What is the Deal With Iron Man’s Suit in New ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ Trailer?

Fans caught a glimpse of Tony Stark‘s latest suit in action during the latest trailer for Avengers: Infinity War, teasing some advanced features we’ve yet to see on the big screen.

The new Iron Man suit appears to be based on a couple of different versions from the comic books, with both shapeshifting and space flight capabilities. But while the comics can hand waive an explanation away with a simple line of throwaway dialogue in an issue written by Warren Ellis, the movies have to be able to suspend audiences disbelieve organically.

So what’s the deal with this advanced Iron Man suit we’ve seen in the trailers for Avengers: Infinity War?

In teaser shown during the Super Bowl, we see the suit forming across Tony Stark’s body almost like Black Panther’s advanced Vibranium armor that Shuri made for him, contained in a necklace that then spreads and covers the wearer.

This is a major advancement from the suits developed in the first Iron Man movie, which required robotic arms to assemble and disassemble when they were first perfected. These solid pieces of metal snapped together at points to give Stark a range of movement, but now it appears as if it’s a few solid pieces of material that contours across the body, allowing a wider range of flexibility.

The latest trailer also appears to show Iron Man flying up into the atmosphere in pursuit of an invading Q-Ship, which contains Thanos and his allies. It seems like the ship is leaving Earth, as if it found what it needed and is departing New York City.

Stark’s regular thrusters don’t provide enough speed to catch up to the vessel, so the armor forms a larger repulser at the feet that’s almost like a starship engine seen in Star Wars.

The armor is said to be based on both the Bleeding Edge and Model Prime suits.

The Bleeding Edge armor first appeared in The Heroic Age run of Marvel Comics by Matt Fraction and Salvador Larroca, and was comprised entirely of nanobots that could be summoned on command. This explains why the armor was forming across Stark’s body in the trailer. We also got a taste of it in Captain America: Civil War, when Stark activated his wristwatch which then transformed into an Iron Man gauntlet on his hand, complete with repulser tech.

The Model Prime suit appeared more recently in Brian Michael Bendis and David Marquez run on Invincible Iron Man. This one was similar to the Bleeding Edge armor but had more advanced shapeshifting capabilities, and was generally used as a Swiss Army knife for all of Iron Man’s suits.

It remains to be seen just what this new armor is capable of, but it’s likely to be the most advanced suit that Tony Stark has ever designed.

Avengers: Infinity War premieres in theaters on April 27th.