Reilly2040's Blog

Its a big week for fans of Iron Man.  Not only do we get the latest part of the Stark Disassembled storyline, but we also get the final issue of the current series of War Machine.  Its worth noting that War Machine should be read before Iron Man, as Iron Man will spoil the finale of War Machine otherwise.

However just to be contrary, I’m going to review Iron Man first

Continuing on from last issue, Stark’s closest friends are gathered around his body as Rescue continues to recite Stark’s plan to bring himself back from the self-lobotomy he performed during World’s Most Wanted.  Interestingly Pepper’s reluctance to help last issue is revisited here in a way that makes complete sense as we see what exactly Stark’s rebirth will cost her.  Its a testament to Fraction’s writing and the development he’s done with the character that I really found myself feeling for her, and in some ways Stark’s plan seems cruel to her (although, of course, when it comes down to the crunch she signs up with little hesitation).

The contents of the mysterious hard disc Maria Hill retrieved during World’s Most Wanted are revealed, and while not being a great surprise, its perfectly in character for Tony.  In fact, despite being brain dead for the issue, Tony continues to get the best lines, via the holographic recording he left with Rescue.

Its also nice to see Ghost turning up here.  He’s a character I hadn’t really seen much of, prior to picking up Andy Diggle’s Thunderbolts run the other month, and he’s become a real favourite as mine.  There’s something wonderfully freaky about his design, and the way he operates completely under his own agenda under Osborn’s nose remains interesting (especially as that agenda isn’t the usual supervillain posturing).

There is also the symbolism at play here, as Fraction brings together the newly-Reborn Steve Rogers and Thor to help in Tony’s resurrection.  We’re seeing the big 3 Avengers come back together here, in preparation for the upcoming Seige event, and it does feel like something big is coming in Marvel just through these characters being together again.

While I wasn’t entirely sure about the ending of World’s Most Wanted, and this Disassembled arc from the solicits, I think its paying off nicely, helped in part by moving along quite quickly, obviously so we can have Tony back on his feet and in armour in time for Siege.

Over in War Machine #12, things aren’t looking particularly rosy for Jim Rhodes either.   While he’s not lobotomised himself, Osborn has captured him and has him on trial for war crimes and facing execution.

As a wrap up to the year of War Machine we’ve had this issue works brilliantly.  Osborn remains centre-stage as the villain of the piece and the main characters from throughout the run are all spotlighted with James’ mother visiting him in prison, Ares turning up to free his champion and team War Machine in their usual support roles.

Its actually a real shame to see this series come to an end, if only because this issue would’ve marked a major turning point that would’ve set things up to go off in a different direction to the first year of the run.  And with War Machine turning up in Iron Man 2 next year, you have to wonder how long it’ll be before we at least get a new mini-series.

I do like how Greg Pak turns Osborn against himself here.   There’s an interesting parallel between this and the ending of World’s Most Wanted, which in both cases sees Tony and Rhodey turn Osborn’s own arrogance against him (as we see with Osborn himself exonerating Rhodey from War Machine’s crimes).  In both cases, the resolution came down to the planning by the main characters, rather than a knock-down fight.  Which especially in the case of War Machine is an interesting way to go.

There’s also an interesting clearing of the decks going on across these titles in time for the new year and the new film.  It’ll be interesting to see how Matt Fraction continues to rebuild Tony for example, since he’ll now be free from Extremis, have a movie-styled repulsor unit in his chest, and have to rebuild Stark Industries from the ground up.  And how Rhodey will feature into the Marvel universe will be interesting to see.  If nothing else, it might be nice to have him feature in Iron Man for a while again (while Tony’s getting back on his feet).  Certainly I hope the character doesn’t languish like he did after his first ongoing was cancelled.

Dark Reign rumbles on in the Marvel Universe, and it still sucks to be Tony Stark, as he’s quickly shot down after wandering into Russian airspace on his way to the latest of his private facilities.

The person doing the shooting turns out to be Tony’s old friend, the Crimson Dynamo who’s unimpressed by this person wandering into his country in an outdated armour that’s easily taken down.  He’s even more surprised when he realises it is indeed Tony Stark in the suit.

This is something Matt Fraction’s doing that I really love.  In the past, whenever Tony’s armour has been trashed, its been almost cliche that he’d spend 5-10 issues running around in the classic 60s armour, before its overwhelmed and he’s forced to build a new suit.   This rarely made sense, as in some of those situations he could’ve easily gone with a suit more advanced.   In this story, Tony’s reasons for adopting such an old suit make perfect sense, as his intelligence is compromised, and his reaction times slowed.

The other thing Fraction does which was previously ignored, is address that in the modern Marvel Universe, the 60s armour is rubbish.  Yes, it looks good.  But its old technology.  In previous instances where Tony’s worn this suit as a substitute, he’s generally held his own to a point, until becoming overwhelmed.   Here there’s no pretence that he can hold his own.  He’s quickly shot down by the Crimson Dynamo and his armour rendered useless.  Fortunately once the situation has been explained, the Dynamo is more than happy to lend Tony his armour to help him out.

We also go back to Pepper, who’s more than happy to flaunt Osborn’s authority in order to track Tony down.  Sadly, she’s playing straight into Norman’s hands, as he’s been watching her, waiting for her to run to Tony.

Talking of Norman, there’s a great scene where he contacts the Russians for permission to chase Tony in their territory, only to be bluntly told to shove off.  Its a nice scene, and its interesting to see that internationally, other countries seem to be well aware of Norman’s past, and don’t trust him one iota.

Meanwhile War Machine #7 continues Jim’s quest to shut down the research into the Ultimo virus.   Having successfully distracted American Eagle in the previous issue to allow him to get to the US military base housing the research, Jim quickly begins dismantling their defenses only to discover that the head of Ultimo is being used to house the project.

Again, a real part of the fun here is the Dark Reign setup, mainly with American Eagle’s interactions with Norman Osborn.  Again we’re seeing someone in authority tell Osborn to get knotted.  Its  a situation that’s sure to escalate, since as more and more people tell Osborn to take a hike, you can see him getting further and further out of control and throwing around his authority.   As a direct result of this issue you see military personnel questioning exactly why there was an alien superweapon hidden on their base by Osborn.  Hopefully these are hints that Osborn’s ascendancy to power isn’t nearly as all-encompassing as may have first appeared, and there’s still a good few people out there questioning what’s going on.

The other thing that really surprised me in this issue is the cliffhanger.  Jim manages to hack the Ultimo project’s database and discovers the locations where Ultimo’s main processor has been stored (after being split up).  To stop him, Osborn calls in his latest line of defense against Jim. Someone who looks a lot like Tony Stark, leaving the Stark Solutions offices.

I’m really wondering who this is going to be.  Assuming I’ve not missed any issues where there was a clone of Tony kicking around or something, this is hugely interesting.  ”Tony” is carrying his signature briefcase, so it seems to be hinting towards another War Machine/Iron Man confrontation, but what’s the twist here?

A really nice part of this issue is that we finally see the sequence of events that resulted in Jim’s injuries.  Interestingly, he was serving as an advisor to the military (in something reminiscent of his role as a liason in the Iron Man movie).  We quickly see Jim’s determination to save others no matter the personal cost.  Its nice to finally see what actually happened there.