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Ah, powered armor. Yes, the Batmobile is BAD. Sure, a Gundam will scare the day-lights out of you. Ok, Green Lantern's ring can create something as large as the Death Star(Hey, Kyle Raynar is an artist. We don't need to give him other ideas.). Still, the coolest weapon out there the wonderful, polarized, magnetically sealed marvel which is Iron Man. Besides, he's got a cell-phone and FM radio in there. How bad can it be, right? And if you're wondering, yes, this list is short. Sorry, but I would be gushing forever, and ever, and ever, and ever... and I think y'all can take only so much gushing about armor. These three are simply stand above the rest for me. .
1. Red and Silver armor, a.k.a. the Silver Centurion, Chameleon Armor, Hologram Armor, Iron Man Volume 2, Issue # 200. Did you have any doubt, considering I gushed about this issue as one of THE comic battles and as a must-read book? What's the big deal? Well, the improvements in the armor over the years have been rather lame. New coating here, eye- and mouth-slits there, may be put some rivets on the face. Important changes, but nothing earth-shattering, radio-screaming, butt-kicking. This time, Deny O'Neil and Bob Layton did a 'This Old House' on Shell-head and rebuilt EVERYTHING. Weapons are finally not just the repulsors, but pulse-bolts to have REAL offensive oomph. Yeah, you still have the cool boot-jets, but you also have a dual-source propulsion so IM can achieve low-earth-orbit. Sure you used to have the cute indicator lights on the inside of the helmet for data, but now you've got HUD like displays. Department of Defense, eat your heart out.
2. Red and gold retro look, Iron Man, Vol. 3, Issue # 1 Unfortunatley, the red and silver also made Iron Man look like he was on steroids. The modified retro-look Sean Chen created gave us a sleeker armor, but didn't look sooo sleek that Stark seemed to be wearing Spandex. Along with the outward appearance, the suit still had all of the great weapons systems, e.g. pulse-bolts, that finally made the armor a match for some of the heavey hitters. What reall stands out for me, however, are the Stark's-view displays that Sean Chen put through-out the book. You get a chance to see the images, menus, aiming reticles, and all the other neat little techie displays Stark created.
3. Space Armor, Iron Man, Volume 2, Issue #142-144. Yes, the armor looked cool. Yes, it was powerful. However, the best part for me was IT NEVER QUITE WORKED RIGHT. Granted, Stark is a genius, but why is it everytime he has new armor, he's mumbling to himself 'wow, I didn't get a chance to test it' and NOTHING goes wrong? Not this time. For once, the realities of high-tech engineering catch-up with Stark as he runs into a satellite, NEVER gets his repulsors to work, among other little miss-haps. In the end, the armor worked well, but it's nice to see Stark run into the bugs which drive real engineers bonkers, and also see him use his ingenuity to work through the problems in the suit.