Good Start + Good Art
Well I'm quite suprised that nobody else had posted a review for this comic so far. I thought this would be crawling with reviews by the time I arrived. But go figure, my presumption was wrong. Therefore, before I begin my review I just want to announce that anybody who reviews this comic subsequently to myself can suck it! Ha ha ha...
Anyway, I have just digressed to the point of no return. It's time for me to talk about Invincible Iron Man #8.
For those of you who don't know, this is the first issue to kick off the whopping 12 issue arc "Worlds Most Wanted" which essentially tracks Iron Man through the entirety of the Dark Reign event. Now I just want to establish something. I have not read this comic series in a while. If you read my review of the previous issue and look at the date you'll be like "OMG WTF!?!". Well I have been sort of behind on my reading, so bear with me.
Let me just say that the art here is fantastic. After being away from this series for a while, I forgot about how wonderful Salvador Larrocca's art is. He's recieved a lot of criticism. A lot of people do not like his art. I don't know if people think it just looks too realistic or if it just has too much detail, but frankly, realism is what I go for. I know that some people are sort of freaked out by realistic art, but I actually dig it. So yeah, the art here is fantastic. Salvador has really improved as the series has progressed. I'm looking forward to more depictions of Norman, who he happens to draw particularly well.
As for the story, well that's good too. Hot off the trail of issue 7, which was fantastic, we see a totally different tone here. Where as issue 7 was a happy fun story with some comedy sprinkled in for extra measure, we get a pretty sadder story here. What amazes me though is how the writer, Matt Fraction, manages to make the characters joke around and have fun even in the face of complete loss.
Tony has lost everything. Maria has lost everything. Yet, we see them joking and talking to each other in cheerful manners. Fraction can capture the severity of their conflicts while still dishing in some cheerfulness for good measure. That's a true sign of a nifty writer.
My one biggest complaint is perhaps that this new arc just sort of came about really quickly. I know the Dark Reign event sort of arrived out of the blue as well, but the fact that in one issue Tony's the head dog and in the next he's nothing, is really sort of weird. It makes you think you've missed something. What I would have liked to see is an issue that takes place pretty much right at the end of Secret Invasion which explains this transition better. For me, it was just too sudden and it was sorta' weird. One day Tony's king of the world. The next, he's got nothing. It shouldn't have been such a fast change. But that's just my opinion.
To summerize my thoughts here, this issue is good. I enjoyed reading it, if that helps. It was cool to see Stark pulling the biggest "I'm better than you" move on Norman and it was cool to see how pissy Norman got afterwards. Moments like these just make the story exciting. I like Matt Fraction's writing. As I said earlier, he can make his characters joke and smile even in the face of horrible circumstances. I like that and I think this is a good issue.
Story - 9/10
Art - 8.5/10