• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Comic Book Herald

A Comic Book Reading Order Guide For Beginners & Fans

  • Reading Orders
    • Marvel
    • My Marvelous Year
    • DC Comics
    • All Comic Book Publishers
    • Most Recent
  • Beginner Guides
    • Beginner’s Guide To Comics In 2023
    • Marvel 2023: Where to Start?
    • DC 2023: Where to Start?
    • Best of Lists
    • Tablets for Comics
    • Guides for Digital Readers
  • Reviews
    • Marvel Comics
    • DC Comics
    • Comic Book Movies
    • Comic Book TV
    • Video Games
  • Podcasts & Video
    • My Marvelous Year
    • Best Comics Ever (CBH)
    • CBH on Youtube!
  • About Me
    • My Favorite Comics of All Time
    • Columns
    • CBH Email Newsletter
  • Support Comic Book Herald
    • Ways to support
You are here: Home / Columns / Crowdsourcing Comics with Iron Man & Audi

Crowdsourcing Comics with Iron Man & Audi

April 30, 2013 by Dave Leave a Comment

I won’t sit here and pretend I always get tweets from @Audi, but when I do I drink Dos Equis. Wait… wrong marketing campaign.

What I meant to say was when Audi tweets me a weirdly personal link with little to no description, I darn well click through.

Glad I did here, as it led me to their Iron Man 3 promotion, Steer the Story, a surprisingly interesting development in crowd-sourced digital comics.

Audi’s Steer the Story campaign features an Iron Man comic where certain events are dictated by audience votes or contest submissions. Instead of finishing the last page of Invincible Iron Man and wishing like heck Tony would just use his stupid repulsor rays for once, you actually get to vote for that action here.

Iron Man iPad Audi
OMG Just BLAST Blizzard already!

While this essentially sends artistic freedom soaring out the window with a bag of bourbon in its sensitive fist, it makes for some mildly interactive reading.

Support For Comic Book Herald:

Comic Book Herald is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn a qualifying affiliate commission.

Comic Book Herald’s reading orders and guides are also made possible by reader support on Patreon, and generous reader donations.

Any size contribution will help keep CBH alive and full of new comics guides and content. Support CBH on Patreon for exclusive rewards, or Donate here! Thank you for reading!

I can’t tell you whether writer Jeff Parker and artist Manuel Garcia resented the voices of the masses interfering with their short story (major plot point: Pepper, we seriously are riding the HECK out of this Audi R8), but I’d guess not really. While I don’t think anyone would want to see crowdsourced comics become the norm, it does offer an occasionally interesting digital option. If you have a kickstarter or webcomic and want to increase fan engagement, crowdsourcing outcomes might be a cool option. Especially if you’re inclined to set up an Elseworld version of the story when your fans pick, like, the worst option.

The Audi Iron Man comic also offered up a digital reading enhancement that is either under-explored, or just unfamiliar to my sheltered eyes. And that, of course, is the semi-3D flying object.

Look out Tony!
Flying Blizzard ice!

The static image might not do the flying ice justice, but as you scroll through the actual comic the intended effect is more clear.

This highlights the other intelligent design here: the comic reading experience is clearly designed for digital readers like the iPad.

While I don’t expect a corporate-sponsored promo to revolutionize digital, it’s another good sign that Marvel (and big brands in general) are embracing this crazy thing called the mobile internet (it’s, like, everywhere man).

This comic may not fit into the best iron man comics to read before Iron Man 3, either, but there are some interesting components to the experience.

Final note on this one: If you want to check it out, the Steer the Story promotion is live until the US release of Iron Man 3 on May 3 (omg omg omg so close!).

The contest part of this promo is the chance to draw/artistically style the final fight scene between Iron Man and Blizzard (suggestion: TWIST ending where Blizzard cryogenically freezes Stark and encases himself in the plaster mold to come out as a STARK CLONE, completely tricking Pepper into believing/smooching him as Tony. What’s that? A villain inhabiting a hero’s body will never work? You’re right, you’re right, it was too crazy).

Iron Man Audi Fight




Finish the Fight

Again, if you do want to take a look, the whole comic is up at www.steerthestory.com. Think this is a dumb/awesome/interesting idea? Do what feels right to you in the comments.

Filed Under: Columns Tagged With: Iron Man 3

Heroically Support Comic Book Herald!

If you like Comic Book Herald, and are able to donate, any small contribution will help keep CBH alive and full of new comics guides and content. Donate here! Or, support CBH on Patreon for exclusive rewards! Thank you for reading!

Become a Patron!

About Dave

Dave is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Comic Book Herald, and also the Boss of assigning himself fancy titles. He's a long-time comic book fan, and can be seen most evenings in Batman pajama pants. Contact Dave @comicbookherald on Twitter or via email at dave@comicbookherald.com.

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

The Comic Book Herald Podcast!

Apple PodcastsGoogle PodcastsRSS
My Ultimate Year podcast and reading club

Recent Posts

  • Pax Americana and The Infinite Loop Of Imperiums March 25, 2023
  • Fall of X Teasers & Al Ewing’s Sins of Sinister | Comic Book Herald Live! March 24, 2023
  • “Sins of Sinister” Part 6: Immoral X-Men #2—in Review! March 23, 2023
  • DESTINY OF X | The Krakoan Empire Divided March 22, 2023
  • “Secret Identity” with Alex Segura | CBH Interviews #107 March 21, 2023
  • 2002 Pt. 3: Daredevil & Elektra March 20, 2023
  • Immoral X-Men #2 and Wolverine vs. Dark Beast! | Comic Book Herald Live! March 17, 2023
  • X-Men: The Animated Series Season 2 Rewatch! March 16, 2023
  • “Sins of Sinister” Part 5: Nightcrawlers #2—in Review! March 15, 2023
  • My Marvelous Interview: Paul Jenkins on Wolverine Origin, Inhumans, Spectacular Spider-Man, & More! March 13, 2023
  • The Dark Knight Trilogy 15 Years Later: Film & Comic Influences! March 11, 2023
  • Sins of Sinister: Nightcrawlers, X-Men #20, New Mutants: Lethal Legion #1 | Comic Book Herald Live! March 10, 2023
  • 2002 Variant A: Ant-Man & Wasp Quantumania TAKEDOWN! March 6, 2023
  • Steve Orlando’s Marauders #1-5—Annotated! March 4, 2023
  • “Sins of Sinister” Part 4: Immoral X-Men #1 in Review! March 3, 2023

Popular Articles

DC Rebirth Guide

Batman Reading Order

DC New 52 Reading Order

Marvel Ultimate Universe Guide

Civil War Reading Order

Marvel Cosmic Reading Order

The Best Comics of All Time!

Deadpool Reading Order

Justice League Reading Order

Complete Thanos Reading Order

X-Men Reading Guide (Modern Era)

Age of Apocalypse Reading Order

Modern Marvel Universe in 25 Trades

Best Tablet For Digital Comics

Is Marvel Unlimited Worth It?

Footer

New to Comic Book Herald?

Hey there - my name's Dave and this is my comic book blog. It's my way of sharing my borderline obsessive addiction to the comic book medium, and I hope you like some of what's going on here.

Most people that come here are looking for my (WIP) Marvel reading order guide. You can probably also get a sense if CBH is for you by taking a look at some of my columns.

If you like what you see, let's connect on Facebook or Twitter. Or, leave a comment on the blog here, I'm always looking for new awesome people in the comic book community.

More on Comic Book Herald

  • Home
  • About
  • Support CBH
  • My Marvelous Year
  • Join!
Privacy Policy
Terms of Service

Recent Posts

  • Pax Americana and The Infinite Loop Of Imperiums
  • Fall of X Teasers & Al Ewing’s Sins of Sinister | Comic Book Herald Live!
  • “Sins of Sinister” Part 6: Immoral X-Men #2—in Review!
  • DESTINY OF X | The Krakoan Empire Divided
  • “Secret Identity” with Alex Segura | CBH Interviews #107

Copyright © 2023 · Metro Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in