Invincible Iron Man #16: Review

May 2007

Charles Knauf, Roberto de la Torre

Story Name:

(no title given)

Review & Comments

Rating:

Invincible Iron Man #16 Review by Rob Johnson (March 26, 2010)

Gerald Parel takes over from Adi Granov as the regular cover artist. This issue we learn the name Darius Faraz of the guy we've seen in #13 and #15. And Najeeb gets killed off after all the build-up since #10. Mandarin claims to be descended from Ghengis Khan, and used the name Gene Khan in Iron Man (1968) #57-58. But the title Master Khan in the Marvel Universe strictly belongs to an Iron Fist villain. Mandarin was last seen in IM(1998)#10 where he was apparently destroyed. His hands complete with rings were given to his son Temugin in IM(1998)#53. The rings seen here are plain bands without the decorative devices that focus the rings' powers. The original rings are still in the possession of Temugin, so the Official Index declares these to be replacements. But there is no explanation as to why these rings should have the powers of the extraterrestrial originals. Before next issue our hero will make a brief appearance as Director of SHIELD in Irredeemable Ant-Man #9, and have another DoS cameo in Avengers: Initiative #2. In between in Nova (2007) #1-3 he'll meet the hero returned from the Annihilation event. He'll try to persuade him to Register, but Nova will return to space (and Annihilation: Conquest).

From Our Blog:

Gwen Stacy, beauty queen of Standard High School, was Peter Parker's (alias Spider-Man) first great love.

Gwen Stacy: Classic Beauty

Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Invincible Iron Man #16 Synopsis by Rob Johnson

As Director of SHIELD, Tony Stark is supposed to be on the helicarrier deck to greet some VIPs. But he's left it to Dum Dum Dugan because he's too busy with Maya Hansen examining the body of a terrorist. They find that his mini-railgun is biologically linked to him and powered directly from his limbic system. Also his brain contains a bio-hard-drive connected to his optic nerve which has recorded everything he saw.

This leads smoothly into a flashback 2 days ago when an extreme animal rights group took over a corporate yacht. Iron Man led SHIELD Alpha Team to the rescue, but they were faced with the hi-tech weapons whose biological controls prevented IM from overriding them. The yacht was blown up - no hostages were killed but Alpha Team weren't so lucky.

Sal Kennedy, uncharacteristically dressed in a military uniform, comes down to try to drag Stark up on deck. But Tony is more concerned with getting data off the biological recorder which is decomposing. They finally get a picture of someone in a helicopter sending the activists on their mission. They identify him as Darius Faraz, a mercenary in a security company owned by Karim Mahwash Najeeb.

KMN disappeared in China 4 months ago. We now flashback to then, following from last issue's fb where Najeeb and his men (including Faraz) came to see a psychiatric prisoner in China. Now Faraz shoots the doctor who brought them here.

Najeeb addresses the prisoner as Master Khan and presents him with 10 rings. When he doesn't move or answer Najeeb calls him Mandarin. Still no response so Najeeb declares they're wasting their time and tells Faraz to kill him.

But the prisoner twists his body causing his chains to yank stone blocks out of the wall. Another of Najeeb's men fires, but the prisoner flips a chain into the path of the bullets to break a link. Then another flip of the free chain kills the gunman (somehow). Another man reaches for his gun, but the prisoner breaks his arms. A lump of stone on the end of another chain takes out a 3rd man.

Now only Najeeb and Faraz are left. Najeeb again orders Faraz to kill their foe. But instead Faraz shoots Najeeb, and offers his allegiance and the rings to his new master. Mandarin deigns to speak at last, but only to point out that they'll have to do something about his missing hands.

Back in the present SHIELD still don't know what happened in China. But the rash of disparate terrorist attacks lately don't all favour Najeeb's previous aim of an Islamic state, so Faraz must be working for someone else now.

But Dugan interrupts his thoughts and forces Stark to get ready for the ceremony he's been putting off. Dum Dum still doesn't like the way Tony is running SHIELD like 1 of his companies. He drives home the message that Stark's decisions can send men to their deaths.

And they go up to the helicarrier deck to preside over the funeral of 3 of Alpha Team who died in the yacht raid.

Story #2