Iron Man Vol 5 7

Cover: If in doubt, add Tentacles.

Page 1: We’re leaning heavily into pop-Science Fiction tropes. Greg does some lovely stuff which I’ve seen some people pick up on, in its visual design echoing Star Wars while Tony’s monologue is explicitly doing it. You know I talked about Tony Stark-o-vision in earlier episodes? Greg’s almost applying the same gaze here to the universe in which he finds himself – the designs, the clothes. Hell, Guru eFX’s colours even make those bars resemble light-sabres to me.

Page 2: And we reveal that our previously introduced R2-D2 is actually our CP-30.

Blended Fruit Juice, of course. 451 is many things, but he’s not an enabler.

Interesting use on the “He” there, of course. 451 is a robot, so lacks gender, but he seems to code as male. I play a little with robotic identity down the line.

Page 3: And our proper look at 451. I’ll save talking about my main thinking about him until next issue, when he shows his hand a little.

In terms of his look, he’s a Rigellian Recorders, but clearly upgraded to some level. The colour change is cute. I first met the Recorders in that Hercules 4 issue mini that was serialised in a British anthology, and have dug them ever since.

The offering a drink is a metaphor, probably.

Page 4: Tony’s line here was borderline – both in terms of content and the fact it’s the level of arch that winds some people up. I’m really lampshading some of the behaviour quirks that are really quite tricky to get across in comics. 451, as he says in a second, is fighting against his very nature every second. I’m hoping that with the talking-to-himself plus a little nudge by Tony I can make people think about him in that slightly nervous fractured kind of thing.

Page 5: Demonstration of powers so we know what he can do, and the first drop of 451’s core belief. If he was a 1980s Transformers Toy, that’d be his little motto.

Guru are doing some lovely stuff on these pages – in fact, Godkiller as a whole. The coding of red in this scene is great.

Page 6: Ah, lawyers gag. 451’s sort of quiet shame comes across well in panels 3 and 5.

Page 7: Boof! Court is in session. This is a little like the bar last issue where I just loaded up about a page of random crazy stuff, and let Greg pick and choose what he found interesting – and add his own material.

Those little glowy orbs are actually cameras, a sort of floating crowd-viewing system. Also, pretty.

Also, The Supreme Justicar continues to rock her look.

Page 8: The relevant bits of AvX in a handful of panels. Cram, Cram, Camity, Cram.

Bored now isn’t actually a Buffy lift. I’ve never seen that episode. It’s actually me using a gag I wanted to use in Ludocrats, one of my Indie books lying around in an unfinished state, where Otto axes a character called MR EXPOSITION while shouting BORING!

Page 9: The opening leaned Star Wars. The court sequence leans Star Trek, perhaps obviously. Stark as bare-chested Gladiator in a ring, after discussing pop-philosophy with a beautiful alien.

I originally had SHAY-TAH-RUN as something else, but it was noted it was a bit too close to swearing. Phew.

Page 10: Slowing it down a little for the dramatic pacing, leaning into a gag…

Page 11: Lapdogs are just funny.

I’m not actually a big fan of the back-and-forward time-structuring in a story like this, but it struck me as the best way to maximise the drama and comedy of the set-up. The aforementioned color coding of the prison scene is something that helps ease that too.

I mentioned the tone, but despite it being life and death, this is all quite upbeat.

Page 12: 451 makes great barstaff. I forget if I asked for him to clean the glass before leaving, but it strikes me as very him – also oddly reminding me of Kryten from Red Dwarf.

Page 13: HEAD BUTT!

Yes, making up the crimes that Tony is accused of was probably the most fun thing in the issue.

Page 14: This is an interesting approach by Greg. I think I wrote it as a 3 panel page, but he’s approached it as the multiple panel design-lead approach, which gives us the momentism of thing and makes it more montage feeling.

I’m always glad to see an artist attack the page when they have an idea, so this is great.

Page 15: I kind of feel for the Justicar here. In her head, she’s the only sensible character in the whole plot, and is clearly taking it considerably more serious than everyone else.

Blew my chance at passing the Bletchdel test by not making the Aide a lady.

Page 16: Hmm. The caption as bridging technique between scenes seems to be more common in this issue than usual. Hmm.

“Mechanohoplites” was a phrase I wasn’t sure about, but people seem to dig it. It leans into the classical-greece of the Voldi set up.

I like what Greg did in the third panel – that’s a scary ass 451 with those tiny Terminator-red eyes. The juxtaposition with his hyper-insecure dialogue is probably the moment where the reader starts to really understand the character…

Page 17: Worth noting the colours here are darker than any point in the issue, mirroring the sudden actual violence.

Page 18: The Heart of the Voldi. Referred to and mentioned repeatedly in the last two issues. And what a nice big panel! It’s probably important.

And 451 drops his motto again, just to make sure everyone knows it’s very much his thing. He should get a T-shirt with it on or something.

Page 19: “Grevious Theological Harm” is a sort of play on Grevious Bodily Harm.

Page 20: And the cameo of him in Last issue makes more sense now, Yes?