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Invincible Iron Man #504: Review

May 2011
Matt Fraction, Salvador Larroca

Story Name:

Fear itself part 1: City of light, city of stone

Review & Comments

Rating:
4 stars

Invincible Iron Man #504 Review by (December 28, 2012)
Fear Itself #2 we also saw Titania find a hammer in South Africa, Attuma found one in the Pacific, and one fell in Yancy Street. So that's all 7 accounted for. Grey Gargoyle started off as a Thor baddie in Journey into Mystery #107, and first met Iron Man and turned him to stone in Tales of Suspense #95. Since then he's been a stock villain. By now James Rhodes has converted from War Machine to Iron Man 2.0. Bethany Cabe was in the original series in 3 main eras #117-153, #193-211 and #300-329. In the 1st 2 periods she was his girlfriend most of the time. In the 3rd patch she mostly wasn't. She also did a stint in War Machine vol 2. I would guess Beth's yacht is the one that will also be seen in #525. Unless that's just how Larroca draws yachts. It doesn't say here that Grey Gargoyle has been transformed into Mokk, Breaker of Faith. Why doesn't his power work on Iron Man?




 

Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Invincible Iron Man #504 Synopsis by Rob Johnson
We track 4 of the 7 meteoric hammers falling to Earth in Fear Itself #2. We see 2 landing in Brazil and on the Raft prison, where Hulk and Juggernaut found them in FI#2. We see 2 landing the K'un Lun mountains and Paris. The K'un Lun one will crop up in Iron Man 2.0. We will follow the Paris one in this strand, and here Grey Gargoyle finds it.

Back in Stark Resilient, Tony Stark is liaising with his CEO Pepper Potts before jetting off as Iron Man to help deal with the meteor falls. He comments that Odin has taken the Asgardians off Earth (as seen in FI#1), which puts a big question mark over the agreement for SR to rebuild the Earthly Asgard. An agreement for which Justine Hammer has sarcastically sent a bottle of whisky.

He also wants Pepper to hire Bethany Cabe as Security Chief. Pepper is reluctant. She points out that Stark already has Pepper in her Rescue armour and James Rhodes as War Machine. Tony counters that Rescue has no offensive weapons, and War Machine is on loan to the army. And she almost got killed (by Electro and Sandman) last issue.

Tony accuses Pepper of not wanting to hire Bethany because she slept with him. Pepper misunderstands and thinks he's referring to their own 'moment of weakness' in #15. (She told him about it in #500.1. He'd forgotten because of the brain reload in Stark Disassembled.)

Pepper accuses Tony of wanting to hire Bethany because the 2 women are very similar. He wants Pepper, but can't have her (as she made clear in 500.1). Tony denies it, and insists that Bethany should be hired.

Embarrassed Mrs Arbogast tries to slip away during this argument.

After a quick call to the Avengers, Iron Man chooses Paris. Where he finds everybody in sight turned to stone. And then is attacked by a large grey gargoyle monster speaking in runes and wielding a large hammer, who turns a lone survivor to stone with his eyes..

Pepper flies as Rescue to Cabe's yacht, where she has to talk to Beth by radio because she's underwater exploring a sunken WWII plane. Pepper ungraciously offers her the security job, to be paid in stock rather than cash because Stark is still basically broke. Despite all this Bethany accepts.

Iron Man is still fighting the monster, and is troubled by the fact that their battle is smashing some of the stone people. He recalls that Grey Gargoyle turns people to stone with his hands, unlike this guy who uses eye-beams. And Gargoyle's ability would work on him and his armour, whereas this guy's power doesn't. But Tony does seem to realise that this is the Grey Gargoyle transformed.

Eventually Iron Man is beaten down by pure strength and force of hammer. When he wakes up he finds himself atop a huge pile of broken 'statues'.



Salvador Larroca
Salvador Larroca
Frank D'Armata
Salvador Larroca (Cover Penciler)
Salvador Larroca (Cover Inker)
Frank D'Armata (Cover Colorist)
Letterer: Joe Caramagna.
Editor: Alejandro Arbona.

Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.

Hulk
Hulk

(Bruce Banner)
Iron Man
Iron Man

(Tony Stark)
Pepper Potts
Pepper Potts

(Pepper Hogan)
War Machine
War Machine

(James Rhodes)

Plus: Bethany Cabe, Mrs. Arbogast.

> Invincible Iron Man: Book info and issue index

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