At that time in the world of Marvel, the heroes were neck deep in the alien Skrull race in the “Secret Invasion” storyline, Captain America’s resurrected sidekick James “Bucky” Barnes was filling in for the dead (at the time) Avenger, and Tony Stark’s relationship with some of his teammates was strained at best, having sided with the pro-registering superheroes government in Civil War.
In effect, those looking to get into the Marvel Iron Man series would need a lot of explanation before diving in, but they wouldn’t have to go too far back, especially since fans at the time could pick up Civil War if they wanted to find out why Tony Stark wasn’t playing ball with the other Marvel heroes.
They also had the option of picking up the Ultimate universe line of books, but they too were about to be involved in the much-maligned “Ultimatum” storyline that laid waste to a majority of their characters.
For those curious, Civil War was a massive storyline that involved the entirety of the Marvel Universe. After a young group of heroes accidentally kills innocents in battle, the US Government passes the "Superhuman Registration Act" , and demands that all super powered beings turn into the government.
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