Welcome to another exciting edition of Marvel Comics Beat! This week, journalist Spencer Ackerman joins artist Julius Ohta for the first time in the highly anticipated Iron Man. We have reviewed this issue as our main feature! But stay tuned for our regular Rapid Rundown segment, where Beat’s Marvel team reviews X-Men #6, Spider-Man #12, and Avengers #19.
Iron Man #1
writer: Spencer Ackerman
artist: Julius Ohta
Colorist: Alex Sinclair
Writer: Joe Caramagna, VC
cover: Yasmin Putri
Spencer Ackerman and Julius Ohtaof iron man One of the strongest first issues of a superhero comic I’ve read in a while. AckermanA journalist specializing in national security demonstrates strong storytelling ability in his second comic series and first as a solo writer. Ackerman’s reporting has been largely considered left-wing, anti-militaristic, and skeptical of institutional power of all kinds. These politics don’t appear overtly on the page, but they fit perfectly with Tony Stark, a man at odds with his own history and complicity in the war. This character, both within and outside the text, has a complex relationship with the violence inherent in the superhero universe and what it represents. The publishing and multimedia history of “Iron Man” has complex ties to America’s conflicts in Vietnam and the Middle East. Ackerman draws on this history within the context of the Marvel Universe and the larger issue of superhero jingoism.
Iron Man exists in a unique space as a property, and he’s recognizable enough that his name recognition can sell books and attract interesting or well-known talent, but he hasn’t yet reached the level of a corporate mascot like Spider-Man or Superman. status. This gives creators more freedom to put their stamp on the title and present an authentic vision and point of view. This is not to say that Ackerman and Ohta’s Iron Man is a radical book. That’s not the case, at least not after one issue. But it was hit by an elusive vision and intent The Amazing Spider-Man. As a billionaire and industrialist, injustice is in his DNA. As a recovering addict, he lives with the burden of the hurt caused by his past actions.
Tony Stark must face the harsh reality that his family company will forever be tied to the weapon of death. After this incident, he once put all the evil deeds of the Stark family at risk. Without his influence, it was all about the pursuit of capital and power.
By positioning the first storyline as a war between two corporate entities, Ackerman and Horta presented a simple conflict between the benevolent corporation of Stark Infinity and the corrupt corporation of Roxon Corporation. The opposite poles are represented by men in battle armor. But this simple narrative is complicated by the fact that Stark Unlimited has been usurped by shareholders and board members who have recommitted themselves to creating weapons of war even before Roxxon made a bid to acquire Stark. Even though they’re run by real supervillains, the money is too good to pass up. Tony was forced to leave his company and – at great physical cost – all of his Iron Man armor.
There are many echoes of past stories here, but this is not a rehash of old stories. armored warfare or Dark Reign. Instead, we saw in the first issue an effective use of continuity to flesh out the current story. There are casual references to past storylines in the book (Christopher Cantwell’s stellar performance and his focus on Tony Stark’s human foibles were the obvious inspiration for Ackerman’s Iron Man), but they’re used to place Tony characters placed in the background. Those past mistakes haunt him and he is dragged into another cycle where his weapons are used against his will. If some of the broad strokes of this story are familiar to you, it’s done on purpose to trigger the self-destructive cycle that any addiction can bring.
Julius OhtaThe art is outstanding. This piece has a bit of a Marvel feel to it, especially the decorations Alex Sinclair’s color. You can see the influence of Pepe Larraz or Stuart Immonen, with the wide-open panels and bursts of light giving the dramatic images an almost otherworldly glow. I can’t deny the effectiveness of spotlight technology, so there’s nothing to complain about. Despite the seriousness of this issue (fortunately, the script goes easy on imitating Robert Downey Jr.’s quip-per-minute ratio), you can tell these creators are having a lot of fun. They find excuses to don multiple suits of Iron Man armor and use the staple language of superhero comics—slap-in-the-face action—to advance the story. Just like a well-timed song in a musical can heighten the emotion and drama, or teach us something about a character, this issue’s big brawl isn’t perfunctory. They are used to tell us about Tony Stark or his enemies in some way.
Ohta’s work focuses more on realism than cartoonishness, and Sinclair’s color choices achieve the same goal. He renders the world and characters with care, adding depth and texture to the world. Joe Caramagna, VC On letters, his consistently solid and reliable work is what Marvel readers have come to expect.
Iron Man #1 It is a comic that explores the characteristics of Marvel comics. Complex heroes deal with complex problems, reflecting the real world in a grand superhero way. exist Iron Man #1, Ackerman and Ohta present a humanly fragile Tony Stark who battles the familiar, banal evils of our time, inhabited by the larger-than-life Iron Monger and Khajiit. This is a great first issue, and if I could spend Starkbook money on it, it would produce two breakout creators.
judgment: purchase. If you are a waiter, make a reservation now.
Quick consumption
- Avengers #19
- this Jed McKay/CF Villa Avengers Within the run, quite a bit of focus shifts from one artist’s run to another, which helps convey the cyclical nature of 616 Crisis to Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, but when you take the running When viewed as a whole, it can be exhausting and seem aimless – like it’s performing narrative cleaning duties for other Marvel stories to fill in the gaps, but never has the time to do more than make for a light read Or space to do more. bring Farid Karami The stretch from Doom’s first appearance in Avengers is interesting, but McKay’s structure here uses the battle with the rising sandtroopers as anything but “action” to solve the problem, and a tense standoff could have been better. . Also redundant, the issue spends 1/5 of the page making the same point six times in a row, so while this chapter feels better in the deal at $4, it’s buyer’s remorse bait. Aside from the Avengers’ skintight design that permeates the same female body shape and a blatantly incorrectly drawn leg, Karami delivers an unimaginative confrontation that has little to say visually, other than that he can be compared to Design needs from Avengers artists. color artist Federico Bligh Although the atmosphere is less threatening in terms of color, there is good use of monochromatic tones throughout to determine enemy characters. This could be Bly’s decision to hint that Doom is considering a proposal for world domination, but a more menacing aura illuminates the alt-right fascist world Doom dreams up, which would contribute to the issue’s themes, Tension and reading. Corey Pettit, VC endured the carousel of balloon aesthetics required for The Avengers, but failed to design the dialogue for The Impossible City in a way that stood out among the dialogue between white text balloons, especially when When “The Impossible City” is naturally off-panel. It’s filler, but the message is clear: Doom wants to take over the world. But you already knew that. — Bo Q.
- Spider-Man #12
- who is the audience spiderman? Is it for Wednesday’s Warriors? It’s hard to imagine that older Marvel readers would really enjoy a book starring a 10-year-old boy so much. Is this for children? Well, if that’s the case, I can’t imagine a diverse market that’s been trained to read graphic novels turning into a monthly book about the whitest white boy. writer Dan Castle and artist Paco Medina and Eric ArnigaGranted, the artwork is very child-friendly, creating a superhero for a younger generation looking for a hero that truly reflects their world. Who needs another white kid with spider powers when you have Miles Morales and Gwen Stacy? One character in particular, whose only character trait seemed to be that of a superhero, was like the energy of a kid in the theater watching me. Even twelve issues in, Slaughter still seems passionate about letting readers know how beloved Bailey Briggs is. However, the completion of all of this didn’t really endear him to readers, nor did it give him an adventure where he could truly become a hero in his own right without the presence of Marvel guest stars. The only interesting thing Slott does with this issue is invert the previous premise of the book. Initially, no one remembered Spider-Man due to the shenanigans in the Spider-Verse. Everyone remembers him now, but also all the bad guys he pissed off. It’s fun to see this kid face off against someone filled with resentment, but maybe there’s a character that new and old readers will actually want to enjoy? – D. Morris
- X-Men #6
- writer Jed McKay Our mission is to provide the X-Men with the toughest environment possible as they recover from their Alaska headquarters facility. The world is against them, Cassandra Nova and her mysterious team are creating mutants from humans, and now a young mutant is asking for asylum from her paranoid parents. The tone and overall feel of the book so far is familiar, as it follows the high stakes of Krakoa, and the penciller Nesso Diaz, and inker Sean Parsons Maintaining this edge with their textures and detailed lines, from Temper’s hair to the factory’s interior, they are at work. This issue did what it should do, paving the way for events and further expanding the pattern of this era. While constantly promoting the plot, it did not ignore the characters and their development. I am a huge fan of Captain Magic, and she is my favorite Favorite character of the series so far. –GC3
Be sure to join next week as Spider-Man’s creative team bids farewell.
