Iron Man #23 - "Rings of the Mandarin, Chapter I"

[arbre_rieur]

Iron Man vs. Malekith the Accursed...

'In "Thor: The Dark World" there's that moment where they're basically talking about the quantum bridge and the difference in language between how Asgardians would describe the quantum effects and how the Earth's scientists would. There's a kind of nod toward "aren't these Asgardians silly." That's kind of a comedy beat. I think it's a failure of perspective. How two different people describe the same effect doesn't involve one of them being silly, especially if they're better at it than you are.' -- Kieron Gillen







Meanwhile, in Midgard, there's now an Iron Man musical.





Malekith shows up, kills the conductor, and absconds with his ring.

Seeing how he's up against a magical opponent, Iron Man seeks out the help of a specialist: the 90s Marvel UK character Dark Angel, who only recently made her return to comics in a one-shot a few months back (http://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/4631902.html). She's the redhead.

Comments

[mrstatham]

Unlikely to be the reason. They actually had the conveniently-timed Maliketh arc in Thor whilst the movie was coming out. This just seems to be one of Gillen's more unusual choices.

[arbre_rieur]

Based on the above interview, it seems to at least be a contributing factor, though not necessarily a major one: "'Iron Man versus the villain of this year's Thor movie' is an easily understandable story idea for people who aren't reading the book."