Invincible Iron Man #17 and #18 recap and discussion post

[empty-splendor.livejournal.com]

Sorry this is late guys.. I was crazy busy here in September with some traveling and work. I promise the last issue, next month, will be on time. Thanks for being patient.

As always, comments, critiques, criticism, praise should go here as I cannot reply to you on the actually blog. Also, just as a side note: I know a lot of you hate Fraction, and that's okay. Please keep the seething hate to a minimum in the comments, because they really aren't about the recap or the issue itself.

Thanks.



http://starkoholic.blogspot.com/

Comments

[stormseye.livejournal.com]

Yay these are back, it's nice to know what is going on in the title, even if I don't read Marvel :) And you make it an enjoyable experience with your comments and no bad art.

He stands face to face with the armor, the first gay armor...
is that a typo or...

[empty-splendor.livejournal.com]

Thank you for reading...

...um I want to say it's a typo but maybe it was a subconscious reaction...

Lets go with typo.

[stormseye.livejournal.com]

it's a hilarious, no worries.

[empty-splendor.livejournal.com]

:D I'm glad!

[cosmicbiscuit.livejournal.com]

Have you seen the solicits for the next arc? I wanna be excited, since the concept looks good, but it's still going to be Fraction and Larroca handling it, so we'll see.

[empty-splendor.livejournal.com]

I certainly have and judging on the covers and summaries I'm thinking I might love it. Larroca wasn't terrible in the 5 Nightmares arc, and I remember a time when he was good. Maybe he'll shape up.

I will continue to recap the next arc, I'll try to write them as long as time and interest allows.

[cosmicbiscuit.livejournal.com]

Shiny! I look forward to your snark. :D

[empty-splendor.livejournal.com]

Thank you for reading!

[dieewigenacht.livejournal.com]

Ahh!!

Ahh!!

Ahh!!

That's all I can say.

I mean, it hurts!!

Curiously enough "Kids with Guns" started playing in my itunes when you mentioned it...It was creepy.

[empty-splendor.livejournal.com]

That is creepy!

Thanks for reading.

[marinarusalka.livejournal.com]

I'm kind of squeeful at the possible prospect of Pepper and Maria and Natasha all teaming up to kick ass together. I suppose I should be annoyed that in Tony's book, everyone is kicking ass except Tony, and I kind of am, but I can't help it, I just love those three.

Maybe Tony will kick at least a little ass next month? He's really kind of due.

[empty-splendor.livejournal.com]

Well he'll either kick ass or get his ass kicked some more... and my money is on the getting his ass kicked if you saw the panel that Fraction released.

Oy. I'm kind of excited for the girls too, especially because I like kick ass Pepper!

Thanks for reading.

[marinarusalka.livejournal.com]

Yeah, between that and the solicits for the next story arc, I think we're in for another long stretch of Tony-abuse. :-(

I hope Pepper gets her suit back and keeps on being a superhero, because she's really quite good at it.

I also hope she gets her common sense back and stops making out with Tony because really, has anything good ever happened to anyone as a result of making out with Tony?

[muccamukk]

There's no way those kids are not going to read as a really icky bit of inter-cultural relations to me. I just shuddered reading that bit and felt repulsed by the writing.

Pepper, Maria and Nat should have their own comic. Hopefully with an artist who can differentiate between characters with the same hair colour.

[empty-splendor.livejournal.com]

I agree. On both points.

Pepper, Maria and Nat would be way more interesting than the Marvel "Divas"

Thanks for reading.

[arileo.livejournal.com]

Oh, good, I'm not the only one who noticed that you couldn't really tell for sure if it was Bucky or not in #17.

Also, where are people seeing the previews for the next issue?

[empty-splendor.livejournal.com]

The solicits are always released on Marvel.com. You can see them by going to the catalogue page.

The preview I am referring to is this one: http://mattfraction.com/+posts/iim19big.jpg that was on Matt Fraction's twitter.

[arileo.livejournal.com]

Thanks!
*clicks picture* ooooooooh that doesn't look good for Shellhead.

[empty-splendor.livejournal.com]

No... it really doesn't. I'm very excited.

Thanks for reading!

[villainxatxhert.livejournal.com]

things are not lookin too good for our Tony. I really want him to pull through, but it's getting hard to see a happy ending... :(

[empty-splendor.livejournal.com]

I'm actually kind of excited for the next arc to see how they piece Tony together. The December Issue has DOCTOR STRANGE!

[arileo.livejournal.com]

Ah. I don't want to have to wait till December to read it. *pouts*

[dieewigenacht.livejournal.com]

Be thankfull you'll get it in December.

I swear to god, here in my city (Somewhere in Mexico) they are somehow stuck with Secret Invasion.

[otherhazards.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the 'Charlie/Flowers for Algernon' thing is really cramping Tony's style.
However...
While his mind may be damaged and bogged down to a crawl by too much and/or corrupted data... Tony's basic thought processes are intact. The way he approaches problem-solving, reaches out for information, goes off on his own... He's acting like Tony, just slower. Narrower bandwidth.
It's like when he runs the armor off emergency backup power. He can't do much -with- it, but he's still the one piloting it.
And doing more with less, technologically speaking, IS kind of Tony's specialty.

[helva2260.livejournal.com]

You're nearly brain deleted, you've been shot and you're worried about blood on your stuff? God, you're vain.

*g* Or he could be worried about the blood short-circuiting the electronics and whether he has enough brain-power left to pull any damaged bits apart and re-solder them... but then I haven't seen the relevant panels, so I'm guessing without much context.

I think the things that bug me most about this whole storyline are the portrayal of Tony's brain deletion, and the assumption that as his brain erodes, he'll be forced backwards in terms of using the Iron Man armours.

It's kind of a neat concept, the idea of revisiting each armour and ending up back at the beginning. But I just don't see it working with the brain deletion plot! Each armour upgrade came with an increased amount of detail, yes, but also with more automation and better displays, so the earlier ones should be the most difficult to pilot reliably (especially the original Afghanistan one!).

And I just... there's something off about the way his brain deletion is occurring. I'm not sure I can quantify it better than that, especially as I'm hardly an expert in the field! But it feels inconsistent, particularly where vocabulary is concerned: the detail of his narration is at odds with the vagueness of his emails and spoken bits. How much he seems to remember of what he's doing seems to vary as well, which I might believe if it weren't opposed to the description of the way he's designed the brain wipe to happen in a particular sequence... Ah well, I suppose this is one of the things we handwave as Marvel!Science!

[aworldinside.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for these! I can't pick up the comics myself at the moment but these recaps are awesome. I was wondering what was up with Tony's storyline in current canon. Oh, Tony. It just never ends for the dude, does it?