still choses to put his life on the line to fight off the would-be world beaters.

He even turned down a lucrative career in munitions for moral reasons.

Add in some human weakness--whether it be his heart (in the beginning) and then later alcoholism--and you've got a very compelling character.

My only gripe with the book is the lack of a great rogues gallery. I've never cared too much for the Mandarin, despite the fact he is Tony's arch-nemesis. (I'd rather he tussle more with Dr. Doom, personally!) The Ghost was probably the last real decent villian introduced in the comic. 

One of the first drafting classes they required at college was Perspective Drawing and Visualization.  It was probably my favorite of all the classes I took in college.

Just to note, there were a couple students from the art cirriculum that took this class, too.  I personally think it (or something similar) should be a requirement for anybody that's going to be drawing comic books for a living.

The most frustrating times have been when I have worked with inkers who don't know the basic rules for constructing circles in perspective, and "correct" what I have draw!

Corey Johnson:  The Ghost was probably the last real decent villian introduced in the comic.

I'll agree with that.  That's part of the reason I'm looking forward to Joe Casey's IRON MAN: THE INEVITABLE - apparently he's going to be using some of the better Iron Man villains in it, and it's about time.

It supposedly now takes place in Afghanistan.

***

Yes now I remember. He hits a landmine while in Afghanistan-which really could be any time period.

With all the Iron Man talk, I thought I'd share this; got this card from Bob the other day...I don't think he'd mind...

Sorry, I'll try again...

Speaking of Iron Man, here's my take on a possible movie treatment. 

Billionaire Tony Stark inherited a fortune and a munitions/defense contracting company from his father.  He doesn’t really like the business and is publicly considering getting out of it.  This has made a few people mad enough to kill him, including some ruthless guys in the US government.

Tony enjoys the life of an extremely rich bachelor who can have anything – and any woman -- he wants.  He’s also a brilliant engineer and scientist.

When Stark is called overseas to some Asian country to do a plant inspection, terrorists strike and nearly kill him. He ends up on life support due to a traumatic heart injury.  Tony Stark is thousands of miles from home, fatally injured and surrounded by enemies. 

The only thing that saves Tony is his ability to invent things on the fly, and he’s able (with some help from a couple of loyal employees who weren’t killed in the attack) to adapt some of the technology and hardware into what is basically a suit of armor that houses a machine that protects his heart and keeps it beating.  The armor also has weapons and gives Tony extra strength.

After a long battle, Stark barely makes it out alive.  When he gets home, his own doctors are impressed with how he jerry-rigged the heart machine, but the process harmed his heart and he has to wear the machine until a heart transplant can be performed.

Meanwhile, Start has other problems.  As he tries to find out who was behind the attack, Stark is stunned to find that he has far more enemies than he ever thought.  The top three are: 

• Obadiah Stane, industrialist and rival of Stark’s father wants to own Stark International and destroy Tony.
• AIM – Advanced Ideas Mechanics is a power-grabbing group that uses the latest technology to achieve their ends.  They once offered Tony a place in their organization, but he turned them down.  AIM wants Tony either working for them, or dead.
• Nick Fury, head of SHIELD.  He has a lot of interest in keeping Stark International in the weapons business, and Tony suspects that he will do anything to make that happen.

Throw in some good friends like Jim Rhodes, Mrs. Arbogast, Happy Hogan and Pepper Potts. 

The whole thing becomes a race against time. 

The armor that keeps Tony alive has to be tweaked, and he spends a lot of time doing that.  Tony’s personal life takes quite a hit due to the giant metal box he wears on his chest to keep him alive.  He has to miniaturize the whole thing, and make it more powerful.  Tony has to juggle his health, his armor, his personal life and his business.

Once Tony figures out who to go after for the terrorist attack, he dons his new armor and goes out to kick ass.  It turns out that his former employee, Clytemnestra Irwin, has gone over to AIM and has used some of Tony’s technology to make armored thugs and some creepy weapons that Stark International had been developing.  Stark overcomes incredible odds and stops AIM and Clytemnestra appears to be killed.

He makes a friend of Nick Fury, gets Stark International out of the weapons business, and announces to the world that Iron Man is now Tony’s personal bodyguard.  Tony gets his heart transplant, and as he comes out of it, we see his enemies gearing up to take him down again: 

*  Stane teams up with Justin Hammer, who has a veritable army of super-powered agents strong enough to fight Iron Man

*  Clytemnestra Irwin and a lot of other AIM folks were beaten but not defeated, and they are cooking something up in an underground lab that looks a lot like MODOK

*  The Mandarin thinks that the USA has meddled in Asian affairs long enough, and vows to use his ancient magiks to destroy Stark as an example.

The final scene is Tony armoring up and flying somewhere exotic for a well-deserved vacation.  But as he’s flying, he gets messages from SHIELD, old girlfriends, Mrs. Arbogast, and other people who are looking for Iron Man and/or Tony Stark.   

Tony promises everyone that he’ll get business done, but he has a date.  He ditches the armor and meets a beautiful woman on a secluded beach.  She’s Whitney Frost, daughter of Count Nefaria.

Mike, I'd watch that in a heartbeat.

Great great plot.