Invincible Iron Man #594
Nov. 24th, 2017 02:08 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}
doomfansWe open with Riri recording a message to send to Doom to ask for his help in the search for Tony. However, they're interrupted by the mutant Hijack, who's been sent by the Stark board to try to take possession of Riri's armour. MJ and Amanda distract Hijack to help her escape.
Meanwhile, Doom goes after one of the escaped supervillains, and walks into an ambush orchestrated by the whole bunch of them working together. They've blocked his teleportation, and manage to smash his facemask off in the ensuing fight. He blinds them with a flash from his armour and flies off. They're all a bit stunned to realise that he's an ordinary (and annoyingly good-looking) human under all the legends, and decide to modify their plan from just trying to kill him immediately to finding all the money he must have amassed as ruler of Latveria and taking everything he owns first.
...And that's basically all that happens aside from Amanda busting up a board meeting. So, kind of a slow-paced issue, and Doom didn't get to do much except take a beating and make a tactical retreat. Still, it's continuing a bit of a theme of Doom's new methods making him vulnerable in a way he never used to be (right down to, on the most literal level, the fact that I can't imagine his old non-opening facemask would ever have been smashed off quite so easily).
The idea that his new path is starting to damage the legendary untouchable image he built up as a supervillain is definitely a more interesting route to take with the gang of escaped minor villains than a straightforward revenge story, but I still continue not to care about these guys as adversaries. Actually, possibly the most interesting thing about this scene for me is the fact that Doom chooses to retreat at all. Yeah, he was facing impossible odds, but he has a history of refusing to acknowledge that, and either somehow succeeding despite them anyway, or at least staying in egotistical denial right up to the bitter end. Reed forcing him to accept the truth of his failure in Secret Wars does seem to have genuinely done the impossible and punctured his delusional level of self-belief - and maybe that's what's really making others start to see him as only human.
The art continues to be divided up between Caselli and Maleev, which is unfortunately doing Maleev no favours in my eyes, because as beautiful as his stuff is, Caselli's brighter more cartoony style is 2000% more to my personal tastes and just makes me itch to see his take on Doctor Doom, in or out of armour. Even though Maleev has some ace individual panels (that one of the Wrecker saying they'll take everything from Doom is particularly gorgeous), I'm just getting bored with the shadowy dullness of Doom's world, and I really love the expressiveness of Caselli's faces. I'm ready for a change.
So, all in all, a bit of a plot-light issue that could probably have taken place in a third as many pages. I assume Bendis is probably staying on as writer until the big #600, and it does feel a bit like we're treading water not to get there too soon. Hopefully, Doom will join together with Riri and co next month and we'll see a bit more of him then, as well as some more plot progression.
Meanwhile, Doom goes after one of the escaped supervillains, and walks into an ambush orchestrated by the whole bunch of them working together. They've blocked his teleportation, and manage to smash his facemask off in the ensuing fight. He blinds them with a flash from his armour and flies off. They're all a bit stunned to realise that he's an ordinary (and annoyingly good-looking) human under all the legends, and decide to modify their plan from just trying to kill him immediately to finding all the money he must have amassed as ruler of Latveria and taking everything he owns first.
...And that's basically all that happens aside from Amanda busting up a board meeting. So, kind of a slow-paced issue, and Doom didn't get to do much except take a beating and make a tactical retreat. Still, it's continuing a bit of a theme of Doom's new methods making him vulnerable in a way he never used to be (right down to, on the most literal level, the fact that I can't imagine his old non-opening facemask would ever have been smashed off quite so easily).
The idea that his new path is starting to damage the legendary untouchable image he built up as a supervillain is definitely a more interesting route to take with the gang of escaped minor villains than a straightforward revenge story, but I still continue not to care about these guys as adversaries. Actually, possibly the most interesting thing about this scene for me is the fact that Doom chooses to retreat at all. Yeah, he was facing impossible odds, but he has a history of refusing to acknowledge that, and either somehow succeeding despite them anyway, or at least staying in egotistical denial right up to the bitter end. Reed forcing him to accept the truth of his failure in Secret Wars does seem to have genuinely done the impossible and punctured his delusional level of self-belief - and maybe that's what's really making others start to see him as only human.
The art continues to be divided up between Caselli and Maleev, which is unfortunately doing Maleev no favours in my eyes, because as beautiful as his stuff is, Caselli's brighter more cartoony style is 2000% more to my personal tastes and just makes me itch to see his take on Doctor Doom, in or out of armour. Even though Maleev has some ace individual panels (that one of the Wrecker saying they'll take everything from Doom is particularly gorgeous), I'm just getting bored with the shadowy dullness of Doom's world, and I really love the expressiveness of Caselli's faces. I'm ready for a change.
So, all in all, a bit of a plot-light issue that could probably have taken place in a third as many pages. I assume Bendis is probably staying on as writer until the big #600, and it does feel a bit like we're treading water not to get there too soon. Hopefully, Doom will join together with Riri and co next month and we'll see a bit more of him then, as well as some more plot progression.
