Generations: Iron Man and Ironheart #1: Review

Sep 2017
Brian Michael Bendis, ?

Story Name:

(no title given)

Review & Comments

Rating:
4 stars

Generations: Iron Man and Ironheart #1 Review by (September 16, 2017)
This issue has 3 pencillers. I break them down as follows:-
Marco Rudy from the beginning to before Morgan's attack.
Szymon Kudranski from Morgan until Riri leaves the future.
Nico Leon last 2 pages back in the present.
It has 4 inkers. I guess Szymon Kudranski and Nico Leon ink their own work. I estimate that Will Sliney inked the opening pages and Scott Koblish took over when Riri met Tony Stark.
There are also 3 colourists (Marco Rudy, Dean White and Paul Mounts) but I'm not going to try to analyse *them*.

I believe that the Generations 1-shots are meant to show what happened to the heroes who Kobik sends through the Vanishing Point near the end of Secret Empire #10. But strangely Ironheart doesn't remember this. Also she returns to Chicago whereas the VP journeys started out in Washington. But possibly this explains why Ironheart isn't in the panel when the others return there in SE#10.

Despite the cover Ironheart doesn't go back in time to meet Tony Stark as Iron Man. Instead she meets him in the future as the Sorcerer Supreme we glimpsed in Infamous Iron Man #8-9. 2099's SS Tony Stark was introduced by Bendis in All-New X-Men Annual #1 (2014).

The teen Avengers here are Azari T'Challa, Hawkeye (Francis Barton), James Rogers, Henry Pym Jr and Torunn Thorsdottir. They are based on the Next Avengers in Avengers (2010) #1-6 and Avengers World #9-11,14. Who in turn were based on the same chars in the Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow animated video. But the proliferation of alternate futures means we can't be sure they are all the same versions of themselves.





 

Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Generations: Iron Man and Ironheart #1 Synopsis by Rob Johnson
Ironheart finds herself falling to Earth with her AI non-responsive and her armour not even responding to manual controls, including a complete lack of sensors. She crashes onto a roof and at least her armour's auto-crash-protection works.

Riri Williams takes her helmet off and realises she's in her home town Chicago, but totally changed. For instance there are vehicles following tracks in the air, and the tracks seem to be made of light. And most amazing of all the air is clean. She tries to figure out if she's hallucinating, or maybe shifted to an alternate reality - as has happened to other heroes she knows.

Then 5 unknown teenage heroes accost her, claiming to be the Mighty Avengers. 1 introduces himself as Azari of Wakanda. Riri reponds with her Ironheart identity, and another of the teens says "Like Riri Williams?". She's stunned that they know her secret id, and blacks out from stress. The teens take her to someone who can help her.

Riri wakes up to find an old man examining her armour. *We* recognise the Cloak of Levitation, the Wand of Watoomb and a familiar pattern in the circular window. But Riri isn't au fait with the Sanctum Sanctorum of Dr Strange. But there's an incongruous note - many small Iron Man droids consisting only of head, upper torso and short arms, all floating on balls of light.

It takes a while for Riri to recognise the voice speaking to her - the man is an aged Tony Stark, claiming to be 126 years old. It takes even longer to convince her she's in the future, and Tony hasn't seen her for a long time. He ignores the question of how come *he*'s alive, but accepts a hug.

Tony also bypasses the fact that she has many other questions in favour of asking *her* how she got to the future. Riri says she doesn't know, and she doesn't know how to get back. Stark suggests Zen acceptance until things become clearer. He suspects that whoever sent her here wants her to learn something. He claims to have had a similar experience, but Riri doesn't want to hear *yet again* how he and Dr Doom went back to the Court of King Arthur.

They briefly discuss the teen heroes who are the children of the Avengers she knows. Riri thinks Black Panther Jr was coming on to her.

Stark also has an explanation for why her armour doesn't work. He has set up a World Energy Shield that is inhibiting its energy sources. And she couldn't make any external contacts because he's replaced the Internet with something much better. Riri is eager to learn about the new tech but he doesn't want her taking such knowledge back to her time.

Tony upgrades her armour to work in this future world, and they both go for a fly - Stark using his cloak. He tells her the upgrade won't go back with her, and stops her computer from recording stuff.

Tony confirms that he is now the Sorcerer Supreme (he's even got the Amulet of Agamotto). When Riri asks how he went from tech wizard to magician he claims that science and sorcery are the same.

Now Riri sees not just the futuristic city but also a profusion of strange plants. Stark explains that the Avengers became a galactic force (and finally really defeated Thanos - but Riri doesn't know who that *is*). 1 alien race they saved gave us plants that eat pollution out of the air. Then Tony and some others persuaded the world's governments to scrap weapons and military and use the funds to fix the world - and it worked. They now are as near to utopia as it is possible to be.

But then a fly in the ointment turns up in the shape of Morgana Le Fey on a dragon accompanied by Doombots riding monsters - out to rule the world. However the Sorcerer Supreme whips out a Shard of the Odinsdottir - and Morgan runs away. And the teen Avengers arrive disappointed that they missed the battle.

Tony now leads Ironheart to the Baxter Building. The Fantastic Four left a long time ago but grown-up Franklin Richards is still there. Tony introduces Riri and asks after the FF's time machine. Franklin reminds him that time travel is banned after an unfortunate incident, and anyway their old machine is at Project Pegasus guarded by the Venom Pit - which Stark does *not* want to go near.

But anyway they have a chat. Tony reminds Riri he told her that she was probably sent her for a purpose. When *he* wound up with King Arthur it made him realise how far civilisation had progressed since then, and that reinvigorated him when he got back home to strive harder to make things even better. And he thinks *she* has been sent here to be inspired.

Along the way Stark has tried to keep Riri from finding out about her own destiny, especially from some of the blabbermouth teens. Franklin said that she would get a Doctorate. Now Tony himself lets slip that she's galaxy-famous.

But after all this Ironheart finds herself slipping away from them until she's back in Chicago in her own time, with her old armour working again. Her Tony Stark AI is back on line and wants to know what happened. When she gets home Riri builds herself a little Iron droid to remind herself to keep focussed on the bright future.



?
Skan Srisuwan (Cover Penciler)
Skan Srisuwan (Cover Inker)
Skan Srisuwan (Cover Colorist)
Letterer: Clayton Cowles.
Editor: Tom Brevoort.

Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.


Plus: Franklin Richards, Ironheart (Riri Williams), Morgana Le Fey (Morgan Le Fay), Tony Stark AI.

> Generations: Iron Man and Ironheart: Book info and issue index

Share This Page


Elektra