Infamous Iron Man #6

[nomadicwriter]

We open with an extended version of the college-era flashback from the preview. I really like the characterisation of young Reed here, genuinely trying to reach out to Victor but being unwittingly pushy and condescending about how he's doing it. (Also, I'm kinda charmed that he considers Victor just telling him to "Go away" instead of "Be gone" a sign that Victor is warming to him.)

Plus Ben calls Victor 'Eurotrash' and Victor responds with "Ah! The jock as returned and this time he has strung together a complete sentence. Let's all stop what we're doing and bask in the young man's achievement." I could happily read an entire series set back in their college days - get on that, Marvel.

Back in the present, the Wizard is trying to convince MODOK that Doom is rounding up the members of the former Intelligentcia and handing them over to SHIELD, which is soon proven true when Doom shows up to tackle him. The Wizard turns out to be prepared for him, though, and has made his antigravity discs immune to sorcery. (I love that Doom makes a note to himself to ask how he did it even as he's zooming off into the sky. Always such a scientist.) Doom escapes by ejecting from his boots and narrowly avoids crashing to the ground.

He and the Wizard fight it out, but Doom is distracted by what seems so be a vision or psychic flash of some kind of great machine. (I'm not following what's going on in any other Marvel comics so I have no idea if I'm supposed to recognise what that's about.) The Wizard is baffled, but takes advantage to zap him out of the sky. Brief cutaway to Cynthia, observing in her cauldron, who's troubled that Victor became distracted, but evil-Reed convinces her not to intervene.

Doom is arrested by Sharon Carter of SHIELD. He says he'll only speak to Maria Hill, but Carter tells him Hill's no longer with SHIELD. (Again, not following other comics, no idea what's going on.) Doom stalls her long enough to get his armour back online and zooms off with, "I leave you to consider the subtext of our interaction."

Cut to Chicago, where Riri Williams hears on the news that SHIELD confronted someone in Iron Man armour, but no one knows whether it was Tony Stark. She dons her own Iron Man armour and flies off to investigate. TBC...

Some great lines this issue! Though also a foreboding sense that we're about to get sucked into some sort of crossover event I don't care about. I hope it doesn't stall the Cynthia plotline even further, considering nothing really happened on that front this issue.

Some really nice art from Maleev in this one - I'm super impressed with the amount of 'acting' he manages to get the Iron Man suit to do just with subtle angles of the head without cheating by changing the mask's expression. I rather like his versions of young Reed, Ben and Victor too.

So, overall I enjoyed a lot of little moments in this issue - and I am always, always here for college flashbacks! - but I'm a bit wary of future issues getting bogged down in some sort of big crossover event and derailing the plot, especially since I'm not sure how many if any of the tie-ins I'll be able to pick up. I've been spoiled by reading the F4 comics, which usually got left alone to do their own thing without being dragged into crossovers every half dozen issues. Though I guess at least that way we'll get to see "good" Doom interacting with more of the heroes...

Comments

[omfgarthur.livejournal.com]

college flashbacks!!! I didn't see the preview, so I had no idea it was coming and I was SO delighted, tbh. Really loved Maleev's art in that bit, especially Ben's anachronistic hairdo? LOL.

Reed picking up on the nuances in Doomspeak is honestly super cute, lmao. I totally agree, I liked how he came off in this, well-intentioned but legit tactless.

Speaking of cute things, Victor describing him as a lost puppy?! stoooop. Also extra hilarious, you're obvs the same nomadicwriter on AO3, right? I swear I remember Victor literally called Reed a puppy in one of your reed/victor fics too??? I was just cackling to myself when I remembered, tbh X')

[nomadicwriter]

Yeah, I really liked the look for all of them as college kids here - too often Doom ends up looking way too old compared to the others, or it's just bad art in general. (And I was amused by Ben's hair too, though the way comic book timelines slip around I guess this flashback has already moved forward to taking place in, like, 1995 or something.)

I really appreciate that they're deliberately portraying college Reed as tactless now, too; he always came off that way even in the earliest origin stories, and yet for a long time there was no acknowledgement that, "Hi, I walked into your private bedroom and read the notes for your project without permission- hey, why are you rudely kicking me out while I try to give you corrections on your mistakes?" is like, not great, dude.

Also extra hilarious, you're obvs the same nomadicwriter on AO3, right? I swear I remember Victor literally called Reed a puppy in one of your reed/victor fics too??? I was just cackling to myself when I remembered, tbh X')

Ha, yes, that's me, and I'd completely forgotten about that line until you mentioned it! That was "Intentions", the AU where they're roommates. College Reed always did kinda give off that vibe of following him around like a puppy trying to win his approval, so I'm super amused that it's now canon that Victor sees him that way.

Seriously, so many things about their interactions in these college scenes are gold. I want a whole series of this! They can reluctantly team up to fight early supervillains or something.

[omfgarthur.livejournal.com]

LOLOL you're right re: the fluidity of the timeline, it's just hilariously jarring to me considering how many dudes in contemporary media right now have that hair, like I can think of Bernthal's Punisher off the top of my head.

RIGHT THOUGH? The pushiness was always so implicit in college aged Reed's behavior, but he wasn't often condemned or criticized for being a nosy busybody. I guess 'cos this is Victor's story rn and it's giving a more sympathetic read to that origin? Which I appreciate! Speaking of reasons for the college flashback, do you reckon it's also setting up Victor's ?! moment when he finally sees evul Ultimate Reed? I mean, not the same Reed, but considering it was a memory of SOME Reed mentioning Cynthia...

omg YEAH, the one where they were actually roommates! X'D It was so cute lmfao, and made even better now that canon's corroborated that reading! Victor calling him a puppy and Reed saying he thought it was such a ~gift that they found each other, lololol ok

MAN IKR, I've been enjoying IIM but I would KILL A MAN for more college era shenanigans. It's not really an exorbitant request, either! Superhero/supervillain origin material is so common, it's literally part of the conceit for Arrow and Smallville before that. And all those DC Year One comics! Plzzzzzz.

[nomadicwriter]

Speaking of reasons for the college flashback, do you reckon it's also setting up Victor's ?! moment when he finally sees evul Ultimate Reed? I mean, not the same Reed, but considering it was a memory of SOME Reed mentioning Cynthia...

I don't know where they might be going with that; this evil Reed is apparently the one from the Ultimate Universe, where Victor had a different backstory and never attempted to rescue his mother from hell, so it's an interesting question how he even came to learn about Cynthia and find/resurrect her to use against our Doom. (Maybe from our Reed during the events of Secret Wars?) But yeah, the backstory of what happened to Cynthia was already pretty well covered in earlier issues and not really necessary to bring up again, so it does suggest the flashbacks may be more about his relationship with Reed and Ben than just a way to do some exposition.

MAN IKR, I've been enjoying IIM but I would KILL A MAN for more college era shenanigans. It's not really an exorbitant request, either! Superhero/supervillain origin material is so common, it's literally part of the conceit for Arrow and Smallville before that. And all those DC Year One comics! Plzzzzzz.

There was actually supposed to be a miniseries called "Victor Von Doom" set during Doom's college years released back in 2011, but there were scheduling conflicts or something and it never happened. Though we did get some nice cover art, at least:



Maybe now we've got Doom as one of the good guys heading his own comic they'll think about resurrecting that idea.

[omfgarthur.livejournal.com]

oh my GOD he looks like such a melodramatic middle school emo in that cover LOL I LOVE IT? I would sincerely love that. Prequel miniseries!! Do it, Marvel!!!!