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.