Invincible Iron Man #12: Review

Apr 2009

Matt Fraction, Salvador Larroca

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Story Name:

World's Most Wanted Part 5: The High-End Technology of Ultramodern Destruction

Review & Comments

Rating:

Invincible Iron Man #12 Review by Rob Johnson (May 23, 2012)

This is part 5 of Iron Man's adventures on the run during most of Dark Reign.

The Controller sticks discs to his victims' heads. These allow him to control them, as well as feed off their mental energy.

The Hood is another member of Norman Osborn's Cabal. He leads a confederation of super-criminals. Madame Masque is Hood's right-hand woman.
Hood was a minor crook who gained mystical powers via a cloak stolen from a demon, in his own mini-series. During Civil War he organised a gang of super-criminals and rose to a position of power.

Madame Masque started life in the Iron Man half of Tales of Suspense #98 as Whitney Frost, daughter of Count Nefaria, who she succeeded as head of the Maggia. She became Madame Masque in Iron Man (original series) #17 after her face was scarred in an accident. She's had a long love/hate relationship with Tony Stark.
She joined Hood's gang after Civil War, and became his 2nd-in-command and lover. Hood's gang helped out against the Skrulls in the final battle of Secret Invasion. Then Hood joined the Norman Osborn's Cabal in SI: Dark Reign. Since then Osborn has used Hood, Masque and gang to harrass the Avengers in New Av #50. And they continued into Hood's tale in DR: Cabal where he kills to keep his family and his 'job' separate.

The Official Index has Namor next in Captain America (2005) #46-48 in an Invaders reunion which is not specifically Dark Reign-related. But he'll be back in the Cabal in DR: Hood #2 and Mighty Av #24.

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Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Invincible Iron Man #12 Synopsis by Rob Johnson

Tony Stark, Pepper Potts and Maria Hill continue their individual odysseys through the world of Norman Osborn's Dark Reign.

Pepper is practicing with her new Iron Man suit when she rescues children from a school struck by an earthquake. The onboard computer JARVIS tells her that the armour is designed for such work. It has no weapons.

But Norman Osborn doesn't believe that, despite what the HAMMER scientists tracking her tell him. He decides to put the suit to the test. He officially claims that a Skrull agent is on board an airliner, and orders it shot down. Pepper catches the crippled plane and brings it in to land. But she is arrested by HAMMER troops.

Maria has found the Controller feeding off captured missing persons in an abandoned Stark facility. He senses her and sends his victims to hunt her. The mob overwhelm Maria and bring her to their master. Who slaps one of his control discs on her.

Tony is in an undersea lab working on a deep sea armour. The slow process of deleting his brain (to destroy the only remaining copy of the Superhero Registration Database and other sensitive files) is already starting to affect his ability to think. Suddenly the base is attacked by the Sub-Mariner and some Atlantean troops. Namor was sent by Osborn to kill Iron Man.

Stark dons his Heroes Return armour before they breach the wall. Iron Man defeats the troops. But Namor's fists start to crack the armour, as well as making more holes in the lab walls. Stark retaliates by bursting waste pipes, and the resulting polluted water stops Sub-Mariner in his tracks.

Stark switches to the deep sea armour and escapes, blowing up his base behind him.

Namor reports his failure to Osborn. Osborn contacts the Hood and Madame Masque, offering a load of gold to whoever of their gang kills Stark.

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