Monday, March 8, 2010

Invincible Iron Man #24

I gotta say, I'm really disappointed. I've been dreading the eventual cop-out for Tony Stark, and this is the issue where it arrives. There is a bit of closure as Dr. Strange and eventually Tony himself get to face down the Ghost, and it is a nice little conclusion to the very slow-burn confrontation.

But the main problem is the close. Here's the deal, Tony Stark erased his own brain to destroy the master list of super-hero secret IDs when Norman Osborn took control of America's super heroes. So the last six issues have been the implementation of Stark's contingency plan; he had a backup of his mind. So with the help of the Captains America and Thor, he's reinstalled his operating system and memories. The catch? He made the backup before Civil War, before Cap was shot, and who knows how much earlier than that. So this ends up being a big escape for Stark. No other heroes will have to blame him for anything he did during that time. So the biggest backer of the pro-reg side will basically get to say "I shouldn't have done that." It invalidates too much recent history. Man, I really hope this doesn't end up as bad as I'm fearing. Stark thought things through and registration was his best option at the time, stick to your guns, Matt Fraction!

I hope Salvador LaRocca gets a storyline where Iron Man faces off against the worst of Justin Hammer's hirelings. LaRocca's been drawing so many normal people he's going to need some practice before he draws super hero fights again. I think having Blizzard, Whiplash, Beetle, Spymaster, and more show up would turn things around nicely.

Fair (with great fear)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

As if the wholesale denial of Civil War didn't already happen when they One More Dayed Spider-Man.

They simply One More Dayed Iron Man here.

JMS' Thor was sufficiently ethereal so he's probably not going to bring it up.

So we now see how untenable Millar's Killer App of a story was...it's pretty much completely wiped out. Now they just need to quietly forget about the SHRA (which they do for the most part unless it's convenient).

Quesada likes to say the House of Ideas doesn't have Crises but he's wrong. They have them, they just don't have the elaborate fictions that get that done. They don't make any attempt to employ the proverbial curtain the Wizard uses. They shuffle some half-assed story out that looks like the Staples' reset button and on they go.

Meanwhile they continue to enjoy the biggest market share in the direct market. No worse for the wear.

JBaker said...

I just wanna know how Strange survived a foreign object (Ghost's fist) implanted into his chest.

Timbotron said...

C'mon, Baker, he's a DOCTOR. They're tough!

I think Anon might be on to something too, a mini, unlabeled crisis...

Newmie Newmz said...

There is no indication that Fraction is going to back peddle on Stark's support of how own superhero registration initiatives.

In fact at the start of this arc Stark says that he does not apologize for the decisions he made regarding registration that led to the Civil War. He is definitely showing the courage of his conviction.

With that kind of dedication and passion I can't imagine that Fraction could find a way to or even want to justify him renouncing superhero registration of regretting his part in it.

Since Fraction has started his run on Invincible Iron Man he has produced solid work and has been respectful of the character and the history.

I think Fraction has earned a little faith from the readership. At least grant him the possibility that he knows what he is doing and will try his best to make it enjoyable for us.