Invincible Iron Man #11

Mar 13

The latest issue of Iron Man has hit the stands, and things are still not going well for Tony.

While Pepper is being introduced to her new armour (which is run off the miniature arc reactor in her chest and has an onboard computer called Jarvis, very movie), Tony drops in to see an old friend from the Order and say goodbye. Of course, in Tony’s wake, H.A.M.M.E.R. comes calling and interrogates everyone.

Worried for Tony after his visit, his friend sets about contacting Jim Rhodes through a contact system Tony setup incase things went wrong (this gets established during a flashback scene to Tony as Director of SHIELD introducing the system to everyone, as he’s preparing incase everything goes wrong, which we now know it did). Jim’s got no problem tracking Tony down, as Tony’s currently in the Busiek-era armour, which is no match for the technology in Jim’s more modern War Machine suit (or probably even Jim’s cyborg parts).

Of course, while Jim is just worried about Tony, Tony doesn’t want Osborn to see Jim associating with him, so immediately goads Jim into a fight in order to through Norman off the scent. Its a nice scene, with Tony obviously outmatched by the War Machine, Jim trying not to pull his punches, and Tony eventually out-thinking Jim, taking a hit that sinks him but breaching Jim’s armour in the process so he can’t follow him into the ocean.

Norman, of course, is watching all this via satellite. He contacts Namor and asks him to kill Tony.

Its a good issue. I was initially dreading another War Machine vs Iron Man confrontation, as I couldn’t really see why they would be fighting (unless Norman was manipulating Jim, which could’ve tied into current events in the War Machine title). However the way it was played here made total sense.

I’m interested to see where they’re going with Pepper in her own suit of armour. We know from Matt Fraction’s recent Newsarama interview that its going to be more of a rescue suit than the weapon-focus of the Iron Man or War Machine. However given that Pepper’s supposed to be saving Stark Industries, it’ll be interesting to see how this plot develops.

The big thing about this story line for me, is that I can’t really see a way out of it for Tony. Matt Fraction’s been up-front with the fact that what Tony’s doing to himself is irreversible. And we know he’s going to end up wiping a lot of his mind before this plot wraps up (since in the same Newsarama interview Matt Fraction also says Tony will be working his way through his old armours as he’s progressively less able to cope with the levels of sophistication. With everyone in the world gunning for the information in Tony’s head and Tony’s intelligence being completely wiped I really wonder how this will end. Maybe Extremis eventually reboots and will somehow restore the wiped information? Or, being the ultimate strategist, will Tony eventually discover he kept a way to restore himself hidden away (and possibly wiped from his own memory)? He does plan for everything afterall.

It’ll be interesting to see exactly what Tony’s status will be by the end of this storyline. Will his intelligence and memories be completely restored? Ok, its an easy guess he’ll get his intelligence back, as its a defining feature of the character, but how much of his memory will he also retain? Will he still be modified by Extremis, or will that also be permanently gone, returning Tony to a normal human being? Presumably we’re going to see an armour redesign as well, especially if Extremis is indeed toast.

Comics, Dark Reign, Iron Man, Marvel Comics, War Machine

Comments

Pie Man 70

March 19th, 2009 at 11:41 AM

AGain, cracking issue and worth the hike down to A1 I had to do to get it (Forbidden Planet, sort out your Iron man ordering)

Good issue and I liked teh reasoning behind the War Machine/Iron man fight, Jim and Tony’s banter was good too. Have you tried that Gmail address tony mentions? Does it actually exist and if so can I ping for a meeting with war machine?

My guess would be that by teh end of this Extremis, and teh only copy of teh registration database, will be gone, however I woudl hope that tony retains his genius level intelligence, perhaps it will return after extremis is gone. and yes, an armour re-design at some point, although part of me would like to see a few issues of tony on the run with no armour, using skill and guile to escape capture.
Alan

March 19th, 2009 at 2:57 PM

Clearly there’s a high population of War Machine fans in Glasgow, as everytime he turns up in Iron Man, it sells out quickly.

Not tried the gmail address, although I’d be surprised if Matt Fraction hadn’t grabbed it. Must dig out the issue tonight and try it

I reckon as it goes on, we’ll definitely be seeing Tony use his skill and guile more and more, as we saw here. Especially as the armour he’s wearing gets steadily more primitive.

I can’t see this ending without Tony regaining his intellect, as its a defining trait of the character. I reckon they will get shot of Extremis, as it always made Tony a bit too super-powered, whereas he really should be completely reliant on the Iron Man for his powers I think. Since its established that the Superhero database etc’s only able to be stored in his mind due to the Extremis enhancements, it makes sense that if he gets completely purged of Extremis, then he’ll be back to a normal human brain, and the limits that come with it.

One thing I’ll be curious to see them address will be his armour. Assuming he doesn’t regain Extremis and go back to that suit, it’ll be interesting to see how Fraction approaches a new suit. Typically each new suit is always shown to be a significant leap forward from the previous one. However the Extremis suit was so advanced (being plugged into Tony’s central nervous system and all), that it’ll be interesting to see how Matt Fraction approaches the idea that the suit can be more advanced.

A side thought to this. Norman’s currently running around in a (modified) version of Tony’s Extremis armour. Tony turning up in a newer and even better suit and handing Osborn his backside could be a very nice issue, similar to the new red & gold suit turning up and pasting Firepower in the Armour Wars.
Pie Man 70

March 20th, 2009 at 9:26 AM

Indeed, perhaps I shoudl organise a War machine convention.

In the Extremis story, Tony’s main reason is due in part to his newer suits bulk. Due to all teh extra features he put in it now has to b eshipped sround in a crate rather than carried in a briefcase. And yes, being plugged into the armour made him faster. I’d hope they explain that he’s developed a better OS to make his interactions almost up to extremis speed, and its more to do with technology you can’t see (In a redesigned suit) that lets him win rather than new weapons

Reilly2040's Blog