Written by Matt Fraction
Illustrated by Salvador LaroccaFEAR ITSELF tie-in! Fear has spread across the land and has made its way to Broxton, Oklahoma. As the Broxton residents prepare for a major disaster, Iron Man and Stark Resilient head into action. On the eve of this cataclysmic event, the Armored Avenger will face many dangers, but the greatest danger of all will be facing Fear Itself in this tie-in to the biggest Marvel event ever!
Fear Itself is here! I don’t know about the rest of you, but out of the two big summer events this year, this is the story that I personally am looking forward to the most. Having followed Fraction’s career as a writer for quite some time now, it’s pretty exciting to see him relatively in charge of the future of the Marvel Universe.
Of course, I wouldn’t really be following him at Marvel at all if it weren’t for a little book called Invincible Iron Man, which came out at literally the exact right time for me to get into the book. So considering that Fraction has duties over both Iron Man and the event, and this issue is solicited at a Fear Itself tie-in, it would seem that its time to let the hammers fall, right?
Find out after the cut.
I hate to start the review off on far too high of a note, but Invincible Iron Man is without a doubt one of Marvel’s strongest character driven titles. Sure, Marvel has a wide array of books you can choose from, but Invincible Iron Man began a brand new saga for Tony Stark that sought to simply make the book accessible to anyone who might come across it (say, after seeing a movie or something?). With a brand new direction from the politically driven title before it, Invincible Iron Man has been an incredibly strong saga following the adventures of Tony Stark. All things considered, from it’s humble post-Order beginnings, through Dark Reign, Disassembled and Resilient, I can honestly say I have universally loved this title.
That being said, this issue – let alone this arc – is not exactly the best this title has had to offer since it started. While Iron Man is no stranger to coming against Doc Ock in the past, this issue focuses mainly on the degradation of Iron Man as a person in the face of defeat. It is tangentially an idea that I suppose plays towards Fear Itself and the thematic premise of the story, but ultimately the issue plays out as a not so clean conclusion to an arc that was really just about Stark being … well, a loser. Not to necessarily spoil the story, but Iron Man only saves the day to a certain extent. For the most part, the issue is a loss for the character, and in a story that had been rather tense with the finale of the previous issue, the resulting wrap-up does not sufficiently give enough of an impact for the events of this story to have felt like they “matter.”
I suppose part of the problem is that this issue brands itself as a Fear Itself “tie-in.” When I said earlier that the connection is tenuous at best, I wasn’t lying. While yes, the issue does technically end with a moment straight out of Fear Itself, the issue is only a Fear Itself tie-in thanks to a wink and a nod in a line of dialogue in which Thor says: “May we both be fearless and resilient as the day is long.” It’s honestly a cheesy line tossed out, and while I can assume it’s supposed to be appropriate based on – oh, I don’t know – the arc Stark Resilient and the upcoming Fear Itself, and the feeling given off here is the same when your friend throws out a horrible pun during casual conversation at the pub on Friday after work. You appreciate the effort on him having thought up something a tad clever, but some things are better left unsaid.
Generally, this is quite an odd issue/arc for the ongoing saga of Tony Stark to have. Invincible Iron Man spent a lot of time destroying Stark, breaking his brain and leaving him beaten in a pile of dirt. Then we spent a good time watching Iron Man turn into a hero who can overcome his own demons and inherent personality flaws to relaunch himself in a new persona and career, only to … beat him down again? Watch him get played as a fool? And for what purpose? Invincible Iron Man is, like I said, a specifically character driven story. This isn’t Iron Man as part of a team; that’s the Avengers. While I’m not advocating for a title in which the hero wins the girl at the end of every day, there’s certainly something as to needlessly kicking a guy while he’s down. The arc simply doesn’t fit in here, because most people reading Iron Man now are a) waiting for Fear Itself, b) waiting for Stane to return, c) waiting for Mandarin to return, and d) waiting for Stane and Mandarin to return together – something that Fraction has been building towards for a long time in this title. While I can imagine that is going to be put off until after Fear Itself, this arc generally just felt like a filler story in between where Resilient and Iron Man’s anniversary ended and what is to come in the future.
Continued belowThis is also a moment of “Why am I not reading the comic that was apparently solicited to me?” Apparently the Doc Ock story ran a bit long. Ok. This is arguably the smallest complaint I have, but I tend to want to read the issue I’m told that I’m going to read.
So no, this issue is not a Fear Itself tie-in. Not really, anyway. It’s odd to be rather disappointed at this, but even with last week’s Journey Into Mystery, it’s Fear Itself tie-in ended up making sense once you got to the end of the issue. This issue simply places Fraction’s Invincible Iron Man run in league with his Thor run, because as the issue ends it becomes clear where the two corrects intersect right before Fear Itself begins, including an unstated (and slightly awkward) time jump. Does the Fear Itself branding hurt the initial inference of content? Yes, quite a bit. There is certainly something to be said from a cover and a logo branding, because it gives an implied element to the title – in this case, that the writer of the major Marvel event might, in some way, elaborate on his event in some meaningful way (notice that The Mighty Thor is not a Fear Itself branded title). That’s just not the case here.
The story doesn’t solely focus on Iron Man, though. There’s Pepper Pott’s side of the story, revealing a quiet secret and allowing Fraction further Potts as a heroine and not just his assistant. You can probably thank Gwenyth Paltrow for this (in between berating her Cee-Lo Green cover), but Pepper Potts is probably more important as a character now than she has ever been. While Ms. Potts was always a part of Stark’s life, she has gone from being just his assistant to also being the heroine Rescue, outfitted with the same life saving arc-reactor technology that has kept Tony around. She doesn’t get very many scenes to use it, though, so Fraction has tossed her a bone with this issue and allows her to defeat Electro and Sand Man – which would be cool if it weren’t so rushed. All implausibility issues aside, Pepper is instructed that sand conducts electricity, giving her the spark (pun intended) of how to defeat them, which she then just does. No fanfare, no drama – just a battle with no bodies and a shrug of the shoulders. It feels kind of odd to give Pepper such a heroic scene – one that outshines Iron Man’s battle, surely – only to just have it … well, disappear (not to put too fine a point on it).
Suffice it to say, this hasn’t been Fraction on his best. Fraction is definitely one of the best writers at Marvel, a note which is included with his role as an Architect, but the first issue of Fear Itself felt a lot more fine tuned than this (or even the finale of Thor). While it’s understandable on some level that Fraction would just generally want to “get on with it” and get to the good stuff with Serpents and hammers and Stuart Immonen, he probably could have done it with a tad more grace. Thinking in part for the character here, I can imagine there was quite a bit of emotion that went into the idea to have humans rebuild Asgard. This issue presents that element, portrayed with great fanfare in Fear Itself, as simply a footnote of the storyline so that everything lines up on a discernable timeline. While Fraction has definitely given his intense character arc for Stark quite a bit of thought in the past, the whole Doc Ock fight just feels empty in the end, leaving no great change to the character that is readily apparent (not to me, at any rate).
There’s also the issue of the back-up story which, for all intents and purposes, just feels out of place. This is me clearly making an assumption here, but with the upcoming Fear Itself tie-in I think it’s safe to assume that Iron Man will, in some way, deal with the events of Fear Itself in a more elaborative measure. Perhaps it will only serve to flesh out a few scenes. Who knows? However, I think it’s also safe to say that Stane won’t be a part of the book until we’re ready to move on from the wrap-up of Fear Itself – which then leads me to question, why did we get a story about Tony’s dad stealing Stane’s wife now? Yes, the Stane’s are “back” … but that was a good arc ago. The story would have been much more relevant then, or at least when a Stane was involved in the title in SOME form or fashion. Right now they’re off in the distance somewhere. As much as I honestly do like any excuse to see Howard Chaykin work on a Marvel title, this once again adds to the rushed feel of the issue. This is honestly an oversized issue as it is – was Fraction just looking to fill in some extra space at the end?
Continued belowHowever, there is certainly a fair deal of talent artwork in the issue. Salvador Larocca continues his trend of being rather visually superb, with only a few odd shadow moments here and there throughout the issue. Larocca has been very steady with the visual aspect of the issue since it’s inception, and the rounded realistic colors coupled with the cinematic feel the book tries to deliver matches what’s also great about an artist like Adi Granov when he worked on Iron Man (with Warren Ellis). Larocca and colorist D’Armata give the flashback sequence a rather less-polished look than the main title, but it ultimately works to visually add a more grainy variation to events that came before. Artistically, it’s as if to say, “what came before – with Stark drunk on a beach – is not nearly as polished as the new Extremis 2.0 Stark.” Different era Iron Men, different era finishes. It adds a nice touch to another great looking issue from Larocca. Really, the only poor visual elements of the story are those featuring Pepper Potts fighting in the dark, and that’s due to the over use of shadows that inadvertently add odd marks to faces (in one scene, making Potts look like Ledger’s Joker). The darker elements don’t take up enough of the issue for it to really throw the story off balance, so it’s admissible.
At this point in time, I feel it is necessary to say that it honestly goes without saying that (at least I think) Howard Chaykin’s section of the book, while odd in terms of story, was once again great in terms of visual storytelling as we have come to expect from such a legendary creator. I do not have much more to say on his work beyond that.
With a title like Invincible Iron Man, which is being written by the same author of the big Marvel event and which has been one of the top Marvel books for quite some time, I don’t suppose it’s too unfair to ask for a story that “matters.” There is certainly a positive aspect of arc by arc or issue by issue storytelling, but Invincible Iron Man has never been one of those books. It’s always been moving forward in a clear and ever evolving path, all of which has to do with Stark’s growth as a person. While it’s acknowledgeable that Stark is probably about to take a bit of a fall thanks to whatever is to come, it seems like the “kick him while he’s down” moment probably could’ve been saved for the story that actually has something to do with Fear Itself beyond a hammer fall at the end of the issue. Instead, we’re given an arc that doesn’t push the book in any real direction as we patiently wait for our event to really kick off in full force.
Who knows? Maybe in time, the confrontation between Doc Ock and Iron Man will “make more sense.” To be fair, many books begin with quick arcs that are often more meaningful than they initially appear. And while yes, Iron Man just had a renumbering so it is – in a way – a “new” book, in reality this is issue #37. I think we’re at a point in the title where Fraction has established we’re generally a bit beyond just stories.
Final Verdict: 6.5 – Browse
