Invincible Iron Man #7: Review

Mar 2016

Brian Michael Bendis, Mike Deodato Jr.

::: click cover to ENLARGE it :::

Story Name:

(no title given)

Review & Comments

Rating:

Invincible Iron Man #7 Review by Rob Johnson (March 5, 2016)

This issue is cover-bannered 'The Road To Civil War II'. We'll have to wait to understand the connection (if there really is 1 - from what I can tell the real road to Civil War II is via Avengers: Standoff). Meanwhile it's still part of the 'War Machines' arc.

Tony mentions/hints twice that Howard Stark isn't his biological father, but then clams up. This not-very-old plotline will be followed up in the forthcoming International Iron Man series.

So Pepper Potts *does* still exist in this reality, but we still don't know what her and Tony's current relationship is supposed to be. The lettercol hints that someone else might employ her. Peter Parker in retaliation for MJ? Victor Von Doom in International IM?

Surely MJ and Peter's relationship would be common knowledge, or at least discoverable by the kind of background check Stark could easily do. They never got married in the Brand New Day reality, but I believe past continuity was preserved by them living together until BND itself. The time leading up to Civil War when Tony let PP and MJ live in Avengers Tower still happened. As did Spider-Man revealing his identity. But as part of BND Stark, Richards and Strange did technomagic that made everyone including themselves (except MJ) forget that Peter is Spidey. I understand it's a form of selective mental blindness which stops people from remembering/noticing anything that points to that conclusion. So Tony can remember what happened in that period but just never notices that he knew PP as Spidey. And this must have to include forgetting the bit about PP and MJ living at the Tower because it would be difficult to reconcile that with PP being just a civilian. (Or something like that - it's a minefield.)

Parker Industries was created by Dr Octopus when he took over Peter Parker's body as Superior Spider-Man. Peter kept the company when he returned and in the new reality has made it global. Spider-Man is now supposedly Parker's bodyguard, a situation which ought to have rung suspicious bells in Tony Stark's brain. But presumably the technospell is still working.

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 #7 Synopsis by Rob Johnson

Mary Jane Watson has arrived at Stark International for her 1st day of work, but Tony Stark is 40 minutes late meeting her. We get to see a news headline saying the company is losing even more money, but she just gets to stare at a picture of Howard Stark.

Tony tries to turn the situation round by saying this is exactly the kind of reason he needs her to organise his life. MJ says she's not going to take the job unless he's really going to follow her suggestions. It takes 3 pages of talk to get to this point, mostly Tony being flip - which is 1 of the things she finds counter-productive.

By this time they've walked to the room where he keeps his armours. Stark starts tinkering with them while they talk. He doesn't want her to take this the wrong way, but he claims that he'd already predicted this whole conversation so he's been thinking about these armour improvements while they talked.

MJ counters by saying something Tony didn't expect - she's talked to Pepper Potts. She wanted the inside scoop on what it's like to work for him. And why Pepper doesn't work for him anymore. She refuses to tell Tony what Ms Potts said.

At this point the AI Friday manifests herself, complimenting MJ on her stand. Tony says Friday runs the company. The AI says that if she was really allowed to do that it wouldn't be in the mess it's in now.

Now Stark remembers that last issue he sent Jim Rhodes as War Machine to Tokyo to investigate what Madame Masque had been up to in the Tokyo Stark Tower (#1). Friday says he's not answering her messages. And he removed the tracker that Tony stuck in his armour.

Tony suits up as Iron Man to fly there to investigate. MJ doesn't suggest he delegates the job to someone else. But she does suggest he might get someone already in Tokyo to help while he's on the way.

Tony asks Friday if they have any allies in Tokyo. The AI says Peter Parker is there at the moment. Stark is reluctant to involve him because of corporate jealousy - Parker's company is on the rise as Stark's is falling. But the point is moot as Peter seems to be refusing Friday's calls.

However, MJ saves the day by providing Peter's emergency number. Then she has to explain they have known each other well for a long time. But they're not on speaking terms at the moment. Stark contacts Parker and asks for the use of his bodyguard Spider-Man.

Spider-Man swings to the last place we saw War Machine last issue - on top of a skyscraper. He doesn't notice 2 of the light-sabre ninjas lurking around.

But we find WM chained up inside a building (maybe the same 1) with his Friday AI not working and the armour dead. A woman (possibly 1 of the 2 who attacked him last issue) uses mystic gestures which cause his armour to leave him piece by piece. His smaller body slips from the restraints.

But when he looks up he sees that the woman, who calls herself Tomoe, is now wearing the armour. And it now looks bulkier - maybe Hulkbuster-level.

Iron Man is on his way.

And in an MIT dorm an unusually young female student named Riri is building her own Iron Man armour.

::: click cover to ENLARGE it :::