Iron Man II #4 - Marvel

I like this book. I like the story . . . and I like the art. Orson Scott Card is obviously a very talented writer, and of course, we all know that Pasqual Ferry is an incredible artistic talent. As I've said the first couple issues of this book . . really, all my complaints come down to the back-story. The recap page. I understand that they're trying to get the reader involvement. I get that they want them to buy in to the story. But really . . . . I mean really, is the re-cap page . . . does it really need to be that complicated. I mean, it reads like the plot line for the previous year of the Bold & the Beautiful, or the Young & the Restless. Seriously, it just seems to be a lot more complicated than it needs to be. Maybe I'm over thinking it, but . . that's just my opinion. But, having said that, I really did enjoy the story. But I had to read it as if I was ignoring that page. Last issue we saw Tony and Obadiah get on a plane, to make a deal where Tony traded one of his "robots" for information on the nuke that was somewhere in America. Of course they're double-crossed. And, to make matters worse, they found the nuke. It's on the plane with them. This Dolores guy, who was Obadiah's contact, was supposed to take them to the rendezvous spot, but . . he wasn't even on the plane. They just thought he was. So I thought the way that Tony got out of this situation this issue, was pretty original. Especially considering that he know that if he's blown to pieces . . . he'll just grow new ones. When he gets together with his father, after the incident, to try to figure out what happened and why, they find out a few things. First of all, Dolores was never really in charge of anything. He was simply a middle-man. Why? Because they find him assassinated in his apartment. So now they have to figure out who it is. For being so young, Tony has an awfully detailed analytical thought process. After the plane blew-up, and he had to wait in the ocean for the rescue party to show up, he thought about what was happening . . and why. He's figured out that the person behind the whole thing is most likely . . . Loni, Howard's first wife. After Howard, she married Zebadiah Stane, Obadiah's father, and ended up with Howard's company. Then, I'm sure, after Zebadiah was killed, she probably also ended up with his company. So basically, she's a very powerful woman. Fu#$%d up! But, powerful. Which, I guess, really, is what this whole back story is all about. It's to show us that even the wealthy families . . . the Starks and the Stanes . . . when it comes down to it, are just as fu#$%d up as the rest of us. Despite my misgivings, the reason I liked this book so much is because there were so many original ideas. Which, in general, is why I like the Ultimate line so much. So in my eyes, this book is definitely living up to the image and expectations of it's imprint.