By David Nieves
As humongous and “earth shattering” as event comics can be they usually aren’t the endgame a publisher has in mind. The payoff usually lies in what comes after, whether it’s in the form of another event or a new series. Unfortunately for Marvel the pattern that’s developed is a stale event followed by a great series; one example that comes to mind was Dark Avengers coming after the Secret Invasion event. Marvel’s latest case, AXIS, while convoluted at times, has set the stage for Tom Taylor to play on the other side of the big two field with Superior Iron Man.
Taylor never did get to write a nice Superman for DC, and it appears that he won’t get a chance to pen stand-up Tony Stark either. That’s far from a bad thing. Superior Iron Man is about exploring an ultra narcissistic Tony Stark after his personality turn in the pages of AXIS. Stark’s new found god complex has him release a new version of Extremis on the population of San Francisco. This shell head isn’t out for philanthropy; instead he’s set to capitalize on the public’s newfound seduction with perfection. Once you see who Tony is put on a collision course with at the end of the book you’ll definitely want to keep this on your must read list. New readers worried about having missed Iron Man’s turn in the pages of AXIS have two paths about their dilemma. We’re told at the beginning of the book that Tony Stark’s personality was altered by the battle with Red Onslaught. If you can accept that fact at face value there’s no need to go back and read AXIS because it has very little to do with the progression in these pages. However, it’s easy to see why some will want to go back and see the events that led up to Stark’s turn.
Another face making his Marvel debut is artist Yildiray Cinar. He brings his hardline realism to the pages of the book just as poignantly as he did for DC. It’s minimalistic and guides the story to that strength by using a small number of panels on the pages that don’t feature Stark and then ramping up when Tony hits the scene. You won’t see tons of hyper detail found in Iron Man stories of this modern era, but Cinar manages to illustrate the unique dark tone of Superior Iron Man on a solid level.
Superior Iron Man is a fantastic start. Tom Taylor shows he’s a master at plotting a story and hooking readers from the get go. This series looks to explore a Tony Stark unbound by the chains of ethics. If you were worried this would be some kind of carbon copy of Superior Spider-Man’s narrative, rest assured it isn’t. Instead of a villains journey; we’re on a ride to explore the existential struggle of not Tony’s demons of insecurity but his super ego gone astray, which could prove to be more dangerous for everyone. In a week full of great comics, Superior Iron Man stands out as a must read.
OI ! As good as Dark Avengers was, by far the best thing to come out of Secret Invasion was Captain Britain and MI13.
Captain Britain didn’t come out of Secret Invasion, it launched at the same time.
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