Invincible Iron Man #20: Review

Jul 2024

Gerry Duggan, Andrea Di Vito

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Story Name:

End of the line

Synopsis

Invincible Iron Man #20 Synopsis by Rob Johnson

The Fall Of X event is over. The mutant nation's living island Krakoa has gone but so has the Orchis organisation that attacked them and took over Tony Stark's company (and used it to build new mutant-hunting Sentinels). The Hellfire Club where Tony stayed for the last half of this series has burned down (since the end of last issue).

Tony's now in court where lawyer Jennifer Walters (She-Hulk) gets the trumped-up (by Stark's foe Feilong and Orchis in #7) murder charge against James Rhodes dismissed. Tony lost his fortune over his latest 2 series and can't afford to pay her. He could sue Orchis but all their money is tied up in (other) victims' settlements. And his agent doesn't think his autobiography will sell. Jen says she's organised the annulment of his marriage to Emma Frost (under the guise of Hazel Kendal in #10) but he asks her to hold fire on that. Rhodey wants to know what happened to Feilong?

At the end of last issue we saw Iron Man bury Feilong alive in a coffin. But now we go to Mars where Krakoa's sister organism Arakko still lives. There we see that the villain is trapped in a dome impervious to the blasts from his mouth. He gets a visit from an old IM armour with Tony's holographic head, and the armour proves impervious too. F is using a copy of the autobiography to prop up the table on which he has a chess set. Stark says he's not going to let him buy his way out of charges on Earth, and he'll stay here until he writes a full confession.

Later Iron Man visits (the well-known in real Earth) Powells's (City Of) Books in Portland, Oregon where Tony is due for a book signing of 'The Assembling Of Tony Stark'. There's a long line waiting outside the store, and as he settles behind the desk Stark notices that 1 of them is the Crimson Dynamo (Valentin Shatalov) in full armour. CD now smashes his way into the store to attack Tony over the 'lies' his book contains about the old Soviet Union. Tony throws his wristwatch at his foe which gives him an electric shock. He tells everyone else to run away while he suits up and takes the fight outside. But the Russian pauses to set fire to Tony's books. IM uses a quick-setting gel he devised against Sentinels to encase the villain in 'amber' and the cops tow him away. Tony offers to buy all the burnt books at 10% author discount.

Back in New York he has a date with Emma Frost. He asks her to stay with him. She basically says it was good while it lasted, and leaves. But the waiter delivers an envelope she left for him, containing a cheque for millions of dollars. Emma then contacts him mentally and they exchange request for favours. His request was that she call on Dr Strange, but the door of the Sanctum Sanctorum is answered by Bats the ghost-dog with a book in his mouth. It's a scrapbook that her daughters, the Stepford Cuckoos, made for her and we learn that Tony rescued it from Krakoa in #11.

Meanwhile IM meets with Ironheart at the ruins of the Treehouse that had been the X-nation's embassy in NY. Riri Williams says she's getting over not having the power of Mandarin's Rings (which she 'set free' in space in #14). He thanks her for doing her part in the X-Men/Orchis conflict by building the Sentinel Buster. They erect a plaque on the tree to commemorate those who died in the war. He leaves her with an open offer to join him when he relocates to the West Coast.

Tony thinks that the money Emma gave him is from the Hellfire Club (which was where she stashed *her* fortune so that Orchis couldn't get hold of it). He figures it's better he has it than the Kingpin. But we learn that actually she mentally influenced the Stock Market to steal money from Dario Agger, Tombstone, the Sons Of The Serpent, the Korean People's Army, Dr Doom, AIM and the Yakuza.

Stark uses the money to buy a little airstrip near Los Angeles and sat up a new Stark Industries. Rhodey is with him and we see them armoured up as IM and War Machine playing hoops with a 1 ton metal ball. They break off to save a rocket that's gone off course. And his autobiography ends by hinting that they might be starting a new West Coast Avengers.

Review / Commentaries

Rating:

Invincible Iron Man #20 Review by Rob Johnson (July 19, 2024)

This issue ties up loose ends of this series' involvement with the Fall Of X event and sets things up for the next series. Iron Man and War Machine go to the West Coast and it is suggested they'll head a new West Coat Avengers. And last issue they talked about a team of rehabilitated criminals.

But early indications of the next IM series are that it will ignore all that and his latest mysterium armour. Instead he will cobble together a new armour while he fights Roxxon and AIM for control of his old Stark Unlimited.

The original Crimson Dynamo was Anton Vanko back in Tales Of Suspense #52. Since then there have been many others. The most long-lasting has been CD V, Dimitri Bukharin, from IM#109 (1978) to the 2021 Winter Guard mini-series, but there have been many others during that period. Valentin Shatalov was CD VI from IM#255 (1990) to #317 (1995). He's popped up again now despite there being other claimants since then. He's here to provide the obligatory fight scene.

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Gerry Duggan

Andrea Di Vito

Bryan Valenza

Kael Ngu (Cover Penciler)
Kael Ngu (Cover Inker)
Kael Ngu (Cover Colorist)