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Invincible Iron Man #1: Review

May 2008
Matt Fraction, Salvador Larroca

Story Name:

The Five Nightmares Part 1: Armageddon Days

Review & Comments

Rating:
4 stars

Invincible Iron Man #1 Review by (February 15, 2010)
This issue was dedicated to colorist Stephane Peru (1981-2008).

The five biggest nightmares of Tony Stark:
  1. To get drunk
  2. The Iron Man would become replicable
  3. The Iron Man being piloted by other than himself or Rhodey
  4. The Iron Man becomes disposable
  5. The worst: That someone else other than Stark makes the Iron Man cheap, easy to use, and disposable (Iron Man 2.0)


Invincible Iron Man #1 Review by (March 22, 2012)
This story arc was published concurrently with Iron Man: Director of SHIELD #29-32. It occurs during the period of the Initiative, between World War Hulk and Secret Invasion and after that other IM series. In particular the Marvel Chronology Project has this issue after the 2nd story in the Iron Protocols 1-shot and the 1st story in the Indomitable IM single issue.

Tony Stark was made Director of SHIELD after Civil war, and has been in office since IM (2005) #15 (the series which was eventually renamed IM: DoS).

Iron Man is still wearing the Extremis armour, partly stored within his body.

This is the first appearance of the AIM splinter group Advanced Genocide Mechanics, and they disappear after next issue.

It's also the first use of the ArmorMap system. Tony remembers a previous time when he tracked down villains using versions of Iron Man technology in Armor Wars in IM#225-231.

ArmorMap keeps track of all armoured villains, not necessarily anything to do with Stark technology. I can't identify all the people depicted. But some may be duplicates, like the old Beetle and new Mach-V (both Abner Jenkins), and more than one Crimson Dynamo (different people). I think I can also spot War Machine, Dr Doom, Stingray, Mauler and a Mandroid. The Marvel Wiki suggests that Firepower and the original Titanium Man are also there.

Maria Hill was made Director of SHIELD after Nick Fury was disgraced by his Secret War. After Civil War she resigned in favour of Stark, but was kept on as a Deputy Director. She's been shadowing Tony closely since then, often accompanied as here by the other Deputy Dum Dum Dugan (who's actually a Skrull imposter in this period). They've been in most recent issues of IM. Their last joint appearance was Moon Knight (2006) #25, and then Hill accompanied Stark in Eternals (2008) #4.

War Machine is currently one of the leaders of the 50-State Initiative program. The MCP has him here between Initiative #13 and #15 following guest apps in Fantastic Four #556 and #562.

Matt Fraction brought the character Ezekiel Stane with him from The Order series. He is the son of Stark's old (dead) enemy Obadiah Stane. His attacks on The Order were the first stage of his revenge on Stark for his father's death. The plot continues here.

Pepper Potts is apparently looking after Stark's company while he's being Director of SHIELD, a bit more than the personal secretary job that is probably her title. She was his secretary from Tales of Suspense #45. She had a crush on him, but eventually married Stark's chauffeur and bodyguard Happy Hogan.

She disappeared from the series for a few years after the Avengers Disassembled storyline in IM(1998)#89. She reappeared during Civil War in IM(2005)#13-14, where Happy died. After that she ran The Order in their series. When the series ended she came back to work for Stark (as seen in the 2nd story in Iron Protocols). So she's another character Matt Fraction has copied over from his last gig. Mrs Rennie was Stark's PA during the previous series. She won't be seen again. But since Pepper is now effectively CEO of Stark International, maybe Mrs R hasn't been made redundant but is now *her* PA.

Stane's girlfriend Sasha will turn out to be Sasha Hammer, daughter of the Mandarin and Justine Hammer, herself the daughter of another old (dead) enemy Justin Hammer.

***** The rest of the comments after this are an old copy of parts of this comment.


This story arc was published concurrently with Iron Man: Director of SHIELD #29-32. It occurs during the period of the Initiative, between World War Hulk and Secret Invasion and after that other IM series. In particular the Marvel Chronology Project has this issue after the 2nd story in the Iron Protocols 1-shot and the 1st story in the Indomitable IM single issue.

Tony Stark was made Director of SHIELD after Civil war, and has been in office since IM (2005) #15 (the series which was eventually renamed IM: DoS).

Iron Man is still wearing the Extremis armour, partly stored within his body.

This is the first appearance of the AIM splinter group Advanced Genocide Mechanics, and they disappear after next issue.

It's also the first use of the ArmorMap system. Tony remembers a previous time when he tracked down villains using versions of Iron Man technology in Armor Wars in IM#225-231.

ArmorMap keeps track of all armoured villains, not necessarily anything to do with Stark technology. I can't identify all the people depicted. But some may be duplicates, like the old Beetle and new Mach-V (both Abner Jenkins), and more than one Crimson Dynamo (different people). I think I can also spot War Machine, Dr Doom, Stingray, Mauler and a Mandroid. The Marvel Wiki suggests that Firepower and the original Titanium Man are also there.

Maria Hill was made Director of SHIELD after Nick Fury was disgraced by his Secret War. After Civil War she resigned in favour of Stark, but was kept on as a Deputy Director. She's been shadowing Tony closely since then, often accompanied as here by the other Deputy Dum Dum Dugan (who's actually a Skrull imposter in this period). They've been in most recent issues of IM. Their last joint appearance was Moon Knight (2006) #25, and then Hill accompanied Stark in Eternals (2008) #4.




 

Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Invincible Iron Man #1 Synopsis by Julio Molina-Muscara
A group of young terrorists blow themselves up in a market street of Tabora (Tanzania, Africa), killing about a hundred people.

Billionaire Tony Stark, in his latest Iron Man suit, fixes the Space Shuttle, and then meets up with a beautiful girl by the name of Pilar who with foreign accent, invites him to her bed. But nothing happens as Stark, Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. is informed of the Africa bombing. S.H.I.E.L.D. takes notice of the international bombing (usual in those areas) due to the magnitude and technology of the attack. Ignoring who could organize or fund it, the first clue points to an A.I.M. group called Advanced Genocide Mechanics.

Second-in-command Maria Hill shows Director Tony Stark (Iron Man) a cylindrical metallic piece that was found in the area; nervous, Tony consults with friend Jim Rhodes (War Machine), who believes the attack was done using Iron Man armor technology.

Meanwhile, in the Jones-Raynolds-Jones Headquarters in New York, brilliant engineer Ezekiel Stane is to give a presentation about his work to create a cigarette that made smokers lose weight. Although accomplishing that, Stane also acknowledges that he’s used the company’s money and resources to enhance his biology to create the next generation bio-weapons for terrorists; Stane then kills those in the room with Repulsor beams coming out from his very own fingers, and jumps out the window of that 44th floor, surviving the fall. Celebrating success with his girlfriend in a limo, they plan more human bombings and a future confrontation with Stark.

At S.H.I.E.L.D, Tony runs the Armormap program (which provides information about those who use armor suits), which informs that none of them were in Africa during the massacre.Finally, and after trashing Advanced Genocide Mechanics, Stark’s right hand, and secretary Pepper Pots sends him a photo of the terrorists that was taken using a Stark cell phone during the Africa attack (by a young victim girl called Adimu Chiume). Perplexed, Tony realizes that the terrorists are using a more advanced form of his own Repulsor Technology: the Iron Man 2.0 he calls it.


Preview Pages
Click sample interior pages to enlarge them:




Salvador Larroca
Salvador Larroca
Frank D'Armata
Salvador Larroca (Cover Penciler)
Paco Roca (Cover Inker)


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