Invincible Iron Man #527

This issue still leaves me with the questions I had last issue. Why wasn't Rhodey involved in the final battle, because he was heading there in #525? How does the months-spanning sequence of issues (#517-526) with Stark not around as Iron Man fit around all the Avengers stuff (and other stuff) IM's been doing? A question which is only exacerbated by him flying of into space now. Looking back over Matt Fraction's tenure we see one long story, which actually began in his earlier Order series, which introduced Ezekiel Stane and brought Pepper Potts back into Tony Stark's life. Matt carried both of them over into the 1st arc of his run, imported Maria Hill and added Sasha Hammer. (James Rhodes/War Machine was already a regular in Iron Man stories.) The Dark Reign stories had Stark destroy and reload his brain, which we now know allowed Mandarin's infiltration. It also gave Pepper the Rescue armour. Stark Resilient reintroduced Mrs Arbogast and added a new background cast, one of whom was the mole Spymaster, plus Sasha's mother Justine Hammer, and ended by revealing that Sasha was Mandarin's daughter. Bethany Cabe returned during Fear Itself. Then Mandarin and the Hammer girls conspired to bring Tony down, leading inexorably to the story just concluded. (Along the way Matt created Triumph Division and The Dynasty.) This issue ties off some loose ends from the series, leaving the ground clear for Kieron Gillen to do what he wants in the next one. But I can't feeling that IM heading into space for an indefinite period is Fraction's way of saying that the guy in the next series is some other Tony Stark entirely.

The cover bills this as the Conclusion of the Future arc. The title page credits it as just a Finale, probably to the whole of Matt Fraction's run as writer. The 'previously' blurb confirms that Mandarin *was* killed last issue. (I wonder how long that will last?) I reckon the old model armour is the last armour he wore before being replaced by Teen Tony (and then going into the Heroes Reborn universe). I guess it was in Avengers keeping after he 'died' in The Crossing. He wears that rather than the suit he cobbled together in Mandarin City. And he had the internalised Extremis armour removed in #517. (He had *something* put back in its place. We never found out quite what it was, but it doesn't seem to generate an Iron Man armour.) Stark tries to make out that Mandarin's brain control was Maria Hill's fault. But she only fetched the backup from where he himself had made it and left it. He also suggests SHIELD's security was compromised, and somebody got to the backup after he made it. But Extremis had nothing to do with SHIELD, and the backup was made and stored in one of Stark's own factories. It isn't clear whether Stark has only taken Jim Rhodes' 'replacement Iron Man' armour (since #517), or his old War Machine suit as well. Zeke and Sasha are angry with Justine because she conspired with Mandarin to make Stane his slave, keeping it all secret from her daughter. It doesn't seem to me Tony was in *too* much of a hurry to investigate Zeke's text message. And by pure chance he contacts Justine *just* before Zeke and Sasha get to her.