Iron Man 2.0 #2 – Review

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

The Story: Rhodey tries to enlist the help of an old friend and ends up finding himself in some very deep trouble.

The Review: Iron Man 2.0 is, in some ways, a frustrating issue.

Take for example how it deals with last month’s awesome and delightfully twisted cliffhanger.  Quite simply, it doesn’t.  The mad scientist mom or the idea of Palmer Addley’s transplants is never picked up, never discussed, and never even referred to.  Reading Morning Glories, this seems to be a common thing for Nick Spencer;  he’ll throw a crazy development at us, leave it clouded in mystery, and toss it aside for a few issues.

Then there’s Rhodey’s extraneous use of the suit.  Why does he have to fly in to meet Suzie Endo at an academic conference while fully decked out.  More than that, why does he have to make his entrance by exploding through a goddamned window and into the lecture hall.  It’s never really explained and frankly, I don’t think there’s any explaining it at all.

Suzie Endo herself is also a bit of an issue.  On the one hand, I liked her personality in this comic; it added a much more distinct face to Rhodey’s support team, which is something the comic definitely needs.  It gives Rhodey someone fun to bounce off of and gives the book a nice, unique character to go along with Rhodes himself.  On the other hand, however, it also forces Spencer to trawl a bit into the continuity of Rhodey’s previous failed series.  With the title being “Iron Man 2.0,” the major shift in tone, and the Salvador Larroca covers, it’s clear that Marvel is attempting to bring in readers like, admittedly, myself; that is, people very familiar with Fraction’s book but really only familiar with the current Rhodey based on his presence in that same book.  As such, referencing previous War Machine’s titles seems a little counter-intuitive to that end, especially given the book’s poor sales.

But that said, the book does do a lot of things right as well.  The opening, involving a suicide bomber attack on a military base, is expertly told and plotted again showing Spencer to be a demented guy when he wants to be.  I love it when a writer makes us yawn, expecting the inevitable and predictable twist, only to give us a way more nasty variation of that twist.  I also enjoyed the very contemporary and realistic setting that this scene employed, which is really the sort of thing that the Marvel Universe can be put to use with.