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Invincible Iron Man #23: Review

Dec 1999
Roger Stern, Sean Chen

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Story Name:

Ultimate Danger

Review & Comments

Rating:
4 stars

Invincible Iron Man #23 Review by (March 10, 2020)
Comments: Part one of three parts. Ultimo last appeared in IRON MAN #299-300. Golden-Blade and Sapper were seen in issue #18. Morgan Stark died in #331 then turned up in issue #1 of this title, and his return was not explained. Tracy Burke, a regular character in MS MARVEL/CAPTAIN MARVEL, was previously seen in issue #11. And Pepper is said to have a brother Clay, making him Clay Potts, which is really strange since it is established that Happy has a brother Clay; a mistake on the part of the writers? Co-plotted by Kurt Busiek and Roger Stern.

Review: So. Ultimo returns but isn’t a menace (yet), two minor villains return and don’t do anything remarkable (yet), Tony knocks out Carol which causes no problems (yet), and Tony gets romantic with Pepper, not knowing they are wrong for each other (yet). The next issue contains a lot of promise for these plot threads, and Tony is once again messing up his personal life by having to be Iron Man. Who does he think he is, Peter Parker? Cool issue leads into an even cooler one. See you in thirty! (As they used to say.)





 

Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Invincible Iron Man #23 Synopsis by T Vernon
Tony Stark arrives at a research vessel built by Stark-Fujikawa and is greeted by Rumiko Fujikawa and his cousin Morgan Stark. They gleefully tell him that the ship was built atop Ultimo; Tony is shocked and contacts Jocasta to provide a history of the alien robot monster for their benefit, advising them to shut it down. Morgan refuses to consider it, insisting that his tech experts have cracked Ultimo’s code. Rumiko also refuses to listen to Tony and demands he take her to dinner that night instead of playing engineer. Tony helicopters off, miffed and fantasizing about impressing Rumiko by returning as Iron Man and defeating Ultimo in battle. He calls Pepper Potts to make reservations for him….

Pepper, meanwhile, realizes that her ex-husband Happy Hogan is happy overseeing the Stark Foundation and prospects for their reunion seem dim….

Tony goes to Seattle to look in on Carol Danvers, meeting Tracy Burke along the way. He discovers that Carol is drinking again and justifying it by claiming she needs it to write. He tries to advise her but she doesn’t want to hear it. Tony is interrupted by Jocasta relaying a call from Rumiko that the ship is under attack by Sapper and Golden-Blade. Tony dons his armor and Carol adopts her Warbird look to help him but Shellhead knocks her out with a punch so she doesn’t endanger herself and others by superheroing drunk and takes off alone….

At the ship, Sapper is draining the main power terminals and Golden-Blade captures Rumiko; Iron Man arrives and clobbers the two of them, easily fighting off their special attacks. Sapper falls in the water and spies Ultimo and flies up to inform his golden partner, but IM takes them both out and they are locked in special cages. Rumiko thanks Iron Man but tells him to tell Tony she is no longer interested since he didn’t bother to show up….

Later at home, Tony broods over his loss of Rumiko and Pepper arrives to comfort him, comfort that turns into a kiss….


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Barberoids 1 cover original artwork on ebay

Sean Chen
Dan Panosian
Steve Oliff
Sean Chen (Cover Penciler)
Rob Hunter (Cover Inker)
Chris Sotomayor (Cover Colorist)
Plot: . Letterer: Richard Starkings.
Editor: Bobbie Chase. Editor-in-chief: Bob Harras.

Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.

Iron Man
Iron Man

(Tony Stark)
Pepper Potts
Pepper Potts

(Pepper Hogan)

Plus: Golden-Blade, Jocasta (Jocasta Pym), Morgan Stark, Rumiko Fujikawa, Sapper, Tracy Burke, Ultimo, Warbird (Carol Danvers).

> Invincible Iron Man: Book info and issue index

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