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Iron Man #14

Nov 2021
Christopher Cantwell, Cafu

Story Name:

Through the mirror


Synopsis

Iron Man #14 synopsis by Rob Johnson
Rating: 4 stars
Korvac and his gang went to Galactus' worldship Taa II so the he could regain the Power Cosmic. Iron Man and his allies followed to stop him. Last issue Korvac dived into the transmutation chamber and Tony Stark followed him.

Now Tony is experiencing a 'dream'. He's tucked up in bed in his armour, and the bed is floating in outer space. He imagines that the suit's AI BOSS is recording his thoughts. He knows that the Power Cosmic is actually changing his body, but now he imagines himself floating away as an 'astral' form to jet off and confront an ornate mirror also floating in space. He passes through the mirror into an equally palatial building.

This is Stark Mansion and he sees himself as a lonely young boy crying on the hall floor. And also as a teen on the stairs mourning the death of his parents in a car accident. He remembers always being starved of attention and doing *anything* to get noticed. In this case his armoured form grows huge enough to burst through the roof of the building. Then Iron Giant-Man flies up until he suddenly shrinks and crashlands back in the (now Avengers) Mansion as Iron Ant-Man. Captain America hands him a phone that's bigger than he is and his father's voice asks why he hasn't changed the world yet. Tiny Tony walks away but is flicked away by Iron Giant-Man's fingers and lands in a pile of old Shellhead armours.

Now we supposedly see giant Korvac sitting on a moon attended by the equally-large obsequious Unicorn. Korvac notices Iron Man and brandishes a sword commanding him to leave the universe. The still logically small Golden Avenger finds a needle for a weapon. But then the dream-sizes equalise allowing Korvac and IM to have a sword/needle fight which our hero wins and banishes the foe into a black hole/quicksand.

Tony knows that this is all coming from his subconscious:- the childhood problems, his father issues and a phallic duel. He thought he'd put all that behind him (in this series) and stripped himself down to a basic hero. But now with the Power Cosmic he can *really* change the world. (But he demonstrates that by destroying the moon that 'Korvac' had been sitting on.) However he imagines his superhero friends getting worried about his new power-level and trying to stop him. But now *he* can stop *them*.

He reigns himself in and promises himself it won't come to that. He has so many ideas on how to fix everything. He'll start by fixing his broken body. (In the last few issues he's gotten a broken neck among other injuries, and a morphine addiction.) He flies out through the mirror to rejoin his 'real' self in the bed in space. He plans to rematerialise in the real world in front of his team and assure them he's still himself, just a little better.

Now we join the real Korvac. He too had been in a bad way, his battered android body had lost several limbs. But now the Power Cosmic knits him back together in a human body and he is the god Michael once more. He puts aside the doubts that had assailed him in the last minutes and prepares to remake the universe (in the way he described in #7). But then Iron Man confronts him in a shiny new silver armour/body.


 

Review / Commentaries


Iron Man #14 Review by (November 26, 2021)
Angel Unzueta helped CAFU with the pencilling and inking.

OK, so this issue is a troll through Tony Stark's psyche as he becomes a 'god' and prepares to battle the other 'god' Korvac next issue.

Reed Richards once planned to 'fix everything' in the years spanning Civil War to the Interdimensional Council Of Reeds. And that didn't end well.

As mentioned before in this series, Korvac had the Power Cosmic before as Michael in Avengers #167-177, now known as the Korvac Saga.



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Preview Pages




Cafu
Cafu
Frank D'Armata
Alex Ross (Cover Penciler)
Alex Ross (Cover Inker)
Alex Ross (Cover Colorist)
Additional Credits
Letterer: Joe Caramagna.
Editor: Tom Brevoort. Editor-in-chief: C. B. Cebulski.

Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.

Iron Man
Iron Man

(Anthony Stark)