Monday, September 30, 2013

The Invincible Iron Man Vol.1 by Matt Fraction Review







What do you think about Iron Man? Since the 90s Iron Man has been written as a villainous character for example he killed a multiple people in the 90s, He forced superhuman registration and helped make a prison in the negative zone to keep his friends, and all the other villainous stuff he did in the illuminati like send the hulk into outer space against his will. The reason iron man was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby was to see if they could make a weapons dealer a likeable character and they succeeded but in recent years he has been less heroic. Matt Fraction takes IRON MAN back to his roots literally in this book (trade collects the invincible Iron Man 1-19.) and make him a real hero once more.

The Good

The story begins before secret invasion with Tony Stark still the director of shield. The first arc is Tony’s five nightmares it’s a great call back to the iron monger story from the 90s, In this story the iron mongers son (Ezekiel Stane) is seeking revenge on Iron Man for the death of his Dad he is plotting his revenge much like his father by stealing Starks technology and trying to use it against him.  Stane has reversed engineered Tony’s iron man technology and has created suicide bombers and a whole new suit just for himself just like his old dad. This teaches tony a much need lesson in humility. What follows after this story is an iron man spider man team up it’s a great self-contained story but after what tony has done to make parkers life worse I’m surprised he would want to be near him. the next arc is when shit really hits the fan, the story picks up after secret invasion at the beginning of dark reign where tony is fired from shield and Norman Osborne takes his place as director of shield the first thing tony does is destroy all his important information he had left behind when Osborne finds this out he claims tony is guilty of treason and begins a man hunt too find stark. Stark knows that if he is captured all the secrets he poses that are implanted into his brain would be at the disposal of Osborne, so he does the unthinkable and deletes his memory! This cause Tony to slowly lose his memory like a super hero with Alzheimer’s causing him to revert back to the older iron man suits because they are less complex this  Force iron man to as the Beatles say “get back to wear you once belonged “. Matt Fraction has created an amazing snake eating his tail type of story, his writing is impeccable and he makes every character feel unique and different from the last, the banter between Norman and Tony is hilarious it’s great  to see tony on the other side of the coin. As for the Art Salvador Larroca draws Iron Man and all fasciitis of the marvel universe realistic and believable seeing him draw every ironman suit is a really treat his art is like watching a well-directed movie, the colors are also fantastic it really helps the book come to life.

The Bad

The idea of tony deleting his memory is very impractical if you think about it if he heads a hard drive and he was slow deleting his memory why was it selective? Why did he forget the little things first? There Is also a strange love triangle between Tony, Peeper Pots(Tony’s assistant), and Maria Hill(agent of shield) that I don’t even know was happening until Tony and Maria Hill had sex but shortly after Tony says Pepper is the only girl for him. Why does tony have sex with his coworker Maria Hill that’s her boss I didn’t think there  relationship was that romantic like that or is that just a common thing in comic books.

The Score 8/10

If you love Iron man but don’t know where to start this is the best place. This was the first Iron Man solo book that I have ever read and its great read with strong protagonist and great supporting characters that you’ll actually care about. A great Iron Man book that doesn’t make him look like a uber-fascist.

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