Invincible Iron Man #15

The cover on the issue I have is the Adi Granov variant homage to Jim Steranko's cover for Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD #4, which doesn't have the Intiative banner. Roberto de la Torre takes over as penciller from Patrick Zircher. Adi Granov continues to do the main cover, but Gerald Parel does the other variant cover and will take over the main cover from next issue. There has been a 2-month publication gap since last issue. This series gains the cover logo Iron Man Director of SHIELD from this issue and the Official Index lists it under that title from now. But it won't change its indicia to match until #29. But strangely the indicia *will* change from just Iron Man to Invincible Iron Man from #17, which was the cover logo from #1. The previous 2 issues were set during Civil War, and we haven't seen Karim Mahwash Najeeb since #13. So he went to China after that and this issue says that was 3 months ago. The Official Index says Shellhead has been busy in that time. After becoming Drector of SHIELD at the end of Civil War he kickstarted the Initiative era in CW: Initiative. Other appearances this site has covered are forming the Mighty Avengers in flashbacks in MAv#1-2, an initial clash with the New Avengers in fb's in NAv#28-29, the aftermath of Captain America's assassination in the Fallen Son issues and CA#26, the revelation of Tony Stark's behind the scenes manipulation of Civil War in CW: Front Line #11, Iron Man's confrontation with the returned Thor in Thor#3, leading the blockade of Atlantis in the Sub-Mariner: Revolution limited series, another MAv/NAv clash in fb's in NAv#29-30 and the fights against Ultron, Venom symbiotes and Dr Doom in MAv#1-11, then Tony Stark declares there won't be a replacement Cap in CA#27. Note that the positions of the NAv#28-29 fb's and the SubRev miniseries are not as quoted in the OI. These changes are the subject of proposals I have made to the Marvel Chronology Project.

Dum Dum Dugan here is a Skrull imposter. The Secret Invasion Prologue digital comic will reveal that he was replaced straight after Cap's assassination. Since then the imposter has been seen at Cap's funeral in Fallen Son #5 (Iron Man) and the wake in CA#26. I don't know why Maya would rate a pardon. She was complicit in Aldrich Killian selling Extremis to terrorists in #1-6. Iron Man broke her out of jail in #10 to help when his Extremis system was compromised, and she's presumably not gone back since. Equally presumably it's his post-CW status that has given him the clout to get her paroled into his custody. It will become clearer next issue that the guy in the psychiatric cell in China was Mandarin, and obviously he's behind the increase in effective terrorism.