Marvel has debuted a new image from director Shane Black's Iron Man 3 showing Robert Downey Jr. as a bloodied Tony Stark in battle-damaged armor. Despite assurances by Marvel Studios President Kevin Fiege that the sequel isn't "a serious movie," this still and the earlier promotional material indicate Iron Man 3 will put Tony through the proverbial wringer.

Written by Black and Drew Pearce (No Heroics), the film loosely is based on the 2005-2006 “Extremis” story arc by Warren Ellis and Adi Granov in which a criminal is injected with a nanotechnological drug created by the U.S. military in an attempt to replicate the Super-Soldier Serum, triggering a mutation that grants him superhuman abilities.

Marvel Studios’ Iron Man 3 pits brash-but-brilliant industrialist Tony Stark/Iron Man against an enemy whose reach knows no bounds. When Stark finds his personal world destroyed at his enemy’s hands, he embarks on a harrowing quest to find those responsible. This journey, at every turn, will test his mettle. With his back against the wall, Stark is left to survive by his own devices, relying on his ingenuity and instincts to protect those closest to him. As he fights his way back, Stark discovers the answer to the question that has secretly haunted him: does the man make the suit or does the suit make the man?

Opening May 3, 2013, Iron Man 3 stars returning cast members Downey, Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle and Jon Favreau, joined by Guy Pearce, Ben Kingsley, Rebecca Hall, James Badge Dale and Ashley Hamilton.