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International Iron Man #5: Review

Jul 2016
Brian Michael Bendis, Alex Maleev

Story Name:

(no title given)

Review & Comments

Rating:
4 stars

International Iron Man #5 Review by (July 28, 2016)
Nick Fury rose to 2nd Lieutenant in the Korean War. By the time of the Marvel Age he had become a Colonel in the CIA before joining SHIELD. SHIELD's history has been modified since then. Here he's a Captain. At 1st read it sounds like he's with SHIELD, but he doesn't actually say so and he could be in the CIA still.

The number of babies whose files have been removed seems to vary at the end, but I could make sense of it by saying there were 3 sets of files taken from the orphanage and 2 from the hospital, but there was only 1 case in common. Otherwise how sure are we Tony's got the right mother?

And so far the revelation doesn't live up to the publisher's hype. (No change there then.)




 

Synopsis / Summary / Plot

International Iron Man #5 Synopsis by Rob Johnson
We begin with the funeral of Howard Stark 20 years ago, focusing on a gathering afterwards in Stark Mansion of the spies he worked with like Captain Nick Fury. Young Tony Stark is there getting drunk and complaining that his father never loved him. Especially when he came and separated him from Cassandra Gillespie (flashback last issue).

Fury says he knows differently. For instance in that particular case when Hydra took Cassie away his father and SHIELD were present because Howard knew Hydra were going to try to kill Tony, and Howard was there to shield his son with a forcefield (as we saw in the fb). He suggests Tony stop drinking and do something useful with the life his father saved.

In the present Tony has discovered he was adopted, and has come to Sofia Bulgaria trying to trace his real parents. And coincidentally has run into Cassie again, who has taken over her parents' arms dealing business. He has broken into her secret mansion, and now her Mandroids have arrived to deal with him. And Cassandra is going to have to let them kill him to maintain her reputation.

Tony says he's thought about her every day since they parted. Cassie says she's thought about him too, but not that often.

Tony compliments her on the design of her Mandroids' systems. It took his AI Friday a long time to hack into them. Outside the suits of armour start firing at each other out of their wearers' control. Cassie shoots at Tony's head but he reminds her he's wearing cloaked Iron Man armour. As the Mandroids fall on the building she runs away.

Tony can't bear to attack Cassie himself so he asks the AI to do it. Friday reassembles the IM armour that he allowed the Mandroids to tear off him in #3 and pilots it after Cassie's car. Which she stops in its tracks. And Cassie is arrested by SHIELD.

As Stark arrives in his now-decloaked armour Friday tells him she has a message from Anna at the orphanage he was adopted from (see last issue). Both Iron Men go there. Tony hadn't been able to find any trace of his adoption in the old paper files there. But Anna crosschecked and found 3 missing case files. She also contacted friends at the local hospital and learned that there were 2 times when an 'agency' removed birth files. But they missed the mother's medical file. And Anna has it for him.

Stark promises Anna that his company will see to it that she gets whatever she needs for her orphanage for the rest of her life. (Overriding Friday's complaint that his company's finances aren't too good at the moment - he just tells her to sell some of his paintings.) And he lets some of the orphans have a fly in his armour. And finally he opens the document file.

Next we see him in London where a woman appears to be mixing some music. He interrupts Amanda Armstrong and gets her to confirm she gave a baby up for adoption. He tells her he might be her son.



Alex Maleev
Alex Maleev
Paul Mounts
Alex Maleev (Cover Penciler)
Alex Maleev (Cover Inker)
Alex Maleev (Cover Colorist)


Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.

Iron Man
Iron Man

(Tony Stark)



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