Tony Stark is getting old. He's tired and, after decades of abuse beneath the Iron Man shell, shaky. But, despite years of heroism, he wants to leave a greater legacy behind when he's gone.

That's the setting for Iron Man: The End, a possible conclusion to Stark's life conceived by writer David Michelinie and illustrated by Bernard Chang. Stark, proud and stubborn as always, must also decide whether or not to retire Iron Man, pass the title onto someone new or keep fighting himself until he simply can't fight any more.

It's not a bad story, although the framework feels contrived and the overall scope is a little less epic than one might hope for in a so-called "final" chapter. It's also brief, a mere 48 pages, so Marvel beefed up the book with a few flashbacks to Iron Man's origins. They are, to say the least, dated and not a little silly -- a fact Tony Stark himself admits in the framing pages by Matt Fraction. They also tossed in a couple of old issues for fun -- frankly, a waste of paper, since anyone who wants to bone up on early Iron Man adventures will be tackling the back-issues section of their comic store, not looking for the occasional random reprint.

The End is an OK story, but with all the useless extras padding the book, this collection is a money ill-spent.