He lost me with the characterization in the first few issues, especially on Pepper, and the fact that it felt so totally divorced from what was going on in the Knaufs' title, the Avengers titles, and Captain America - everywhere else in the Marvel U, Tony was barely holding it together on the verge of a nervous breakdown, and yet when Fraction was writing him in the first few issues, it was like a flashback to 1989 and irresponsible playboy Tony. The re-hashed 90's-style plot (complete with l33t haxx0r-Sue villain) didn't help either (plus, I wasn't a fan of The Order, either, aside from the amusement value of making Tony's bisexuality almost-canon). IMO, Ellis's Extremis arc, and the Knauf's Execute Program storyline and run on Director of Shield are much better (I loved what they did with Maya Hansen and the Mandarin). I'd love to see Mike Grell, Kurt Busiek, or Frank Tieri come back to the title, or see what Fred van Lente could do with it.

Maybe if crimsonquills or someone else who's got some of the same issue with it that I have tells me that it's gotten better, I'll pick it up, but as it is I've basically decided to wait until Marvel brings Steve Rogers back from the dead and then catch up on everything in trade. Until then, fuck them.

In my most self-indulgeant dreams, they hire Geoff Jones back from DC and put him on the Avengers title, or even better, Kurt Busiek again, and they bring back Jan Van Dyne, too, and de-crazify Wanda, and re-unite the classic Avengers team, but I suspect that (and probably resurrecting Steve, too, unfortunately, until & unless the current creative line-up is ever replaced) is about as likely as Tony & Steve making out on-panel.