This is a review of Marvel Masterworks: The Invincible Iron Man Vol. 3. Note: this volume contains Iron Man and Captain America stories, but I only read the Iron Man material. You can peruse my reviews of the first two volumes here and here.
Iron Man is Tony Stark, multi-millionaire. Tony makes weapons for SHIELD and the U.S. Defense Department. Since he hails from the Marvel Universe, there’s a catch. Stark’s heart was damaged in Vietnam, and now he’s living on borrowed time. The only thing keeping him alive is the plate welded onto his chest, which he must charge whenever there’s an emergency or a supervillain appears.
The art – mostly by Don Heck and Gene Colan – is good. The stories are – well, they’re a mixed bag. No more Mr. Doll, which is a shame. Instead we have The Titanium Man, a big burly Russian who builds a big burly green suit of armor. TM challenges Iron Man to a battle royale, mano a mano, East vs. West – just like that exciting Rocky movie, which I’ve never seen! (Confession: I’ve never seen any of the Rocky movies).
Iron Man triumphs, but only after his chauffer Happy Hogan is almost killed bringing Shell-Head the MacGuffin, an object so integral to Tony’s battle with Titanium Man that he left it behind on his coffee table. Luckily, Happy is saved by the Enervator, which has the unfortunate side-effect of transforming him into an enormous hulking freak of nature. Hey, it happens.
After that, warlord and racist caricature The Mandarin stops by to test his enormous android, Ultimo, against Iron Man. And then the Sub-Mariner attacks! Lots of action, no let up. The problem being, the stories all start to blend together. There are a few points during the Sub-Mariner storyline where the creators forget their own plot points and contradict themselves, but I’d have trouble remembering it all also.
Iron Man started out as a propaganda war comic, and this volume possesses some of these elements. Stark’s main antagonist is Senator Byrd, a dedicated public servant who manages to shut down Stark Enterprises, because reasons. Actually, Byrd’s reasons aren’t bad – Mark Millar’s Civil War, penned decades later, riffs off this.
Nowadays, Iron Man is viewed as a semi-problematic character, depending on who writes him. He’s a millionaire. When you look up ‘capitalist’ in the dictionary there’s a picture of him next to the Monopoly guy. He’s good looking and assumedly gets all the sex he wants. He’s had substance abuse issues with alcohol and he’s the main villain in the first Civil War.
If you’re an Iron Man fan or completist, you might like this.
Abandoned Places 