Invincible Iron Man #288: Review

Jan 1993

Len Kaminski, Kev Hopgood

Story Name:

Ground Zero

Review & Comments

Rating:

Invincible Iron Man #288 Review by T Vernon (August 21, 2018)

Comments: “48 Page Anniversary Special!” Part two of two parts. The first Firepower (Jack Taggert) appeared in IRON MAN #230-231; this is officially a new man, David Roberts, in his sole appearance in the armor. Atom Smasher is never seen again, at least as of 2018.

Review: Another environmental terrorist; another evil government agent. And Rhodey sides with the rebel because that's the way these things always work. The standard ecological heroics are getting stale by the 1990s. And Tony's resurrection (reboot?) has its own story so as not to be jumping back and forth and it really is pretty thrilling. That gets 4.5 stars whereas the main story gets a 3. This averages out, more or less, to 4 stars.

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Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Invincible Iron Man #288 Synopsis by T Vernon

After the press has been cleared away, Firepower, the armored troubleshooter of the US government, arrives at the Stane plant where nothing has been heard from Iron Man for several minutes. FP goes in and confronts the terrorist calling himself Atom Smasher. Downstairs, Iron Man (James Rhodes in the silver armor) manages to pull himself out of the rubble and discovers toxic waste is being stored illegally in the basement. Upstairs, Atom Smasher is giving the arrogant Firepower a hard time, blasting him out of the building when Iron Man arrives and blasts AS. They fight and AS's mask armor is destroyed revealing a deathly glow: the villain explains that he discovered toxic waste at the plant he worked in and threatened to blow the whistle; he was shot, stuffed into a barrel of waste and dumped in the ocean. He emerged a radioactive freak with a vendetta against the big corporate polluters. Iron Man offers to clean it up but AS argues that the problem is so widespread that only a drastic solution will serve. Rhodey then offers to have Stark take the lead in closing down nuclear facilities—but then Firepower shows up again with orders to kill the bad guy. Iron Man sets off an EMP that stops Firepower—and his own armor. This was a sign of trust to convince Atom Smasher that his offer was genuine. AS takes that to heart and takes off. Iron Man reboots much sooner than Firepower and carries his immobile form out to the military waiting outside....

Epilogue 1: At the behest of Morgan Stark, Marcy Pearson plants evidence in the Stark office that will frame Rhodey for the murder of Tony Stark....

Epilogue 2: Rhodey announces to the Stark board that they are getting out of the “nuclear business,” which is met with grumbling. An aide tells him that Tony Stark has been seen....

Epilogue 3: Tony Stark walks into the office, past a stunned Mrs. Arbogast, and blows down the doors with a blast of light. He walks in to confront Rhodey and drops his disguise to reveal...the Living Laser....

Story 2:- Soul on Ice

Writer: Len Kaminski. Pencils: Barry Kitson. Inks: Chris Ivy. Colors: Ariane Lenshoek.

With Tony Stark in cryogenic suspension, doctors and scientists confer about how to repair his damaged nervous system. They have decided on an engineered virus to rewrite the parasite's genetic code accompanied by a microchip that will splice into Tony's brain. Erica Sondheim has her doubts but Abe Zimmer is sure they can work a miracle....

In his mind Tony Stark again reviews his life, as a youth disciplining himself so that everything became too easy and seeking danger became his temporary fix. When his parents were killed in an auto accident, Tony bought the company and gave them a redesigned brake system. As he grew more powerful in the business world, everything was still too easy—until he stepped on a mine in Vietnam and became Iron Man, supplying him with all the danger and adventure he could have wanted—but what would come next? Suddenly he sees a light at the end of the tunnel, recognizing it as machine code. He takes control, rewriting his own DNA and surprising the medical team....

Story #2