Kieron Gillen’s brand new Iron Man series continues with another chapter in Tony Stark’s quest to eliminate those who’ve acquired the Extremis virus on the black market in order to avenge Maya Hansen’s death. In this issue, Ol’ Shellhead engages in some medieval-styled tournament arranged by a group called The Circle that models themselves after King Arthur and his knights.
The name of the game here is badassery. We see Tony walk in, kick ass, and walk out and sometimes these stories are necessary to remind us about how invincible, incredible, spectacular, and uncanny our favorite heroes are. Gillen and Land have a lot of fun presenting Iron Man as he does what he does best: inflict justice with his toys while maintaining his trademark sass.
The one down side that I found in all the heroics, however, is that these villains were what was most interesting to me in this story. Their code of honor and their backstory had me interested in them and I wish that they could’ve held up better against the Armored Avenger. There’s a chance that Arthur, Merlin, and the whole crew could return stronger than ever later on, but right now they’re off in their castle licking their wounds. Hopefully Gillen or someone else resurrects the group and gives them another chance at domination.
Out of all the Marvel NOW titles I’m currently reading, ‘Iron Man’ falls somewhere in the middle. So far, the story is okay, but with a great creative team on it, hopefully it gets better.
Final Score:
IRON MAN #2
Written by KIERON GILLEN
Art by GREG LAND, JAY LEISTEN, & GURU eFX
