Week of 10/22/09 – Invincible Iron Man #19
October 22nd, 2009
And so “World’s Most Wanted” finally comes to a conclusion (if you can call it that). After further depleting his already mangled, Extremis battlefield of a mind Tony Stark has become stupid. Over the course of this 12 part story Tony’s intelligence has slowly tumbled to that of a monosyllabic slack-jaw, capable only of piloting a modified Mark I set of Iron Man armor. When Norman Osborn shows up in his Iron Patriot armor he administers an appropriate beating.
This twelve part series really should have been six. Or less. Some of these issues, written by Matt Fraction, really dragged and only my love for the character and premise kept me buying this every month. I was never in love with artist Salvadore Larroca’s pencils but I will admit that he does tech very well. The different iterations of the Iron Man armor were all well done. I’d even go so far as to say it’s the best Iron Patriot out there.
I suppose I just had a problem with making Tony Stark the punching bag for the Secret Invasion. Sure, Civil War I get. He pushed for the registration act but Secret Invasion? A lot of that stuff happened on Fury and Hill’s watch. So Iron Man went from being a moderately powerful A-Lister to an all powerful A+ Lister and now tumbles back down to a nearly unpowered pseudo villain. I can’t wait to see what kind of bullshit retconning will restore his intellect, fortune, and superhero standing. Maybe he’ll just hang out with fellow outcast Daredevil.
Here a couple more panels from Invincible Iron Man #19. When Norma Osborn can’t pinpoint Stark’s exact location he throws a little tantrum. Love the details on the suit:
Later on, Pepper Potts, disguised as Madame Masque, unleashes her own recently installed repulsor chest plate to stop some incoming bullets:
Honorable Mentions:
Over in Dark Reign The List: Hulk (Christ I don’t even know where to put the colons in these titles anymore) Bruce Banner and his son, Skaar, take on Osborn’s number two, Ms. Hand. Here’s a nice congratulatory moment:
In the other Hulk title this week, Incredible Hulk #603, father and son Banner continue to mix it up across the Marvel Universe. The last page reveal on who is next is the most disturbing rendition of one of Marvel’s sillier characters, The Leader:
Which brings us to Wolverine #79. Or should I say Dark Wolverine, which is his son Daken. Here Daken learns the hard way that he is, in fact, not the best he is at what he does. That’s a c-lister named Moses Magnum, blindsiding him with a mini earthquake by the way:
And finally we arrive at Dark Avengers #10. I am enjoying this book despite the fact that it’s pencilled by the atrocious Mike Deodato. I do not understand how this guy is getting big titles at Marvel? When he took over Spider-Man a while back I was disgusted and dropped the title. However, it would seem that if Marvel ever wants to give Man-Thing another ongoing Deodato is the man for the job. Here he is being bisected by Ares and dammit if it doesn’t look cool:
To give the unfamiliar a point of reference, here is a typical panel from Deodato. There are so many things anatomically impossible with this pose it’s insulting. Never mind the fact that he simply cannot draw Iron Man armor to begin with:
I like Deodato’s drawing. The fact that it’s impossible (exagerated) makes it more real to be in a comic!
I debated going after Deodato in this post. My issue isn’t so much with his work as it is with the fact that he gets to draw a top-tier book for Marvel such as this Avengers title. I can’t help but think they could have gotten someone better. To each his own I suppose. For example, I’m apparently the only person in the comic-reading world who was happy when Immonen took over for Bagley on Ultimate Spidey.
-Mikey Donuts