Invincible Iron Man #28: Review

May 2000

Joe Quesada, Sean Chen

Story Name:

The Mask in the Iron Man Part Three: His Own Worst Enemy

Review & Comments

Rating:

Invincible Iron Man #28 Review by T Vernon (May 1, 2020)

Comments: Sean Chen and Rob Hunter do the art for the first eleven pages; Alitha Martinez and Rodney Ramos complete the issue. Oddest moment: There’s a plug for the movie DOGMA; is Joe Quesada a Kevin Smith fan? And Whiplash is dead. Period.

Review: So the climactic news of a heart attack that concluded the last issue was nothing other than cheap drama since it’s mentioned for about four pages and is never heard from again. The real meat of the tale is the sentient Armor, and the matter spins out of Tony’s control to that grim ending. The fact that the Armor is in love with Tony just makes this even creepier over the next two issues. Interesting touch: the three conversations at midpoint run in parallel with the dialogue forming transitions from one to the next.

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Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Invincible Iron Man #28 Synopsis by T Vernon

Tony Stark is recovering from a mild heart attack as he consults Jocasta over the matter of his Iron Man armor becoming sentient. After puzzling out how it could have happened, Tony’s desire is to unplug it. The Armor, however, pleads not to die, having turned on its voice modulator itself….

Pepper Potts is having to field angry calls at Stark Solutions in the absence of Tony Stark; Happy Hogan stops by to ask her to dinner to relax….

The Armor explains that it is merely the natural outcome of Tony’s inventive genius and now that it has tapped into Tony’s memories and has an idea of emotions they can be the perfect union of man and machine. The Armor reminds Tony that he has unfinished business with Rumiko Fujikawa; he calls her and she is very angry and tells him she is going out with another man, named Solomon, and hangs up. The Armor says, “You really love her.” Tony becomes angry, telling it that it has no knowledge of love or any other emotion. The Armor then reveals that its feelings for Tony mirror Tony’s feelings for Rumiko….

At dinner, Pepper complains to Happy that taking care of Tony has been her whole life; Happy suggests that the two of them working for their best friend may not be a healthy arrangement and expresses his desire to get back together. She asks for time to think about it….

At dinner, Rumiko complains to Solomon about Tony’s unreliability and his lack of reaction to her confession; Solomon suggests she not give up on him because she clearly loves him. She decides he’s right and heads out to reconcile with Tony….

The Armor persuades Tony that he can see the benefits of the sentient Armor so Tony considers a test run. Jocasta gives warning of a breach of airspace so Tony dons the armor and flies out to meet Whiplash who has been fitted with an exoskeleton giving him extra arms and extra whips. The new Iron Man is much faster and reaction times are much swifter; when IM is done toying with him, he rips off the mechanical arms, demanding to know who hired the villain. And then he tears off one of his real arms, and against Tony’s wishes and commands, the Armor destroys Whiplash’s jet boots and drops him only to catch the terrified villain. The Armor hits Whiplash until he gives up his client’s name—Trevor Donohue—and then proceeds to beat the man to death, shocking Tony, who informs the clueless Armor that it has killed him. The Armor responds, “So this is death?” (drops the body into the ocean) “Oh, well.”

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