Superior Iron Man

Tony Stark was never the nicest hero in Marvel. He has done some terrible things, especially during the Civil War. So when his worst aspects get brought out during AXIS, he decides he has to be Superior.

Superior Iron Man was a series written by Tom Taylor which came out in 2015 and ran for 9 issues. Basically, Tony is now the villain of the story while Pepper Potts and a mysterious person are trying to get him back to normal. The previously mentioned worst aspects of Tony return, his alcoholism, his greed and most definitely his ego. To go along with this new attitude he makes himself a shiny new chrome suit, which is powered by a symbiote (because that worked so well for the Iron Rangers.)

I really was on board for this Superior version of Tony and the series is very good, but then the last 3 issues kinda drop the ball. I’ll get back to that later but I wanna talk about the good stuff. First off, Tony’s plan to become rich and famous using the Extremis virus on San Fransisco was evil and genius. He gives people a free trial to make them perfect for a day, but then makes it cost $99.99 so only the rich can pay for it. This leads to the city tearing itself apart as the rich get better and the poor become criminals to try and buy Extremis. His plan is so well planned out not even Daredevil can stop it.

There’s also the introduction to a new character, Teen Abomination. He starts off as a joke villain in the first issue but soon becomes like a son to Tony. There’s an issue dedicated to his origin which is sad, but a little generic. After that he has no real role in the book except to be Tony’s bodyguard. So now we got to the cons. The “dropping the ball” comes in the reveal of Pepper’s accomplice. I won’t spoil it but it is foreshadowed pretty well. So after that the book becomes another Tony vs his own armor type story we’ve seen a bunch of times before. It then ends with no real purpose or climax to the story.

Final Thoughts: If it wasn’t for Secret Wars I think this book could have gone on for longer and gotten even better. Every scene with Daredevil and Tony are fantastic and it makes the book almost worth it just for those. The art is also really good throughout.

Rating: Full Price

Avengers Vs. X-Men

Real life got in the way, doesn’t matter, let’s get on with the review

Avengers vs. X-Men was a Marvel comics event from 2012 written by Brian Michael Bendis, Matt Fraction, Jason Aaron, Ed Brubaker and Jonathan Hickman. The maxi-series spanned 12 issues, with each writer scripting different issues. Having 5 people all working separately on the same book could cause some issues, and sadly that’s what happened here. Let’s get to the plot outline first.

The almighty Phoenix is on it’s way to Earth. Its target is Hope Summers, Cyclops’ daughter from the future. Cyclops wants to keep Hope on Earth to harness the Phoenix to restore the mutant population, while Captain America wants to take Hope away to prevent the Phoenix from destroying Earth. That’s about as much plot as you need before the fists start flying and the cloud of stupid that occurs from the fight prevents any character from doing anything smart or rational. The name “Avengers vs. X-Men” would better be changed to “Cyclops vs. Captain America” as they are the only two characters that the book seems to focus on. Scarlet Witch and Hope are also very important to the story, but I don’t consider them really characters in this book. They’re just plot devices to keep the story going, and the ending with them is telegraphed by the halfway point.

While he is one of the only characters, Captain America is heavily out of character, All he cares about by the end is being right and beating down Cyclops. When a tragic attack is carried out by an X-Man, all Cap cares about is that this is now a war, even though people are dying all around him. Even Black Panther calls him out on this (he does the same thing to Tony but about science and magic.) The worst part is how hard they try to make Cyclops the villain, when he is only shown doing bad things after he is attacked or provoked. There’s no ambiguity by the end about who the villain is supposed to be, which shouldn’t happen in one of these superhero fight books. Having the villain be the more likable person, while the designated heroes are all jerks is like a double screw up.

There are some good parts in it, the second issue springs to mind. It’s the issue where the fight actually starts and there are some good single fights with pretty funny caption boxes. Spider-Man was also awesome in the book, with his crowning moment appearing in issue 9. The designs of the “Phoenix Five” are pretty good, but the characters themselves don’t really have much of a point. There is also another good fight on the Moon in issue 4.

The Phoenix itself seems to have its powers decided at random, where sometimes it is strong enough to keep Wolverine down for a couple hours and then later only for a couple seconds. It keeps him down for a long time when it wasn’t even close to Earth, but can’t keep him down when it’s in its almost purest form. And when one of the Phoenix Five reveals the ability to give legs to whales, he then remembers that whales don’t like land.

Final Thoughts: Huh, that got a little weird near the end. The book after this AVX Consequences and the AVX: VS tie ins are actually really good and I’d highly recommend those over this. This book is also really long, with too much padding and predictable foreshadowing.

Rating: Borrow from a Mate