As promised by Jon Favreau via his Twitter feed, the first image from Iron Man 2 – fast shaping up to be next summer’s most anticipated film – has gone online, via USA Today.

It shows Robert Downey Jr., returning as Iron Man’s brilliant but bruised creator and alter-ego, Tony Stark, standing in his workshop, beavering away on… something, while wearing a T-shirt that looks almost exactly like the glow-in-the-dark promo tees that were issued for the first film.

But the biggest point of interest in the photo lies in the background, where we can see, in a nod to classic Iron Man comic books, that Stark has every iteration of the Iron Man suit to date on display.

There’s the clunky grey armour that was the first to be built, in the caves of Afghanistan. There’s the gold armour that Stark wore for his first test flight. There’s the red-and-gold armour that he wore during the film’s third act. And… there is another.

Yep, you can see a fourth suit of armour, again of the red-and-gold variety, but somehow sleeker, shinier, newer. Is this the suit that Stark will be wearing – initially, at least – or is this just another way of showing the evolutions and tinkering with his design that have elapsed during the six months between the end of Iron Man and the beginning of the sequel?

At the moment, Favreau isn’t saying anything. But he did talk, briefly, to USA Today about his plans for the film, so zip on over there and have a read. Tell them Empire sent you.