Invincible Iron Man #8
Dec. 20th, 2008 10:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakFriends are people who hand over American comics to needy Europeans. Having friends, I've now read Invincible Iron Man #8, aka The One After Secret Invasion Which Starts The Most Wanted Storyline, and I have to say, it's a blast.
One of the pleasure of con and heist movies: sooner or later, there is, almost inevitably, a scene in which Our Hero seems to be totally humiliated, screwed over and at his lowest, deserted by his friends, with the villain gloating - and then the villain and the audience find out that actually Our Hero has secretly set up a scheme which ensures the one being screwed over here is the villain, while our guy, with some help by his not so absent friends, takes the good and runs. To get the full effect out of it, you must play fair by character. In The Sting, it's unlikely, but not impossible that Redford's character gives in to the villain and screws over Newman's, because the odds are just so overwhelming and the villain that dangerous. However, if you pay attention, the double bluff - that actually Redford and Newman are still in cahoots, and running a second set-up for the villain - is signalled as well. Fraction does something similar here. It's not that Tony is faking feeling depressed and guilty at the start. He does. But feeling depressed and guilty never resulted in passive acceptance before, plus here you have a character whose technological savvy is a quintessential trait and who, in Armor Wars, went to considerable illegal lengths to prevent his tech being used for means he doesn't approve of, so the fact he used his day of humiliation and checking out procedures to pinch the Superhuman Registration Database and set up a virus program in the new H.A.M.M.E.R. computers (that doesn't affect every day stuff but everything which requires a code clearance) feels absolutely right. Plus it screws Norman Osborn over, which as Pepper points out is iuvenile, but as Tony says both fun and necessary.
(I could quarrel with the likelihood of there being just one copy of the Superhuman Registration Database before Tony downloads it into himself (which thanks to the changes Extremis wrought in his body, he can) and wipes it from what used to be SHIELD's computers, but then again, it doesn't break comics plausability and actually fits with Casualties of War and the Tony and Steve argument about the danger of everyone being on file there.)
Other aspects to enjoy: the current on the run team itself. Maria Hill is probably the one character getting more hostility for her actions in Civil War from most comic readers than Tony Stark does (she doesn't have the benefit of getting a movie to boost her popularity again), but the Knaufs in their last arc of Director of SHIELD, Bendis in Secret Invasion and Fraction now have all written her as dedicated to the world-saving business (her showdown with Skrull!Jarvis was a beautiful thing), her relationship with Tony changing from mutual dislike but allies by necessity to growing respect. So I'm happy she's not getting written out but on the contrary goes on the run with him. (Tony and no-nonsense military people who aren't exactly fans of each other are a combination for which I have a soft spot.) It's also a contrast to Tony and Pepper, who do have a close relationship (with UST) of many years standing, but one that's currently more convoluted than ever now that Tony saved Pepper's life by literally changing her into another meta.
Trivia: when Norman Osborn triggered the virus by trying to open the Superhuman Registration Database, looking up Spider-man first, I thought "but hasn't he found out two or three times already...?", but then I remembered The Giant Retcon Of Doom over at Spider-man. Which evidently means that Norman along with the rest of the world has forgotten the Peter Parker/Spider-man identity yet again. A retconned villain's lot is not an easy one.
The (red) flying car cracked me up. Fraction does have fun with displaying Tony's juvenile/playful side along with the serious stuff.
One of the pleasure of con and heist movies: sooner or later, there is, almost inevitably, a scene in which Our Hero seems to be totally humiliated, screwed over and at his lowest, deserted by his friends, with the villain gloating - and then the villain and the audience find out that actually Our Hero has secretly set up a scheme which ensures the one being screwed over here is the villain, while our guy, with some help by his not so absent friends, takes the good and runs. To get the full effect out of it, you must play fair by character. In The Sting, it's unlikely, but not impossible that Redford's character gives in to the villain and screws over Newman's, because the odds are just so overwhelming and the villain that dangerous. However, if you pay attention, the double bluff - that actually Redford and Newman are still in cahoots, and running a second set-up for the villain - is signalled as well. Fraction does something similar here. It's not that Tony is faking feeling depressed and guilty at the start. He does. But feeling depressed and guilty never resulted in passive acceptance before, plus here you have a character whose technological savvy is a quintessential trait and who, in Armor Wars, went to considerable illegal lengths to prevent his tech being used for means he doesn't approve of, so the fact he used his day of humiliation and checking out procedures to pinch the Superhuman Registration Database and set up a virus program in the new H.A.M.M.E.R. computers (that doesn't affect every day stuff but everything which requires a code clearance) feels absolutely right. Plus it screws Norman Osborn over, which as Pepper points out is iuvenile, but as Tony says both fun and necessary.
(I could quarrel with the likelihood of there being just one copy of the Superhuman Registration Database before Tony downloads it into himself (which thanks to the changes Extremis wrought in his body, he can) and wipes it from what used to be SHIELD's computers, but then again, it doesn't break comics plausability and actually fits with Casualties of War and the Tony and Steve argument about the danger of everyone being on file there.)
Other aspects to enjoy: the current on the run team itself. Maria Hill is probably the one character getting more hostility for her actions in Civil War from most comic readers than Tony Stark does (she doesn't have the benefit of getting a movie to boost her popularity again), but the Knaufs in their last arc of Director of SHIELD, Bendis in Secret Invasion and Fraction now have all written her as dedicated to the world-saving business (her showdown with Skrull!Jarvis was a beautiful thing), her relationship with Tony changing from mutual dislike but allies by necessity to growing respect. So I'm happy she's not getting written out but on the contrary goes on the run with him. (Tony and no-nonsense military people who aren't exactly fans of each other are a combination for which I have a soft spot.) It's also a contrast to Tony and Pepper, who do have a close relationship (with UST) of many years standing, but one that's currently more convoluted than ever now that Tony saved Pepper's life by literally changing her into another meta.
Trivia: when Norman Osborn triggered the virus by trying to open the Superhuman Registration Database, looking up Spider-man first, I thought "but hasn't he found out two or three times already...?", but then I remembered The Giant Retcon Of Doom over at Spider-man. Which evidently means that Norman along with the rest of the world has forgotten the Peter Parker/Spider-man identity yet again. A retconned villain's lot is not an easy one.
The (red) flying car cracked me up. Fraction does have fun with displaying Tony's juvenile/playful side along with the serious stuff.
