Written by Matt Fraction
Illustrated by Salvador Larocca, Kano, Nathan Fox, Carmine Di GandomenicoGIANT-SIZED ANNIVERSARY ISSUE! Three generations of Starks face their ultimate foe, seventy-some years in the future while, in the present, Spider-Man joins Iron Man as he tries to fill in the blanks of his missing memory. What if amnesia was a weapon? What if the smartest man in the land had ten nightmares that all came true? Who is the son of Tony Stark? What’s inside of the rings? The future starts now, for the Marvel Universe’s favorite futurist. The Eisner-award-winning series makes a four-hundred-something-issue leap and raises a glass of non-alcoholic champale in salute to Ol’ Shell-head! By Matt Fraction (THOR, UNCANNY X-MEN, CASANOVA) and Salvador Larroca (UNCANNY X-MEN, FANTASTIC FOUR), with special guests KANO, Nathan Fox and Carmine Di Giandomenico!
The 500th issue of Invincible Iron Man is finally here, as we get a renumbering, a slew of guest artists, and a story that spans the length of Tony Stark’s history. It’s a big deal, but is it a good comic?
Find out after the jump.
I’ve been thinking about this issue a lot more than my average review, and with good reason. There is a lot to take in about this book. One thing I wanted to note was how perfectly Matt Fraction fits this book, and it’s because he, like Tony Stark, is a futurist.
Throughout his career, whether we’re talking about early works like Casanova or The Five Fists of Science or more recent books like The Order or this book, Fraction has pushed his storytelling to embrace the past but also look to the future of the medium and ways to present his stories. Throw in the scientific bent most of his stories have as well, and you have a writer who has his eyes on the future just like the hero of his most well-loved superhero work.
While the 500th issue of Invincible Iron Man may not be what many would expect from such a momentous issue, in my mind, it’s perfect from a written standpoint, and the best issue of Fraction’s run to-date.
This issue finds Tony Stark confronting his recent coma-based nightmares head on, as the War of the Worlds esque walker he created is gnawing at his brain and raising fear in the ever confident mind of Stark. In four different segments, the present and future of this creation is faced by Tony Stark and his family and friends, with special appearances coming from Peter Parker (and Spider-Man) as well as Tony’s son Howard Stark II, his granddaughter Ginny and the villain behind the whole deal – the Mandarin.
The way that these stories weave together using the mnemonic device “remember the spider” as the focal point is nothing short of genius, and to me, this story tells the type of fitting ending to Tony Stark that he should receive. I don’t want to get into the details because that is where the joy of the issue comes from, but the future Fraction creates is brilliant and terrifying and the interactions between Peter and Tony are nothing short of exemplary. At first, the set-up was jarring, but once I got into it, I quickly realized how much I was enjoying it.
Artistic detail was split up between four stellar contributors: regular artist Salvador Larocca, previous contributor Carmine di Gandomenico, and the underrated efforts of Kano and Nathan Fox. The only downside of this issue for me was Larocca seemed to struggle in some of the more personal moments between Stark and Parker, as his faces (particularly Peter’s) were awkward and distinctly inorganic feeling. The more action oriented segments were grand, but it was still not his best effort.
On the other hand, all three other artists killed it here. Nathan Fox is one of my sneaky favorites, as I rarely see his work but always love it when I do. Here, his and Kano’s art fit the dystopian future Fraction creates perfectly. Gritty, devastated, and truly feeling like the end of the world, Fox and Kano bring this terrible world to life with a real energy that makes the pages leap out at you.
Continued belowCarmine di Gandomenico previously worked on a Mandarin centric issue here, and the work is perfect for the grandeur and thoughtful malevolence of the character. His efforts are aided by the juxtaposition with Kano and Fox’s work, as the regal domain of the Mandarin only makes the destroyed future all the more intoxicating and vice versa.
This is not at all what I expected for this issue, but the way Fraction tied up this ongoing plot point was brilliant and elegant in its simplicity. Fraction is nothing if not clever with his storytelling in this book, and this to me feels like a step up in quality even for him. Even with the massive disparity between my expectations and the reality, I have to say that I was completely blown away by this issue.
Final Verdict: 9.5 – Buy
