Iron Man #14 (Marvel)

Rating: 3/5 – Iron Man gets a little polish

The Secret Origin of Tony Stark.  Upon seeing this new story, I was very skeptical.  You see, I’m a very big Iron Man fan.  I tend to like a lot more than I probably should regarding the character.  But I did not even want to give this a chance.  I am very opposed to this idea of adding depth to character origins.  Bruce Wayne became Batman because his parents were killed.  Superman is an alien from a dead world brought up right.  Spider-Man was given a motto from his Uncle whom he allowed die.  And Tony Stark is a billionaire playboy who was raised with money and brains.

Why we feel the need to add an outer space aspect to his origin just does not make sense.  Iron Man has never been an extra-terrestrial superhero.  He is not street level but besides fighting with the Avengers, there is no need to him to be in space at any time.  Unfortunately Marvel decided to attach him to the Guardians of the Galaxy and thus we get this space adventure.

The story began slowly with Howard Stark trying to find a way to have a baby.  He enlists the help of a Recorder, given the number 451, and with a group of unlikely allies, he succeeds.  What we later find is that 451 had plans of his own for Tony all along.  Now they are coming to a head.

A giant robot called the Godkiller was created as a Celestial killer.  And Tony is supposed to be the pilot.  However, Tony really does not want to.  So this issue, we see Tony on the run from 451 who has control over machinery, and the well known bounty hunter, Death’s Head.

This issue is actually very fun to read.  The problem again: Tony is in space.  I’m still not sold on the idea but Kieron Gillen is making it very hard to stay upset.  Death’s Head alone was a good draw.  But now that we are past the backstory and seeing the payoff, it’s quite good.  What 451 does to get Tony to finally come around to his destiny was just inhuman and astounding.

Read collectively this whole story will probably be pretty fun.  It has a slow burn in the beginning but this issue and the last are actually quite good.  Tony’s space armor looks awful no matter who is drawing it but Land is doing a very good job with the rest.  He cannot use photo references on Death’s Head or 451 so they are coming straight from his hand.  Even Tony’s expressions are not obviously pulled from other media.

If you want to jump into Iron Man, this is not the issue, or even the arc.  However, if you want a fun space adventure with a well known hero out of his element, this is probably up your alley.

Reviewed by: Chris Stark – chris@comicspectrum.com
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