There’s definitely an art to movie theater posters and standees. I’m not going to name names, but after you’ve seen enough dodgy photoshop collages and boring “floating head” layouts, you come to more deeply appreciate stark, well-executed promos like these new IRON MAN 2 posters and stand-ups. See for yourselves…
Where before we only got to see War Machine in obscured peaks and blurred screencaps from the trailers, now we can behold him with almost clinical clarity. The things I notice here demonstrate that the design’s been taking a bit farther up along the verisimilitude scale. He’s got decals scattered over his armor that are symbols from the actual military, for one. Also, instead of having a generic “gun” or impractical mini-gun mounted on his forearms, it looks like they went for a practical SMG (although I can’t guess the mark or model). Finally, his armor just looks… BEEFIER than Tony’s. It reminds me a lot of the bigger, nastier, more brutal T-600’s in TERMINATOR SALVATION, which shouldn’t be too surprising given that Legacy Studios probably designed both.
Seems like there’s going to be some significance to the armor’s shift from a circular “glowing chest core” to a triangular one. I’d figure that’s the upgrade from Mark IV to Mark V? Do triangles run more efficiently than circles?
Lastly, I really hope Marvel or Paramount put motion sensitive LEDs on these guys’ weapons for the standees that’ll “shoot” passersby. I’ll always remember a War Machine standee (I think it was drawn by Walt Simonson) that would guard the entrance of my first regular comic shop - - Saratoga Springs’ Spa City Comics. The thing would light up anybody who passed by. Of course, the combination of that going off all the time and the X-MEN beat ‘em up arcade game running on infinite loop eventually drove the employees of that store bonkers. On second thought, maybe that ISN’T something to emulate.
-- Tom Pinchuk is the writer of UNIMAGINABLE for Arcana Comics and HYBRID BASTARDS! for Archaia Comics. Watch out for the HYBRID BASTARDS! hardcover collection this March - - available for pre-order now on Amazon.com .