Invincible Iron Man #14 recap and discussion post

[empty-splendor.livejournal.com]

You know remember the drill. Posted on my blog because it makes me life easier, and if you have any comments/concerns/questions post them here because then I can actually reply to you.

http://starkoholic.blogspot.com/

Comments

[marinarusalka.livejournal.com]

If Fraction pulls some sort of clever rabbit out of a hat with this whole brain-deleting thing, it'll definitely be worth it. There's been lots of stuff in the book I really like, mostly in the character interactions. But I get the sense that Fraction just doesn't know how to make the whole Dark Reign thing work. (To be fair, nobody else at Marvel seems to know either.)

[empty-splendor.livejournal.com]

I think that maybe Norman Osborn was the wrong choice to sort of helm the thing. Like I know he has the thunderbolts and all, but I still wonder how he even got to power, even as I reread everything leading up to it. I think that's the fundamental flaw in the Dark Reign for me and Fraction is doing the best he can with what he got.

[marinarusalka.livejournal.com]

It's not just Osborn, the whole thing doesn't hang together. Marvel seems to want to do this dystopian, totalitarion vision of the US, but they have no clue how it would work in terms of internal politics, or international relations, or economics, or anything. What's HAMMER's actual jurisdiction? How are they funded? Does Fraction, or anyone else at Marvel, have any clue what a billion dollars in gold actually means? The whole thing is just such a mess.

Actually, one of my favorite bits in this issue was Osborn having to ask Dmitri for permission to enter Russian airspace and Dmitri telling him to fuck off. Actual acknowledgment that Osborne hasn't been made Supreme Dictator of the Universe! Yay!