Invincible Iron Man #9: Review

Jul 2017

Brian Michael Bendis, Stefano Caselli

::: click cover to ENLARGE it :::

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Invincible Iron Man #9 Review by Rob Johnson (July 23, 2017)

Riri's 'vlog' on the contents page says she's made a mistake. And Sharon Carter is worried about the threat of world war (so why did she send the inexperienced teen on this mission in the 1st place?). So expect international ramifications next issue.

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Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Invincible Iron Man #9 Synopsis by Rob Johnson

Last issue an unofficial 'suggestion' by SHIELD's Sharon Carter sent Ironheart to Latveria to confront Lucia Von Bardas who had just organised a bombing in the US. Now the 2 armoured females clash in midair.

The Tony Stark AI says that he and SHIELD have no information on the capabilities of Bardas' armour. But a gesture which sends our heroine flying tells him she has a force field generator. Which he predicts could break apart Riri Williams' armour if it found an opening. Riri re-enters the fray to give the AI time to scan Lucia's system for weaknesses. But then she's attacked from behind by a horde of Doombots (the ones that look like armoured Von Doom).

Back on a SHIELD helicarrier Commander Sharon Carter is mildly surprised that Ironheart actually took the job. And in Tony Stark's lab in New Jersey another avatar of his AI is also observing the proceedings alongside an avatar of the AI Friday that runs Stark Industries. She wants him to pull Riri out before she gets killed - Stark created his AI to protect her. AI Tony objects that he's supposed to *guide* Ms Williams, not control her.

Mary Jane Watson enters and is surprised to find the 2 AI's using humanoid avatars to communicate with each other when there are no humans present. While Tony focuses on the Latverian situation Friday chats with MJ. 1st she assures Ms Watson that the 2 AIs aren't conspiring. But Friday does say that the Tony AI is very different from herself. *She* is just a program designed to do a job, but that job includes presenting a humanoid interface and simulating human responses. Stark on the other hand is a copy of Tony Stark's personality with concomitant emotions. They converse as humanoid holograms because it makes Tony feel better. But she worries that he has no real body to ground his emotions. However she has observed that working with Riri is good for him.

Meanwhile Ironheart has been holding off the Doombots with repulsor grenades (her own invention), but she's run out of them. She wants to know why she can't use the tactic that worked (in #2) in the training session when the AI sent a lot of old Iron Man armours against her - she stalled for time to invent a virus to take them all down. AI Tony says it won't work. His armours were linked in a network, but Von Bardas is controlling all the Doombots personally.

But the AI has noticed that Bardas is sitting the conflict out because she's having repairs done on her armour. Ironheart must have damaged it. (It must have been between issues because we haven't seen her dishing anything out.) So the Doombots are merely a delaying tactic.

Now Von Bardas returns to the fight after instructing her men to film the battle for propaganda purposes. Ironheart's armour appears to suffer a malfunction and she crashes to the ground. Lucia lands and leans in to take Riri's mask off. But our heroine was waiting for this and gives her opponent a full repulsor blast that sends her flying into the side of a truck.

Ironheart gets up and walks through a hail of bullets to get to the fallen foe. Von Bardas says Ironheart has illegally invaded a foreign country and attacked its ruler - this means war. Riri counters that she's just taken over by right of conquest - she's now Queen of Latveria.

Story #2