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Iron Man: Inevitable #1
"This Old Truth"
Review posted: 03 Jan 2006
Writer: Joe Casey
Artist: Frazer Irving (art and color)
Letters: Comicraft
Publisher: Marvel Comics
3.00 out of 5 Stars
Reviewed by Matt Yocum
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Sometimes comics inspire me. Sometimes they
challenge me to explore new questions. And
sometimes they’re just a nice diversion on a rainy
winter’s day. Iron Man: The Inevitable provided me just
such a diversion.
The
issue is mostly setup but serves as a good entry in what should be a
promising miniseries.
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Writer Joe Casey gives Iron Man fans such as me a blast from the
past by reintroducing three of Iron Man’s past foes in
Spymaster, the Ghost, and the Living Laser. The latter makes a rather
unique appearance and promises an interesting engagement later in this
series. The story involves busting a high tech arms ring, the
gathering of villains, and Tony Stark employing a specialist in
superhuman psychiatric theory to rehabilitate the Living Laser. The
issue is mostly setup but serves as a good entry in what should be a
promising miniseries.
I’ve followed Iron Man for years, since I first collected
comics over twenty years ago, and Joe Casey allows me to revisit some
of the reasons why I first followed his adventures. As one interested
in technology myself (I’m an engineer in the Air Force by
trade), Tony Stark as inventor always appealed to me. The very
essence of his “powers” comes from his inventions. I
would argue the Air Force is the most technological of the services;
Air Force fighter pilots find themselves similarly strapped into a
machine with a tremendous amount of information and power at their
hands, much like Iron Man. Tony Stark has also had real world
problems to contend with including his struggles with alcoholism, the
most notable story coming in Iron Man #128, “Demon in a
Bottle” by David Michelinie and penciled by a young John Romita
Jr.
Frazer Irving comes most recently off DC Comics’ Seven
Soldiers: Klarion, and the British born artist has illustrated well
what has always been a difficult superhero to pin down. I
particularly liked his panel sequencing as it showed me a slightly
different way of using borders; in one case he stacked rectangular
panels with increasing size downward, like a pyramid, until reaching
the largest, action-oriented panel on the bottom. Although not
Irving’s fault, my one complaint is Iron Man’s armor. Not
for years has there been a memorable armor, and although the colors
remain the classic red and gold, I find new armor upgrades so
frequently I can’t keep up. Not to mention they continue to
migrate ever closer to the Ultimate Iron Man armor.
There’s nothing earth-shattering about Iron Man: The
Inevitable, but it might prove a more reliable book on a monthly
basis while we await the next issue of Iron Man. He does still
have his own book, doesn’t he? Editor Tom Brevoort claimed at
the Baltimore Comic Convention a few months ago that the wait will be
worth it to see Adi Granov’s work in the next issue of Iron
Man.
I disagree — it’s not worth waiting this long for anyone’s
art, especially for a book that’s had a core following for
years.
For those Iron Man fans out there, such as myself, I definitely
recommend you pick up this title. It’s a fun adventure with
some old super-villain friends. For the rest of you, if you have an
extra $2.99 to spare, you won’t be disappointed on what proved a
solid effort and enjoyable read.
Comments about my comments? Feel free to email me at
myocum@comiccritique.com.
—CCdC—
Cover image used without explicit permission in accordance with the "Fair Use" provision of US copyright law.
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