Iron Age #2: Review

Jul 2011

Jen Van Meter, Nick Dragotta

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Story Name:

On 42nd Street...

Review & Comments

Rating:

Iron Age #2 Review by T Vernon (August 14, 2021)

Comments: Main series takes place between IRON MAN (2011 series) and IRON MAN (2012 series). From the standpoint of Luke Cage and Iron Fist, it takes place between POWER MAN AND IRON FIST #102 and 103. From Human Torch’s standpoint, it takes place between FANTASTIC FOUR #149 and 150. This alternate reality was called Earth-81191.

Review: The first story dumps Tony Stark in the middle of a complicated situation going on in his regular title in an earlier period and it makes the tale a bit hard to follow at times but not impossible. And the battle with the Scorpion is rather cool. The second story is the odd one, as Tony is able to convince Doctor Doom he is stupid which Tony chalks up to Doom’s arrogance but one would assume Doom is familiar with all of the other scientists working in his fields; he chalks it up to drink and Tony gets away with it. The strangest bit is Tony having to give Johnny Storm pep talks, to convince him he is an asset to the FF. Yeah, Tony had to do the same for Hank Pym in issue #1 but that came at a low point emotionally for Pym. Here, Johnny is just his regular self and there’s no explanation as to why he is so discouraged and full of self-pity. One of these moral lessons makes this second tale feel like an all-ages story (well, if it weren’t for all the other violence and mayhem plus Tony Stark being drunk). So, okay as we move on to the next piece in the game.

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Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Iron Age #2 Synopsis by T Vernon

Iron Man arrives in Times Square, discovering that this is the period when Obadiah Stane had control of Stark’s company. Misty Knight and Colleen Wing are angry to see him as they had a deal to stay out of each other’s way, which Tony realizes must have been made with Rhodey who is Iron Man at this time. And they reveal that Tony Stark had hired them to hunt down some missing prototypes and, to avoid complicating Rhodey’s actions, he takes off, ditches the armor and proceeds as Tony Stark. He visits Heroes for Hire to have Luke Cage and Iron Fist accompany him to Times Square to recover the next part of the time machine. What Tony doesn’t realize is that Luke and Danny think he’s an impostor as Danny saw Stark the previous night and he was heavier and beardless, though his fingerprints check out. They all head to the electronics shop where the component is supposed to be—but the proprietor is the Terrible Tinkerer and he has the Scorpion attack the heroes. While the two Heroes battle Scorpion, Tony dons the armor and pursues Tinkerer, bringing him back and welding him into an elevator cage. Tony also tells the Heroes how to disable the Scorpion suit and it freezes the baddie in his tracks. The tracking device leads Iron Man to the Gem Theater, run by D.W. Griffith, and Misty and Colleen are already there. The component is part of a cache of tech the ladies swiped from the Tinkerer while the battle distracted everyone. Later, Tony steals money from Stane’s ATM account to pay Heroes for Hire and then takes off but a suspicious Cage follows him in time to see him vanish from an alleyway….

2nd story

“Johnny Storm, Super-Star”

Writer: Elliott Kalan. Pencils: Ron Frenz. Inks: Sal Buscema. Colors: John Kalisz. Letters: Jared K. Fletcher.

Tony Stark lands in a Central Park fountain where he is attacked and captured by robot thugs. He awakens to find himself a prisoner of Doctor Doom, who knows he has some of Doom’s time machine tech with him. Tony pretends to be a stupid playboy who doesn’t really understand what the tech is for. Doom takes the case with the already-recovered components and Tony finds the next one but he knows that when he touches it, he will be teleported to the next piece he needs to obtain, so he needs to get the case back from Doom. He escapes, discovers he was in the basement of the Latverian Embassy, locates a storehouse and puts on a better armor (with a nose). He then flies to the Baxter Building to find Reed Richards. But only Johnny Storm, the Human Torch, is home. He explains the problem and Johnny agrees to go with him; next door to the Embassy is a hot nightclub called Secret Identities, where dressing like a superhero is common. Once there, they run into that era’s Tony Stark, who is drunk and doesn’t want to be bothered when he’s with a hot girl, especially by someone he assumes is just another guy in a homemade Iron Man armor. So Torch burns a tunnel into the Embassy next door, they fight robots, and Doom arrives with his latest time machine. The battle takes them to Tunguska in 1908, the Battle of Gettysburg, Pompeii in A.D. 79, and to prehistoric times. There the fight gets out of hand and Iron Man saves Torch’s life and they bring the time engine back to the present, stranding Doom back then. Tony realizes that he can use this new time engine to stop Birch before anything happens but Johnny hands him all of the components and Shellhead fades out to the location of the next part….

Story #2