Comic Review: Invincible Iron Man #1

Invincible Iron Man #1
Matt Fraction, story
Salvador Larroca, art
Marvel Comics
Review by David Uzumeri

It’s difficult to believe Matt Fraction came to Marvel only a year and a half ago. He’s got a considerable number of projects under his belt since then - a Sensational Spider-Man annual, a Thor oneshot, sixteen issues (including specials) of Immortal Iron Fist, ten issues of The Order, a story in X-Men: Divided We Stand and nineteen issues of Punisher War Journal. It’s an impressive resume, with a number of books that may not have been sales juggernauts but fended for themselves and got massive amounts of critical acclaim - Hell, his Spidey annual is up for an Eisner. It’s probably the fastest advent of a writer in Big Two comics I’ve seen in a long time, and now he’s been granted what’s clearly the flagship book for this summer’s focus Marvel character and perpetual whipping boy, Tony “Iron Man” Stark.

For art, he’s got Salvador Larroca, a distinguished Marvel vet with tons of long runs (like every damn X-book) under his belt and a reputation for being both timely and protean, swapping styles every few years with a rapidity matched only by Stuart Immonen. With Iron Man, he’s done away with the ink washes and is inking himself in a fairly realistic style; think newuniversal without the celebrity faces and you get a good idea. He does a strong job throughout the issue, especially with the panel layouts and camera choices, but there still seems to be a photoreference feel to the work that’s especially distracting when dealing with Ezekiel Stane - he seems to change from fourteen to twenty-two depending on the panel and angle.

The book’s shining pages are the few completed by Stephane Peru before his extremely untimely death, and it’s appropriate that the book is dedicated to him. His replacement, Frank D’Armata, is a curious choice - he’s probably best known for his moody tones on Captain America, everything David Finch draws and Brubaker’s first arc on Daredevil, which is a significant turnaround from Peru, especially on a book that seems (despite the subject matter) so bright and vivid in tone. I’m not sure how well it works, but it doesn’t distract too much.

But how’s the story? How’s the plot? Is this the book that adequately complements Tony’s recent headline status in the Marvel Universe? Thankfully, yeah, it is. Not to knock on the Knaufs at all - they are writing a totally wicked global espionage book - but it’s really become more about S.H.I.E.L.D. than Tony at this point, and considering Extremis allows Tony to function 24/7, it’s reasonable for his adventures to fill two books. So this is the Iron Man as Superhero book, the Batman to the Knaufs’ Detective Comics.

First of all, it’s a relief to really get into Tony’s head like this. He’s a character we’ve been seeing from the outside a lot recently, in a lot of books - double-page-spread-long thought bubbles in Mighty Avengers aside, Tony’s been an enigmatic and sometimes needlessly morally ambiguous force in a huge number of books. Here, it’s the fully-realized, feet-of-clay Tony Stark that shines through, tirelessly (literally) working to save lives even though sometimes he reaches too far and it bites him in the ass. He’s the international playboy, the director of the world’s largest spy agency, the corporate mogul, the sometimes arrogant, lonely superhero.

Secondly, Fraction has really succeeded in creating a 21st century Iron Man villain with Ezekiel Stane, a solid legacy character with hints at a more interesting/subtle characterization and morality past the predetermined role he plays in what looks to be a standard superhero story (to begin with). I doubt it’ll stay like that for too long, though; Fraction’s a writer known for mixing and matching genres, and with a long run (2+ years) planned he has plenty of time and space to experiment.

As for the issue itself, it’s very accessible and doesn’t assume any knowledge on the part of the reader, likely in hopes to attract buyers from the recent Iron Man movie. I think it’ll do well in that regard - it’s easy to get into, it’s not overly complicated, it’s fun, and it sets up possibilities for a number of stories down the line. Again, it seems like a straightforward superhero vs. supervillain story at first, but there are hints and tones at things under the surface which, given a writer of Fraction’s caliber, are likely to be impressive when exposed.

In short, it’s a very promising first issue, in the same way I felt reading the first issues of Brubaker’s Captain America or Immortal Iron Fist - it didn’t completely blow me away immediately, but the potential is there for an incredibly consistent series, something which, given the creative team’s pedigree, is more of a probability than a possibility. I’m looking forward to future issues, and I’ve got a feeling this is going to be a series you’ll be happy you got in on the ground floor on.