Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews
Invincible Iron Man #1
Marvel Comics
Bendis, Marquez & Pnsor
"Invincible Iron Man" launches with a fairly character-driven story. For the most part, its a by-the-numbers Iron Man-like first offering. The reader gets an introduction to Tony's mindset as he constructs some new armor. He lets out some of his thoughts to the latest Artificial Intelligence helper before interacting with other characters with his stereotypical facade. The book ends with a nice twist that should help push this story in a couple of different directions. I enjoyed the read and felt this was a good first issue. I recommend checking this out.
Bendis provides a tame Tony Stark. For the most part, the characterization is one that makes Stark seem almost humble when he's alone (with his A.I.) and the tone makes him seem like he's aware of his flaws and is a little guarded against showing them too much. He creates some new armor but this is only grazed as a story element as Bendis steers clear of technology talk.
The book moves through Stark on a date, who has a very interesting revelation, as well as provides a means for Bendis to do what he does best: snarky dialogue. While this is occurring, a Stark villain is making moves as it appears to be building towards a confrontation. The comic has a nice pace and definitely teases a lot of interesting plots. However, the cliffhanger comes out of nowhere and kind of tramples the rest of the book. That might not be a bad thing.
The artwork is very, very good. The page layouts stretch across two pages multiple times, but not by presenting a ton of splash pages. Visually the comic book looks great but really excels at some of the smaller moments, particularly when the story calls for humor. This is a good companion to the story and without much action that is a strong testament to the art team.
"Invincible Iron Man" launches with a character focused issue. The reader gets a nice introduction into Stark's current mindset. The book doesn't launch any big plot, but instead gives the reader small scenes that could come together later as a part of a bigger story. The comic gives a great cliffhanger to help bring the reader back. The artwork is the highlight of the book as the pencils, colors and layouts all come together to tell a great visual story. Fans of the character will be pleased at what they find here and newcomers might find enough to continue on with the title. This is worth checking out.
4 out of 5 Geek Goggles
