Somebody's Gonna Get A Beatin'

Indestructible Hulk 2
Marvel Now
Mark Waid, writer
Leinil Yu, artist

I'm one of those readers who felt that Tony Stark/Iron Man had a lot to answer for after the events of Civil War a few years ago. Since that time, I've been happy to see some instances where some of Tony's friends have taken him to task for some of his decisions and his hubris during those events. This book falls into that category.

Maria Hill, director of S.H.I.E.L.D., has taken Bruce Banner up on his offer from the first issue: S.H.I.E.L.D. supplies Banner with a lab, staff and materials so he can create things to benefit mankind and ensure that he is remembered for more than the destruction caused by his green alter ego. In exchange, Banner allows S.H.I.E.L.D. to point him in a useful direction when he inevitably hulks out again. While not 100 percent convinced of the overall benefits, Hill is taking advantage of the offer in light of there being no other workable solutions to the Hulk problem. For his part, Bruce Banner is making the most of his deal, already having developed a few new bits of hardware and setting a goal for himself to complete work on at least one new invention each week.

Enter Iron Man at the outset of this issue, barging into the S.H.I.E.L.D. base where Banner is currently located and demanding that Hill turn over whatever technology or whichever super-villain she is using to mind-control Banner. Hill explains that isn't the case, but Iron Man insists on investigating the situation for himself. Tony and Bruce share a mathematical joke to lighten the mood of the meeting, and Bruce does what he can to assure Tony that this plan is for the best. But it is also obvious that the two men have an underlying animosity/rivalry going on. Tony is clearly impressed by some of what Bruce has already accomplished but refuses to acknowledge that out loud. And Bruce has anticipated Tony's interference and expects the metal-clad Avenger to try to end the arrangement. You just know all of that tension is going to result in a superhero smackdown! But don't worry, fans of each character have their moments to be proud of in what ensues.

In fact, my only complaint with this book so far is the art -- just not a fan of Leinil Yu's work, especially on this title. I absolutely hate the way he draws faces here: the drawings are so detailed, you can't see the faces for all of the linework.

Fun But A Little Disappointing

Doom's Day trilogy
Boulevard Books
Spider-Man and the Incredible Hulk: Rampage by Fanny Fingeroth and Eric Fein
Spider-Man and Iron Man: Sabotage by Pierce Askegren and Danny Fingeroth
Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four: Wreckage by Eric Fein and Pierce Askegren
Steven Butler, illustrations

I don't read just comic books; I read quite a bit of prose, as well. So I'm usually excited to see characters I enjoy from the comics featured in prose novels -- as long as they are well written. Roger Stern did a nice job adapting the comic storyline into the novel "The Death and Life of Superman," and the book was a joy to read. Peter David's novelization of the feature film "Batman Forever" is a lot better than the film was, especially in the scenes dealing with the origin of Robin. I've also picked up some anthologies that collect prose stories featuring Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman and Spider-Man that I have greatly enjoyed, largely, I think, because they were such short stories.

There were a number of novels released in the mid- to late-1990s featuring various Marvel Comics characters, and I was very happy to see them appear on bookstore shelves at the time. But now that I have actually had time to read some of them, they are a pretty mixed bunch. Spider-Man and the X-Men were the subjects of the lion's share of these books. Iron Man starred in two adventures, "The Armor Trap" and "Operation: A.I.M.," and I have to say both of those novels fell kind of flat for me.

These three books are a notch above the Iron Man solo novels. They include some genuinely fun moments and great characterization by some writers familiar to the comics field. In the first, a renegade scientist with ties to both Hydra and A.I.M., two Marvel terrorist organization mainstays, attempts to create controllable duplicates of the incredible Hulk in a secret base beneath Manhattan. He must first capture the real Hulk for study, and his actions later draw the attention of Spider-Man when Spidey's friend, Flash Thompson, is one of the poor lugs transformed into a gamma-irradiated beast. In the second novel, first Hydra and then A.I.M. try to take control of Tony Stark's latest invention, the Infinity Engine, which promises to provide a cheap, clean energy source for the world. The terrorist organizations' attempts to pervert Stark technology draw the attention of not only Spidey, but also Iron Man. Both of these novels also include characters from a government organization named S.A.F.E. I'm not sure if S.A.F.E. ever appeared in any actual Marvel Comics of the time, but in the novels, they are a U.S. organization created to stand in for S.H.I.E.L.D., which had taken on a more international role. As one might guess from the name of the trilogy, Victor von Doom, Dr. Doom, is also a background player in the first two novels. Finally, in the third novel, Dr. Doom takes center stage using technologies perfected in both of the previous two novels in his latest bid to conquer the world. This brings together Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four to challenge him.

As I said before, all three books have some great moments and some stellar action sequences. But all three also tend to bog down a bit when it comes to the background descriptions and motivational narration. Descriptions can help a reader imagine the scene, but overkill on descriptions can pull the reader out of the story. That tends to be the issue here sometimes. Other times the descriptions just get a little tedious and repetitive, dragging the story pacing down from what one might expect from an action/adventure type of story. One further criticism, directed solely at the third novel, is the layout of the book. I was surprised at first to see that the third novel is about 50 pages shorter than the previous two. That is, until I started trying to read the third novel and found out why. The page margins on the third paperback are much smaller than the first two novels, running right down to the bottom edge of the page, and quite far into the spine of the book, making it somewhat harder to hold and read comfortably. There also seemed to be a pretty large number of typos in these three books, but that is something more on the editing side of things.

All in all, if you enjoy these characters, these books are fun reads, but I wouldn't put them at the top of the stack. Marvel has recently announced that it plans more prose novels based on some of its more popular company-wide crossover storylines. The plan is to launch the series with a prose adaptation of its popular Civil War limited series from 2006; that novel was released last week. Hopefully, Marvel does a little better with this latest round of prose novels.

Iron Man: Demon in a Bottle

This little gem was re-released in 2008 as Marvel Premiere Classic Hardcover Vol. 9.

It collects Iron Man Nos. 120-128, written by David Michelinie and Bob Layton, illustrated by John Romita Jr. and Carmine Infantino and inked by Bob Layton. And it was previously collected in trade paperback form under the title The Power of Iron Man, which was my first exposure to the stories.

These comics, to my mind at least, are Marvel Comics' version of the socially-relevant comics trend most often attributed as starting with DC Comics' Green Lantern/Green Arrow run by Denny O'Neal and Neal Adams. Those DC books had lefty Green Arrow and right-wing Green Lantern butt heads over social issues such as over-population, race relations, class warfare and drug abuse. They are credited with bringing a social conscience to comic-book stories. In Marvel's Iron Man case, the topic was alcoholism, and the writers used the star of the book to tackle the problem head-on in his own life.

But no simple preaching is found in the pages reprinted in this volume. Rather, this is good, compelling story-telling at its finest. Tony Stark (Iron Man to the uninitiated) had been dealing with a number of conflicts in previous issues leading up to No. 120 beyond the usual superhero slugfests. As these stories begin, those problems continue to get worse and grow in number, prompting Stark to turn increasingly to the bottle rather than his friends or his armored alter ego. As one might expect, rather than helping, the alcohol merely adds to Stark's problems. In that regard, there aren't many surprises in this story.

What is unexpected is how the alcoholism is dealt with by these creators. The problem isn't resolved in a matter of panels or even a few pages. Instead, they take the "hero" of the book lower than might have been expected, then allow several issues' worth of time for even the beginnings of a resolution to take shape. In this way, Michelinie and Layton make Stark's problems seem all the more real, and his eventual victory, never in doubt as this is a monthly superhero title, more powerful for its portrayal.

I had never been much of an Iron Man fan prior to reading The Power of Iron Man, and only picked up the book on a whim. This story gave me an appreciation for the character under these creators' care and has been read and re-read to the point that the original trade has almost been worn out. With that in mind, I recently purchased the new hardcover edition and re-read this story for the first time in maybe 10 years. It was well worth the price, and the writing and artwork are still spectacular! I have no hesitation whatsoever about recommending this book for anyone to whom it might be a new read or a refresher on a true comics classic.