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Iron Man 2: Agents of SHIELD #1: Review

Nov 2010

Joe Casey, ?

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Story Name:

(various)

Review & Comments

Rating:

Iron Man 2: Agents of SHIELD #1 Review by T Vernon (March 19, 2022)

Comments: Tie-in to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, serving as a prologue to the movie IRON MAN 2. And I doubt if SHIELD allows its agents to use pseudonyms that sound a lot like their real names.

Review: Ha ha! Iron Man versus the Ten Rings! Great lead-in to IRON MAN 2 which has nothing to do with the Ten Rings. Actually it would be IRON MAN 3 where they would be the main villains, sort of (it was really Aldrich Killian with the Mandarin/Ten Rings being a cover for Killian’s nasty dealings). The real Ten Rings would wait a decade for SHANG-CHI AND THE TEN RINGS where they even make it into the title. The first story just features Tony Stark being a show-off and annoying Nick Fury. The second story is the baptism by fire of a new SHIELD agent and is pretty good except that the gritty art, the graphic equivalent of shaky cam, makes it hard to tell what’s going on without multiple readings. The third story shows what Black Widow was doing before she walked into Tony Stark’s home gymnasium in the movie and fleshes out the story a little but was really unnecessary.

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Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Iron Man 2: Agents of SHIELD #1 Synopsis by T Vernon

“Who Made Who?”

Writer: Joe Casey. Art: Tim Green II. Colors: Juan Doe. Letters: Joe Caramagna.

Nick Fury, Director of SHIELD, is remotely supervising a raid by his Navy SEALs on a tanker ship in Yemen which hides a cell of the Ten Rings terrorist organization. As they prepare to attack, Iron Man arrives and gets things moving. Shellhead takes out most of the operatives while Agent Garrett, embedded in the SEAL team to observe Iron Man, is pinned down by enemy fire. The hero shoots down the rest of the enemy, makes a wisecrack then jets off. Garret reports that Iron Man saved his life; Fury tells him to wait for debriefing….

Back in the USA, Pepper Potts asks Tony Stark what he’s listening to: it’s his recording of the Yemeni mission, and he’s planning to be smoother than Nick Fury when he comes to ask for help….

“Just Off the Farm”

Writer: Joe Casey. Art: Felix Ruiz. Colors: Ian Hannin. Letters: Clayton Cowles.

Nick Fury, assigns Agent Phil Coulson to accompany a new agent on his first field assignment. Coulson meets Agent Hendricks and explains that they are going on a simple surveillance job. Then a report comes in of Ten Rings operatives in the city. The two Agents mount motorcycles and head out into the street. They are passed by a van and the back opens up; a bad guy fires on Coulson, riddling him with bullets. Hendricks dodges gunfire, leaps into the truck and takes down the bad guys. He hurries back to Coulson and can’t find him. Coulson appears unharmed with a wrecked set of body armor and reveals it was all a test to see how Hendricks would behave under fire and he passed….

“Proximity”

Writer: Joe Casey. Art: Matt Camp. Colors: Ian Hannin. Letters: Clayton Cowles.

Synopsis: Nick Fury needs an agent to go deep undercover in the Stark organization so he calls the Black Widow, who is wrapping up a routine assignment that involves diving out of an exploding plane. So as Natalie Rushman, she applies for a job in Stark’s legal department, interviewed by Bambi Arbogast. She is hired and spends several days observing the corporate culture and pecking order on the job which involves sexism and never seeing Tony Stark. When some important papers need to be signed by Stark personally, Natasha drugs her supervisor and seizes the opportunity to drive over to Starks’ home, walking into his gym….

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