Iron Man (1998 series) #49

Comments: Part of Marvel’s “’Nuff Said” series in which all stories were told without dialogue. Includes the full script following the story. Titanium Man’s previous appearance was in IRON MAN #315-317; T-Man returns in issue #83, though it seems to be a different guy in the suit. Final appearance of Sun Tao but it’s not clear if he has been killed or not. The story contains no creator credits though the cover art is signed; credits taken from the Grand Comics Database (GCD). Cover colors by Angelo Tsang and Udon; story colors by Edgar Tadeo and Avalon.

Review: It’s all about the action. It has to be because that’s what dialogue-free comics can show. Though the story is a bit of a cheater: while there is no dialogue there are newspaper headlines and especially Iron Man’s armor readouts to explain what’s going on. The climax is also rather ambiguous: the usual reading of comic art tropes suggests that Pepper and Sun Tao are dead but that can’t be the case (for her at least, he never appears again) and I’m not sure what is so startling to Shellhead on the last page: that he smashed a hole through his own building? Or that, with the entire Earth beneath him, he lands in front of his office? The guest art team nails it rather nicely; the action glows.