Marvel will begin double-shipping the current Iron Man series by writer Joshua Williamson beginning in December 2026, which will, in the publisher’s words, “accelerates towards #700.” This comes after series artist Carmen Carnero had to step away from the book midway through April’s Iron Man #4 due to an injury and is set to return with August’s issue. Carnero is feeling better and back on the book, but to meet this accelerated schedule, Marvel is bringing in a second series artist, Gleb Melnikov, and they’ll each simultaneously be drawing an arc at a time.
In December, Carnero will launch into a new ‘Incarnerated Iron Man’ arc beginning with Iron Man #12, in which Tony Stark is imprisoned in the Vault, which is now overseen by Moonstone.
“Moonstone is going to be the new warden of The Vault… she’s very psychological, she’s very much a femme fatale character… her going up against Tony really changed what I was building,” says Williamson
To push the series bi-weekly, each issue will jump between two arcs, with Melnikov’s arc, ‘War Machines,’ starting in Iron Man #13 and running on the odd-numbered issues. This arc will feature two War Machines, one of which is Melinda May.
“This story is nuts, I think you’ll be really surprised about where this story goes,” says Williamson.
While this strategy might seem new, it has been used before, such as in the ‘DC Rebirth’ era Wonder Woman series that begin in 2016.
At this pace and presuming no unfortunate delays, Marvel Comics’ Iron Man will hit its 700th issue with April’s Iron Man #20.