‘Iron Man 3’ concept art teases plot elements

I've never been into the Iron Man comics. I was always more of an X-Men and Spider-man guy. Luckily, the internet is full of people that have a vast knowledge of Iron Man storylines. So when Entertainment Weekly released a poster of Iron Man 3 concept art they they plan on giving out at San Diego's Comic-Con next week, people started discussing plot elements that they can draw from the concept art.

So here's the concept art, thanks to Entertainment Weekly:

Now let's start with the rumors. The guys holding the guns — who are they? Well there's a couple of theories for that. The first is that the third Iron Man movie is borrowing plot points from the comic series Extremis, which has Stark battling a domestic terrorist militia that has a biologicial combat machines. That would explain why they look American. They could also work for The Mandarin — longtime nemesis of Iron Man. It is rumored that Ben Kingsley is playing The Mandarin in Iron Man 3.

As for the suit itself, people with far more attention to detail than I'll ever have has recognized that Tony Stark isn't wearing the bracelet on his right wrist that brings the Iron Man suit to him. This brings us back to the Extremis story line. In that, Iron Man is wounded and Stark is injected with a serum that fuses his body to the armor using some sort of nanotechnology and microscopic machines that live in his body. He wants to wire the armor directly to his brain so he can draw the armor to his body at will.

At first I took this as the suit is inside his body — then I realized how stupid that sounded. But him being able to call on the suit whenever he wants makes a lot more sense. Maybe that's why there's a motion blur to the glove; because it was travelling to his arm and clamped on? It also looks like his little armored boot is sparking a little.

Tony Stark is known to constantly test new technologies when it comes to his suit, so this definitely sounds like a credible theory. So how does this fit in with the recently leaked photos from the Iron Man 3 set that shows an America themed Iron Man armor suit? We may not know for a while, or maybe at Comic-con next week, but rumors are that it's The Iron Patriot or Coldblood — two characters from the comics. Actor James Badge Dale is confirmed to be playing the character Eric Savin, who's a soldier in the comics that's fatally injured and then resurrected into the cyborg anti-hero Coldblood, but the suit look Norman Osborn's The Iron Patriot.

I don't know what to think anymore. I just hope we get some details soon, before the internet theories and rumors destroy my brain.

[Source: Entertainment Weekly]

You can follow Movies and Culture Editor Lance Liebl on Twitter @Lance_GZ