As Iron Man’s “Director of SHIELD” solo book began winding down, Marvel let Matt Fraction take on their biggest film star. At the time, Fraction was absolutely killing it (pun intended) on Punisher and had completely reinvented Iron Fist. Iron Man’s own solo titles were not all that well (undeservedly, though, given that the Knauf brothers had an excellent run that ended just before this launch), but at the same time Iron Man was Marvel Studio’s biggest hit so…Time for another reboot.
The Iron Man in this book is the Robert Downey Jr. version, not the dude who sold out Captain America and heroism in the recent Civil War. Matt Fraction orients us to this fairly major character adjustment using “five nightmares,” i.e., the things Tony is most scared of. Each of them to some extent comes true across the story.
The five nightmares are: His own alcoholism. The Iron Man tech becoming cheaper and easier for others to copy or reproduce. Or worse, his tech becoming obsolete or unneeded. Losing his own control/identity to someone else. And, finally, after losing the armor or having it become obsolete, some other inventor creating the Next Big Thing.
Enter the villain, who is the son of the movie villain: Ezekiel Stane. He’s got his own version of Extremis armor.
Oh, and he’s dating Sasha Hammer–granddaughter of technologist and Stark enemy Justin Hammer.
Stane starts causing acts of terror across the globe (he started down this path in the criminally forgotten and underrated series, The Order, also by Fraction)–and to do it, he uses kamikazes in Iron Man(ish) suits.
Investigating the crimes, Iron Man finds an old A.I.M. facility and…
MODOG! Mental Organism Designed Only for Genocide.
I mean, that alone makes this an A+ story, doesn’t it?
After being pushed to his limits and “killed” by Stane, Tony Stark eventually wins by using brains over brawn, but his company is destroyed. Pepper Potts is nearly killed as well, and must have tech permanently implanted in her chest–just like Tony.
Issue #7 closes the story out, with a Spider-Man guest appearance, where both of them together take down Big Wheel–who has been souped up via Stane tech.
English (US) · 