Infamous Iron Man #11

[nomadicwriter]

The big reveal of what's going on is finally here, and I have to say, I love it.

We open with the preview pages. Doctor Strange shows up at a facility where SHIELD are currently keeping Doom - with Doom's cooperation, considering he could escape if he wanted to - and meditates with him. He says, "You're here, Victor, because you are scared. And if you're scared, I'm terrified." Strange is sure that between them, they can divine the truth of what's going on with Cynthia and Reed.

Doom is pissy when he figures out that Strange doesn't actually have a spell in mind, he just wants to talk, but he reveals that he witnessed Reed and his mother being affectionate with each other - which leads Strange to conclude that it's obviously not Doom's real mom, and Doom to conclude that it's not the real Reed. He doesn't know who's behind it, but vows to see them burn in hell - which is when they both figure it out. By this time, the false Reed has already arrived at the facility and started setting things on fire, and they go to confront him, where upon he reveals his true form as...

...the demon Mephisto, who has decided there's no way in hell - literally - that he's going to let Doom go about attempting to redeem his damned soul.

To Be Continued...

You know, tremendous credit due. I went into this meh on the idea of evil Ultimate Reed as the bad guy, super wary of any use of Cynthia's character, and starting to get frustrated with the length of time the reveal was being dragged out - but this whole twist is just brilliant. It makes total sense that Mephisto would be unhappy at the idea of Doom working on improving the state of his soul after having damned it to save his mother, and it also makes total sense that he would use Cynthia in some way, whether she's the real one or a false version. (And I should note that I did even actually raise the possibility, based on the styling of the speech bubbles as well as the logical association, that Cynthia's partner could be Mephisto back when I read issue #1. But then when it seemed to be revealed as a version of Reed I forgot about that totally, so this twist still came as a complete surprise.)

Okay, so, with that glowing praise out of the way, I must admit in some ways this issue is triumph of brilliant idea over so-so execution. I feel like the dialogue got especially ropey and OOC-feeling this issue, which is probably the effect of Bendis juggling multiple more formally-speaking characters who all have their own distinct voices that are out out of his dialogue comfort zone. While his Mephisto voice is not bad (although I'm least familiar with Mephisto of the three) I didn't feel like either Doom or Strange sounded very much like themselves.

Have to say I'm not mad keen on Maleev's take on Strange, here, either - I don't know, he just seems too... rugged? And thickly-bearded with no grey in his hair, so it just doesn't seem like him at all. Though some Googling suggests he's got that look going on in his current book that I haven't been following? Not knowing if there's a canon explanation for the new look, I guess I'm gonna choose to imagine he's started dyeing his hair. (I'm keeping up with zero other Marvel at all lately. Can I just take this moment to be extremely appreciative of the fact that this book has ignored Secret Empire so thoroughly I haven't had to make even a token effort to find out what's going on? Woo.)

Anyway, to be fair I guess I was kind of spoiled by Marquez's perfect Doctor Strange back in the run-up to this comic in Invincible Iron Man #5, so anything less was always going to be a hard sell. Maleev does do some fab panels of 'Reed' letting lose with the hellfire (great atmospheric colouring by Matt Hollingsworth in those sequences, too) and the whole Mephisto reveal at the end is great.

So, overall, I have a number of quibbles with the execution when you get down to it, but I was so apprehensive about what the reveal behind this whole Cynthia plot was going to be, and this is so much better and more interesting than anything I was imagining they could be planning to do with Ult Reed, that I'm just delighted all the same. What a fantastic twist! I love it.

Comments

[laireshi]

I hadn't expected the reveal AT ALL, I'm kinda amazed they managed to keep it a secret that long!

Sad that the next issue is the last, though.

[nomadicwriter]

You can tell how out of the loop I am with general Marvel news that I haven't even heard that it was ending yet. Is Tony coming back to take his book back? I'd like to see more of him interacting with this reformed Doom now it's a more well-established thing. I just hope they don't immediately try to flip Doom back into full villain mode - I know they're not going to sideline one of their best bad guys forever, but I'd like to see this redemption storyline play out for longer and then maybe have him move into a more Namor, Magneto type space where he can be ally or enemy depending on what the story demands. (I'd also like to see the rest of the Fantastic Four back at some point, but I'm not holding my breath.)

And yeah, it was a really great twist because it was so completely unexpected but still made actual sense rather than just being a total WTF asspull. At least it looks like the book's going to end decently rather than with a disappointing reveal or everything left hanging.

[laireshi]

Infamous IM is ending, yeah, but Doom will stay good at least a while yet (and I'm very glad for it, I also don't want him to return to being the total evil villain). Marvel is changing all its books numeration to what it would be if it kept going from 1, so Iron Man will be at #593 and it will have Tony, Riri and Doom in some form. Here's some news on it. (There will also be a general Legacy oneshot to explain things).

Also, this cover: http://static1.cbrimages.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/INVIM2016594-Covfinal.jpg?cs=tinysrgb&q=20&w=864&h=1311&fit=crop for IIM 594.

Bendis always said Infamous was a planned out series with an ending and not an ongoing one, so I do hope the last issue delivers! I loved all of it so far so I'm optimistic. And also extremely impatient :P

[nomadicwriter]

That's good to hear! I think it's actually a good move at this point to integrate Victor into a bit more of a team book so he's got some other regular cast members to interact with. I haven't been following Riri's book, but I feel like it's a trio that could potentially work well together: you could have some kind of setup where they all have their own issues interfering with their attempts to play Iron Man (Doom's villain past, Riri's inexperience, and whatever Tony's deal is when he comes back) so they end up having to work together to accomplish the whole hero-ing thing between the three of them.

It'll be cool to have a switch up on the art front as well. Maleev is really good, but his kind of dark and shadowy style is not so much to my personal taste, so I'm about ready for a change after a twelve issue run. I'd like to see some other artists' takes on unmasked Victor and the new armour too.

[harveysdent]

Voices reeeeally felt off, tbh. But Triumph and Torment 2: Electric Boogaloo!! LOL. I'm glad it all makes sense now, waiting 'til issue #11 and still not knowing wtf Ult Reed is up to was frustrating. But part of me feels cheated out of a legit conclusion to a purported 1610 Reed and 616 Doom showdown lmao. I honestly wanted to see how the hell this was going to work.

Also it makes the Cynthia romance angle a lot more alarming LOL. Before it was a ridiculous (sort of) May-December romance that I wasn't taking seriously and now it's back to the same old, presumably nonconsensual demon stuff. yikesssss.

[nomadicwriter]

Yeah, I sort of manage to handwave the Doom voice being off most of the time in this comic because he's not supposed to be acting like his old self anyway, so I can just imagine it's him being a bit off and subdued because he's consciously trying not to be too Doomy. But as soon as you put him in a scene with someone else that Bendis also can't write very well, the OOCness of the dialogue just becomes really glaring.

But yeah, I'm always pleased to see Triumph and Torment revisited, because even if Strange doesn't remember their years of friendship in Secret Wars, he does already have that past experience that might make him see Doom differently to other people when it comes to the idea of him trying to reform. A good Doom vs. evil Reed showdown might have been fun, but to be honest it being (apparently) 1610 Reed killed a lot of my interest anyway; he's just so different from 616 Reed, and has such a different history with his universe's Victor, that it wouldn't really mean very much. (Now, if 616 Reed was around and had to team up with Victor against him, that would have been interesting.) Plus I really couldn't imagine how they were going to come up with a good explanation for him having Cynthia on his side, so I'm much happier to get this twist than some kind of disappointing resolution to that team-up.

[harveysdent]

Yeah, definitely nice to see Strange in a reformed Doom book, considering their history! Way back, I think there was a line Strange had in Invincible Iron Man that spoke to that.

I feel you, it wouldn't have the same potency with just 1610, and with two issues left, any explanation would've been much more long-winded and convoluted than this clear and simple development. Also glad to see them bringing Iron Doom™ into Legacy! The return to villainy is probably inevitable but I'd love if they let him sidle back into a more grey area after everything's said and done.

[nomadicwriter]

One good thing about having Bendis as the writer, dialogue issues aside, is that he's got enough clout to get to finish up his storylines. With another writer we'd probably have ended up getting derailed halfway in by a multi-part Secret Empire tie-in, then had a really rushed ending resetting everything to status quo in time for Legacy. But if the storyline's going to continue as long-term thing then there's much more chance of it sticking as part of Doom's character development.

I know they're going to want him back as a bad guy at some point, but I do feel like there's room to make him more of a grey-area character like Namor or Magneto where he's not so much going after the good guys for the sake of it as just pursuing his own goals and sometimes on the same side, sometimes not. We've seen plenty of times by now that he can work just as well in a team-up role on the side of the heroes as he does as a villain.