The issue played the odd dual purpose of ending the battle aboard the Godkiller (the escape sequence from that, effectively) and Tony’s return to Earth. Clearly, these are different moods, but I try my best. I half suspect reading the Godkiller escape directly after the last episode would help with it.
This issue went through a bunch of drafts and rewrites. Not as many as the next, but the choices were really pored over.
Cover: Greg’s last cover, and it’s a classic heroic model one. More metaphorical than literal, obv.
Page 1: It was actually Mark P’s suggestion that he thought it may be worthwhile to remind the readers why 451 was doing any of this anyway. When writing a long form story – and SECRET ORIGIN is a story that’s been in motion since issue 6 – working out ways to recapitulate it is key. I took the chance to flesh out the last parts of 451’s background.
A few people have mentioned “A scream that will not fit in my head” as a stand out line. When I wrote it, I did think “Okay – who am I ripping off here?” Closest I can come to is Jon Savage’s line about feeling he had “A-bombs in his head” when he was making his first fanzines, and it’s far enough away from that for me to feel fine.
That’s from ENGLAND’S DREAMNING, btw, which I’d recommend to anyone.
Page 2: Yet more re-establishing scene and set-up.
The time-clock is something we tried a bunch of solutions for, in an attempt to put an explicit timer on the escape thing. The meta reader knowledge that Tony is probably going to escape has to be ignored. If you’re going to sing the song, you sing it like you mean it, you sing it as hard as you can.
Page 3: Hard-cutting between internal/external shots happens a lot in this issue. Also see alternation between shots where Tony is flying away from us (implying speed and motion, as well as working as an establishing shot) and shots where we travel with Tony (therefore having subjective experience of Tony’s perspective). Alternating between seeing the hero and being the hero, if we’re going to go all Scott McCloud.
Page 4: I do like the word Hustle.
Page 5: You know Fraction’s line that superhero comics aren’t escapist fiction – but escape fiction. As in mainstream superhero comics where you suspect the character will be back, the joy is in part of seeing how they get out of the problem? This whole bit is a little like that. Tony has it worked out, and everyone else (including P.E.P.P.E.R.) tries to catch up.
Page 6: This is a flashback to issue 9.
Pages 7-8: With the clock ticking away, we went silent for the escape sequence.
Page 9: And a big hero shop of the escape. As I said earlier, have to play this one straight. And with Tony victorious here, he deserves it.
Page 10: And a little aftermath of it. The physicality of Tony’s armour when it’s pushed hard (as it was here) is something I like to stress.
The armoury escaping was something I went back and forth on. In some ways, I’d have liked to leave it behind. The 3-month time-skip over the page is enough for Tony to get a new one, after all… however, I believed that it would be disorientating for the reader, and an awful big implication to make (or a really awkward one to explain in dialogue).
Page 11: Three month time-skip, which includes the rest of Tony’s Guardians adventures (Yes, this includes Infinity).
Credit for Carlo for getting some minor Guardians character detail in the background. Groot watering himself is my favourite.
Page 12: Yes, Tony is bringing the remains of 451 back to Earth. And not telling anyone.
The “making my own mistakes now” is a call-back to issue 9, right at the start of the story.
Page 13: While Tony’s embedded in so many big parts of the MU, and I do show that in the book, I also try to keep it very much as its own thing. In which case, Tony has been back on Earth in other books, but his absence has been 100% key. The way I justify it is that he was back on Earth, but he was only here on work. There wasn’t any down time. It’s like visiting a city to do business meetings. This, however, is an actual homecoming.
The Pizza was playful. I wanted after this existential threat, come to something as NYC and human as we could get.
Page 14: Having to be careful with the dialogue to make sure P.E.P.P.E.R. Isn’t confused with Pepper.
Like the sense of velocity in the last panel.
Page 15: Pepper is very bad.
Page 16: The start of the story was Tony’s birthday in space, if you’ll remember all the way back to issue 6. I gave a bunch of names for people who’d turn up, and Carlo selected who he thought would fit. This is a very short notice surprise, after all.
I kind of wish I had room to make Tony come out naked, re: the last panel.
Page 17: This whole sequence was fun to write. Having Tony interact with the rest of his world again was as much a homecoming for me as Tony. I’d missed Pepper.
I wanted something big to happen when she in space. An engagement made sense.
Page 18: Marc doesn’t get much in this issue, which is a bit of a shame. There was a couple more pages expanding this scene in the first draft, which I lost to give more room for things that were more 100% essential – namely the opening and the next scene.
Page 19: Tony considering the drink is never a good sign.
Page 20: And the cliffhanger, setting up the conclusion for the whole thing.
Everything wraps up next issue, and sets the direction for what comes next. Thanks for coming with me this far. Only the final step remains.
Gillen, Kieron (6 October 2013).
Writer Notes: Iron Man 16.
Kieron Gillen's Workblog. Retrieved on 9 January 2017.
