I respect what Matt Fraction is trying to do in Invincible Iron Man, I really do. I love that he has managed to bring Tony Stark back from being one of the most hated characters in comics and establish as a hero again. I also love that he’s finally been able to add some much needed personality into Tony’s supporting cast and that he’s working to expand that cast at the same time. I even really like the idea of the new Stark Resilient company and it’s goals, yet for the past few months, I have been so bored with this series.
I recognize and even appreciate that the focus of this story arc is not Iron Man fighting a villain in an epic showdown, but it is just moving too damn slow. This isn’t even me just saying that there is too little action going on, it just feels like the story barely inches forward each issue. I want to see something actually happen. It doesn’t have to be a huge battle, but it’s about time we actually got somewhere and saw whether or not Stark Resilient could succeed and just what exactly the Hammer family is up to. I’d also really like all the female characters to stop being so annoying. They all come off as really grating to me, especially Pepper. Her constant whining about own Iron Man (sorry, Rescue) suit was not endearing and just turned me off. All that being said, that doesn’t mean there aren’t interesting parts to this issue. There’s a new twist shown in the Pepper and Tony relationship that makes sense and is an effective to create drama naturally. I’m also really beginning to take a shine to all of Tony’s new employees, even if they don’t get much time this issue. They all ave really human reactions to the things going on around them and it makes them much more interesting for it. I hope they stick around for the long haul and get some more screen time.
Despite the slowness of the story, easily the biggest problem remains artist Salvador Larocca. It pains me to say this as there was a period in my life where I counted Larocca as my favorite artist from any comic book company. He really had a knack for clean characters and great action, but here he just keeps getting worse and worse. His characters sometimes barely look human and all look downright ugly. Also, I know this had been mentioned plenty elsewhere, but his tracing of celebrities faces for his characters is so painfully obvious and only hurts the art that much more. Colorist Frank D’Armata only makes things worse too. His colors make everyone look really muddy, like he water colored them and all the colors ran together or something and he adds far too much shadowing that doesn’t look even remotely natural. I’m honestly not sure if there would be any answer to this short of replacing the whole art team, though Marvel seems to want them for the long haul. It’s really sad to see such a talented artist fall so far.
I would still argue that Invincible Iron Man is a good book. It may be slow, but Fraction clearly has places he plans to go and many of the ideas he’s had have been really great. If he could pick up the pace and just make this a little more interesting from month to month, he’d be in great shape. It says something for Fraction that despite all of the problems I’ve listed here, I still come back for every issue and probably will for a while. He is good plotter and he just needs to make everything get to where he wants it in a more interesting fashion. For anyone that’s interested in starting on this series, I would, without a doubt, say to wait for the trade as it is almost guaranteed to read better in that format. Also, I want the old Salvador Larocca back.
Overall: 6.1/10
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