Heh, that's Iron Man for ya! Now that we're done diverging from the topic at hand, let's head on to the comic review!
The Invincible Iron Man #22
Written By: Matt Fraction
Illustrated By: Salvador Larraca
Tony Stark, aka the Invincible Iron Man, is not out of the woods yet. Even with his comrades by his side and utilizing the combined power of Captain America's shield and Thor's hammer, the once brilliant industrialist remains comatose, unresponsive to the "shock treatment" that he himself formulated beforehand. With all options seemingly exhausted, Donald Blake decides to turn to the one man whose expertise could bring Tony back from the brink - the former sorcerer supreme, Dr. Stephen Strange. However, time is running short for Tony and his friends, as the transparent villain known as the Ghost arrives and prepares to strike the crippled hero at his weakest. Journeying inside the mind of a broken man, can Dr. Strange find Stark, and if he does, is Tony willing to come back?
By all counts, Tony Stark is in worse shit than he has been all his life, and I'm liking the pacing as we're continuing this megatonic and fantastic series by writer Matt Fraction and artist Salvador Larraca. Last issue showed that Tony Stark thinks of everything when the situation gets grim, and he even had a back up plan prepared for his friends to enact should he fall into a state of brain death, which he did during the events of World's Most Wanted. Despite all the careful planning and smarts, however, Tony Stark is still a human being - 50% of the recovery relies on outside and medical assistance, while the remaining percentage relies on his determination and sheer willpower to pull through, and that my friends is the question indeed. Two issues ago, Fraction began a parallel segment that details a parallel segment in Stark's mind, in which the guy is seemingly lost and confused in a desert excavation world full of robot monstrosities and avatars of his parents that represent courage and reason. Tony's fragmented state of mind leads one to consider how a man such as he can possibly get out of this and go back to the way he was. On the real world, Mjolnir's lightning has failed to revive him, placing all hopes on Dr. Strange to pay a visit to Tony's head and help him get "back online". Like I said, the pacing is great, and Fraction's right on his A-game with Iron Man here.
The art also plays an important role in conveying emotion, intensity, and action through all pages of the issue. There would be no consistency is Matt Fraction didn't have Salvador Larraca onboard as artist, and he plays well into delivering those awesome segments that show just how much of an asset he is to the Invincible Iron Man series, especially Star Disassembled. When it comes to human figures, he can draw them pretty well, especially the female characters involved. I find no reason to question Laracca's art, and his armor based drawings go so far as to show great outline and detailing from head to toe. I wouldn't mind seeing these two stick around with the book for some time to come, and they work out pretty mean stories to boot.
At this point, if you haven't come around to reading Invincible Iron Man and Stark: Disassembled, do a little backtracking and pick up the first few books to get a full grasp of the situation before breezing through this issue. It's already proving to be a bestselling title among Marvel's numbers, and with the build up coming to Iron Man 2 in theaters and the Heroic Age in comics, I see no other comic to read if you're looking for all things about ol' shellhead. There are two more issues to go before everything wraps up, and how Tony Stark comes out of this we won't know til the end. All I know is he's getting a brand new armor, and the Iron Man legacy will enter a new stage after all this and Siege is said and done.
Score - 10/10
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