Invincible Iron Man #5: Review

Sep 2008

Matt Fraction, Salvador Larroca

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Story Name:

The Five Nightmares Part 5: Code Black

Review & Comments

Rating:

Invincible Iron Man #5 Review by Rob Johnson (March 28, 2012)

This is part 4 of The Five Nightmares.

This issue may be the first to mention Stark Industries being founded by Isaac Stark Sr. This also implies an Isaac Jr, which is confirmed in the online Marvel Universe. That doesn't say that Isaac Jr was Howard's father, and grandfather of Tony. In fact Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes v1 #1 mentioned a Howard Stark as grandfather of Tony. This would imply a Howard Sr and Howard Jr in the lineage.

Stark hid the trackers last issue in bits of old armour he expected Stane to buy. But he now suggests that Stane has found the trackers, and knows that they only give an approximate location. And Stane is using that to play games?

Next issue we'll learn that Stark didn't actually need to guess which site Stane went to. It's not Stark at Long Island, it's a remote-controlled armour. And there are suits at every site. So he's not really dead. Surprise! But he actually is near the Long Island building.

I'm always suspicious in situations like this that the comic shows things that aren't compatible with the later explanation. We see Stark's voice coming from the fake suit, but that's OK. We are party to his thoughts, but they aren't specifically indicated as coming from the suit, more like a thought-over. However Tony does say here that Stane's attack on the suit might kill him, which is a bit suspect.

***** The rest of the comments after this are an old copy of parts of this comment.

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Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Invincible Iron Man #5 Synopsis by Rob Johnson

Tours of Stark Industries are starting in LA, Tokyo, Valencia and Long Island. Iron Man knows the tours have been infiltrated by some of Ezekiel Stane's terrorists, because of trackers he tricked Stane last issue into incorporating into their tech. We see Stane himself at the Long Island site.

He's in contact with Pepper Potts, his Director of Operations at Stark International, and Maria Hill, his Deputy Director at SHIELD. He issues a command to evacuate the facilities. Tony has successfully guessed that Stane would pick the Long Island HQ, and has gone there.

Stane's girlfriend Sasha is in contact with all 4 terrorist teams, and keeps Stane updated. The Valencia team is the first to be ready, and takes out that site, with few casualties.

Stane has donned his new armour. He sees Iron Man searching the tunnels under SI, and decides to attack him. There follows a long fight.

Stark tries to gas Stane with nanosprites, but Stane doesn't need to breath anymore. Stane's organicly-boosted version of Stark-tech can deliver short bursts that are more powerful than Iron Man's. And he gradually wears Tony down.

With Stark on the ropes, Stane threatens to blast his head of with a repulsor blast, like the one that killed his father Obadiah. Tony tries to tell him that Stane Sr committed suicide after he lost their final battle. But Zeke won't believe it.

And he blasts Stark's head, and declares him dead.

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