Invincible Iron Man V1 - The Five Nightmares

Thoughts on: Invincible Iron Man V1 - World's Most Wanted

Written by: Matt Fraction

Art By: Salvador Larroca

How I Read it: Marvel Digital Unlimted on Ipad

Here's the solicit for the TPB

Tony Stark - Iron Man, billionaire industrialist and director of S.H.I.E.L.D. - faces the most overwhelming challenge of his life. Ezekiel Stane, the son of Tony's late business rival and archenemy Obadiah, has set his sights, his genius and his considerable fortune on the task of destroying Tony Stark and Iron Man. What's worse, he's got Iron Man tech, and he's every bit Iron Man's equal and opposite...except younger, faster, smarter...and immeasurably evil. Rising-star writer Matt Fraction (IMMORTAL IRON FIST) and superstar artist Salvador Larroca (UNCANNY X-MEN) join forces to repulsor-ray your comic books to a cinder! Softcover

With Marvel NOW in full swing, several long creative runs have ended. Now seems like a good time to go get caught up on a few. I'm going to start with Matt Fraction and Sal Larroca's Invincible Iron Man. Marvel Digital Unlimited on my Ipad works great and has all the chapters of this long, 60ish issue run

This series began in 2008 as a "jumping on" point at the time the first Iron Man movie was coming out. From that perspective, it does a great job cutting down to the Iron Man basics. The feel is very similar to the movie, from the tech based villain (who is the son if the movie villain), to the feel of the Pepper Potts/ Tony Stark interactions. The themes of technology that could be put to such good use (curing diseases, feeding the poor, etc.) instead being used for mayhem are also present.

At this point in comics continuity, we are post "Civil War" and Tony is the director of SHIELD. We see Tony having to balance his SHIELD responsibilities with that of his Stark Enterprises role. The book begins with several terror attacks, each one bigger than the last, and all of them having Stark-tech signatures. The book's main villain, Zeke Stain, has a memorable introduction, taking out a board room full of executives and jumping out of a 40 story building. He is made to look like a super genius foil, but to me, much of his bite is lost when it is revealed he is not inventing the tech himself, but instead is simply cannibalizing old stark technology and incorporating it into his own body. I love the line by Mr Fantastic... "He didn't invent the bread, nor the peanut butter, but...".

The art by Sal Larroca is fantastic. I like his art much more when he is finishing his own pencils (like his work on X-treme X-Men) rather than when some one else does the job (like his later X-Men work with Danny Miki inking).

The story is paced well for 6 issues (with a great Spider-man team-up epilogue in issue 7 not included in the Vol 1 TPB), splitting the focus well between Tony Stark character development and Iron Man action scenes with lots of big budget explosions, and building up to the final confrontation at the end.

Up next is the first part of the Dark Reign stories which follow Secret Invasion.

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Review - Firestorm, The Nuclear Men 1-6 (New 52)

Issues Reviewed: Firestorm, The Nuclear Men 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 (New 52)

Written by: Ethan Van Sciver and Gail Simone

Art By: Yildiray Cinar

How I Read it: Single Issues

Where Collected: The Fury of Firestorm: The Nuclear Men Vol. 1: God Particle 

This new, violent Firestorm series sets up a very interesting new status quo for the character(s).  In the old DCU, there was only one Firestorm.  Ronny Raymond was killing during Identity Crisis and Jason Rusch replaced him.  The big idea here is that there are multiple Firestorms.  Ronny and Jason are BOTH main characters and BOTH can turn into a Firestorm.  Even more interesting, they are not alone.  There are several other people/countries that have Firestorm tech, some aquired incomplete on the black market.

The first issue kicks off by introducing a very violent special ops team (working, of course, for a mysterious corporation) searching for items that belonged to Martin Stein.  Ronny, the star quarterback, and Jason, the smart kid, both go to the same high school.  They do NOT get along.  An attack by the special ops team on their school causes Jason to activate a device in his locker, unexpectedly turning BOTH Jason and Ronny into Firestorms.  The two firestorms also have he ability to fuse together to form another, monstous intity, Fury.

The fight with the special ops group continues through next few issues.  The mysterious corporation, known as Z-Tech, throws more special ops troops at the Firestorms, followed by a hulking, failed firestorm experiment, Helix.  The fight with the corporation goons goes on a bit too long, and the second set of "powered up" soldiers seemed unnessessary and had a silly gimmick.

By the time the chaos is over, Z-Tech turns on one of there ops teams, and convinces the boys to join with them.   This leads into the last few issues, which I enjoyed the most.  The boys go on a mission and interact with other firestorms, leading to lots of emotion and big explosions.

The art by Yildiray Cinar is very dynamic, especially during the big fight scenes involving the multiple Firestorms.  For all the dark themes, the comic is firey bright, with the colors really popping when the Firestorms interact. 

Ethan Van Sciver and Gail Simone co-write these first 6 issues.  Simone leaves after this and I wonder how much influence she had on the last few issues.  The first issue was full of great ideas, but the next few drag quite a bit.  Things pick back up in the last 3 issues with the introduction of even more Firestorms and the boys' first mission.  There was enough good material and ideas here to make me want to continue on and see what Van Sciver can do on his own. 

Review: Superboy (2010) 6 - 11

Issues Reviewed: Superboy (2010) 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11

Written by: Jeff Lemire

Art By: Pier Gallo, Marco Rudy (issues 5, 6)

How I Read it: Single Issues

Where Collected: Superboy Vol. 1: Smallville Attacks



These issues complete the story Jeff Lemire started in the first half of this Superboy run (issues 1-5).  He continues his streak of entertaining, wierd, and self contained stories that all tie together in the end.  The series of strange events from issues 1-5 morphs into a time spanning tale of an ancient wizard trying (again) to raise a super army for world domination.  Overall, Lemire suceeds in this series' mission to "make Smallville an interesting setting for a superhero book".

Unfortunately, The series ends with issue 11, making way for the DC New 52 reboot.  Lemire is able to get most of his plot points resolved (evil farmers, Phantom Stranger, Parasite, Superboy trying to have a "normal" life), though one major thread is left hanging (Psion's mission in the past).  The art by Pier Gallo is once again a perfect complement to the story's tone.  The fill-in art by Marco Rudy for issue 6 and 7 was a bit jarring as the art styles did not match, but no harm done, as these were mostly disconnected from the main story threads.

The first story, issue 6, is part of a Doomsday crossover.  Lemire manages to get in a few good character moments (Superboy/Robin, Simon/Ray Palmer) before the main Superboy/Doomsday fisticuffs.

The second story, issue 7, occurs in space, and is an homage to the classic Alan Moore Superman story "For the Man Who Has Everything".  The twist here is that instead of a halucinating a perfect future, Superboy sees his nightmare future via a Red Mercy plant.  After reading the first 10 pages, I was frustrated with the time shifting and jarring art style changes.  Once the Mercy was revealed though, everything made sense.

Issues 8 - 11 wrap up the series.  All the plot elements surrounding the evil farmers and the Phantom Stranger are wrapped up nicely.  We are treated to history lessons for the main villains, the first taking place in 1871 Smallville, the second spanning thousands of years.  The main villian, a wizard named Tannarak, has attempted to build a clone army to take over the world several times over the past 45,000 years, only to be thwarted by the Phantom Stranger each time.  I think it's great that the Stranger was sporting 1960's fasion in 45,000 BC.  In the end, good prevails, with more than a little help from Krypto.


As a whole, this Superboy run stands well on its own.  A new reader could pick this up and enjoy it as much as a seasoned Superboy fan.  Its a shame we'll never get to finish the lingering stories:  Why were the red mercies being sent Smallville, what is going to happen to Psion and his dystopian future, will the Lori/Superboy relationship blossom or will Wondergirl come back into the picture.  At least we got 11 issues to enjoy before it ended though.

Review: Superboy (2010) 1-5

Issues Reviewed: Superboy (2010) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Writer: Jeff Lemire

Artist: Pier Gallo

How did I read these? Single Issues

Where collected?
Superboy Vol. 1: Smallville Attacks



This Superboy series, starting in 2010, is a continuation of the arc from Geoff Johns in Adventure Comics 1-6.  Johns is one of my favorite writers, so I knew what to expect from the structure and tone of that Adventure Comics story.  I was not that familiar with Jeff Lemire.  I had not read any of his previous work and knew of him by reputation only. While the initial John's arc had a fairly easy mission (Re-introduce Superboy after having been gone for a few years), this new series had a much more difficult assgnment; it needed to find a way to make Smallville, KS an interesting place for a superhero comic.

Had Geoff Johns written this book, I would have expected a decompressed 6 issue arc focusing on the nuances of life in Smallville.  I was surprised to find that Jeff Lemire has chosen to do the opposite.  He has written fast paced, self contained stories filled with action, mystery, and spoon-full of silver age kookiness.  One top of that, he is playing a long game by dropping clues that should lead to the different stories all tying together.  Pier Gallo's art is a perfect compliment to the story.  Not so cartoonish that it prevents the reader from suspending disbielf, but not too rendered to take itself too seriously.

The only major status quo change since the Adventure Comics issues is that Superboy and Wondergirl have broken up over in Teen Titans.  Conner has been living in Smallville for a while now, semi-retired from the superhero game.  The first story (issues 1 and 2) kicks off right away with the Phantom Stranger showing up out of nowhere to warn Superboy that things in Smallville are about to get weird.  The Parasite attacks, followed by killer vines entrapping all of Smallville, and Poison Ivy showing up seemingly to help.  The vines are caused by a strange machine hooked up to a local farmer.  The machine explodes in a flash of light and disolves, seemingly with no ill effects.  The real purpetrators behind the madness are a pair of "creepy evil farmer" figures.  The whole senerio was intended to use the machine to take a scan of Superboy.  That data will somehow be used to take over Smallville (cue evil laugh).

The supporting cast gets good screentime, with boy genius Simon Valentine getting the spotlight  in the first few issues.  Simon proves his worth by taking Ivy out with... wait for it... remote control parasite frogs (as I said earlier, silver age kookiness).  Things are still weird with Lori Luther.  Superboy is torn between his romantic feelings for her and the fact that she is Lex Luther's niece.  As in the Johns' arc, Krypto is still happily front and center.  One point that I found funny was that Superboy is TERRIBLE at keeping his secret identity.  He doesn't take much care when swapping to Superboy mode, and both Simon and Lori figure his dual identity within the first 3 issues!
 
Issues 3 and 4 involve the arrival of a new character from the future, Psionic Lad, who is dressed like a Legion reject.  He brings stories of a distopian future that is ruled from the walled city of Smallville.  This clue seems to point back to the evil farmers from the first story.  Another interesting clue is that the soldiers from the future chasing Psionic Lad fearfully break off there attack and retreat with a "Code 1 Extraction" when they see Simon.  Psionic Lad's explaination for coming back in time was to be trained by Superboy so he could return to the future to free the world. This explaination is accepted by the group and Psionic Lad is allowed to move into the Kent farmhouse.

Issue 5 has a great hook, "The first Kid Flash vs Superboy Race".  Superboy feels guilty about the town's crops being destroyed by the killer vines, so he sets up the race as a fund raiser.  Superboy and Kid Flash have a heart-to-heart about Wondergirl, fight a few crimes, and circle the earth several times during there race.  All this had to be done so the race would "last longer than 2 seconds".  The end of the issue sees the return of the Phantom Stranger, revealing that somehow Lori's house is important to stop all the weirdness that has been going on.

These issues were fast paced, imaginative fun.  Lots of the clues and mysteries were revealed that will most likely be resolved by the end of the series (the series was 11 total issues, interupted by the new 52 reboot).  I am really looking forward to reading the rest of the series and seeing how things wrap up.

Review: Adventure Comics 0 - 6

Issues Reviewed: Adventure Comics (2009) 0, 1, 2, 3, 5, 6

Writer: Geoff Johns

Artist: Francis Manapul, Brian Buccellato

How did I read these? Single Issues

Where collected?
- Superboy: The Boy of Steel
- DC Comics Presents: Legion of Superheroes 2


These first few issues of the 2009 Adventure Comics relaunch focused on the returned Conner Kent Superboy.  Conner has just returned in Legion of 3 Worlds after being "dead" for several years.  I very much looked forward to these issues because Geoff Johns' Teen Titans run was one of the first DC titles I read regularly. The revelation in those issues that Superboy was a clone of not only Superman's DNA, but Lex Luther's also had me hooked.

Johns does a fantastic job re-introducing Superboy and setting up his new status quo as a resident of Smallville.  The characterization of Conner as a someone with a fresh start in a new home, trying to find their place in the world is pitch perfect.  Superboy's internal struggle to figure out just how much influence his Lex Luther side has over him is well done, and is best shown by the journal he keeps comparing things that Superman does to things the Luther does.

The first issue quickly introduces the setting.  It opens with Superboy moving into the Kent farm in Smallville with Ma.  The rapport between Conner and Ma is terrific and you can really tell the two need each other.  Ma is glad to have someone to share the house with, and Conner needs mother figure to help guide him in his new life.  Several new cast members are introduced, a classmate that Superboy saves, Lori, and Simon Valentine, who is seen out performing science experiments.  Best of all, Krypto is front and center in a supporting role!

Issues 2 and 3 deal with Superboy reconnecting with his Titan friends.  The reunion with his girlfriend Wondergirl is handled perfectly.  For Superboy, he has only been gone a few weeks, but Cassie has been grieving for over a year.  He also recruits Time Drake (Red Robin) to help search for Lex Luther.  In both cases, his Titan friends are afraid Conner will be angry wth them over action while he was gone, but Conner is very level headed and is just happy to be back.

Issues 4 and 5 pause this story for a Blackest Night story with Superboy Prime.  Conner's story picks back up in the co-feature of issue 5.  He catches Lori vandalizing a building, stops her, and drops her back home.  As he is leaving, none other than Lex Luther arrives at the front door, introduced as Lori's uncle!  In the previous issues, as Superboy was looking for Lex, Lex had escaped with Brainiac from prison and had been looking for Superboy to "reclaim his property". 

Issue 6 is the finale to Johns and Manupal's story arc.  Lex has returned to his hometown of Smallville to reclaim Superboy, little did we know that estranged sister and niece were still there.  Superboy convinces Lex to PROVE he has good in him by curing his sick sister.  Johns' Luther is in driven evil genius mode here.  He knows he could be helping the world, but intentionally refuses until Superman is defeated.  After a Luther double-cross, Superboy finally feels comfortable that he will NEVER be like Lex Luther.


Overall, this was a very effective story and successfully re-introduced Superboy to the DCU.  The writing and art were great, with a focus on personal moments, with only a few action scenes.  This was the only arc for Johns/Manapul.  Superboy's story continues in his own title written by Jeff Lemire (which will be reviewed next).