Weekly Comic Book Review.com

By Matt Fraction (Writer), Salvador Larocca (Pencils and Inks), and Frank D’Armata and Stephane Peru (Colors)

Let the Iron Man over-saturation commence! Counting Secret Invasion, Marvel Adventures, and all the Avengers books, I think Shell-Head’s in about a dozen comics this month - which is funny because personally I’ve found his own book to be rather weak lately. I loved him in the Civil War books and the Mighty Avengers, but let’s face it: Tony’s generally not as interesting without a couple of well-meaning but less intelligent costars to bounce his Type A personality against.

Fortunately, Invincible seems to be an exception to the rule. Other than brief appearances by Maria Hill and War Machine, Iron Man has the book all to himself, and it’s still cool. The story starts in Tanzania, where we get a little lesson in geography and sociology before people start exploding. Ezekiel Stane, working with an A.I.M. splinter group called Advanced Genocide Mechanics, has developed a way to turn people into second-rate Iron Men (In one of several nods to the current movie, they have little glowing blue dials on their chests that they expose just before they blow themselves up). The nature of Ezekiel’s plan isn’t clear, but considering his genealogy it probably isn’t good news for Stark Enterprises.

I liked the way this book was divided equally between action, character study, and philosophical ruminations on the drawbacks of advanced technology. When he’s not sleeping with models, running S.E. and S.H.I.E.L.D., or flattening A.I.M. agents, Tony worries about staying on the cutting edge of weapons innovation. Not only because he wants to keep one step ahead of his enemies but also because he defines himself in large part by being better than everyone else. In one particularly telling passage, Tony basically admits to the reader that he constantly makes sure Rhodey’s War Machine armor isn’t as good as his own.

If I have any complaint about the Invincible Iron Man, it’s that the plot so far bears a suspicious resemblance to the Extremis arc from the first few issues of Iron Man’s regular book, with its focus on bioweaponry. But Ezekiel Stane’s plan seems more complex than simple terrorism, and so far Fraction is doing a good job of building up what promises to be an intriguing story. I look forward to the next issue. (Grade: A)

- Andrew C. Murphy

A Second Opinion

Invincible Iron Man #1 serves one main purpose: to draw in everyone who loved last week’s Iron Man movie, whether they be long time comic readers or someone who has never read a comic. Does it succeed? Maybe. I personally fall into the category of fairly new to comics, knowing only a bit about Iron Man’s character (only that which I’ve read in Avengers and online).

So, what did I think? Well, the story opened with a bang (quite literally) in Africa, keeping the international feeling of the film. The opening is also quick to tell us some of the main differences between the movie and current Iron Man continuity: Tony is now director of S.H.I.E.L.D., sober, still a womanizer, and through the Extremis has complete mental control over his Iron Man armor. Rhodes is still Tony’s best friend and has donned the War Machine armor. Pepper is still his personal assistant, and is now very good with computers, and finally, Obadiah Stane is dead, but his son Ezekiel is alive and kicking and has inherited the lack of moral compass. Personally, I already knew all of this, but for someone who had only seen the Iron Man movie, this one issue is pretty darn good at giving a summary without seeming like a summary itself.

Okay, so it’s noob friendly, check. Is it interesting? Well, not wanting to give too much away, it appears that the main villain of this piece has not only improved, but exceeded the current Iron Man technology, much more so than Iron Monger in the film. However, we do not know how he has done this, nor what his plans are and by the end of the issue, Tony is just as worried as we are. So yes, it is interesting.

Finally, is it a good comic? Well, it is fairly well written, there was one part where I had to turn back a page to figure out what was going on, but other than that it flowed smoothly and the characters maintained unique voices. Likewise, the art was very well done. It wasn’t perfect, as there were three minor things that bugged me, but being minor, they weren’t anything to take away from the enjoyment of the storytelling. So overall, not the best of the best when it comes to comics, but certainly very good. As someone fairly new to Iron Man, will I be back? Yes, I will definitely finish out the story arc, but I’ll have to be really impressed to stick with it after it’s over. (Grade: B)

-M. Staples