Invincible Iron Man #21

I'm really enjoying how Matt Fraction is putting this "rebuilding" of Tony Stark together, but I do have some concerns. It seems that before he put in the Extremis upgrade, Stark "backed up" his brain. Now he's using parts from the Rescue armor, Pepper Potts' repulsor pack, and the powers of Thor and Captain America to reboot himself and rejoin the land of the living. The part that has me curious is the statement that the back up occurred before Extremis. So does that mean we'll be getting an Iron Man who didn't partake in Civil War, act as a Director of SHIELD, and basically missed the last few years of the Marvel U? With all the negative press Iron Man received during Civil War and immediately after, this would certainly enable the Marvel U to move forward with a different Iron Man; one with a clean slate. I don't like the idea though; I'm hoping this is just a way to bring Stark back.

I did say Captain America up there, and it is important to note that there are two Caps in this issue; both Winter Cap and Steve Rogers are along for the ride to bring back Stark. Clearly Rogers was coming back, but it does rob the Reborn series of a little of its dramatic impact to have Rogers start popping up all over the Marvel U already. Another confusing appearance hits when Jim Rhodes shows up in uniform and looking fully human. I guess he makes it out of his current series ok, huh? Darn scheduling problems! All in all, I'm very pleased to see the core Avengers all working together, I just wish it would have been scheduled better.

Salvador LaRocca does a nice job with the huge cast. His Ghost is particularly spooky with all his tattered rags. The shots of Rhodey stripping the Rescue armor of its parts was well done too, the room looked trashed.

Good