Reilly2040's Blog

This weekend, we got a look at Iron Man’s upcoming revamp, following on from the events of the last year.

With the revelation that the Skrull virus had nuked Tony’s Extremis upgrades, rendering his current suit a nightmare to control, and now his self-inflicted lobotomy (and the idea of him rebooting his brain from an old backup actually suggests Tony may not have any memories of anything post-Extremis), it was always a given that the opportunity was in place for Tony to update his armour once again, however rather than wait for it to be revealed in the book, Marvel have instead released this image to all the news sites.

I’m not really overwhelmed to be honest, but it looks nice enough.  I notice that the helmet looks to borrow from the movie version rather than the previous Extremis suit (which suits me, there was an angular, serpentine (for want of a better word) quality to that helmet that I never liked).  I’m not sure about all the smaller lights up from the unibeam as I feel they distract a bit from the unibeam itself (making the unibeam just a larger piece in a series rather than a specific piece of the look in itself).  The upper part of the legs again remind me of the movie look, although the lower parts look more streamlined.

All in all, I’m pretty happy with it save for a few quibbles.  I do feel for artists who have to design a new suit though, as its gotten increasingly tricky over the years.  The iconic look remains the original 60s red and gold, and moves to redesign the armour too radically never stick, which means the artist can be quite limited in what they can do versus, say giving Kyle Rayner a new look.

A pity as one of my favourite suits remains the Silver Centurion, although I’m aware of the complaints that suit got at the time for getting rid of the gold colouring, that have pretty much ensured that every suit since now sticks with the red and gold colour-scheme.   Another favourite for me remains the mouthless suit from the 90s and its a pity it didn’t stick around for longer (despite making it into the spin-off cartoons at the time).   I thought it did a pretty good job of sticking to the basic feel of the Iron Man look while actually changing a fair bit, although its certainly arguable that it perhaps felt like more of a superhero costume and less of an actual armour, which is a feel the Extremis suit definitely gave off.

Designing the armour is something I actually feel the movie did a really good job of.  There’s definite routes that can be traced to the (then current) Extremis suit while toning back some of its elements to be more like the classic look (at the simplest, changing the unibeam back to a circle, and adopting more normal-shaped boots).

Iron Man getting a new suit is always a big moment in his comics, so I’m looking forward to seeing how its approached in the story.  In many ways the Extremis technology was such a jump that it’ll be interesting to see how Matt Fraction makes this suit seem even more advanced, despite Tony no longer having the Extremis benefits available to him.   However given the sterling work Fraction has done this far with Tony, I’m willing to bet it’ll be believable (infact, with Tony being the futurist he is, it won’t surprise me if this suit is something that Tony actually designed around the same time he put in place the rest of the World’s Most Wanted plan).

The official Iron Man 2 trailer is now up on Apple’s site or around the net.

Looks superb.  Seems to have exactly the same tone as the first film and the cast once again looks amazing.  And, of course, there’s War Machine

Also interesting to note that Tony’s clearly in a new suit at the end of the film.  There’s a Silver Centurion-style triangular unibeam visible on it as opposed to the round one (the arc reactor) we saw on the Mark 3 in the first film.

Next summer can’t come fast enough

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.

After 12 issues, the strong of Tony Stark being on the run from Norman Osborn and H.A.M.M.E.R. has finally come to an end.

I must admit.  As much as I really enjoy Fraction’s work on this book, I’m unsure how I actually feel about this conclusion at the moment.  The run has been filled with great moments.  Pepper, Maria and Natasha make a great team, and the twist of Madam Masque being in the Rescue armour was a great moment.  Watching Norman crow about how good a day he was having while the three women were in his headquarters causing havoc (including J.A.R.V.I.S. trashing all of Norman’s captured suits of Iron Man armour) was great.

Another highlight was the final Tony/Norman fight.  By this point, Tony’s virtually incapable of putting one foot in front of the other, and is wearing only his original Iron Man armour, while Norman’s at the top of his game, yet despite everything being in Norman’s favour, we see Tony’s victory as Osborn is outsmarted, revealed on television pummelling the defenceless Tony and discovering that the information he was so desperate for no longer exists.

Despite this though, I’m left feeling slightly unsatisfied.  This story was 12 issues long, so while its no Clone Saga, that’s still a long story in modern terms, where most aim for six issues in order to fit trade paperback requirements.  Despite this long run though, it feels like we end on yet another cliffhanger.  Tony is now in a vegetative state, having erased the contents of his memory, and his body is a prisoner in the HAMMER helicarrier.  We still don’t know what’s on the hard drive Maria and co were so desperate to retrieve (although its a fair bet it relates to however Tony’s going to get out of this mess in time for the upcoming Seige event).   Despite the story’s length, there’s still the feeling that the main beats aren’t resolved, which is a bit frustrating.    Given the status at the end of the issue, with Norman having chased Tony around the globe for nothing, and having lost all his Starktech except for his one suit of Iron Patriot armour, it should’ve felt like more of a win for Tony.  Instead it all felt a bit “too be continued”, a real shame after 12 issues.

However, I don’t want to be too down on this.  I don’t doubt that whatever happens next is going to be very interesting indeed, as we see Tony’s friends getting in touch with Donald Blake, who happens to be the executor of Tony’s Estate according to his will, in addition to being the secret identity of a certain god of thunder.  So its obvious all we’ve really seen is the conclusion of stage 1 of a larger plan (again, we have Fraction playing on Tony’s ability to think three steps ahead).

This has been a great ride.  Matt Fraction’s done a great job of showing Tony’s descent as his intelligence slowly left him.  He’s also greatly captured Norman Osborn’s character showing how dangerous and deranged he can be (witness his right-hand woman freaking out over how Norman’s going to kill them all when he learns of Pepper’s escape).  There’s a great supporting cast in place here, and so all we really need is to see exactly what Tony’s got up his sleeve for how he’ll get out of this.  And then, of course, I have to presume that we’ll be getting one of those great Iron Man moments as we have the unveiling of a redesigned suit of armour (since the Extremis suit is now useless).  With the damage done to the character during Civil War (a good idea, badly handled in my opinion), its hard not to really feel for Tony as he desperately tries to string together a coherent thought while Norman is pounding on his armour, and that is possibly the greatest strength of this run.  Its made Tony Stark a character that you’re cheering for again.

When I first got back into comics in a big way, it wasn’t Green Lantern that did it.  It wasn’t even DC.

Nope, it was Spider-Man.  Specifically, the Clone Saga.  A time of huge controversy in the Spider-titles as what started as an interesting idea, got thrown wildly out of control by marketing excess.   By the time the dust settled, the various elements introduced were brushed away with a seemingly unspoken promise at Marvel to never speak of it again.

A great shame though, as for all the problems with the Clone Saga it had its highlights as well.  Aunt May’s death was a beautifully written issue that moved the character of Peter Parker forward, Kaine was a compelling new villain, and Ben Reilly a brilliant new character that added something new to the franchise by giving Peter a brother.   I’ve always maintained that the whole thing went wrong only when phrases involving the words “one, true” came into the mix.  Until that point it had been great fun having the two brothers running around.  Something that was briefly recaptured towards the end of the story albeit with Ben now in the Spider-Man role rather than as the Scarlet Spider.

Despite the unravelling of the Clone Saga I actually stuck with the Spider-titles for a while afterwards, only eventually dropping them in protest over Aunt May’s resurrection.  It was a horrible story and a worse retcon.  And subsequent storylines such as Mary Jane’s “death”, Spider-totems, Sins Past and One More Day only served to underline my decision to walk away.

Until now.  Now they’ve managed to do the one thing guaranteed to bring me back to the fold.  The Clone Saga is back, and not just in the form of the new mini-series that started this month.  Nope, its turned up in Amazing Spider-Man as well, with flashbacks to Ben Reilly, and Kaine himself appearing (and due to be the focus of a story in this week’s Web of Spider-Man).  For me, this is really exciting, and makes so much more sense than the previous “pretend it never happened” ethos.  Obviously, partly this will be due to the amount of time that’s passed, so now readers and fans of the clone saga will be the writing professionals, so why shouldn’t Marvel embrace those pieces of the storyline (which occupied a fair chunk of the 90s) that actually worked?

Of course, sadly this is all unlikely to result in Ben Reilly actually coming back (a pity as I’d love new stories with Ben back as the Scarlet Spider), but the return of Kaine should be very interesting, as he was always a powerful opponent and his very personal links to Peter should be interesting to see what he’s actually up to.

And of course, I have to mention the first issue of the Clone Saga mini-series, which is re-presenting the series, altered to present something more along the ideas of the original writers.  It was definitely fun to see the story being revisited, although I personally found the first issue a little rushed.  Its hard to criticise it for that though, given it was trying to set the scene, and had to incorporate about a years worth of events in the Spider-titles in order to get the reader to the point where the main story of the Clone Saga can be told.   It was definitely fun to see the new spin on Peter and Ben’s meeting and it was so nice to see the characters working together again.   I’ll be very interested to see what the rest of the series brings, especially now the necessary evil of catching the reader up is out of the way.

I’ve been a bit quiet on Dark Reign recently.  To be honest, I’ve been thinning out my pull list (budgetary reasons), and while I’ve enjoyed some of the minis, I’ve had to make harsh choices and drop them.  Also with the recent “The List” mini-event, I’ve started to feel Dark Reign’s starting to just become a bit too big, and I was put off by the idea of having to pick up a bunch of issues that largely are about teams or characters I’m not fussed about/can’t afford to pick up their monthly.  So I’ve been getting a slight case of Dark Reign burnout.

However, with a train failure yesterday leaving me stuck in town for a while, I ended up picking up the last few issues of the Thunderbolts series to read while I waited for the trains to get sorted.   I hadn’t been too bothered about the lineup when the series had been announced (aside from Ant Man, I character I do enjoy), but I’d been hearing good things, and I like the writer Andy Diggle (absolutely love Adam Strange: Planet Heist).

Wow, was I impressed.  The cast of characters I wasn’t fussed about were actually a very interesting group.  The Thunderbolts have been setup as Norman Osborn’s own private Black Ops squad, so consists of a lot of Marvel’s Z-list psychos.   However Diggle also balanced them out with the Black Widow II being put in charge of trying to keep the psychos inline, The Ghost who’s there under his own agenda and Ant Man, a character that can easily be described as a self-serving sod, but not someone who’s actually evil, so finds himself very out of depth surrounded by some fairly twisted characters.

Andy Diggle gets a lot out of this cast, playing them off each other well, but also throwing in a good few twists as things go on.  There’s several members of the team like Ghost who’re there with their own agendas, and added into the mix is Songbird, longtime  Thunderbolt including part of the previous team that Osborn was in.   When he moved to take over, one of Osborn’s first orders of business was to try and kill Songbird as she was quite aware of how unstable he is.  However he didn’t quite manage, and so she’s out there waiting to move against him.

The four issues I’ve got reflect the end of Andy Diggle’s run, so a lot of these plot developments play out in them, however I think I’ll definitely be going back and buying the trades and reading his run from the beginning.   Given my Dark Reign pull list currently only consists of Iron Man (still a cracking book) and War Machine, this was a really nice read and a change from all the Blackest Night stuff I’ve been reading lately.

A while back I blogged on the trailer for the upcoming Iron Man cartoon, basically saying it looked terrible.  Having now caught some of the episodes on Jetix though I feel an update is required.

Its not terrible.  In fact, I’m really quite enjoying it.

Obviously, the show plays really loose with the Iron Man mythos.   The key parts are still there, heavily influenced by the  movie.  However the key players are all now 16.  Obidiah Stane is one of the main recurring villains thanks to the movie, having taken over Stark Industries after Howard Stark dies and is turning all the Stark Tech into military hardware much to Tony’s disgust.  As he’s only 16 Tony’s can’t take control of the company until he’s legally an adult, so instead is forced out, living with his best friend James Rhodes while also using the Iron Man armour to try and dig up any dirt he can on Stane and expose him for the evil so-and-so he is.

Its interesting to see how Stane’s success in the movie has moved him firmly into the role previously occupied by Justin Hammer.  Its especially interesting given that Hammer himself is featuring in the next movie.

The other running villain is the Mandarin.  In something very similar to season 2 of the 90s cartoon, there’s a running plot through the series of the Mandarin trying to retrieve all his rings.  However in this series there’s only 5, hidden in various temples across the world, and all have a test that must be passed so the Mandarin can prove himself worthy of the ring.  These tests allow the writers to work other villains into the show.  For example the test for the third ring finds Iron Man and the Mandarin facing off against Ultimo.

The Mandarin however is quite different to his comics incarnation.  The rings project a suit of demonic-looking samurai armour that identifies the Mandarin, however under the armour is secretly a 16 year-old classmate of Tony’s, who is using Tony to try and locate the other rings  (Howard Stark had located the second ring and researching them was one of his passions).

Iron Man’s rogues gallery is pretty well served by this show, although again most of the characters can be quite different to their comics versions.  In the episodes I’ve seen, outside of Stane and the Mandarin, there’s also been appearances by the Crimson Dynamo, The Controller, AIM and Madame Masque.

If you’re a continuity fanatic then this isn’t the show for you, and to be honest, I really expected to hate it.  However, its sucked me in.  Yes, reimagining everyone as 16 years old takes some getting used to, but in general I think this is a pretty well-made cartoon, helped in part by the plot arc with the Mandarin, while also setting up other plots that come back in later episodes.  The only real complaint I’d make is that sometimes the CGI animation results in the characters looking quite plasticy.  In some lighting it doesn’t really render skin all that well, but most of the time its ok.

Captain America Reborn is Marvel’s big summer mini-event.  A culmination of plots put in place by Ed Brubaker two years ago when Captain America was shot.

Firstly, to the negative.  The truth of what happened to Steve is revealed (only partially to the other heroes, but we find out the truth from a conversation between Norman Osborn and Armin Zola).  However, the reveal proves to be disappointing, as its a direct lift from this year’s season of Lost.   Steve has been displaced in the time stream and is hopping between different points in his own history.  Much like Sawyer and co jumping around the Island’s history.  Sharon even points out that the Red Skull and Zola referred to her as the Constant.  A term intricately linked to Lost’s time travel shenanigans.

I really don’t know what to make of this.  Ed Brubaker has given us a tightly written story this far during his run, so I’m inclined to believe that what we’re seeing is what’s been planned all along.  Which would mean that the similarity between this and Lost is a coincidence (since it would have been in place long before this season of Lost aired), and Brubaker’s in the unfortunate situation of another story having used his plot just before he did (similarly, the cliffhanger reveals in last month’s Captain Britain and Green Lantern issues).  However, this doesn’t explain the use of the term “Constant” in this context, which Lost has been using for several years.

However, aside from that I found this to be a really enjoyable issue.   Bryan Hitch’s art is as great as ever.  Initially I wasn’t sure about his redesign of Cap’s WWII uniform, however, as I looked at it more throughout the issue, I grew to really like it.  It is a bit of a rip-off of his Ultimate Cap look, which I dislike, but some of the details are nice, such as the wings painted on the sides of his helmet, and the way his traditional folded boots are actually fake and are over the top of traditional boots.

Ed Brubaker nicely works a large cast into the story as well.  Alongside the usual cast, the Avengers become involved with the reveal of the strange gun Sharon used to shoot Steve.  Falcon and Sharon take it to Hank Pym (who then admits they should let Reed look at it), but its a nicely written scene.  There’s also good action as well, with Bucky and Natasha infiltrating HAMMER in order to try and retrieve the remains of the device the Red Skull and Zola were using to retrieve Steve (although why they were trying to retrieve him after stranding him remains to be seen).  Norman’s figured out the device was significant though, and while discussing it with Zola, he’s sent the Dark Avengers to deal with Bucky and Natasha.  Looking forward to seeing Bucky and the Black Widow versus the Dark Avengers next issue.

So, overall a bit of a mixed start.  Its nice seeing Steve again (although with the various flashbacks in the main Cap title, he’s rarely been away) and this issue does setup nicely the level of impact his resurrection will have, by including Osborn and both the Avengers and the Dark Avengers.   The art’s great, and the story nicely brings together events from the last two years.  The similarities to Lost do drag down what would’ve otherwise been a great first issue for me though.  I’m definitely looking forward to the next issue.

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.

So, an update on the Ben Reilly rumours doing the rounds.  It looks like its definitely happening, at least in one form.

Bleedingcool.com has the solicit (via SuperPouvoir) for Spider-Man: The Clone Saga.  A 6 issue mini series which will tell the Clone Saga in the way it was originally intended.

Now this should make for interesting reading.  For anyone who’s a fan of the Clone Saga, (or is just interested in what actually happened to cause it to go wildly wrong), I can’t recommend the Life of Reilly column enough.   Its a long read, but breaks the whole saga down and gives detailed accounts from the various people involved at the time as to what actually happened.

Going from what was said in Life of Reilly, I’m presuming this series will show the original “out” (which wasn’t too different to what actually happened) in that it would’ve been revealed that Seward Trainer had faked the test results that proved Ben was the real Peter Parker (although I forget who he was working for.  Must re-read Life of Reilly myself).   It’ll be very interesting to see this bit of Spider-Man history addressed and its a great idea to give the original creators a chance to revisit the story and tell their version of it.

As an amusing aside, given the Bleeding Cool article references both One More Day and the 101 Ways to End the Clone Saga one-shot, its worth pointing out that one of the original ideas touted to resolve the Clone Saga was to reveal that Mephisto had been behind it.   Amusingly this idea was rejected as the writers felt it wasn’t appropriate for Spider-Man, and that it should be a more grounded explanation, rather than a mystical one.

I’m looking forward to this a lot.