Invincible Iron Man #593
Oct. 20th, 2017 03:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nomadicwriter posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
doomfansAKA, despite the numbering, the first issue of the new Iron Man series where Doom becomes part of a more ensemble cast.
We open with the AI Friday giving the background exposition. Status quo: Tony in an unexplained coma, Riri acting as Ironheart aided by an AI version of Tony that's starting get erratic, Doom self-appointed Iron Man on a quest for redemption.
It's the day of the Stark Expo, where people are feeling the absence of Tony. While Riri is being applauded by the crowd, Mary Jane Watson is being told that the Stark International board have voted to take over the running of the company themselves. Meanwhile, at Ryker's Island, all the supervillains Doom collected have busted out. He brought them more than any one individual hero has managed, and since apparently SHIELD no longer exists (this is something it would have been nice to exposit in that intro monologue, since I've only been following Infamous and have no idea what happened there) the prison staff weren't able to hold them.
Dude from the FBI asks the guards if the whole "Doom acting as Iron Man" thing is for real, since the Bureau weren't sure. Doom himself shows up to illustrate as much, and stops them from shooting at him by mind-controlling them into sharing a happy group hug instead. (I love that this ability is now canon, and demand that we henceforth see Doom using it against various awkward groupings of heroes and supervillains as often as humanly possible. Involuntary magical cuddlefests for everybody!)
Ben Grimm shows up. (Sadly no hugging, though.) Doom says that since SHIELD is no more it's no longer Ben's job to come after him. Ben says he doesn't need a reason to hunt him down. He tells Doom that no matter what he does, nobody's ever going to forgive and forget, and even if he somehow convinced the entire world to do so, Doom will still have to live with knowing he blew every chance to be the kind of guy that Reed was, because that's who he is. "You know who you really are." Doom just silently teleports away, which is not the reaction Ben expected. (Meanwhile, in the background, one of Doom's involuntary hugging victims is kind of sad that it's over and asks if anyone else still wants to hug. Seriously, Doom needs to use this gift every issue. Potential comedy gold.)
Back at the Stark Facility, Friday reports that Tony has gone missing. Riri and co. assume that he must have been kidnapped. Friday has alerted the Avengers, but says that if they can't find out what's happened to him, they should consider calling Victor von Doom, to general incredulity.
Elsewhere, a naked bald dude that may or may not be Tony crawls to a case full of old-school Iron Man armours and puts one of them on before curling up on the floor.
To Be Continued...
So! Great establishing issue. I was surprised to realise Stefano Caselli and Alex Maleev are actually sharing the art duties, with Caselli drawing the bulk of the issue, but Maleev still doing the art and colouring for the one Doctor Doom scene. I was kind of looking forward to seeing a different artist's take on the new-look Doom, but it does provide a lovely moody contrast in atmosphere. (And the closeup page where Ben and Doom face off is just beautiful.) Caselli's art is really nice, too - I particularly love his character design for Riri out of armour, and she actually looks like a convincing teenager, which is always impressive. I guess we'll see what happens when Doom starts interacting with the rest of the cast, and whether Caselli gets to draw him then or he carries his dark and gritty atmosphere around with him wherever he goes.
Glad to see Ben remaining a part of the cast, since I've really enjoyed the development of his and Doom's relationship in Infamous. Though Doom may only get one scene in this issue, it's a great one. Ben's intention was clearly to press the one button that always reliably works to get Doom to show his true colours, poking him in the inferiority complex that he has towards Reed... and yet it doesn't work this time. I'm interested in Ben's surprised little, "Huh," there when it didn't go as planned. Is this the point where he maybe starts to get an inkling that something really has changed?
Of course, what he doesn't know is that Doom's already had his moment of being forced to face up to Reed being a better saviour than him in Secret Wars. (And he got his first 'No one can ever know I conceded this!' murderous impulse out of his system back then.) Plus there's just the fact that subjectively, Doom lived through eight Reed-free years on Battleworld, which is a lot of time to start getting to grip with his issues - especially when you remember that in Marvel time it's only been about fifteen years max since the F4 got their powers and maybe twentyish since Doom's college accident. I guess the real test is always going to be whether Doom can keep up the veneer of being over it if Reed Richards returns.
On that subject, I was very struck by the fact Ben referred to "the guy Reed Richards was", past tense, in his big speech to Doom. Has he also started to move on and reconcile to the idea of Reed being gone? And if so, could that maybe push him a step closer to accepting that things are different now and perhaps Doom is too? Interesting.
...Well, anyway, that sure was a lot of rambly meta thoughts on a general theme of: I enjoyed this a lot and continue to really look forward to seeing where it's going. Good stuff!
We open with the AI Friday giving the background exposition. Status quo: Tony in an unexplained coma, Riri acting as Ironheart aided by an AI version of Tony that's starting get erratic, Doom self-appointed Iron Man on a quest for redemption.
It's the day of the Stark Expo, where people are feeling the absence of Tony. While Riri is being applauded by the crowd, Mary Jane Watson is being told that the Stark International board have voted to take over the running of the company themselves. Meanwhile, at Ryker's Island, all the supervillains Doom collected have busted out. He brought them more than any one individual hero has managed, and since apparently SHIELD no longer exists (this is something it would have been nice to exposit in that intro monologue, since I've only been following Infamous and have no idea what happened there) the prison staff weren't able to hold them.
Dude from the FBI asks the guards if the whole "Doom acting as Iron Man" thing is for real, since the Bureau weren't sure. Doom himself shows up to illustrate as much, and stops them from shooting at him by mind-controlling them into sharing a happy group hug instead. (I love that this ability is now canon, and demand that we henceforth see Doom using it against various awkward groupings of heroes and supervillains as often as humanly possible. Involuntary magical cuddlefests for everybody!)
Ben Grimm shows up. (Sadly no hugging, though.) Doom says that since SHIELD is no more it's no longer Ben's job to come after him. Ben says he doesn't need a reason to hunt him down. He tells Doom that no matter what he does, nobody's ever going to forgive and forget, and even if he somehow convinced the entire world to do so, Doom will still have to live with knowing he blew every chance to be the kind of guy that Reed was, because that's who he is. "You know who you really are." Doom just silently teleports away, which is not the reaction Ben expected. (Meanwhile, in the background, one of Doom's involuntary hugging victims is kind of sad that it's over and asks if anyone else still wants to hug. Seriously, Doom needs to use this gift every issue. Potential comedy gold.)
Back at the Stark Facility, Friday reports that Tony has gone missing. Riri and co. assume that he must have been kidnapped. Friday has alerted the Avengers, but says that if they can't find out what's happened to him, they should consider calling Victor von Doom, to general incredulity.
Elsewhere, a naked bald dude that may or may not be Tony crawls to a case full of old-school Iron Man armours and puts one of them on before curling up on the floor.
To Be Continued...
So! Great establishing issue. I was surprised to realise Stefano Caselli and Alex Maleev are actually sharing the art duties, with Caselli drawing the bulk of the issue, but Maleev still doing the art and colouring for the one Doctor Doom scene. I was kind of looking forward to seeing a different artist's take on the new-look Doom, but it does provide a lovely moody contrast in atmosphere. (And the closeup page where Ben and Doom face off is just beautiful.) Caselli's art is really nice, too - I particularly love his character design for Riri out of armour, and she actually looks like a convincing teenager, which is always impressive. I guess we'll see what happens when Doom starts interacting with the rest of the cast, and whether Caselli gets to draw him then or he carries his dark and gritty atmosphere around with him wherever he goes.
Glad to see Ben remaining a part of the cast, since I've really enjoyed the development of his and Doom's relationship in Infamous. Though Doom may only get one scene in this issue, it's a great one. Ben's intention was clearly to press the one button that always reliably works to get Doom to show his true colours, poking him in the inferiority complex that he has towards Reed... and yet it doesn't work this time. I'm interested in Ben's surprised little, "Huh," there when it didn't go as planned. Is this the point where he maybe starts to get an inkling that something really has changed?
Of course, what he doesn't know is that Doom's already had his moment of being forced to face up to Reed being a better saviour than him in Secret Wars. (And he got his first 'No one can ever know I conceded this!' murderous impulse out of his system back then.) Plus there's just the fact that subjectively, Doom lived through eight Reed-free years on Battleworld, which is a lot of time to start getting to grip with his issues - especially when you remember that in Marvel time it's only been about fifteen years max since the F4 got their powers and maybe twentyish since Doom's college accident. I guess the real test is always going to be whether Doom can keep up the veneer of being over it if Reed Richards returns.
On that subject, I was very struck by the fact Ben referred to "the guy Reed Richards was", past tense, in his big speech to Doom. Has he also started to move on and reconcile to the idea of Reed being gone? And if so, could that maybe push him a step closer to accepting that things are different now and perhaps Doom is too? Interesting.
...Well, anyway, that sure was a lot of rambly meta thoughts on a general theme of: I enjoyed this a lot and continue to really look forward to seeing where it's going. Good stuff!
