Broken Frontier

In Invincible Iron Man #3, Tony Stark must deal with the aftermath of the building explosion—orchestrated by Ezekiel Stane—from the previous issue. The first issues were used to set up the conflict between Stark and Stane, and as such the pacing has been a little slow. If issue #3 is any indication, though, there's going to be a confrontation between the two characters sooner rather than later.

I had the pleasure of meeting Matt Fraction at Heroes Con this year, and one of the things we talked about was his work on Invincible Iron Man. I'm paraphrasing, but he said something along the lines of the following: "Tony Stark has made mistakes. Remember, Stark used to be an arms dealer! Stark has a history, one that's full of wrong moves and bad decisions, and Ezekiel Stane is a physical representation of all those bad decisions coming back to haunt him." I think that's a powerful statement, especially in light of the specific actions that Stane has taken to get to where he's at.

Marvel readers could be witnessing the beginning of Iron Man's very own doppelganger-like enemy. In fact, Ezekiel Stane is not unlike Venom: both use an improved version of their enemy's powers and both know their enemy's past and weaknesses.

All praise notwithstanding, this issue isn't without its flaws. First, there's a flashback sequence where Stark provides Pepper with an overview of Obadiah Stane's childhood, something that seems odd considering that Obadiah was older than Tony and probably guarded his past closely. Some of the childhood events that Stark describes are a bit too over the top for my taste; they only served to distract me from the authenticity of the rest of the story.

Secondly, there's a scene where readers are introduced to remote-controlled suits of armor that are controlled by morbidly obese Chinese men, men who say things like "noob" in Chinese and are eating pizza. Not only does this prove that Matt Fraction watches South Park, but it also distracts readers from the main story.

There are one or two startling revelations that unfold in Invincible Iron Man #3. Specifically, there's one that sets up the possibility—albeit slight—of Fraction creating his own version of the Armor Wars. It'll be interesting to see if he explores this further in later issues or if it's just something he threw in to make fans salivate.

Either way, Invincible Iron Man has been an exciting read so far, and if anything the excitement and suspense is only going to continue building in issues to come.