Iron Man #8

I swear, this armor is not growing on me. I love the black and gold “Mainframe” design in the Avengers title, so being reminded of this starburst… ugh. Just not for me.

So Kieron Gillen sure loves his evil robots, doesn’t he? There are two in this issue alone! Death’s Head and Recorder 451 are different types of baddies, but they are both robots. Death’s Head doesn’t quite look like himself, but he does sound right. I’m glad the character seems to be getting so much use these days. What happens to him after the Celestials attack, though? I’m sure he survives…

This little three parter, the “Godkiller” was really more about setting up Recorder 451. He has some dialogue about setting everything up so that he could arrange the Celestial slaughter of the alien Voldi. I certainly hope the upcoming “Secret Origin of Tony Stark” isn’t tied to 451. I can’t be the only one who’s having a hard time seeing Iron Man with all these ties to outer space.

I don’t think Greg Land likes drawing backgrounds. During the gladiator scenes, the crowd is made up of weird morphs that almost look humanoid or plain brown dirt. I found myself a bit confused during the fight, too. Is Death’s Head actually connecting when he’s tossing those statues at Tony Stark? I’d think that would kill an unarmored guy, right? So he’s missing and Stark is rolling out of the way? I’m missing something. His work on the main figures is usually better. I don’t like the armor, but it is striking. I’m pretty sure the Celestials proportions are off, but I do like seeing them. Land does a nice job with the Kirby designs.

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