Invincible Iron Man #23: Review

Feb 2010

Matt Fraction, Salvador Larroca

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Story Name:

Stark: Disassembled Part 4: Ghosts in the Machine

Review & Comments

Rating:

Invincible Iron Man #23 Review by Rob Johnson (June 20, 2012)

This is part 4 of 5 of the rebuilding of Tony Stark.

Dr Strange gets Tony to repeat "I am Iron Man". Why doesn't he make him say "I am Tony Stark" instead?

Howard and Maria are memories of Tony's parents.

Dr Strange and Tony's bodies are in the storm cellar of the school in Broxton. Dr Lisk takes Elizabeth Sooner back to her hotel, leaving Maria Hill and Pepper Potts in her wheelchair to watch over the bodies.

Tony and Pepper presumably slept together in #15, although it doesn't really say so there.

The Ghost tried to find Stark last issue, but had retreated when Maria Hill discovered him. We now learn that he had hidden, expecting Stark's allies to be hunting for him. (We know that most of them had left already.)

Maria mentions that Black Widow and Captain America aren't here. They must both have left without saying anything last issue.

Jim Rhodes suddenly appears in the basement where Tony's body lies, bringing the remains of Pepper's Rescue armour. We don't know where Rhodey's been for most of the last 2 issues. And we didn't see anyone tell him where they'd taken Stark's body, or to fetch the armour. But he's not surprised to see Dr Strange there in a trance.

Madame Masque will continue in Hood's gang into Siege in New Avengers #61.

Elizabeth Sooner will crop up again occasionally in Thor-related Broxton appearances.

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Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Invincible Iron Man #23 Synopsis by Julio Molina-Muscara

Doctor Strange meets Tony Stark in his subconscious to help him revive after the profound and traumatic brain injury he suffered. Strange tells Tony that he is Iron Man, and convinces him to go to the Bureaucrat (person in charge of such place) where his two (imaginary) friends, Howard and Maria, are prisoners. A giant "Sentry" (Iron Man tech robot) guards Stark's door and is about to kill him, but Stark destroys it with a blast from his chest when he realizes that he indeed IS Iron Man.

Meanwhile, Maria Hill and Pepper Potts learn from the other that both slept with Tony while he was on the run. This ticks the girls a lot, getting angered at the dieing Stark.

Finally, and after speaking with Madame Masque, Ghost manages to find where Stark was taken, and after hurting Potts, and James Rhodes, he closes in to murder Tony Stark.

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