How about a book review? That's right...I read books too!

Well, I'm not sure this qualifies as a "book"...

The Art of Iron Man 3 is the first "The Art of..." Marvel book I've committed to owning, in part because the collector in me felt the need to have it in my hot little hands in order to "complete the set" (along with the film and the music). Another reason is because I was a fan of the comics during the Armor Wars years and loved seeing so many armors in the film.

Not to get too much into things, because this is about the book and not the movie, but I hated the fact that there were 35 armors made between The Avengers and this film...and we only get to see glimpses of some of them before they're all destroyed. Balls!

Plus, I could never get my head around the toy industry milking comic characters for all they're worth. Transformers can get different paint jobs. There'll always be more Joes. But why would Batman ever need a "Deep Jungle" neon-green Batsuit? Sure, Cap uses a motorcycle and Spidey had the Spidermobile, but would Hulk ever need a Hummer? Would War Machine ever need a tank? Ridiculous...

But getting back to Iron Man, of course Tony would make an armor specifically for deep sea diving or space exploration. Stealth Armor? That's a given. Iron Man is one of the few characters in comics where having various outfits and stuff makes sense. Never mind the whole "Tony can't stop making suits because he's kinda bat-s#!t crazy right now" thing.

Another reason I got this book? Because back in December, I got this:

 I know, pretty sick right? Then I saw the back...

That's right. 13 images...of different armors...from the film...by the art department of the film.

The only thing that would have made me even happier is tech specs for each of them.

I know that when geeks/dorks/nerds speak loudly enough, things get made, so it's only a matter of time before we see Tony Stark's blueprints for each and every suit from the films. I'll put that on my wish list now.

So anyway, back to the book...which I desperately wanted since the calendar. Sadly, no technical specs, but the artwork is amazing. The works by Ryan Meinerding, Rodney Fuentebella, Andrew Leung, Josh Nizzi, Phil Saunders and Andy Park are all stellar. Each artist's work is credited, but I have a hard time telling who did which. While that's an issue for artists wanting their own unique visual style, it really says a lot that all six of these guys can make their work so similar for a single film project.

Now for the bad news...'cause you knew this was coming...

The Mandarin, or more specifically his rings, are featured in the book by artist Andrea Dopaso...but only eight of them. Not only that, if you're looking for an explanation as to what the writing on each of them means, you'll have to look elsewhere. (And I've tried. It doesn't exist.)

One other thing - I bought my copy new, still wrapped, but when I got it home I found that it's missing about 12 pages. They weren't ripped out or torn away, just omitted. A publishing error. Fortunately, when I leafed through another copy at another store I saw the missing pages: story ideas for gags each armor would do during the final battle (which never made it to the final cut), so I can live without them. But still!

All in all, a fine book worthy of my hard earned cash. 'Course now, I have to save up even more of my hard earned cash for the other books on the other films...f**king Marvel!