Radiant Comics

I’m back from the comic shop this week and I got no new comics nor any collections. Talk about a slow week!

And now for a review of something I’ve read recently.

“The Invincible Iron Man – Stark Disassembled” by Matt Fraction and Salvador Larroca

This is the latest volume of Iron Man from the most current series. I’ve liked the series but not without criticism. Though not really badly done this volume was pretty pointless. That has more to do with plot than execution. That’s because it’s a plot I’ve seen or read plenty of times on TV, in the movies, and in comics. Hackneyed if you will.

For the last two volumes of Iron Man Tony Stark/Iron Man has been slowly erasing his brain in order to keep certain information out of a villain’s hands. Yeah, it’s a dumb idea but I got over it. Now Tony is in a mindless vegetative state. But don’t worry he had a plan. Tony now needs Captain America, Thor, and a few others to reboot his brain from a backup hard drive.

The story plays out like every other tale where someone is near death and everyone gathers around to save them. Tony Stark is in some kind of dream like afterlife that makes no sense as he tries to figure out what’s going on. Meanwhile his buddies are gathered around him trying to save him and one of them (Dr. Strange) has to be his spirit guide. It’s easy to see it all coming.

Person near death – check, friends gathered around – check, person in dreamlike afterlife/limbo – check, spirit guide – check. All the clichés are there. And guess what? He lives in the end. Who would have thought? Just because he’s the star of the book. It was all a little tiresome.

Once again these were well done comics but I found them ultimately pointless. The story wasn’t interesting and it took them five issues to bring Tony Stark back to inevitable life. Five issues. When, I assume, everyone reading knew exactly how things were going to work out in the end. And the journey wasn’t very interesting. Not what I would call exciting plotting.