The Space Gem is at large in the universe, and Iron Man is about to get caught up in its wake. Your Major Spoilers review of Iron Man Annual #1 from Marvel Comics awaits!
IRON MAN ANNUAL #1
Writer: Jed McKay
Artist: Ibraim Roberson
Colorist: Rachelle Rosenberg
Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramagna
Editor: Nick Lowe
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Cover Price: $4.99
Release Date: June 2, 2021
Previously in Iron Man: When Iron Man learns about the strange people who kidnapped and tortured Miles Morales, he HAS to look into it. What he finds out about the Assessor and especially Quantum will shock him and you!
TECHNOLOGY IS HIS PURVIEW
Iron Man Annual #1 opens with one of the more entertaining battles in recent memory, as Spider-Man and Iron Man find Brooklyn overrun by Moloids, with their boss, The Mole Man, nowhere to be found. They start to fight them, but realize that all they want is to see the things that they’ve been watching on television all these years, leading Iron Man to hire a fleet of food trucks and tour buses to make the under-dwellers happy enough to go home. While they’re talking, though, Miles tells Tony about his recent interactions with a villain called The Assessor, an attack that Iron Man takes quite personally. Tony is reminded of his days being tortured in a cave, and sets out to bring the villain down. Seeing Iron Man angry about Miles’ getting beat up is a nice moment, but when he tracks down the Assessor’s lair, he gets waylaid by the latest wielder of the Space Stone, one of the legendary Infinity Stones. Their battle takes place as The Assessor… well, assesses, trying to measure the capabilities of the armor, while underestimating the man inside.
AN ANGRY INVINCIBLE IRON MAN
McKay’s Iron Man Annual #1 is very well-written, hitting all the emotional beats that we expect from Tony Stark with elements of his newfound attempts at modesty. His anger that someone would experiment on and injure a young hero is interesting, as is his irritation at being dismissed by The Assessor, who believes him to be nothing more than a pilot of the real threat. He proves the villain wrong, but since this is just the first chapter of the ‘Infinite Destinies’ crossover, it’s more a showcase for Iron Man’s current status quo, and it does that just fine. Like the summer annuals of my youth, this issue is just the first salvo, with Captain America, Spider-Man, Spider-Man, Thor and Black Cat coming up, with The Avengers and Guardians wrapping it all up.
BOTTOM LINE: IT’S ALWAYS ABOUT THE CAVE
All in all, Iron Man Annual #1 does what it sets out to do, giving readers a nice view of what Iron Man is all about psychologically as well as in terms of powers, and it features Moloids demanding to see Kramer and Carrie Bradshaw while eating pizza and wearing sunglasses, earning 3.5 out of 5 stars overall. It’s better than Atlantis Attacks, and I’m interested in seeing where the Infinity story goes from here.
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IRON MAN ANNUAL #1
A great opening scene, a smart approach to defeating the villain and Tony Stark personally mad about a tech villain targeting Miles Morales make for a very solid issue, kicking off Infinite Destinies with a bang.
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Writing7
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Art8
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Coloring7
Once upon a time, there was a young nerd from the Midwest, who loved Matter-Eater Lad and the McKenzie Brothers... If pop culture were a maze, Matthew would be the Minotaur at its center. Were it a mall, he'd be the Food Court. Were it a parking lot, he’d be the distant Cart Corral where the weird kids gather to smoke, but that’s not important right now... Matthew enjoys body surfing (so long as the bodies are fresh), writing in the third person, and dark-eyed women. Amongst his weaponry are such diverse elements as: Fear! Surprise! Ruthless efficiency! An almost fanatical devotion to pop culture! And a nice red uniform.