Invincible Iron Man #35: Review

Dec 2000

Joe Quesada, Alitha Martinez

Story Name:

Power Part Three: The Land

Review & Comments

Rating:

Invincible Iron Man #35 Review by T Vernon (June 26, 2020)

Comments: Issue bannered “Maximum Security.” Written by Joe Quesada and Frank Tieri.

Review: The events of this story conflict with what we were shown in MAXIMUM SECURITY #1: here, Iron Man and the FF learn from Max Power’s memories that Ego is on Earth, leading them to Nebraska where they find Ego impersonating an entire town; in the main series, Iron Man is with the Avengers when they learn from Ronan that Earth is now an alien penal colony and the heroes have been fighting aliens long before they find Ego, not looking like a town, in Nebraska; Max Power is never mentioned.

All that aside, this issue is pretty cool, with the town’s suddenly turning against our heroes and the problem with the demented old lady who considers the gruesome Ego form her baby. And a nice reveal for the Surfer, getting punched out by Thing. Only problem is that Ben seems a lot surlier than usual but who knows what he was going through that day.

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Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Invincible Iron Man #35 Synopsis by T Vernon

A heavily concealed man ascends into the sky to avoid traffic on a city street….

Iron Man, temporarily telepathic due to Max Power’s drugs last issue, has gone to Reed Richards for help and Reed is extracting Power’s own memories from him [Power was a scientist from a world of wizards who was exiled to Earth for his crimes, and discovering that many people envied superheroes, synthesized their DNA and sold it to them at raves, hoping to make a fortune to return to his home planet]. Reed and Tony hope to discover the whereabouts of Ego the Living Planet, exiled to Earth in a concentrated form, hoping that the now comatose Power knew. They learn that Power had traced it to the home of a middle-aged couple in Littleton, Nebraska, so Reed assembles the rest of the Fantastic Four to head out there. The disguised man from page one follows….

In Littleton, Shellhead and Reed, along with Invisible Woman, Human Torch, and Thing come upon…an idyllic country fair. Thing shows off for some adoring kids, Johnny “investigates” the teen girls at the soda shop, Sue checks out an antique store—and there is no sign anything is wrong. And then Reed discovers that the town itself—people and buildings—is Ego as everything quickly turns against them. Iron Man recognizes the house from Max Power’s memories and heads there to find the older couple with the “baby.” As Ego engulfs the house, Iron Man takes the couple to safety but is knocked out in the getaway….

Shellhead awakens to learn from Reed that they have destroyed Ego there but the spore has migrated to another place. As they ponder their next move, Ben spies the disguised figure from page one and attacks. It turns out to be the Silver Surfer….

Story continues in MAXIMUM SECURITY #2.