johnferrigno
05-12-2009, 05:15 AM
I have been reading iron man comics for a really long time. I am 30 years old now, and have been reading iron Man since i was about 5 years old. Some of my favorite stories ever were found in the pages of Invincible Iron Man.
One Christmas, one of my gifts was a huge box of Iron man comics. My father went to the local comic shop and bought every Iron man comic they had in stock and gave it to me. it was probably the best gift i ever got. And there were a TON of great stories in there. From around issue 100 well into the 270, Iron man was VERY consistent tile. Not all of the stories were great, but i rarely read a bad issue of the book, and believe me, i read a lot of them. It's one of the main reasons Iron Man is one of my all time favorite characters. Month after month, year after year, that title delivered.
things took a turn for the worse in the 90s, like it did with most titles. Storylines got bad, and all anyone cared about was how much stuff they could stick on the armor. Tony Stark got replaced with some weird teenage version of himself. it was dark days for the Golden Avenger.
But things started to pick up recently. Warren Ellis' re-imagining of the character was fantastic. The stories that followed were fairly decent. A lot of people complained about Stark during the Civil War, saying he was "out of character." I never really found that myself, but i DO admit that the book wasn't quite as good.
Things picked up with a pretty good Mandarin storyline. And then, when the movie hit, they launched a new volume of Invincible Iron man with Matt Fraction writing the new stories.
I have been reading this title the whole time, and as i read this most current issue, it kind of hit me: With no advance advertising and with zero fanfare, Invincible Iron man has kind of become a great comic. It's not getting a lot of attention and it has really zero hype behind it, but this book is everything I want in an Iron Man title:
-Tony Stark isn't some insanely powerful hero anymore. I think it was a good idea to scale him back and make him out-think his opponents, rather than out-power them.
-Making Stark a fugitive is a really cool idea and I love to see what he does to escape Osbourne each month.
-Pepper Potts is once again front and center, where she belongs. In the 70s and 80s, Iron man had a great supporting cast. They all vanished in the 90s, and it's nice to see Pepper coming back into the fold.
-Some classic, old-school Iron man villains are coming back! he tangled with Namor recently. And then the Controller shows up! I freaking LOVE the Controller! Why is this guy never used?
-Fraction did something not even Brian Michael Bendis was able to do (and make no mistake about it, i love me some Bendis.) He actually made me care about Maria Hill. I think she's a great addition to the Iron Man book. The way Fraction is writing her, she's almost like a female version of Spymaster (another classic iron man villain who needs to come back), but with a backstory and on the side of the good guys.
I am totally loving this book. it's a great mix of the new style of story telling mixed in with the old-school type stuff that made Iron man great back in the 70s and 80s.
Every month i get this book and don't know what to expect, but in a good way. I feel like Iron man has entered the type of run that people are going to look back on years from now and say "That was one great time to be reading that book."
Do any other long time fans of Iron Man agree with me? Or am I the only one loving this title these days?
And if you aren't reading Iron Man, hop on board! You're missing out.
One Christmas, one of my gifts was a huge box of Iron man comics. My father went to the local comic shop and bought every Iron man comic they had in stock and gave it to me. it was probably the best gift i ever got. And there were a TON of great stories in there. From around issue 100 well into the 270, Iron man was VERY consistent tile. Not all of the stories were great, but i rarely read a bad issue of the book, and believe me, i read a lot of them. It's one of the main reasons Iron Man is one of my all time favorite characters. Month after month, year after year, that title delivered.
things took a turn for the worse in the 90s, like it did with most titles. Storylines got bad, and all anyone cared about was how much stuff they could stick on the armor. Tony Stark got replaced with some weird teenage version of himself. it was dark days for the Golden Avenger.
But things started to pick up recently. Warren Ellis' re-imagining of the character was fantastic. The stories that followed were fairly decent. A lot of people complained about Stark during the Civil War, saying he was "out of character." I never really found that myself, but i DO admit that the book wasn't quite as good.
Things picked up with a pretty good Mandarin storyline. And then, when the movie hit, they launched a new volume of Invincible Iron man with Matt Fraction writing the new stories.
I have been reading this title the whole time, and as i read this most current issue, it kind of hit me: With no advance advertising and with zero fanfare, Invincible Iron man has kind of become a great comic. It's not getting a lot of attention and it has really zero hype behind it, but this book is everything I want in an Iron Man title:
-Tony Stark isn't some insanely powerful hero anymore. I think it was a good idea to scale him back and make him out-think his opponents, rather than out-power them.
-Making Stark a fugitive is a really cool idea and I love to see what he does to escape Osbourne each month.
-Pepper Potts is once again front and center, where she belongs. In the 70s and 80s, Iron man had a great supporting cast. They all vanished in the 90s, and it's nice to see Pepper coming back into the fold.
-Some classic, old-school Iron man villains are coming back! he tangled with Namor recently. And then the Controller shows up! I freaking LOVE the Controller! Why is this guy never used?
-Fraction did something not even Brian Michael Bendis was able to do (and make no mistake about it, i love me some Bendis.) He actually made me care about Maria Hill. I think she's a great addition to the Iron Man book. The way Fraction is writing her, she's almost like a female version of Spymaster (another classic iron man villain who needs to come back), but with a backstory and on the side of the good guys.
I am totally loving this book. it's a great mix of the new style of story telling mixed in with the old-school type stuff that made Iron man great back in the 70s and 80s.
Every month i get this book and don't know what to expect, but in a good way. I feel like Iron man has entered the type of run that people are going to look back on years from now and say "That was one great time to be reading that book."
Do any other long time fans of Iron Man agree with me? Or am I the only one loving this title these days?
And if you aren't reading Iron Man, hop on board! You're missing out.