the Invicible Iron Man #29, #30, #31 and #32 - Marvel

Matt Fraction adds a really cool element to the story in issue #29. Justin and Sasha Hammer are working on getting their company off the ground . . as Tony pulls himself away from the defense contracts that made him who he is, and tries to get his new company Stark Resilient off the ground . . the Hammer's want to fill Tony's vacant shoes. That's how they came up with their own super-soldier suit . . Detroit Steel. But they've come on the scene like a bull in a china shop. They seem to be trying to bully themselves onto the scene. And I don't think the US Government is any happier about the arrangement than is Tony, but . . with him not filling their contracts, they have to turn to somebody. Plus Sasha has an 'in' with the Government since she's now the Director of SHIELD. Anyways, the cool idea is that the Hammer's introduce a new ap for kid's phones. It's a game. They get to be the back-up for Detroit Steel, and take down targets as well as bad-guys. What they don't know is that they're actually controlling the drones that accompany Detroit Steel. Their idea is that the drones will be harder to fight, because they'll be 'wild-cards'. And, should a player lose the game and get killed, they can simply transfer the uplink to another willing participant. They have an endless supply of drone-pilots. While all of this is going on, Pepper is also fitted with a new repulsor, and has the opportunity to become Rescue again. However a problem arises when, at a gala, Tony and Pepper realize that their respective repulsors are . . well, they repel each other . . kind of like two opposite magnets. So while they can be in the same room, it looks like they won't be able to be intimate again . . or even hug or kiss . . at least until Tony figures out how to fix things. In the interim . . he approaches Justine Hammer and decides to take her out on the town. Or at least for one hell of a ride. He starts showing off his new armor and ideas to Justine, and baits her into activating the enhanciles that Zeke Stane implanted within her. It turns out that's what this whole trip was really all about . . Tony wanted to see what her capabilities were . . he wanted to know what he was up against. He destroys a car in the process, but . . with Pepper's help, he sends Justine running in retreat. Unfortunately, the woman's scorn is felt shortly after when Tony debuts his new car on the test track. They're immediately besieged by the Hammer drones. Not only do they get their first prototype destroyed, but . . Tony is convinced that they have someone working within their new company that is spying on them for the Hammers. He then starts trying to pinpoint the people he can trust. Unfortunately they have a public demonstration of the car scheduled, and Tony can't get it all figured out in time without affecting their publicity negatively. The good news is that when the Hammer's decide to attack . . they show their hand when the phone ap activates and the field of conflict is recognized as Tony's test track. That's when they realize how these drones are being used. But it may be to little to late as Detroit Steel also shows up for the attack and Iron Man has to fight him, while trying to keep the civilian audience safe. Luckily, he's got War-Machine and Rescue to help him. But they come up with a plan. First they have to shut down Seattle's cell-towers so that they can cut off the connection between the operators and the drones. Secondly, Tony figures out that they're actually targeting they repulsor tech. So if War-Machine and Rescue power down . . they'll effectively be invisible to their tracking systems. The problem with that is . . if Pepper powers down she'll go into cardiac arrest. They'll have 14 minutes to revive her, until . . they can't. And Tony's part in all of this is to take off with the car and try to save what little they have left of their company. So it's a race . . all the way around. And all of this is leading up to Iron Man #500, which will immediately follow issue #33. Which will be where this current story-line wraps up. I think Matt Fraction and Salvador Larroca have done an incredible job with this book. The stories have been at break-neck speed . . with lots of cool ideas from Matt. And they've been visually attractive as well. I've always had a passing interest in Iron Man, which is why I decided to pick up this title when it first came out. I haven't been able to put it down since. I can't wait to see how this storyline wraps up . . as well as where things go after issue #500. The best is yet to come.

the Invincible Iron Man #28 - Marvel

This is another series that just keeps going strong each and every month. Now that Tony has gotten his brain functioning properly again . . now he needs to focus on rebuilding his company . . Stark Resilient. I think he's got a few good people lined up, but . . he keeps getting distracted by various things as Iron Man. The most recent of which is the attack at the Japanese subway. By the time Tony and Rhodey get there, Justine Hammer and her new Detroit Steel and pretty much cleaned up the situation. However, what Tony and the rest of the world don't know is that it was Justine that created this situation. She hired the people to make the ruckus, and she outfitted them with Stark Industries cape-killer armor. Which is why Detroit Steel had to kill them all . . she couldn't leave any witness' behind. But, Justine has a younger girl with her also . . Sasha Hammer. And Tony thinks he recognizes her. He connects her to a bombing at a Taiwan hospital that happened the same night that Ezekiel Stane destroyed Start Tower in Taipei. So now he knows that they're connected. 'Whatever this Detroit Steel stuff is . . at the heart of it all is Hammer and Stane.' So what's he going to do next? 'Throw a party.' We also get a glimpse of Pepper in the hospital. She's awake . . and smiling. Anyways, I think that Matt Fraction does a great job with this story. I like the way he's showing Tony trying to rebuild his life . . without a lot of the memories of his previous one. But that doesn't slow down anyone else that does remember. Which is where all the distractions come in. I think it's a nice little drama that's unfolding. And as always, Salvador Larroca turns in a great art job.

the Invincible Ironm Man #27 - Marvel

Pepper is literally begging Tony to reinstall the Repulsor Technology into her body. I think she got such a thrill being Rescue . . and a sense of mission in life, that she's not ready to give it up just yet. Plus . . Tony promised her she could have it back when he used it to come back from the precipice. Right now . . she's tired of waiting for him to make the decision to actually do it. Also some of Tony's old employee's are coming back. There's not really even a company for them to work for, right now. But . . they believe in Tony, and they believe that he'll come through with what he says. Meanwhile, in Tokyo, Justine Hammer is in town and she's decided to show off her Detroit Steel. Basically she hires a gang to terrorize one of the subways, and then Detroit Steel swoops in and takes out the 'terrorists'. But who's the real 'terrorist' here? Them? Or Justine? Of course she has the media waiting and ready to eat up all the action. She's already got a contract with the city of Tokyo. Or maybe with it's Police Dept. I'm not sure. But what she really wants is a contract with the US Government. As soon as the footage starts airing she calls up the General to see if he's watching. Almost immediately he decides that the US military needs to sign a contract with them. I just hope they know what they're getting in to. I don't see this ending well for . . well, anybody. Tony also sees the footage. He doesn't know that it's all a publicity stunt. A very bloody, high cost publicity stunt. All he knows is that there's some type of mechanical armor involved and he wants to find out what's going on. The issue ends with he and Rhodey, War Machine, racing off to Tokyo in thier suits. I love the job that Matt Fraction and Salvador Larocca have been doing here. They've keep the book interesting and entertaining, and . . the path that they've put Tony's life on has been full of turmoil and pitfalls. But Tony's strength lies in how he overcomes all of the obstacles thrown in front of him. He's a man that rises best to the challenge. I've really enjoyed this title. Each and every month.

Iron Man #26 - Marvel

Matt Fraction does a great job of throwing a whole lot of stuff at us. A whole lot of neat, cool and unique ideas. This issue, and the last, feels like it's setting things up for the future. We get to see an assortment of different puzzle pieces, but . . we don't know how everything fits together. Yet! The Hammer women are trying to fill the void created by Tony's withdraw from the arms race. He's decided to try to make an impact on the world. A positive impact. In the meantime, the Hammer women just want to make money. And the irony is . . they're doing so with arms that have been wrangled from the dissolution of HAMMER. We all know that HAMMER was the next evolution of SHIELD. And we all know that SHIELD was provided weapons by . . Stark Industries. So the weapons they're selling were actually designed by Tony . . while he's trying to make the world a better place. Anyways, in the beginning of the story we see Spymaster. Apparently he's in the business of corporate infiltration, espionage, and . . demolition. And we see him doing it quite eloquently. Later in the story, Justine Hammer hires him to , 'Smother Tony Stark's new thing while it's in the crib.' But I'm not sure what there is to smother right now. Tony's broke, and he's really only just beginning to put things back together. We see him this issue making an offer to an old engineer that he disgraced . . who later went on to invent a really good electric car. The problem is, he's got power issues. Tony is willing to fix that if . . he becomes his partner. 'Stark repulsor tech is going to power the world, and I'm staking my professional future on it.' Meanwhile, Steve Rogers sends Tony all the old Iron Man gear that they have. Which really has Tony excited. Now he actually has some capital, some inventory to start working from. 'We gotta start stripping these things for parts and melting them down.' Overall I thought it was a good issue. It really helped to move things forward and get us ready for the next chapter. Also Tony does a little wrapping up of his own this issue when he sends Steve a present. It's a memory stick. 'The complete and total Iron Man how-to. And the mayday switch if for any reason Cap needs to shut me down.' I think Matt is brilliant, and he's doing a great job with this series. And as ever, the beautiful art is contributed by Salvador Larroca.

Invincible Iron Man #25 - Marvel

Well . . Tony's trying to put his life back together. As we knew he would be. But . . he's got a big chunk of information missing. Basically . . the last few years. He had backed himself up for just this eventuality, but . . once he got involved in the Civil War and the whole Initiative thing . . not to mention SHIELD . . well, apparently he forgot the computer pledge . . 'Back-up! Often!' So every move, and decision, and stratagem that he employed during that time . . has been completely erased from his memory. Sure, he can look everything up on the internet, and see the consequences of all his actions, but . . it's not the same as being able to recall the actual experience. So . . he's decided to use this opportunity . . I wonder how quick he had to work through the 7 stages of grief to come to that decision . . he's decided to make up for his past mistakes by putting his life on a new path. He wants to quit making weapons, and coming up with ideas that make the world a more violent place. Instead . . he wants to focus on the repulsor technology. And he's also tired of everyone trying to rip off his idea for this and use it for evil. 'What if we exercised a kind of intellectual detente strategy? What if the rare was common? What if everybody had access to non-weaponizable RT and everything it could do? What would the world look like if there was repulsor tech in every home, on every street, in every school? License this from me and in thirty years you'll be operating free of fossil fuels. You'll have scalable power to whatever you need, whenever and wherever you needed it. And the world will have it too. Don't license this from me and in thirty years I, and your competition, will have put you out of business. Ladies and gentlemen, the future is free energy, and I'm inviting you in on the ground floor. Stark Resilient is going to power the world for free. You guys . . you guys will have to pay cash. C'mon. Let's do something insane like save the world.' There's a problem though. As inspiring as that speech was . . Tony said a few almost treasonous things in there. First he tells all these captains of industry that if they don't join him, he'll eventually put them out of business. No matter how good his idea is, nobody wants to hear that. Secondly . . 'Free Energy'. That's an oxymoron. Right? Well . . it is in our world. Nothing is going to send these guys running fast than a pack of scared rabbits than the words 'Free Energy'. It's blasphemy. Right? But Justine Hammer knew that Tony was going to do something like this, so . . she's developed her own line of 'Asymmetrical security solutions for a post-political world.' But once all her buyers had heard that Tony was back, they brushed her off. Now after Tony's speech, she's standing back with open arms waiting for everyone to come running. It takes probably less than 5 minutes for her first phone call. Anyways, during the course of all this Tony also got with Reed and updated his own Iron Man armor . . an upgrade to extremis. And it's looks pretty sleek and nifty. I can't wait to see what he can do with it. First of all . . I think Matt Fraction is brilliant. I love the intricacies of this story that he's been developing over the last 25 issues. And he's got a lot of cool ideas. Secondly, meld that with Salvador Larroca's beautiful art, and this is a book that is definitely worth following. I've been entertained and engaged with every issue of this series. And in the end, after plopping down 3 bucks per pop . . that's all I ask for. Well . . that and some beautiful covers. And I haven't been disappointed yet. Thanks, guys!

Iron Man Legacy #1 - Marvel

I wasn't actually planning on buying this series, but . . I found this variant cover on line for 99 cents, so . . I picked it up. But . . I may regret that decision. I thought that this was going to be a mini-series, but . . it looks like it's Iron Man's second on-going series. Oh well. I'll give it a shot. This issue starts out with a disaster happening across the ocean in Transia. It appears that someone has gathered up some Stark technology, and has gone into that country to kill it's soldiers and able bodied men. Tony is appalled because he'd given up making the weapons that his father used to originally build this company. But now, someone has scraped up enough to make it looks like some earlier version Iron Mans are causing terrorism in a sovereign nation. The real problem is . . Tony's hands are kind of tied. The United States and the UN won't get involved because of how other countries in their alliance would look at it. Tony can't get directly involved because he has no diplomatic standing. And Iron Man is the face of Stark Industries. If things went 'south', it wouldn't be good for the company. Besides, as Rhodey comments, 'You may be able to start something, Tone. Hell, knowing you, you may even be able to end it. But take it from me, what you won't be able to do . . is control it. So you gotta ask yourself: Can I live with the unintended consequences?' Tony understands the logic, but he just can't sit around doing nothing. He's just not built that way. So he goes over in what kind of looks like Hulk-buster armor and lets them know that he's here to help. Whether they want it or not. But it appears that this whole thing has been manipulated by one man. And by acting, Tony is playing right into his hands . . Doctor Doom. I thought Fred Van Lente did a decent job with the story. When it started out, I thought it was going one way. But then it completely changed courses with the events in Transia. However I hope Fred follows up what he started in the beginning of this issue. It was kind of a unique perspective. I liked Steve Kurth's art, also. I've really enjoyed the Invincible series, so . . hopefully this one will turn out to be just as good a read.

the Invincible Iron Man #24 - Marvel

Now this issue . . this issue is the perfect argument for the rant I just had in my Amazing Spider-man post. This story has been building up for 24 issues. That's a long time. Really! But . . along the way, we've been given interesting stories, riveting plot-lines, and a plethora of unique ideas. In other words . . something to keep us interested along the way. I mean . . we all know that Tony's going to be able to drag himself out of this. That in the end, he'll beat this. But, as the story is moving along, the reader becomes genuinely interested in seeing just how he's going to be able to pull it off. And . . Tony's supporting cast . . Maria, Pepper, Rhodey, Doctor Strange . . they're all intimately involved a integral to the story as it moves along. In other words . . it's not one dimensional. In the last 2 issues we've seen that Tony has rebooted his brain. So the knowledge and information is there. The problem is . . he has to want to return. Which is why Doctor Strange has gone in, to try to talk him out. He can't really push, or pull him out . . he just has to try to coax him to do it on his own. And that's proving to be a little more of a fight than he anticipated. But the turning point is when he hears Pepper's voice. That's what finally gives him the strength to pull himself from this 'safe' environment that he's immersed himself in. The world is messy. But inside his head? Not so much. Well . . it is. But at least there, he controls it. Well it's that and he's fighting for his life. In the real world the Ghost is trying to kill him. So . . he pulls himself out and saves the day. There are some peripheral casualties, but . . it doesn't appear that anyone is seriously hurt. Now he just has to deal with a problem that he hadn't anticipated . . the time difference between when he created the back-up, and when he actually had to use it. It appears that he had taken this precaution way back before the Civil War. So we're talking at least 4 years. A lot has happened in that time . . Tony has a lot to catch up on. I have a feeling it's going to be a little overwhelming. Matt Fraction has constructed a fantastic story here. I've been thrilled with it the whole way. Of course it doesn't hurt the Salvador Larocca has contributed fantastic art each and every issue. And even though Tony is finally back . . as we always knew he would be . . I still can't wait to see where we go from here. I just want to tell Matt and Salvador that I really appreciate the hard work that they've put into this series. It has certainly paid off.

Ultimate Comics Armor Wars #4 - Marvel

Since the Ultimatum, Tony has found out that people are buying and selling his tech all over the world. And not just his Iron Man stuff. Also stuff that he had buried deep in his one of his security bunkers. He catches Justine Hammer in the act, but coverts her to his cause when he helps her with a nano-tech problem that she's having with her own body. Essentially . . he saves her life. They end up chasing the tech all over the world, but end up in London where they find that the police have purchased and adapted some of his suits as well into high-tech riot suits. In that fight the Ghost, who was also responsible for stealing the tech and other things from his bunker, tries to kill Tony, but he's saved when Justine shows the police the disk proving that the hardware was stolen. They pull him out of the Thames and he's allowed to destroy everything. Anyways, in the battle, Tony sprayed the Ghost with some radio-active material to allow him to track him. This leads them right back to the United States. With his armor non-functioning, some more robots attack thier plane as they approach the US. They disable Tony and take him and Justine to a secret bunker. There, Tony finds out that this whole thing was orchestrated by his deceased grand-father, Howard Stark Sr.. It seems that when Tony was quite young, Howard Sr. had to fake his death in order to participate in a deep black government project, Project Tomorrow. He had devoted his life to human/machine fusion. However, he's been down here a long time. And he'd decided that it was time for an upgrade . . an upgrade that only his grand-son could give him. And . . he wasn't asking. But before he gets to that, he's more interesting in a mysterious black-box that they also took from Tony's bunker. They've been unable to open it, which makes them even more curious. Tony doesn't want to do that, but after Howard Sr. presents him with his options, he figures he'll give him what he wants. Even if what he wants may not be what he gets. It turns out it's Tony's head from another dimension. It's in an Iron Man helmet. The head's dead, but . . the tech isn't. 'Incredible alien stuff. But it's very difficult to study, because it has some self-defense mechanism stuck on a loop that kills machinery. Shut down my own nanofleet quite violently, the first time. But I've shielded mine since then. Lucky me, I don't need machinery to live.' Apparently it disperses through the air because Howard Sr., Justine and every other machine in the room erupts in fire and burns itself out. Later when Tony is knocking a few back, he's looking at the head and toasting a job well done. After all he is saving the world. Right? Well . . that is until he realizes that the person he's saving the world from is . . himself. I have a feeling that from here . . Tony, and his armor and tech, are going to become a lot less integral part of this world. Warren Ellis wrote this mini-series, so of course there's a lot of brilliant ideas here. I love the way that Warren takes everyday ideas and with an epiphany and a nudge turns them into something completely different. Different, but . . reasonably assumed with the knowledge that we already have. By the time he gets done explaining them, they seem like the natural next step. They become 'fantastical' through the natural thought process. They make perfect sense after he shows them to you, but . .apparently he's the only one capable of initially seeing the path from 'a' to 'b'. I don't know how he continues to do it, over and over. But, he does . . and that's why I love his writing. Steve Kurth does the art. I thought he did a great job. All in all this was a very 'cool' series. I thought that it explained well what happened to Tony after the Ultimatum. And . . it gave us a direction for the future of this character. It looks kind of bleak right now, but . . with the Ultimates coming back, as well as the Ultimate Avengers . . we just never know what's going to happen in this universe.

the Invincible Iron Man #23 - Marvel

As with Cable, this seems to be another story-line that's 25 issues in the making. The difference is . . in my opinion, each issue of this story-line provides us with some pertinent information, and serves to progress the story ever closer to it's conclusion. Or . . if not a conclusion, at least an acceptable resolution. The only thing I don't get is these funky covers by Salvador Larroca. I mean, really? What's the point? They're 50/50 covers, so there's not an extra cost, but really? If someone has a choice between these 2 covers, which one do you really think that they're going to buy? Duhh! And Patrick Zircher's looks so much better. Anyways, last issue Stephen Strange went into Tony's mind to see if he could help him get out. The trouble is . . Tony doesn't know who he is . . Tony, or Iron Man . . and Stephen has to convince him that all of this is happening in his head. By the end of the issue they seem to have made some progress, but they're just not quite there. Meanwhile, Pepper and Maria are in the Tornado shelter trying to protect Tony and Stephen as this is all sorted out. They don't really have much to talk about, so . . things come out. They end up telling each other that they've both slept with Tony. But really . . is it all that much of a surprise to either of them? I mean, they've got to know that there's others out there . . probably to numerous to count, that they don't even know about. At least this is 'the devil you know'. Anyways, they're trying to deal with that as the Ghost decides to make his move. He's figured out where they're hiding and he goes after them. He attacks Pepper first, but that's all just a diversion so he can then have Tony to himself. Unfortunately, Rhodey happens in about the same time and the Ghost shoots him. In Tony's mind, he and Stephen are trying to break through the final barrier. While in the 'real' world . . the Ghost is standing over both their bodies at the same time . . with no one there to stop him. It looks like this story may finally be concluded next issue. I think Matt Fraction is doing a terrific job here. Yes the story has taken forever, but . . most of what's happened has been important to the final event. Looking back now . . from here . . we can see how it all fits together. Plus we get important information and cool ideas presented to us every issue. It's been a great ride. On top of that, Salvador has continued to do a fantastic job with the art. I think it'll be interesting to see how things play out for Tony. I also noticed in the previews, it looks like Pepper may become a hero in her own right. I don't have all the details yet, but . . there appears to be a new hero by the name of Rescue on the horizon. Although we won't know more until May.

the Invincible Iron Man #22 - Marvel

I think I may have been having a bad night when I was reading these 3 books. As with the Ghoul, I wasn't very happy with this book. Again, I think Matt Fraction and Salvador Larocca are doing a great job. But . . overall . . it was a pretty boring issue. Last issue Cap, and Thor, and a few others tried to jump-start Tony's body . . well, mostly his brain. Overall, it seemed to have worked. All his vital signs seem to be pretty much back to normal. However. . the brain doesn't appear to be functioning. Or, at least, it's not cognitive. The hard-drive is spinning . . but, there's no response. So most of this issue is spent with everyone trying to figure out why it didn't work. As with the last couple of issues, we also see the story from Tony's perspective . . a dream like state. He seems to be stuck in some kind of story loop. In fact, he's gone through it so many times that he's starting to notice that it's a little more than deja-vu. And when that happens, he starts to make changes, to the story and the environment. But now he's in a new aspect of the story, so he hasn't realized yet that it's going to keep repeating. But he does know that things have changed. For example, the repulsor unit has shown up in his chest. He doesn't know what it is or why it's there, but every time he tries to put the armor on, that he dug up out of the sand, it hurts. So anyways, now that Dr Strange has entered the picture, that's where he is going to try to go to help Tony . . his subconscious. I guess, he has to get him to realize that he's still alive . . in a dream . . and it's time to come out of it. Also, that Ghost-assassin guy that Madame Masque hired . . you know, the one that's in the Thunderbolts . . well, he has shown up in the hotel. Maria comes across him by accident, so they take Tony down to the basement to try to keep him from harm. We'll have to wait until next issue to see how that works out. Overall, I guess I thought the book was ok. I just didn't feel like the story progressed very much. Then again . . maybe that's the point. Maybe Matt is trying to keep Tony out of the story a little bit . . to focus on his supporting cast, for a few issues. If so . . it worked. I mean, we know he's not just going to go from his vegetative state, straight to being a super-genius again. So Matt can stretch out his recovery and acclimation for at least 6 issues. But let's at least get him on the road to recovery. However . . having said all that . . I do like this book. So I'll stick with it . . shut up . . and move on to the next book.

Ultimate Comics Armor Wars #3 - Marvel

I think the gist of this book . . the main 'uncover' or 'reveal', is going to be finding out whomever is in this Ghost outfit. Last issue Tony and Justine went to Prague to fight a Doctor Faustus. This guy seemed more like a Doctor Frankenstein than a scientist. That leads them to Bram Velsing, whom actually lives in Castle Frankenstein. He's got a fully working suit of armor, but . . he doesn't have all the latest upgrades like Tony. The battle looks to be 'draw. At first. But in the end Tony makes pretty short work of him. The next move? I'm not sure what Tony was thinking, but he goes and confronts the London police when he finds out that they're using Armor for riot gear. I mean, he goes into full confrontation with the officers. I'm not really sure why he would choose that route of attack. Again, I think Tony has the superior weapon, but . . they also have the viable threats necessary to perform their job. Which, ultimately deals with 'bad-guys' so . . they have to have some fire-power to back up their actions. Tony ends up taking them out one by one, but . . it's a rough battle and Tony takes more than a few licks. However, when he finally thinks that he's beat them, he gets hit by a stinger fired upon him by the Ghost. Tony ends up in the Thames taking on water. I thought it was a decent book. Steve Kurth actually does a great job with the art. Very action oriented. I think I was just a little disappointed with Warren Ellis' story. I'm sure it's going to pay off in the final issue. And . . there are some neat ideas presented here. But . . I guess I just expected it to be a little more involved and intricate. This one just seems pretty straight forward. I do expect a twist with Justine. She can't be tagging along as just a side-kick. And, I think there's more to this Ghost than someone just stealing Stark-tech. I don't know. I guess I'll just have to wait and see what happens next issue. See if the wait was worth the result.

the Invincible Iron Man #21 - Marvel

This issue we get to see how Tony's master plan all comes together. Also . . Captain America shows up. Now that he's back, he's going to be in a whole lot of books . . apparently. Anyways, the whole plan rests on the repulsor unit Tony installed in Pepper's chest. Donald Blake is going to remove it from her and install it in Tony. From there he's going to be hooked up to the hard drive that Maria retrieved for him. Back when he fought Extremis Tony had to make some upgrades, so, in his words . . 'I did what any good geek would do before installing it. I backed myself up.' Then he needs Donald and Steve's help. Or rather, he needs Donald to switch into Thor and use Steve's shield to work as a conduit for a jump start of sorts. And that's how this issue ends. We see from next issue's cover that somehow Steven Strange figures into the next step of the process. Anyways, part of this book, when Tony's giving all the guys their instructions and telling them what to do, was like reading some assembly instructions for some type of robot or something. Unfortunately, that part was just as dry. But, while all of this is going on, Madame Masque isn't happy about Norman's announcement that he's called off the hunt for Tony. So, she's hired the Ghost, from the Thunderbolts, to kill him. She knows he's in a persistent vegetative state, so . . all she wants him to do is pull the plug. But since they're in the little town of Broxton, Oklahoma . . 'Rooms I can sneak into. Buildings. I don't do towns. Especially towns adjacent to Asgard and half the Avengers.' So Madame Masque has whipped him up a phone. All he has to do is find the building with the power surge, get a phone to ring, and he can be in over the telephone lines. I don't know that this is a good weapon to put into his hands. But shortly after Thor strikes Tony with the electric bolt . . a phone rings at the front desk down stairs. I'm just wondering what the Ghost is going to do now. Now that Tony isn't actually hooked up to anything . . there's nothing to unplug. Except maybe the hard drive. Hmmm! So far I've enjoyed Matt Fraction's stories throughout this title. This one was a little dry, but . . it did progress what was going on. Next issue should be interesting. And as always, Salvador Larocca has done an incredible job with the art. I loved the wrap-around cover. I thought it looked great.

the Invincible Iron Man #20 - Marvel

Well . . Tony Stark / Iron Man has fallen into the pit. He's finally reached the bottom and has nowhere to go . . but up. The question is . . he's counting on those around him to bring him back . . do they even want to? He is, when it comes down to it, a cold heartless bastard afterall. He's used and abused anyone who has ever known or worked for him. And . . he's run a multi-national conglomerate that has supplied weapons to every side of every war for the past 50 years. Is that someone they should bring back into the world? And as Pepper asks, 'I don't . . I don't . . I don't understand why . . after so many people got hurt . . after everybody died at Stamford, and Stane and the Invasion and . . and . . and after Steve and Bill and . . and after Happy all died . . why is it Tony that gets to come back? Why is it that Tony Stark is the one that gets everything back again?' This story has 2 fronts. In the hospital Bucky, Blake, Pepper and Maria are all trying to decide if they should even help Tony return. He's left instructions on how the MK 1616 is supposed to work . . how they can use it to basically reboot him. Meanwhile, in his own head, Tony is trying to figure out his own way of coming back. He doesn't know that . . he thinks he's just reliving a moment over and over again. But . . he's trying to dig his way through psychic barriers . . literally . . and metaphorically. Meanwhile, Norman Osborn has rescinded his bounty on Tony Stark. He's more than happy that he's a vegetable now, and would rather see him prolongedly suffer than to end it quickly for him. At least that's what he's telling everyone. But . . somehow Emma is involved. And we don't know what that's all about yet. However, Madame Masque knows that something is wrong and has asked the Ghost to help her kill Tony. Norman's orders be damned. In the back of the book we get a synopsis of Tony's activities for the last few years. Kind of like the Moon Knight Saga book that came out between titles . . to catch the reader up. Except . . this one is contained within the book. It was a was for them to charge $3.99 for this book. Thanks for that. Anyways, if you're not a follower of Iron Man, this'll bring you right up to date. They even have a page at the end for suggested chronology of reading. You know . . if you wanted to catch up . . or dig your heals in. I think that's great, but I don't like being charged extra for the book. Anyways, despite that little headache . . I think Matt Fraction and Salvador Larroca are doing a fantastic job here. Obviously Tony will be back, but . . I think it's going to be one hell of a road getting him there. I can't wait to see what Matt has in store for us.

Ultimate Comics Armor Wars #2 - Marvel

I'll tell you what . . Warren Ellis writes one hell of a story. My only question is . . with the events transpiring in Ultimate Avengers . . does Tony not know what's going on there? And in that book, his brother, Gregory, and Nick seem to think of him as a fall-down drunk. It appears that after the 'Ultimate-wave', Tony has reformed. Or at least settled down for the time being. But, right now he has bigger concerns. Right now he looking into figuring out who seems to be who is pirating all of his Stark-tech. Last issue he ran into Justine Hammer, his dead rivals daughter. At first he wasn't overly concerned with her, until he found out that she's dying . . because of her father's machinations. He offers to help. In return . . she fills him in on what's been happening on the black market with all of his abandoned equipment. Their first stop? Prague. They're after a Doctor Faustus, who seems to be brokering everything in Europe. Of course on the way over they end up sleeping together. When they go to meet the man they find his bodyguards retrofitted with pieces and parts of Stark-tech. It seems at best experimental surgeries. When Tony gets mad and decides to put a stop to it all, we find out that Dr Faustus is actually MODOK. Apparently he had a problem with ' . . there was an accident with an ill-understood derivation of Richards transdimensional wells, and . .' now MODOK is the size of an action figure and lives within the empty vessel that is the framework of Dr Faustus. But he gives him a name . . Bram Velsing. Apparently he bought Stark's entire data package from Faustus in return for funding his unique medical needs. Anyways, he lives in a place that looks like Dracula's castle. When Tony launches his assault, he's met by Velsing and he's wearing what appears to be an adapted form of Tony's armor. Tony's not amused and the 2 armored men begin slugging it out. It kind of looks like a scene from Transformers or something. As with any story by Warren, this one if filled with lots of unique and original ideas. I can't wait to see what else comes out of this series. Maybe we'll finally get an Ultimate Iron Man book out of this one. There's been what . . 3 mini-series now . . I think? I think it's about time they explored this character in the Ultimate Universe a bit more. Especially since he's not a part of the Avengers / Ultimates anymore. Anyways, this was a great book. Fantastic story, and great artwork by Steve Kurth.

the Invincible Iron Man #19 - Marvel

This issue almost wraps up the World's Most Wanted storyline. Last issue we saw Tony climb into one of his very first models of the Iron Man armor and begin his trek for Dubai. Unfortunately, he no longer possess' the mental acuity to shield himself from radar. Basically . . he's making a mad dash. Luckily, there's still some HAMMER agents that are sympathetic to his cause. They liked their jobs better when they worked for SHIELD. It ends up, the one feeding Norman Osborn Tony's trajectory is one of them. When Pepper had to reveal herself to Maria Hill and Natasha, JARVIS, her Iron Man gear, also came on line. It sent a virus into all of the Stark-gear inside the HAMMER base, so for the time being the technician can honestly tell Norman that they're having system issues. Unfortunately he's soon found out by his boss. He did give Tony a little breathing room. So it takes Norman about a 1/2 hour to catch up to him in the Pakistan desert. By that time Tony's mind is almost completely gone, and JARVIS also took the luxury of sending the coordinates of the fight to every news-feed in the country. It isn't long before the people in the Dubai newsroom have choppers all over the scene and the have pictures of the Iron Patriot beating up the defenseless Tony Stark. So in Tony's eyes . . he's won. Meanwhile, Maria, Natasha and Pepper are trying to retrieve the hard-drive that Tony had Maria get for him. In the end, Tony is aboard the HAMMER helicarrier and he's basically in a vegetative state. However, the carrier acts as an embassy and therefore has to follow US laws. Tony has a living will that says that only his doctor is allowed to pull the plug on him. And his doctor? Doctor Donald Blake. When Norman makes the call, all the ladies and Cap are there to help Dr Blake with what he has to do. I'm guessing, this hard-drive is somehow Tony's means of returning to the land of the living. Or at least kick-starting his brain. I'm guessing it's his personal back-up. Matt Fraction has been doing a terrific job with this book. Although I'm glad that this story-line is nearing it's end. It's been going on for over a year now. It's been intriguing, but . . come on . . let's move on to something else. Let's get Tony back on-line, and get Iron Man acting like, well . . Iron Man. I hate to see Norman in his Iron Patriot outfit. It makes my skin crawl. Anyways, another fantastic work of art by Salvador Larocca. I can't wait to see how this all wraps up.

the Invincible Iron Man #18 - Marvel

One more issue of this World's Most Wanted storyline, and we'll have this one all wrapped up. Well, I'm sure there will be some threads dangling around, but . . for the most part . . this'll be over. One way or another. Anyways, Tony has made it to Afghanistan. There's he's found his workshop in the hills . . the place where everything started . . where he and Ho Yinsen put together the first Iron Man. And now . . this is all he has left. He's hoping there's just enough repulsor energy in the old suit to wipe out the rest of the information in his brain. And then he can use the armor to get back to the real world. Unfortunately, the guy who intercepted Tony's e-mail to Maria has also spotted the repulsor energy signature from the mountains. Now Norman's ready to go after him . . and kill him. However, there's still plans and deception in motion. Maria and Natasha were captured by HAMMER and are now in custody. But we also find out, when they open up one of the old Crimson Dynamo suits that they found in Russia, that Pepper actually beat Madame Masque and placed her inside the armor. Pepper is now wearing her mask and posing in her place. Also JARVIS, the suit that she was wearing, having also been brought to the HAMMER base, has just come on-line and is downloading a virus into the rest of the HAMMER systems, including all the various Iron Man armor that is being contained there, putting it all under the control of JARVIS and thereby Pepper. All of this happens just as Norman is ready to take off after Tony in his Iron Patriot armor. First of all he's flying blind because of all the problems that are happening with the systems. All he knows is that he's going east towards Pakistan. And secondly . . who's to say that the Iron Patriot armor hasn't also been re-purposed. Matt Fraction is doing a fantastic job with this series. I love it. Of course Salvador Larroca's art doesn't hurt either. Next issue should be a great issue. Everything has been leading up to this one.

Ultimate Comics Armor Wars #1 - Marvel

I actually picked up this book for 2 reasons. First, I've been getting in to the Invincible Iron Man series more and more. Secondly . . I really do dig the Ultimate Universe. I think it's and awesome concept. And now that it's been relaunched, I can't wait to see where it goes. And this one didn't let me down a bit. First of all . . it's written by Warren Ellis, so it's going to have all kinds of neat ideas in it. Steve Kurth does the pencils. Anyways, we start out with Tony working his way through the city, heading back to his headquarters for something he wants. As he does so, he's recording his actions, with narrative, for his iTunes exclusive Tony Stark podcast. 'We must start filling those echoing coffers.' When he gets to the building, he informs the listeners, 'I had a small private den beneath the Stark Manhattan offices that ran on it's own buried generator.' Yeah . . that's a bit of an under-statement. It's actually a multi-leveled living quarters that extends at least 200 feet below ground. Yeah . . a closet. Anyways, once inside he finds a visitor. It's Justin Hammer's daughter, Justine. It appears that her father was trying to create his own superhuman initiative, and he experimented on his daughter. 'I'm dying of super-powers. I was told a Stark nanofleet could stabilize my cell structure. Kind of a last chance for me.' But before he can help her he's notified of an intrusion . . below. It appears that someone else is after his little trinket . . remnant 242. He battles someone in armor like his, but with some interesting modifications. He escapes with the remnant, but seeing as how Justine is dying Tony decides to help her. He takes her to his mansion . . a big floating building above the city, and fixes her up. She gives him a whole bunch of information . . 'Most of your secure systems were hacked months ago. The Ghost, or whoever's backing him, was probably the first non-governmental operation to repurpose Iron Man tech.' It appears there's many people out there with pirated Iron Man tech and now Tony has to try to get it all back. Justine has decided to help him. And with that . . we have the set-up for this mini-series. It should be interesting. Like I said, there's lots of interesting ideas here. By the way, Steve's art was fantastic. It really gave this book a good feel. I was afraid this was just going to be a rehashing of the other Ultimate Iron Man series. But this one's going to be unique unto itself. I can't wait.

the Invincible Iron Man #17 - Marvel

Ok . . it seems as if everything is falling apart right now for Tony Stark and Iron Man. I think he's finally hit the bottom. Actually, I hope so. I don't know what other bad things could happen to this guy. How much more can he take? After his fight with Whitney last issue, he's taken off for 'Stark Lab double-zero'. Wherever that is. All we know is that it's 9 hours and 9 minutes away from where he is right now. He's not happy about leaving Pepper behind with Whitney, but . . she wants him to escape. She feels that his destiny is more important than her own. But with Tony's diminished capacity, and he's fatigued from the recent conflict . . on his way to the base he falls asleep in the armor and is shot out of the sky in what looks like the Middle-East. Whitney returns to Osborne. She claims that Tony escaped, but that she killed Pepper and recovered her armor. But I think there's something up here. I think Pepper is actually in the armor. And if so . . her and Whitney are up to something. We just don't know what it is yet. Anyways, Maria Hill is still having problems after her attack by the Controller. She's holed up with Natasha right now. But she's even a handful for her. They've arranged a meeting with Captain America to hand off the hard-drive that Tony sent her after. But during Tony's trip, he sends an E-Mail to Maria . . and not a secure one. During the exchange HAMMER agents capture Natasha and Maria. Cap gets away, but we don't know what happened to the hard-drive. I find it hard to believe that any of this is going according to plan. Unless of course, Tony came up with all of this before he started deleting his intelligence. But like I said . . I think this is the bottom. Hopefully from here Tony can start scratching his way back. Matt Fraction has done a terrific job deconstructing both Tony and Iron Man. Now I just hope he can put him all back together again. The World's Most Wanted story-line continues through issue #19. That's where we switch to the Tony Stark: Disassembled story-line. Apparently that leads up to something big that's supposed to happen in issue #25. Oh yeah . . and of course, Salvador Larroca continues to do a fantastic job with the art.

the Invincible Iron Man #16 - Marvel

I'm really enjoying the way that Matt Fraction is playing this whole story out. It would've been easy for him to stretch this across a 3 or 4 issue story-arc, and then wrap it up. But . . Matt's chosen to let things play themselves out. So with that . . we're on part 9 of this World's Most Wanted storyline. I think it's turned into one heck of a story-arc. Last issue Madame Masque, Whitney, came to Russia for Norman, is search of Tony. By the time she got there, Pepper was already there and coming to Tony's aid. I think this picture of Tony's female assistant, his protege, coming to his aid stirred up the feelings she had in her own heart for him. Which sent her over the edge. She basically dropped her mission and took Tony and Pepper as captives so that she could plead her love for him and beg him to reciprocate. The hero of this story is actually Pepper's armor, JARVIS, which she's named Rescue. You know . . like the dog. Anyways, Rescue has helped turn the tables, which allows Tony to don his armor and head off to Afghanistan. Unfortunately, that's left Pepper in Whitney's hands . . mano-e-mano, if you will. Before he leaves, Pepper tells Tony she's up for it. "You've been training me for this for a long time now, and I'm telling you . . I'm ready. After all the times you've saved my life over the years . . Tony, please . . let me save yours." Back in New York City, Maria Hill has begged Natasha to help her finish her mission with this hard-drive. She feels violated, and is having a hard time shaking the effects of the Controller. However, this issue, Natasha may have put that mission in jeopardy. She's intrigued by what Maria has . . the hard-drive, but before she's willing to put Cap or anybody else in danger because of it, she wants to know what it contains that's so important. So she goes to a local dealer of things hi-tech to ask him if he might know what it is. As she's leaving, he's contacting somebody who wants to know whenever someone came looking for anything related to Stark, or Stark technology. All in all, I think it's a great book. Matt's writing a very detailed and suspensful story, and Salvador Larroca's art is spot on. As usual. I can't wait to see where this story takes us.

the Invincible Iron Man #15 - Marvel

Well, Norman has found Tony. Or . . that is to say, Madame Masque has. Of course Norman was keeping an eye on Pepper, after he let her go, and she led him right to Tony when she took off for Russia. He had Madame Masque there before Pepper even got there. But, Norman didn't take into account the feelings that Whitney had for Tony at one time. And to see Tony now, in this diminished state, and with Pepper, another woman . . well let's just say Whitney already was not the poster-child for mental health. Now her feelings and emotions are bubbling over all over the place. I know she's acting calm and rational, but . . if she was calm and rational she would've just shot both of them when she had them in the sights of her sniper rifle. Instead, she's decided to play it up close and personal. She's torturing Pepper, and she's trying to figure out if Tony ever really truly loved her. That doesn't sound like the best course of action to me . . or even a very good plan. The issue ends with her taking her mask off, and asking Tony to honestly tell her what he thinks. With the right answer, she'll either save him . . or Pepper. Meanwhile, Maria Hill has caught up with Natasha, but she's having a heck of a time convincing her that she's on the up and up. All she wants to do it get the hard-drive to Captain America. But Nat's heard to many stories about what Maria's done. It isn't until she's almost captured by HAMMER agents that she finally gives her the benefit of the doubt. Anyways, I thought this was another great chapter by Matt Fraction. I'm really getting an immense appreciation for this guys talents. He really writes some fantastic stories. Of course Salvador Larroca's art looks incredible, as usual. I'm just wondering how Matt is going to wrap this all up. It doesn't appear to me that there's a clear ending available for these characters. We'll just have to see what rabbit Matt can pull out of his hat. Whatever the case . . it'll be fantastic, I'm sure.