This is an example of how to not judge a book by its cover. I've been sitting on this book for probably 5 years now. It came in a Comic Book Bento Box as a gift from my bride. (Remember CBBB? They're were a graphic novel grab bag subscription service that was so fun to get in the mail each month. Now defunct. Long may it rest...) I had just finished a volume of Iron Man where Tony's brother Arno Stark was set to take on the mantle of Iron Man, when I received this book. I wasn't all that thrilled with Arno and thinking this book was chronicling his adventures, I waited to read it.
I couldn't have been more wrong in my assessment.
Superior Iron Man, Volume 1 takes place immediately after the events of AXIS. For those of you not familiar with Marvel's 2014's crossover event, AXIS was the Freaky Friday storyline where good guys became villains and villains became heroes due to the meddling of the Red Skull. When everybody went back to their normal selves, something went wrong with Tony Stark, screwing up his moral compass.
So imagine what the billionaire playboy would have become if he never got injured from a land mine and had his life saved by Professor Yinsen. What we have at the beginning of Superior Iron Man is a hedonistic, unrepentant alcoholic Tony Stark intent on imposing his own personal Utopia upon the world. To change the world in his own image, Tony has set up base in San Francisco. He just released his latest version of Extremis as an app which turns users into Kardashian-like versions of themselves. There's a hitch to this however. Tony offered Extremis 3.0 as a trial. Now reverted back to their imperfect selves, the citizens of San Francisco must pay an exorbitant fee daily to feed their addiction to perfection.
I really loved this book. I devoured it in about an hour. Add Daredevil, She-Hulk, Pepper Potts and an all-new villain to the mix and I was hooked. Amoral Tony Stark. It's a brilliant experiment that left me reeling because I don't have volume 2!
I'm going to rate this book with a perfect score. However there was a continuity error that just stuck in my crawl. Towards the beginning of the book, Stark hosts this big event for Extremis 3.0 on Castro Street. However an issue later, Matt Murdock, fully into his internal dialogue says that the event happened on Canton Street. Just so you know, I researched and there isn't a Canton Street in the City by the Bay.
Castro Street in San Francisco is a historic area known for Harvey Milk and the fight for gay rights. Could writer Tom Taylor have received some flak from fans for setting that scene at such an iconic locale, that Marvel had to retcon things? If so, why didn't they change the name of the scene for this trade? I can see where having Tony Stark offer the people of San Francisco a way to change themselves into what they've always dreamed of being set on Castro Street as being perceived insensitive to the struggle of the LGBT+ community. I'm just flummoxed over the nit and I want to know more about the mistake.
The artwork by Yildiray Cinar and Laura Braga was amazing. One of the best sets of Iron Man armor ever!
Be on the lookout for the Full House Easter egg tribute! So clever!
Worth Consuming!
Rating: 10 out of 10 stars.
No comments:
Post a Comment