Iron Man

This post was not intended and I can't seem to delete it. So to add to what I have written below...

The villain of the piece, Ezekiel Stane, grabs the reader's attention. He has all the qualities of a psychopath but does not come across as 2-dimensional. He has quirky humour, a sharp intelligence, insecurities, and egomania. He also demonstrates a real sense of menace. Human life is beneath him. You get a sense that there is no atrocity he would not commit in order to achieve his goals. And that makes him a worthy adversary of Tony Stark. One to watch.

Six variant covers? Really? That's just overkill. Still it's nice to see Quesada do some awesome cover work. And that's the one I went for.

Inside was good looking too. My only quibble was that the colours were slightly off - a little bit too dark and muddy. This approach works very well in Captain America where murky colours match murky intrigue. But here it just doesn't quite work and D'Armata needs to brighten things up a bit.

That aside, the story is excellent. Matt Fraction is currently one of Marvel's best writers. He and Brubaker, along with DC's Morrison and Johns, are the giants of the modern comic industry for very good reason. They write exciting comic books. And this first issue of the Invincible Iron Man is no exception. Fraction makes Stark the narrator of his own book and allows him to tell a story about his five greatest nightmares. This inner monologue gives the story a backbone, and when Stark gets to his last nightmare it converges with the events of the story to chilling effect. It's a great start and I'm likely to come back for more.