Invincible Iron Man #517 Review
Are Tony Stark’s days as Iron Man over?
Invincible Iron Man #517
Ezekiel Stane works carefully to remove the bomb the Mandarin has placed in his chest. While he’s under the knife, Tony Stark is in the Baxter Building to have Reed Richards remove the Extremis nanos from his body that will effectively end his tenure as Iron Man. At Stark Resilient, Leonard Pimacher, aka Spymaster, is continuing his mission to bring the company down but is foiled by Bethany Cabe. While Tony recovers from the extraction of Extremis, he has one more favor to ask of Richards – replace the defective cracked repulsor node in his chest. Out in international waters, the new Firepower is knocked out of the sky by a brand new Iron Man.
This is a very interesting issue from Matt Fraction and Salvador Larroca. It’s interesting in the way that the pacing is used to quick cut from one sub-plot to the next almost like a movie would. While there are times when certain locations are revisited, we don’t stay in any one place longer than two or three pages. Each one of those scenes gives us just enough to say to ourselves “Ooh, what’s happening here? What’s that over there? What’s that going to mean for [insert character name]?”
This is part two of this arc. It’s an interesting turn to take at this point in the arc too. The first part was entirely used to set up the idea that Tony Stark is going to quit being Iron Man. Now, we’re building toward who this new Iron Man is and what Ezekiel’s plan is to try to get out from under Mandarin’s plan. Plus, there’s the element of Spymaster’s doings in Stark Resilient. The Spymaster part, alone, is a long running plot point that goes back to the first arc of this current era. Even though that’s definitely taking a backseat lately, even when we’ve learned who the mole is and who is striking close to Stark’s “home”. So, there’s a lot here that is hard to completely discern what is going to play a bigger part aside from Stark getting a new repulsor and what this new Iron Man can do.
However, I can say that I sincerely doubt that Stark has gotten rid of Extremis. First, I’m fairly certain it was determined that he couldn’t get rid of it once he took it into his body. So for it to just take a moment that is excruciatingly painful at the Baxter Building to get rid of it seems unlikely. Plus, there’s a rumor flying about that Extremis has something to do with the upcoming Iron Man 3 movie. So… We know Tony’s got a plan, but what is it and how will it help get the government and the Hammers off his butt? I suspect that will be main plot of this arc while some of the other things we see in this issue fall back and get set up for coming arcs.
This book isn’t terribly exciting, but sets a larger plan into action even if we’re not 100% certain what it is.
A COMIC BOOK BLOG RATING
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Good pacing that quick cuts between one scene to the next. As always, great art from Larroca. | Not terribly exciting from an action standpoint. |
| Rating |
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1 Comment
Though you stopped posting on the Marvel forums, I can see that your love affair with Matt Fraction continues.
Okay, lets throw some holes into this story. First, either Babbage and Hammer (and the entire anti-Iron Man crew for that matter) are complete morons or Fraction is an idiot. What’s to prevent Tony from designing a new Iron Man suit that is completely external? Every suit he has worn except for two have been external suits. Hell, he doesn’t even need the reactor to power them.
Second, if all Tony had to do is replace the existing reactor, why didn’t he do it before? He drove a damn truck that had an arc reactor for Christ’s sake! But now he has to go to Reed to replace the one in his chest? Huh?
This is a crappy issue in a crappy arc by a crappy writer.
I mourn the death of Iron Man.