Invincible Iron Man #18: Review

May 2024

Gerry Duggan, Creees Lee

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Story Name:

If I only had a heart

Review & Comments

Rating:

Invincible Iron Man #18 Review by Rob Johnson (May 6, 2024)

I think this is the last issue of this title to be part of the Fall Of The House Of X event. Next issue will probably tie up the James Rhodes situation, and #20 asks what's next for the marriage of Tony Stark and Emma Frost. This sounds like it could be the end of the series.

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Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Invincible Iron Man #18 Synopsis by Rob Johnson

Tony Stark and Feilong had a fight in the Australian Outback. On 1 side TS in his new Iron Man Model 72 armour inside the giant Model 73 Sentinel Buster armour/robot, both mysterium-based. On the other side F in his new War Machine Sentinel armour with a horde of big Iron Sentinel robots. The Sentinel Buster destroyed a lot of the Sentinels but Feilong crashed the WMS into it and the SB lost all power. Last issue the 2 men fought inside the Buster. But then Feilong discovered that the anti-mutant organisation Orchis that he belonged to had now been taken over by its AI contingent Nimrod and Omega Sentinel which had expanded their remit from killing mutants (and other super-chars) to killing all humans (as seen in other issues in the Fall Of The House Of X event). And the just-resurrected Magneto turned up to help them.

But we start this issue following another thread. James Rhodes has been in prison since Feilong/Orchis framed him for murder (#7). In #12 Tony sent his friend a special medallion. Now 2 Orchis agents arrive in the jail to kill him. Rhodey clicks the medallion and an old version of his War Machine armour (shrunk by Pym particles) expands to shield him from the hail of bullets. When they pause to reload he gets into the armour, breaks out of his cell and knocks them out. Pausing only to humiliate the sadistic warden he flies away carrying a police car with Living Laser and Sandman in it (who had been sent to the prison to protect him in #10).

Inside the Sentinel Buster Feilong accuses Magneto of stealing Mars from him (and renaming it Arakko as a new home for mutants). Magneto honestly doesn't know who he is. Tony explains the current situation and Magneto says he destroyed the remaining Sentinels outside (but we already know that the Orchis AIs have many more, even more than Feilong knew about). Magneto proposes that they go destroy the secret Sentinel factories. Stark winces from an injury (by a Wolverine clone in #15) but agrees. Feilong says he knows where they are. Magneto says he can provide the SB with power.

We see the Sentinel Buster destroying fully automated factories in New South Wales and Tokyo. Then Nimrod arrives to stop them and disables the giant robot. But the fight wrecks a bit of a maglev track in front of an approaching train, so Stark exits in his IM armour to support the train as it passes over. Feilong faces Nimrod with his artificial mutant power (a green energy blast from his mouth). Magneto levitates the giant head of the SB and wraps it around the AI. Nimrod responds by squirting Terrigen Mist (toxic to mutants) at him, but IM is in time to freeze it and turn it to liquid. The AI breaks out of the head but But Erik Lehnsherr discovers that mysterium (which was discovered while he was dead) is especially suitable for his magnetic manipulation as he sends a spear of it through the foe's chest. And Stark points out that it is a perfect electric conductor as he grabs it and channels an enormous amount of energy down it. But Nimrod survives that so Magneto sends pliable tendrils of mysterium to infiltrate its body and wreck it from the inside. However as it dies it tells them that Nimrod has many bodies.

Erik says that the mysterium has died as well, before he leaves to fight other versions of the robot (in Fall Of The House Of X #5). But not before handcuffing Feilong in ordinary metal. And Iron Man punches his face in revenge for the people he murdered along the path of this series.

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