Iron Man: The Inevitable #4: Review

May 2006

Joe Casey, Frazer Irving

Story Name:

Book Four: Ordinary People

Review & Comments

Rating:

Iron Man: The Inevitable #4 Review by Rob Johnson (February 12, 2014)

Maggie Dillon comments that part of Living Laser's consciousness is out in space, as discussed in #2. As far as I know that dispersed consciousness has never reformed. All further appearances of Laser will be derived from the fragment of his consciousness found in the laser weapon here. Presumably consciousness (at least in laser form) is supposed to work on a holographic principle. Ie the whole consciousness adheres in each part. What people who say this kind of thing ignore is that as you divide a hologram up the quality of the image degrades, so that after a few divisions it is totally unrecognisable. This story pays lip service to this in that initially the consciousness in the weapon didn't know who or what it was, and only reintegrated as Arthur Parks with Dr Dillon's help. The Ghost leaves the story at this point. He will resurface during Dark Reign as part of Norman Osborn's Thunderbolts and will remain with the team afterwards. He will revisit Iron Man's continuity in the Stark Disassembled story towards the end of Dark Reign.

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Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Iron Man: The Inevitable #4 Synopsis by Rob Johnson

Psychiatrist Maggie Dillon makes contact with the personality trapped within the experimental laser weapon. But he doesn't remember that he is is Arthur Parks, the Living Laser. Maggie makes Arthur confront his past. She wants to free him from his laser weapon prison, but also from the personality problems that made him a supervillain.

Meanwhile Iron Man battles Ghost, who has returned to steal the weapon and Parks. IM has Ghost trapped in a room which neutralises his intangibility tech. IM continues to insist he isn't Tony Stark, while Ghost is correctly convinced he is and taunts him with his intent to destroy him and Stark International.

Ghost manages to get out of the room trap, but with his intangibility still compromised. He calls Spymaster to guide him through an escape route. But Spymaster is fed up with Ghost's failures and washes his hands of him.

Iron Man catches up with Ghost and beats him up. But their battle has damaged the plant's generator, and it's going into overload. Ghost runs away as IM applies a temporary fix.

But the interruption in power has drastic effects for Maggie Dillon.Her personality dissolves inside the laser. Her body is caught in an explosion. And Living Laser escapes.