File #9: Return Of The Invincible

While I'm not a hard core fan of the character (I haven't seen the movie yet), I loved a lot of the Iron Man books from the 70's and 80's. The whole "Rich Idiot With No Day Job who fights crime with Money (Ironically, Tony Stark is a major subversion of it)" trope combined with the over the top light drama and those "Blasted Boot Jets" dialog always made it a fun read...

Which really disappointed me when I got back into comics a year ago, to see Tony Stark charactered derailed into a political soapboxing douchebag that shepherded Marvel's Civil War crossover into a new low of the Dork Age of Comics.

However, Invincible Iron Man, which deals with the more Repulsor Rays aspect of Tony Stark, is one of the better comic debuts of the summer.

"The Five Nightmares", penned by Matt Fraction and drawn by Salvador Larroca, opens with suicide bombers using Iron Man technology to lay down massive damage. The man supplying the terrorists happens to Ezikiel Stane, son of Obediah Stane (not the movie Version), the famed Magnificent Bastard who damn near destroyed Tony in every way possible in the 1980's.

Issue three, which is out now, finds Tony using a "familliar method" to save "his girl Friday", Pepper Potts. Plus theres a new retread on the Tony's origin story.

Fraction's writing is in good form here. He keeps the story on pace while maintaing the drama. Larroca's photorealistic art is very tight and he handles action scenes with a slick, cinemeatic flair.

Overall, a tight start to what will hopefully be a decent series.

4 out of 5 stars.