User blog:Hawkeye2701/Review4U: Iron Man (2013)

Well, I was originally hoping to review individual characters as opposed to whole series, but since the requests were made I'll oblige. This one is the review of the ongoing Iron Man comic of 2013, requested by ADour. I decided to do this one first cause it was easier to skim the comics while throwing on the X-Men Animated Series in the background. So first, an overview.

Part 1: Extremis
Okay, the story pretty much starts with Maya, the woman who created Extremis getting deep fried by an A.I.M. Beekeeper whose been enhanced. From there, we find out that A.I.M. has sold this stuff all over and Tony, having received a dying message from Maya, is now on their tail. That pretty much sums up Issue 1.

Issue 2 concerns the first example. A group of armoured fighters having set up on the border of Latveria, have used Extremis to improve their fighters, not by giving them Super Powers, but by enhancing their ability to survive G-Forces and improving their ability to Sync with their Armour. They were built and designed by a woman who, in the past, had lost to Tony and was looking to get her own back. Now to be clear, these people aren't super villains, their goal was to humiliate Stark, not kill him. So they set up a contest, with Stark Teck on One Side, Extremis on the other, winner takes all. Fighting his way through several of them, Tony eventually cheats, blowing up their source of Extremis before leaving.

Issue 3 concerns the head of a Drug Cartel whose Daughter is dying. Having spent every peso to buy Extremis, he had intended to use it for its original purpose, to heal the sick. Unfortunately, in trying to get it right, he caused the death of another, but completely healed a second individual with the same illness as his daughter. Tony, infiltrating his base using his Stealth Armour, gets assaulted by a number of Super Villains the Drug Lord had hired, While generally getting tossed about, he eventually breaks in and confronts the man, the Drug Lord calling off the villains in case they damaged the equipment. Explaining his situation, Tony adjusts the Extremis formula to help the girl, but tells the Drug Lord he's going to Jail.

Issue 4 is something else. Beneath Paris, a bunch of Satanist Scientists use Extremis to turn 13 girls into the demonic baby momma of something they call the "Black Infinite". Something goes wrong and these vampiric beauties kill all but one scientist. Heading down in a new suit of Hulk Buster Armour, Tony is pretty surprised to say the least. In a heated exchange with the scientist, he accidentally breaks the runes the girls have been programmed to avoid. The Scientist is slaughtered and Tony destroys Extremis. Killing 12 of the 13 enhanced girls, he finds one who hadn't moved in days, sitting alone in the corridor. Being non-hostile, he sends her to the Raft to be incarcerated. She is last seen smiling and holding a protruding stomach.

Issue 5 is the last of the Extremis stories. An old friend of Tony's named Eli is working on a space station. Having stolen an Extremis Kit from A.I.M. he has made 6 people capable of surviving permanently in space without the typical detrimental effects it has on the body. Tony admires their forethought and wishes he could help, but points out that if he can come up here and take it, anyone can. Letting the astronauts take their shot, he paralyzes them with a taser before destroying their kit, leaving them with the enhancements they had, but stopping them from making any more. Having done this, several weeks later, Tony tells Pepper of his intention to go into Space, having built himself a new space faring armour and that the new A.I. he'd been building the past couple of issues would be modeled after her as a means of keeping him grounded on his trip.

Part 2: 2013: A Space Stark
What can I say, Tony Stark in Space, it's every bit as bizarre as one could hope. It's during this time that Tony, in a run of typical heroism, helps a species of Avian like aliens called the Voldi. Coming aboard their space faring fleet, he tries to get "Intimate" with a purple skinned bird lady in the Spirit of Captain Kirk. This romance is short lived however as feathers on your head is all well and good, but a beard is apparently so repulsive to her species it warrants throwing up. Apparently charm and good looks are not universal.

Shortly after this, Tony is arrested for having killed one of the Voldi's gods, namely having Shattered the Phoenix not too long ago in AVX.

With the aide of a Rigellian Recorder called 451, Tony learns enough about the local law system to challenge his charges in hand to hand combat (Because, you know, if you can kick ass you're innocent.) Anyway, getting rather tired of Tony's winning streak, the Voldi eventually level a 30 foot killer robot mercenary called Death's Head against him. All the while, 451 is going about stealing a Voldi artifact.

The artifact, the Voldi Heart, was actually keeping the space faring species hidden from the more monstrous creatures they leeched power and tech from. Without it, the Celestials appeared and promptly killed them, all of them. Quite unhappy with having been used in this planned genocide, Tony resigns himself to hunting down 451.

Enlisting the aide of the Giant Robot Mercenary who nearly killed him, Tony tracks down 451 only for it to turn out Death's Head was working for him all along. Taking control of Tony's suit, 451 walks him to a room where he shows the billionaire an old movie reel of his father, who explains the Secret Origins of Tony Stark.

The story takes a quick step back some 35+ years to before Tony was born. Knowing that their child would have some defects that would make his odds of survival slim to none, Tony's parents try everything they can to try and fix these issues. Eventually, after numerous failures, Howard gets in contact with a Grey Alien named Rollo who offers him a deal. If Howard helps him bust a Rigellian Recorder out from under the control of his bosses, said Recorder could help him improved his child's odds while Rollo gets access to a lot of valuable information.

In doing so, Howard Stark puts together a group called the Stark Seven consisting of Jimmy Woo, The Bear, Thunderbolt Ross, Dum Dum Dugan and Nessa the Kitten. Along with Rollo and Howard, they would bust out the recorder. The plan goes off near flawlessly, with the one problem that Rollo is killed in the process.

With 451 in hand, Stark makes a deal with the robot. 451 will fix the problems with the baby in return for being allowed to alter him to suit 451's purposes for him in later life, the Starks reluctantly agree. As the time for the birth nears, the Greys make an attempt on the Starks' home. This prompts Howard to retaliate. Knowing that even if they didn't have 451, the information contained in their son was still worth something to the Greys, Howard knew they wouldn't be safe until the Greys were dealt with. Reassembling the Seven, he sets about killing most of the Greys and forcing the remainder off world, where, unbeknownst to Stark, 451 flushes them into space. He returns home to find his wife Maria having given birth to their son.

In the present, Tony is being forced to protect 451's ship from the automated defenses of something Tony is still unaware of. Approaching what appears to be a black 'gap' in space, where no star light or anything else is visible, Tony finds they have arrived at a massive structure, inside of which is a titanic mecha called the God Killer. This is what 451 altered him for before his birth. He was built to interface with the God Killer and provide Earth with the deadliest weapon in the universe, allowing what 451 calls the "Avengers Empire" a universal empire controlled by Earth and ensuring a universal peace as well, at the cost of Tony Stark's free will. Before he can be interfaced with the machine however, Death's Head arrives, now seeking the bounty on 451 and blasts Tony into the bowels of the God Killer. The mercenary's battle with 451 is short lived as the Recorder takes control of him also, leading him to use Death's Head to then track Tony down. Using his still free speech, Death's head tells Tony about the Armoury having followed him, Tony taking this opportunity to try and reach it. Blasting the elevator Death's Head and 451 were following on, Death's Head, under the parameter of 'protecting' 451, grabs him, falling a considerable distance before being ordered to let go. He does so, falling to his apparent death while 451 laments that Tony has gotten a head start.

Directing the God Killer towards an inhabited world, 451 tries to force Tony to merge with the system. Tony tries to, but the God Killer will not accept him as pilot. Refusing to believe what Tony says, the God Killer crashes into the world, killing millions. Still believing Tony is lying, 451 directs the God Killer at Earth in an attempt to raise the stakes. Hard wiring several of his suits together, Tony stops 451 from taking them over remotely and engages the recorder in battle. Gaining the upper hand, he shows 451 the truth, that he can't sync with the God Killer. Despairing that all the horrible things he had done were for naught, 451 begins to shut himself down. While narrowly avoiding the collision with Earth, he reasons that leaving the God Killer and Tony intact is too big of a risk and sets the God Killer to shift into another dimension before continuing the wipe of his memory. Dragging 451 with him, he narrowly escapes the mech before it vanishes. Saying his goodbyes to the Guardians of the Galaxy, Tony heads back to Earth.

Part 3: Back to Earth
Having a reunion with all his friends, complete with Iron Man themed cake, Tony goes back to look over his father's notes before taking off on 'Family Business'. Heading to the Maria Stark Memorial Hospice, Tony walks in to find Arno Stark, the biological child of Howard and Maria hooked to a respirator. As it turned out, Howard knew 451 wasn't telling the whole truth, looking over all the enhancements that were supposed to be built into Arno, there was a kill switch included. Using his own methods, Howard tried to repair this, but it left Arno, alive, but incapable of breathing without assistance. Adopting Tony, the Starks hid their real child from 451 for his entire life whilst Tony grew up thinking they were his biological parents. This being why Tony could not interface with the God Killer.

Reuniting with the brother he never knew he had, Arno and Tony bond, trying to plan big things for the future, Arno being hesitant to trust A.I.s. While they discuss this, one of the Mandarin's rings hunts out a suitable host, turning one young woman into Mandarin Seven and giving her the task of eliminating Tony Stark.

The Review
Alright, let's start with something simple, the art. I hate the early art for this series. The faces and expressions, while detailed, strike something of an Uncanny Valley tone with me, later on it gets better, still detailed, but less of the unnerving feel to it. So that's that out of the way.

I love a lot of the Story elements. The earlier stories with Extremis showed that it could be used for good or bad and a lot of people using it, you had good people using it for the wrong reasons, bad people using it for bad and bad people using it for good. Even the last one was a genuinely good use by good people. I thought it worked very well to show all the possibilities. My one issue with this arc is that not much seems to have come of it, at least not yet. The Knight guys from the border of Latveria haven't been so much as mentioned again, nor the lady giving birth to the Anti-Christ. I know a lot happens in the Marvel Universe and the people who first encounter a problem aren't necessarily the ones to fix it, but I'd like some closure. Another issue is that, Tony seemingly decided to go to Space after his encounter on the space station, but had been putting together the A.I. for it long before that, it's possible I've forgotten something, having only skimmed the issues for reminders, but it just seems a bit inconsistent.

When Tony goes to space, I'm not a fan of the armour, but that's my personal taste, I'm more a fan of the Classic Red and Gold look and none of the armours this series have hit the right tone with me, either being the wrong colours our having an odd design to them, but again, these are just my feelings on it.

The secret origins of Tony Stark. Part of me is happy, part of me is sad. I look at it and to a degree I'm glad that Tony's merits, all his good and his bad aren't just the result of someone tinkering with him before he was even born, but even so, with the revelation of Arno, he does feel something like the unwanted child. I love the story behind it. Watching their parents be extraordinary people and the Stark Seven, it was brilliant. It struck very much of the sort of 60s-70s team up, a real Ocean's Eleven type deal and I thought that was fantastic. The characters included were interesting and the idea of this cheesy sort of alien mob really worked well in my opinion.

I like Arno. He seems like a nice guy, he doesn't look like he's going to be some resentful bitter brother, he was in bed all these years while Tony had the fame and the fortune, and I like that. If this becomes a permanent change to the Iron Man dynamic I would personally welcome it. I don't think, and the character seemingly agrees, that Arno should become an armoured hero like Tony and his friends, but I think there's definite potential for an Oracle type character. Someone finally as smart as Tony acting as his support.

Over all though, I think the best part of this series is the humour. Between the beard jokes, P.E.P.P.E.R.'s attitude and Death's Head, the entire thing had me in stitches the whole way through. While it still suffers from having those loose ends lying around, I'm hopeful that this series will keep going strong.

I'm sorry if this review lacks something of my usual wit and hilarity, but I'm still getting to grips reviewing things, especially whole series. Anywho, once again, this is Hawkeye2701 with a review courtesy of ADour. Hope you enjoyed.