"Demon in an Armor" has a strong hook, but the approach taken by Michelinie and Layton is unimaginative and doesn't seem to use the characters we're familiar with as its starting place. Neither Von Doom nor Stark truly resemble their Marvel universe selves. While that's partly the point of "What If?" stories, the departure here is so far that it's hard to understand why Marvel went with this concept. A truly disappointing way to begin this year's batch of "What If?" titles. Read Full Review

What If? Demon in an Armor is a decent story that shows what would happen if Tony Stark and Victor Von Doom switched minds and became the other.

The story is initially set in the college days of both characters, who are roommates and don't get along at first. After their bond grows, Tony decides to help Doom with the latter's project as Doom will be rejected from college if the project fails, but discovers too late that Doom plans to switch their minds through said project. The switch is successful, with Stark becoming Doom and having his memories erased during the mind swap, and Doom becoming Stark, who retains all his memories. Doom pins the blame on the now amnesiac Stark, who is deported back to his "home" country of Latveria. Over the next few pages, we see how they both live their lives as the years go by, with Stark working hard to earn his college degree and becoming an inventor/scientist who uses his talents for good, while Doom becomes more power hungry as the clock ticks by, taking control of Stark Industries from his "father" by getting his hands dirty, and starts selling weapons and developing more advanced weaponry for all to buy. Eventually, both characters clash in Latveria as Doom comes to steal technology critical for his weapons to function and Tony decides to stop the theft. Both wear their respective armors and duke it out, before Doom yields and explains the mind swap, bargaining for his freedom by offering Stark his old life back. Stark rejects, saying that Doom will pay for his crimes.

The story doesn't show that much chemistry between both lead characters, only that they were brief friends at first, but are adversaries at the end of the book. The book also explains how both fare as time moves on in a very rushed manner and while dong so, quickly moves on to the final battle between both. We only know the basic characteristics of both these characters for the whole story and not much else.

The artwork is done well, although nothing stands out, with the exception of the armors both characters use to duel the other. They are color swapped versions of the other's armor. Doom's armor is green and silver and looks like regular Iron Man, while Stark's is red and gold and looks like the normal Doctor Doom suit. They both highlight the obvious mind swap and how both lead characters are now different. Besides the suits, everything else looks generic, with nothing of note.

Demon is an Armor is an alright Freaky Friday-style Iron Man story that fails to make the most of it's premise. The story doesn't do much besides pushing both lead characters to their extremes on the morality scale and having them fight at the end, while the art fares fine, but could be better. There is nothing worthy of being remembered in this comic. more