Invincible Iron Man #525 – Review

By: Matt Fraction (writer), Salvador Larroca (art), Frank D’Armata (colors), and Joe Caramagna (letters)

The Story:  The unlikely team of Tony Stark, Ezekiel Stane, Blizzard, Living Laser, and Whirlwind go to war against the Mandarin.

The Review:  The good guy/bad guy team-up in the face of a greater evil is one of those tropes that is always innately satisfying and I’ll admit that I’ve always been a sucker for it.  Given this, Invincible Iron Man #525 is a fun, engaging, and thoroughly satisfying read.  I just can’t deny the awesomeness of seeing Iron Man, Stane, Blizzard, Living Laser, and Whirlwind all working together to kick ass in Mandarin City.  Seeing Stark teaming up with former enemies and seeing so many different suits, with all different sorts of powers, working together triggers the fanboy glee in me.

Invincible Iron Man #524 – Review

By: Matt Fraction (writer), Salvador Larroca (art), Frank D’Armata (colors), and Joe Caramagna (letters)

The Story:  Tony rallies his very scant troops against the Mandarin, JARVIS goes nuts, and just where exactly is Justine Hammer?

The Review:  Fraction and Larroca’s Invincible Iron Man continues to rocket to it’s conclusion and I continue to enjoy the ride quite a bit.

Without a doubt, the Stark/Stane relationship has really begun to live up to its potential.  I love the dynamic of camaraderie between these two former bitter enemies and rivals.  It’s absolutely brilliant stuff by Fraction, as Stane essentially takes Tony back to working as he did in his youth, under the gun and in less than ideal circumstances.  There’s a fantastic scene in which Stane helps Stark get in touch with the rawer side of his art, the side that recalls his days working in caves to survive.  It’s also a sort of “welcome to my world” moment by Stane, showing Stark what it is to work outside the lab in the gritty, DIY fashion that he may have lost touch with.  It’s a great moment and a highlight of the issue.

Iron Man 2.0 #1 – Review

by Nick Spencer (writer), Barry Kitson & Carmine di Giandomenico (art), Kano (art & colors), Matt Wilson (colors), and Joe Caramagna (letters)

The Story: James Rhodes takes on a new assignment, one that challenges the limits of War Machine, as he is faced with a man who no longer exists.

The Review: It’s a rare thing, but I truly love it when I’m able to come into a book with high expectations and have those expectations be completely fulfilled.  Iron Man 2.0 is exactly what it says it is: a high-tech Iron Man-franchise title by Nick Spencer.  It has the witty dialogue that got the writer props in Forgetless and Morning Glories along with the trippy concepts a la Existence 2.0/3.0.  But let’s back up a bit and go into a bit more detail about what exactly Spencer gets right.

The issue opens with a team-up action scene between War Machine and Iron Man and an old school villain, Blizzard.  The dialogue shows Spencer’s depth perfectly.  The banter and conversation between Rhodey and Tony is comfortable and pretty damned funny overall.  The sense of camaraderie is well done.  This is balanced against Blizzard, who spouts the same ominous, surreal line in repetition (perhaps hinting at Fear Itself?  I’m not sure).  It’s a weird dynamic, but one that’s a lot of fun to read.  It’s also worth mentioning that Spencer writes a really fun Tony Stark.

Similarly strong is Spencer’s fleshing out of Rhodey’s direct superior, General Babbage, who we’ve been seeing lately in Invincible Iron Man.  Spencer quickly creates an enjoyable, blistering dynamic where the two men prod one another constantly, one overtly and the other covertly.  It’s really fun and I’m happy in that it looks to be a continuing dynamic throughout the series.

But that’s not even touching about the story itself.  Put simply, the story-arc/conflict that Spencer introduces is trippy, demented, and perfect for a high-tech series.  It’s hard to discuss without spoilers, but essentially, Rhodey is charged with tracking down a super genius that is dispersing his super projects to terrorist groups.  Except that he’s apparently doing it from beyond the grave, having committed suicide.  That alone is a great plot-line, one that hints at possible cyber-crime and high-tech hijinks that challenge the limits of Rhodey’s straightforward approach in that it’s not a threat he can fight.

Fantastic Four #556 – Review

By Mark Millar (writer), Bryan Hitch (pencils, inks), Andrew Currie (inks), Paul Mounts (colors)

Ugh. This issue’s a complete mess. I know. I’m in disbelief too, and it’s not the fault of Mark Millar or Bryan Hitch, either. So, let me go into what I liked first and then I’ll explain the disaster of what prevented this book from being enjoyable.

What’s good: Sue, Ben, and Johnny have a much more active role in this issue. We get to see them play as a team and use their wits to fend off CAP. We also see a huge assortment of other heroes join in the fight. It reminded me of one of those World of WarCraft raids where 40 people go to fight a big boss only to wipeout within a minute. Fun stuff. I honestly wasn’t anticipating a huge battle of this magnitude so soon, but it hits you in face from page one and the momentum hardly slows from there.

What’s bad: I’ve been praising Paul Mounts’ coloring job since the first issue of this arc. However, he completely fails in this issue and pretty much destroys any enjoyment I might have had due to his poor color choices and onslaught of snow effects. I mean, seriously, calm the #$%& down with the computer effects already. There’s a lot more ways of showing snow than over saturating the page with huge snowflakes. It’s so bad that it completely hampers Bryan Hitch’s beautiful artwork and makes it impossible to discern what’s going on. I realize this week’s issue of Amazing Spider-Man does a similar job with its snow effects, but the effects don’t mar the story – you have a clear understanding of what’s happening. Here? It’s just undiscipherable. It’s so bad that I honestly hope that Marvel releases a black and white version or a “snowless” version, because this is just a crime.

That said, the “snowless” pages are fine. Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch continue their run with a solid, but not spectacular issue. It’s the obligatory fight issue, not the fun science issue like last month, so don’t expect to be blown away with crazy, out of this world concepts. But what should have been a fun and entertaining issue is snowed out by Paul Mount’s blizzard machine. If I’m Bryan Hitch, I’d be pissed. This is unforgivable. (Grade: D)

– J. Montes

Amazing Spider-Man #555 – Review

By Zeb Wells (writer), Chris Bachalo (pencils), Tim Townsend (inks), Antonio Fabela (colors)

You know, if these Brand New Day stories came out monthly instead of (almost) weekly, I’d be less enamored with this title. But because of its frequent release schedule, these type of stories work out really well. Amazing Spider-Man has become a staple of my weekly diet. It’s something I read first when I get my books from the local comic store, and it’s like watching a serialized TV show. If this schedule fails to work and Marvel reverts this title back to a monthly schedule (like DC did with Action Comics), I’m going to be very disappointed.

Now, I don’t know who Zeb Wells is or if he’s ever even written a comic before. What I do know is he completely nails the relationship between Spider-Man and Wolverine. The chemistry these two have when put on the same page is very much in the same vein of those buddy cop movies we love so much. Reading the banter between these two is almost worth the price of admission alone. Almost.

The story, itself, is a bit on the light side. We don’t get much of anything other than Wells running around “house keeping” so to speak. He touches on the minor subplots here and there, before bringing us to the grit of the main story near the end of the issue. I’m not saying much of the story is completely wasted, because I was entertained the whole time, but it did feel a bit too formulaic at times (especially when Spider-Man makes it to the Bugle).

Chris Bachalo’s art, as beautiful as it is, is not always easy to follow. Heck, his work in Messiah Complex was a complete mess. But with Amazing Spider-Man, he doesn’t leave you scratching you head. His art perfectly accomodates Wells’ script gives the book a “fun” kind of feeling (weird, I know). The whole snow blind palette used by Antonio Fabela reenforces the crazy blizzard that’s hitting the city, but at times is a bit too overpowering, almost washing out the art. I understand the desired effect, but I wish it were toned down.

This new arc’s off to a decent start. There’s a glaring continuity problem that’ll make some readers groan, but we get a rightful explanation in the letters column. Zeb Wells definitely knows his characters, now he just needs to execute on the story. (Grade: B-)

– J. Montes