Invincible Iron Man #48: Review

Jan 2002

Frank Tieri, Omar Dogan

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Story Name:

The Frankenstein Syndrome Part Three

Review & Comments

Rating:

Invincible Iron Man #48 Review by T Vernon (October 2, 2020)

Comments: The Avengers most recently battled Ultron in AVENGERS (1998 series) #0 and #19-22 in the “Ultron Unlimited” arc; the Avengers are currently off-world battling Kang in their issue #48. Antigone was introduced in AVENGERS: THE ULTRON IMPERATIVE and these two issues (#47-48) mark her only other appearance. Pencils and inks by Omar Dogan and Udon. Cover colors by Armada, Angelo Tsang, and Udon.

Review: Omar Dogan’s art is similar to Keron Grant’s and has the same problem of making things a bit too cartoony. There are a few plot holes, including the failure to identify, or even notice, Antigone until her apparent death scene. And Ultron’s leaving the initial battle unseen with all of the Sons. And Yinsen’s willingness to die for no reason whatever. And Jocasta’s battle with Ultron would have been much more effective had she not looked like a child’s doll. And I know having Iron Man use the same frequency trick twice to defeat the SKINborgs makes perfect sense—it worked once, why shouldn’t it work again?—but it fails dramatically as it makes the villain look foolish for not anticipating it. But then, Ultron left early during the first battle, as noted. Feh. And Sun Tao is given a job at Stark but he vanishes without a word after the next issue.

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Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Invincible Iron Man #48 Synopsis by T Vernon

Iron Man is a prisoner of the Sons of Yinsen, whose leader has just revealed himself to be Ultron. The villain reveals that Jocasta (Ultron’s creation, remember?) was secretly programmed with the subconscious desire to rebuild Ultron; when Tony downloaded her into his armor, things got a bit ahead of schedule, resulting in the sentient armor which Ultron is now inhabiting. Ultron also thanks Tony for leading him to SKIN, which has made unquestioning cyborgs of the Church of Yinsen members, which he demonstrates by having one of them kill herself on the spot. The plan is to have the Church spread worldwide as part of Ultron’s goal of exterminating all life on Earth. The SKINborgs attack Iron Man and Sun Tao; Shellhead uses the SKIN in his own armor to send a frequency through them, shutting them down. Ultron, strangely, appears to have left by this point….

Iron Man and Sun Tao armor up and head to Las Vegas to stop Ultron at his floating Church of Yinsen. They invade the city and Shellhead uses the same trick to overcome an even larger group of SKINborgs. As Sun Tao holds off the Sons of Yinsen, Iron Man attacks the more powerful Ultron directly, downloading Jocasta into his operating system. Buffeting the baddie from without and within manages to overcome him and Ultron’s head is blown off. The synthezoid Antigone grabs the head as they plummet to the Earth. Professor Yinsen’s brain is now added to the sentient armor, as was the original plan—but then a recorded message by Ultron informs them that the city is about to self-destruct. Yinsen and his followers choose to die with it and the Prof orders Sun Tao to take Shellhead to safety as the ship goes down. Tony takes Sun home for a job with Stark….

Epilogue: At a Las Vegas hospital, the “dead” Antigone rises from a dissection table, takes Ultron’s head and calmly walks out, astounding the doctors….

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