Iron Man 2.0 #7 Review

As Fear Itself meanders on, War Machine and The Immortal Weapons continue to stand around and wait for something to happen.

Iron Man 2.0 #7

War Machine and the Immortal Weapons (that’s Bride of Nine Spiders, Dog Brother #1, Fat Cobra, Iron Fist, Prince of Orphans and Tiger’s Beautiful Daughter for those of you keeping score at home) find that they’ve just gotten knocked on their butts, and they’re not sure how or why – all they know is that once The Absorbing Man touched the hammer…  “Then, you know…  the hurt.”  Couldn’t have put it better myself, Iron Fist.  Meanwhile, Dr. Strange looks on.

Once everybody gets off the ground, Sun Wukong (aka The Handsome Monkey King – by the way, I am totally going to start DJing under the name “MC Handsome Monkey King”) tells everyone that The Absorbing Man and Titana took the hammer and left, and he’s going after them – Jim suggests they follow, but The Prince of Orphans points out that the Hell Gate is still open, and they must close it.  How, you ask, does one close a gate to hell?  You kneel on the ground and chant.  Obviously.  (And might I add, how visual and exciting!)  Jim predicts this won’t work, and it doesn’t (because if it did, the issue would be 10 pages long), because Iron Fist is suddenly sort-of possessed by Agamotto (as revealed by Dr. Strange at the end of the issue), and he won’t let them get their prayer on to close the gate.  Iron Fist makes short work of the Immortal Weapons, and finally, with something to do, Jim engages him and tries out some of his new armor’s cooler features:  Ghost Tech (which lets objects phase through him) and Stealth Mode (which turns him invisible), but to no effect.  With no other alternative, Jim prepares to unleash his big guns, but as he fires, he is unknowingly mystically enhanced by Dr. Strange, and Iron Fist is downed and the Gate to Hell closes on its own.

Iron Man 2.0 #7 suffers from the same problems that issues 5 and 6 (also released under the Fear Itself banner) suffered from; Jim is just some side guy, along for the ride, with little to do and is easily replaceable with any another character.  At least they worked his armor into this issue, even if it was useless… you know, the armor Tony just gave him in issue 4 (before Marvel smashed up the story arc by injecting Fear Itself where it didn’t belong), which he said was the best he had…  yeah, but it’s useless in issues 5, 6 and 7.  On the other hand, the art is lovely, and as comics are a visual medium, this is important; some noteworthy stuff includes the full panel of the Hell Gate on page 6, the big panel of Iron Fist on page 12 and the layout on page 13.  But from a story standpoint (or if you’re just a big War Machine fan), I can’t come up with any good reasons to recommend this issue to anyone for any reason.  If this story needed to be told, it shouldn’t have been done in the pages of Iron Man 2.0, instead, they should have put out issues 5, 6 and 7 as a separate “Immortal Weapons:  Fear Itself – guest starring War Machine” limited series.

For more visit acomicbookblog.com/tag/fear-itself

All Fear Itself reviews:

Fear Itself: #1 | #2 | #3 | #4 |

Fear Itself: The Home Front: #1 | #2 | #3 | #4 |

Fear Itself: Spider-Man: #1 | #2 | #3 |

Fear Itself: Youth in Revolt: #1 | #2 | #3 |

Journey Into Mystery: #622 | #623 | #624 | #625 |

Invincible Iron Man: #503 | #504 | #505 | #506 |

Avengers: #13 | #14 | #15 |

New Avengers: #14 |

Secret Avengers: #13 | #14 | #15

Avengers Academy: #15 | #16 |

Thunderbolts: #159 | #160 |

Uncanny X-Men: #540 | #541 |

Hulk: #37 |

Iron Man 2.0: #7 | 

Fear Itself: Black Widow: #1 |

Fear Itself: Deadpool: #1 | #2 |

Fear Itself: Wolverine: #1 |

For more visit our Fear Itself tag @ acomicbookblog.com/tag/fear-itself

Tags: Carmine Di Giandomenico Fear Itself Marvel Iron Man Nick Spencer