CAN YOU TELL THIS IS A NEW IRON MAN SUIT?

damned if I can tell the difference between pics from IM1 and this cover, oh wait a minute...there are new little vent things...yes this is much better, more irony too.

In this one he can turn his head to the side. For some reason no one figures this out until the sequel.

I don't know for sure if I'd put the first iron man that far up on the quality scale. It's definitely somewhere between spidey 1 and batman begins, almost like a melding between the two. I hope the sequel has iron man do more. I want to see him fight giant robots and shoot lasers out of his eyes, then his suit breaks down so he needs to go get an upgrade and then uses that one to go super saiyan level on the new badguy.

What's this about 'The Clooney'? A sci-fi extravaganza featuring a rampaging monster George? If so, then I must buy the issue immeaditly. And oh yeah, cool Iron Man cover.

Your enjoyment of Iron Man notwithstanding (and it is an objectively great film, third act troubles aside) The Dark Knight (again third act troubles aside) is just a better film. From every standpoint. Character, direction, thematically and elevation of the material. It's not even up for debate. I know you have a stick up your ass about that film for reasons that have never been entirely clear, but they seem as much personal as they are practical. Then again you also ceaselessly defend Spider Man 3, one the biggest bastardizations of source material ever put to screen. So what can I do with that? And you're the one who will have to deal with hearing The Dark Knight called a masterpiece for the rest of your life, so I guess this battle is already fought and won.

This one goes to 11.

OTH, I think Iron Man succeeds on a level that TDK fails, which is realizing that it's only an entertaining superhero movie. TDK's "theme" of darkness only extends as far as its mood. It has nothing new to say about the archetype (stereotype) of the anti hero, has nothing interesting to say about group psychology (a hugely missed opportunity), nihilism, or modern society's skewed perception of madness. TDK is entertaining and a great film, but calling it a masterpiece is a BIG stretch.

Iron Man is one of the best paint-by-numbers movies ever. Yeah, it's solid, it's just not very creative.

Without Robert Downey, Jr., the first film would be about as good as the Hulk reboot. Entertaining and unremarkable. And no, I can't tell that that's a new suit. Are the hinges on the shoulder more visible?

I enjoyed Iron Man very much, but just as I was nearing re-watching it I went to see The Incredible Hulk, which for all intents and purposes was a similar film. I enjoyed that too. Erm, good cover, this means I'll be getting this thruogh my door tomorrow Empire does it?

Yeah, we're all on the edge of our seat worrying and wishing for a new suit. We care that much about it. No new suit, no ticket purchase, I say. Barf.

The first one was really solid but it left me with a feeling of vacancy. It should've been just a blast but I found it somewhat forgettable (and it's more than just a anti-climactic ending battle). This second one, I find myself hardly unable to muster up much excitement. Maybe the expectation of The Dark Knight dampened it and then, once it came out, dwarfed it in its intelligent yet still-fun approach. Or maybe I'm just getting old and this movie's suited more for a younger me.

Does anyone actually buy that magazine anymore? If so, why? I just cleared out my collection of old pre-internet Empire magazines. What a goddamn waste of space and money. Thank you Chud for allowing me to read the latest news and views then safely forget every ultimately useless morsel. Agreed - nothing to see here, re: Iron Man.

I said the same thing when I first saw this. I was a little saddened to be honest. But, I also thought the armor looked really good in the first one so I was a little unsure of what they were planning on doing with it in 2 that would warrant this magazine cover. Crisis averted!

I like how Jeff Bridges just conveniently knows how to work his Super Robot Suit at the end when it took Downey Jr. the entire fucking film to fully get it down. "RAR, I have a BIGGER robot suit than the protagonist! RARR!"

"Your enjoyment of Iron Man notwithstanding (and it is an objectively great film, third act troubles aside) The Dark Knight (again third act troubles aside) is just a better film. From every standpoint. Character, direction, thematically and elevation of the material. It's not even up for debate." Your opinion, no matter how informed or strongly felt, is no more valid, or "objective," than anyone else's. All art is great, all art is crap. That said, here's my opinion: the Batman: The Brave and the Bold cartoon, with its Silver Age influences, seems a lot hipper to me than Nolan's gravelly-voiced, crappy-dialogue snooze-fest. The time for "The Dark Knight" is 25 years past. It's time for The Caped Crusader. Oh, and When "The Dark Knight" finally spooled out, I was ready to leave an hour ago. "Iron Man" made me want to get on line to see it again.

New suit upgrade to include fleshlight. You read it here first, fuckers.

Shhhhhhh Industry Killer, no more talky, you're only embarrasing yourself.

The Dark Knight gets better with each viewing while Iron Man loses a little of it's lustre. Devin just can't get over that his 2005 prediction of "no sequel for BATMAN BEGINS" not only was false, but the resulting feature was the biggest blockbuster of the decade (domestic BO.) Crow tastes even worse every time it's regurgitated and requires re-chewing.

"All art is great, all art is crap." Well, I don't agree. As Gene Siskel said, "There is a point when a personal opinion shades off into an error of fact. When you say 'The Valachi Papers' is a better film than 'The Godfather,' you are wrong." Indeed.

Ugh. TDK is ridiculously overrated. It's a bloated mess. Sure, it has *some* good acting (the villians). It has some great scenes, but they feel forced into a narrative. It's like they had 20 great ideas and didn't think that maybe they don't all work together. And the dialog really isn't that great. There was a Top 20 closing movie lines article on Digg last week that included TDK over so many far more amazing movies. The last line of that movie was an awkward closing.

That's a common misconception, IndustryKiller. Being that TDK is one of THEE most overrated films of all time, one has to look closer to notice that it's actually an incredibly flawed film. From the questionable editing, to the dull acting of Bale, Freeman, and Gyllenhaal. Basically it only has 2 memorable performances (Ledger and Eckhart, obviously). Iron Man on the other hand doesn't contain a single weak performance, and all of the characters have amazing chemistry, which is more that can be said for TDK. Editing was another thing that Iron Man did incredibly well. So yes, Iron Man is overall the better film. TDK is a great film, don't get me wrong, but Ledger's amazing performance somewhat hides the film's major flaws.