Infamous Iron Man #6
We open with an extended version of the college-era flashback from the preview. I really like the characterisation of young Reed here, genuinely trying to reach out to Victor but being unwittingly pushy and condescending about how he's doing it. (Also, I'm kinda charmed that he considers Victor just telling him to "Go away" instead of "Be gone" a sign that Victor is warming to him.)
Plus Ben calls Victor 'Eurotrash' and Victor responds with "Ah! The jock as returned and this time he has strung together a complete sentence. Let's all stop what we're doing and bask in the young man's achievement." I could happily read an entire series set back in their college days - get on that, Marvel.
Back in the present, the Wizard is trying to convince MODOK that Doom is rounding up the members of the former Intelligentcia and handing them over to SHIELD, which is soon proven true when Doom shows up to tackle him. The Wizard turns out to be prepared for him, though, and has made his antigravity discs immune to sorcery. (I love that Doom makes a note to himself to ask how he did it even as he's zooming off into the sky. Always such a scientist.) Doom escapes by ejecting from his boots and narrowly avoids crashing to the ground.
He and the Wizard fight it out, but Doom is distracted by what seems so be a vision or psychic flash of some kind of great machine. (I'm not following what's going on in any other Marvel comics so I have no idea if I'm supposed to recognise what that's about.) The Wizard is baffled, but takes advantage to zap him out of the sky. Brief cutaway to Cynthia, observing in her cauldron, who's troubled that Victor became distracted, but evil-Reed convinces her not to intervene.
Doom is arrested by Sharon Carter of SHIELD. He says he'll only speak to Maria Hill, but Carter tells him Hill's no longer with SHIELD. (Again, not following other comics, no idea what's going on.) Doom stalls her long enough to get his armour back online and zooms off with, "I leave you to consider the subtext of our interaction."
Cut to Chicago, where Riri Williams hears on the news that SHIELD confronted someone in Iron Man armour, but no one knows whether it was Tony Stark. She dons her own Iron Man armour and flies off to investigate. TBC...
Some great lines this issue! Though also a foreboding sense that we're about to get sucked into some sort of crossover event I don't care about. I hope it doesn't stall the Cynthia plotline even further, considering nothing really happened on that front this issue.
Some really nice art from Maleev in this one - I'm super impressed with the amount of 'acting' he manages to get the Iron Man suit to do just with subtle angles of the head without cheating by changing the mask's expression. I rather like his versions of young Reed, Ben and Victor too.
So, overall I enjoyed a lot of little moments in this issue - and I am always, always here for college flashbacks! - but I'm a bit wary of future issues getting bogged down in some sort of big crossover event and derailing the plot, especially since I'm not sure how many if any of the tie-ins I'll be able to pick up. I've been spoiled by reading the F4 comics, which usually got left alone to do their own thing without being dragged into crossovers every half dozen issues. Though I guess at least that way we'll get to see "good" Doom interacting with more of the heroes...
Plus Ben calls Victor 'Eurotrash' and Victor responds with "Ah! The jock as returned and this time he has strung together a complete sentence. Let's all stop what we're doing and bask in the young man's achievement." I could happily read an entire series set back in their college days - get on that, Marvel.
Back in the present, the Wizard is trying to convince MODOK that Doom is rounding up the members of the former Intelligentcia and handing them over to SHIELD, which is soon proven true when Doom shows up to tackle him. The Wizard turns out to be prepared for him, though, and has made his antigravity discs immune to sorcery. (I love that Doom makes a note to himself to ask how he did it even as he's zooming off into the sky. Always such a scientist.) Doom escapes by ejecting from his boots and narrowly avoids crashing to the ground.
He and the Wizard fight it out, but Doom is distracted by what seems so be a vision or psychic flash of some kind of great machine. (I'm not following what's going on in any other Marvel comics so I have no idea if I'm supposed to recognise what that's about.) The Wizard is baffled, but takes advantage to zap him out of the sky. Brief cutaway to Cynthia, observing in her cauldron, who's troubled that Victor became distracted, but evil-Reed convinces her not to intervene.
Doom is arrested by Sharon Carter of SHIELD. He says he'll only speak to Maria Hill, but Carter tells him Hill's no longer with SHIELD. (Again, not following other comics, no idea what's going on.) Doom stalls her long enough to get his armour back online and zooms off with, "I leave you to consider the subtext of our interaction."
Cut to Chicago, where Riri Williams hears on the news that SHIELD confronted someone in Iron Man armour, but no one knows whether it was Tony Stark. She dons her own Iron Man armour and flies off to investigate. TBC...
Some great lines this issue! Though also a foreboding sense that we're about to get sucked into some sort of crossover event I don't care about. I hope it doesn't stall the Cynthia plotline even further, considering nothing really happened on that front this issue.
Some really nice art from Maleev in this one - I'm super impressed with the amount of 'acting' he manages to get the Iron Man suit to do just with subtle angles of the head without cheating by changing the mask's expression. I rather like his versions of young Reed, Ben and Victor too.
So, overall I enjoyed a lot of little moments in this issue - and I am always, always here for college flashbacks! - but I'm a bit wary of future issues getting bogged down in some sort of big crossover event and derailing the plot, especially since I'm not sure how many if any of the tie-ins I'll be able to pick up. I've been spoiled by reading the F4 comics, which usually got left alone to do their own thing without being dragged into crossovers every half dozen issues. Though I guess at least that way we'll get to see "good" Doom interacting with more of the heroes...