The Invincible Iron Man #32

Marvel Comics
The Invincible Iron Man #32
By Hervé St-Louis
November 28, 2010 - 11:24

Marvel Comics
Writer(s): Matt Fraction
Penciller(s): Salvador Larroca
Inker(s): Salvador Larroca
Colourist(s): Frank D'Armata
Letterer(s): Joe Caramagna
Cover Artist(s): Salvador Larroca
$3.99 US

An army of drones is after Tony Stark, in support of Detroit Steel. StarK Resilient’s new repulsor powered car is the target and it’s up to Iron Man, War Machine and Rescue to save civilians and the car. But are they too late?

I like the idea of an army of drones powered by a mobile game. There’s enough threats and action in this issue to keep readers interested and the fight with Detroit Steel was a long time coming. I have issues with the pace of this story and wish it would move faster. It feels as if Fraction has limited ideas and stretches them for a long time so that he can cover many issues with them. In past reviews, I said that I had issues with how this series is aligned to the Silicon Valley culture and talk because by the time the writer incorporates concepts borrowed from the “cloud” these ideas are already very old. But sometimes, those ideas are fun to read. For example, I personally had a lot of pleasure reading about Tony Stark making an appearance at TED, having just developed and released a TED app for HP webOS smartphones two weeks ago. I guess Fraction is catching up with the world of tech after all. As long as Tony Stark doesn’t become a clone of Steve jobs with an Iron Man armour and remains his old self, I should be enjoying the ride.

Larroca is back in shape this issue with well-drawn pages filled with details and a realistic view of the world of tech. Sometimes, he’s off his game, but this issue, he was very careful with details and designed gorgeous pages. The segment with Pepper Potts drawn McKelvie was good looking too, but although the artist is superb, it looked simplistic next to Larroca’s work.

Rating: 8/10