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Invincible Iron Man #84: Review

Aug 2004
John Jackson Miller, Jorge Lucas

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Story Name:

Turf War part 1: When Worlds Collide!

Review & Comments

Rating:
4 stars

Invincible Iron Man #84 Review by (May 22, 2021)
Comments: Issue bannered “Avengers Disassembled Prologue” on cover. Avengers Mansion was granted sovereign nation status in AVENGERS (1998 series) #57-61. Arsenal (Beta) first appeared in IRON MAN #114 and returned in AVENGERS ANNUAL #9. First appearance of Arsenal Alpha; the following issue is its final appearance to date (2021). Force‘s only later appearances are in DARK REIGN: THE HOOD #3-5.

Review: And Tony’s world starts to dis-assemble. The title reveals the situation: Iron Man’s status as an Avenger conflicts with Tony Stark’s position as Secretary of Defense and the separate protocols lead to disaster. This was anticipated last issue when Stu Conrad informed Tony that if he were merely Iron Man, an independent agent, news of his heroic rescue of Earth would be celebrated. But as he is a member of the government, his actions must remain classified and his heroism hidden. And now the conflict comes up before a mission and causes a crisis (more details next issue) which will play out next time around. Very nice issue with some mild satire from back when conspiracy theorists were a source of comedy before they grew into such a huge proportion of the nation’s population and elected leaders. And that’s all I have to say about that.





 

Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Invincible Iron Man #84 Synopsis by T Vernon
Now that Avengers Mansion is considered a sovereign nation, Jarvis must explain to Henry Peter Gyrich that the city will no longer pick up the trash, which boggles Gyrich’s mind….

Tony Stark shows off his new R&D lab, with Force fighting a tank and a squad of armored soldiers, to some visiting Senators. But they have a more urgent purpose in mind. Tony is told about “Project Tomorrow” from the Cold War, a killing machine called Arsenal, which was dealt with by the Avengers long ago. But now Senator Zimmer tells him that the Arsenal they fought was the beta, the alpha is still secreted under Avengers Mansion and programmed for a scorched earth measure that would create a major scandal if the public learned about it. So, pressure is put on Tony to locate it and dispose of it before word leaks out….

Iron Man and Falcon pass the protesters outside the Mansion, the ones accusing the Avengers of being part of an international conspiracy, with Sam pausing to sign autographs, and head in. At the team meeting with Wasp, Ant-Man, and Black Panther also there (plus Gyrich), Shellhead starts to tell them about Arsenal Alpha when he is interrupted by a call inside his commlink from Senator Zimmer telling him he must not tell the Avengers about Arsenal, accompanied by threats. He then signs off and heads to the basement on government business, confusing his teammates. By remote from the Pentagon, Zimmer and others help Shellhead locate the secret storage chamber near the submarine docking bay; the curious Avengers also have Black Panther spying on him from a distance. Tony finds Arsenal Alpha and tries to shut it down, asking Zimmer to send him the access code, which the Senator does. When Gyrich discovers a scrambled transmission coming into the Mansion, he puts up a jamming screen—and then Arsenal activates, rising through the floor to crash through the Mansion’s dining room and terrifying Jarvis, while Iron Man clings to its back….


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Barberoids 1 cover original artwork on ebay

Jorge Lucas
Jorge Lucas
Studio F
Steve Epting (Cover Penciler)
Steve Epting (Cover Inker)
? (Cover Colorist)
Letterer: Randy Gentile.
Editor: Tom Brevoort. Editor-in-chief: Joe Quesada.

Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.

Ant-Man
Ant-Man

(Scott Lang)
Black Panther
Black Panther

(T'Challa)
Falcon
Falcon

(Sam Wilson)
Iron Man
Iron Man

(Tony Stark)
Jarvis
Jarvis

(Edwin Jarvis)
Wasp
Wasp

(Janet Van Dyne)

Plus: Force.

> Invincible Iron Man: Book info and issue index

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