Invincible Iron Man #11

[selenak]

In which Matt Fraction shamelessly fanboys one particular aspect of the Iron Man movie and also illustrates why it simultanously sucks and is great to be friends with Tony Stark. Most importantly, it features Henry Hellrung.



I haven't written about it after the initial issue, but I'm really enjoying the whole Tony-on-the-run arc. For many reasons, not least because while on the one hand the situation couldn't get worse for Tony (what with his company in ruins, SHIELD taken over by HAMMER, being framed for the entire Skrull Invasion and having Norman Osborn out to get him), on the other this arc emphasis that he does have friends he can count on, post-Civil War. As likeadeuce once said to me, Fraction is probably the first writer to come up with in depth characterisation for Maria Hill and give her such a prominent role. Brian Bendis gave her a really interesting scene in the Road to Civil War where her argument with Tony about superhero accountability lays the ground for much of what's to come, but most writers during Civil War just used her as boo-hiss woman symbolizing the evils of the Superhuman Registration Act; then the Knaufs made her, like the later-to-be-revealed-as-a-Skrull Dugan, a part of SHIELD who comes around to having a good working relationship with Tony Stark despite starting out hostile; then Bendis gave her some great scenes during Skrull Invasion, notably her showdown with Skrull!Jarvis. But Fraction promoted her from minor supporting player to one of the three main characters of the current arc, and it really works for me. To be honest, so far I find her scenes more interesting than the ones with Pepper, though it cracks me up in the most approving way that Fraction used the whole "Tony built an armor for Pepper" plot to incorporate AI!Jarvis into the comicverse. He must have really liked movieverse Jarvis. (Well, who didn't?) Still, Maria doing all the secret agent stuff of infiltrating and blowing up facilities, and making mysterious discoveries which I really want to know more about - when's the next issue out again? - so far beats Pepper-gets-her-own-armor.

Of course, if you've read The Order, the highlight of the issue is neither subplot but Tony, mid-being-on-the-run, deciding to visit Los Angeles and his old friend/AA sponsor/another example of Tony Stark's penchant for making his friends into superheroes if they aren't alread/ much put upon employee Henry Hellrung. Basically to get a hug, and say not quite sorry and not quite goodbye, but a little bit of either, hand out advise how to deal with imminent arrest and leave two million dollars. This naturally causes Henry to have flashbacks and enlist Jim Rhodes in order to provide Tony with some help. It also is a way to demonstrate this particular friendship isn't just one-sided (or, err, limited to cancelled spin-offs). And in a few panels, captures much of what they see in each other, respectively.

The "let's fight for Osborn's benefit, otherwise he'll be after you, too" action sequence with Rhodey was a good way to reintroduce the character to new readers, and because it was about character, I enjoyed it way more than I usually do fight scenes. Whether or not this will work as an alibi is another question. And for dessert, we get another Fraction speciality (see The Order, see Uncanny X-Men): once more, with Namor! Given the accumulated backstory and Fraction's proven ability to write great Namor scenes, I'm really looking forward to that particular encounter.

In conclusion: where's the fanfic about how Henry faces down Norman Osborn?

Comments

[likeadeuce.livejournal.com]

It's interesting that we're apparently meant to take it that Henry is still part of the Order, and thus under HAMMER in some capacity or other. I have a feeling that Fraction has written fanfiction developed his own ideas about how this works, but it seems like Henry must either have some kind of leverage or managed to convince HAMMER he doesn't know anything.

You know what else is interesting about the Henry-Tony scene? Henry has powers. Tony, sans extremis, doesn't. Conceivably, Henry could decide that the best thing for everybody is to turn Tony in -- or keep him around and talk some sense into him -- zapped him with lightning bolts and otherwise overpowered him. But it doesn't seem to occur to Tony that Henry would do that, or to Henry to use it as leverage.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

It's interesting that we're apparently meant to take it that Henry is still part of the Order, and thus under HAMMER in some capacity or other.

I thought the phrasing "take care of your people" was ambigous - it could mean "your people" as in the rest of the surviving Order, or the people Henry is responsible for at AA. Otoh, Tony mentions Henry's powers in the present tense, and presumably, if Henry was out of the Order, he'd have been given the counter drug.

Powers and the lack of use of same: hm, yes, and it’s a good contrast to the Rhodey encounter and mutual assumptions later. It also strikes me that with Maria and Pepper, Tony strikes an in-charge attitude – you have to do this, and then I’ll do that, and here’s the plan and of course I know what I’m doing etc. – whereas with Henry he’s letting his guard down, so to speak, with that “I don’t know whether I’ll ever be able to attend a meeting again” phrasing, and the hug. And of course meeting Henry at this specific place invokes a very different context to their meetings during “The Order” – because AA is the one point where Henry has the experience and the superiority. The trust that comes with admitting what you are, etc.

[resolute.livejournal.com]

Oooh, good points, both of you -- that Henry DID have his powers, there. It didn't occur to me -- not once in the scene -- that Henry had any power in the situation.

Poor Henry.