Invincible Iron Man #504Hammers are falling out of the sky all over the world. Iron Man, not exactly surprisingly, goes to Paris to check that one out as Fear Itself is in full swing across the globe.
It just so happens that Grey Gargoyle, a long time thorn in many heroes’ sides, is in Paris the night the hammer touched down. Iron Man arrives in Paris to find everything turned to stone. The faces of the scared civilians are hauntingly frozen on their faces. Iron Man finds someone who has somehow survived the stoning, but they are discovered by a monster wielding a hammer. The monster freezes the survivor and smashes him into pieces. Iron Man engages the beast, but nothing he does has any effect. As Iron Man flies through the petrified people, Tony has to remind himself that these aren’t just statues… They are bodies of people. When he smashes one, he’s killing the victim trapped in stone. Tony slowly realizes this beast was once the Grey Gargoyle. As Tony fights the amped up Gargoyle, Pepper gets in touch with Bethany Cabe to take over the security of Stark Resilient despite Pepper’s protests. Back in France, Tony’s knocked out and awakens in a massive pile of statues reminding him of the horror that these are bodies stacked on top of each other.
Matt Fraction tears the lid off this issue. This is a hardcore and horrific story tying into the Fear Itself story. We have a lot of Iron Man in this issue and a lot of fighting with the new Grey Gargoyle. There’s a real sense of fear in this book as nothing Tony does puts the slightest scratch on Grey Gargoyle. Fraction’s script takes this superhero story and guides it more into the horror genre. Grey Gargoyle’s powers already brings to mind Medusa. Now, give him the power to turn everything around him into stone, and he becomes a monster much like the classic Gorgon. This is a terribly effective issue and gave me tingles as I read it.
The dread and fear is intensified by Salvador Larroca. I’ve always loved Larroca’s art. He has such a tangible quality that makes me believe I could touch the page and feel whatever it is that he’s drawn. If it’s someone’s face, I expect the frame to feel like smooth skin. If it’s Iron Man I’m looking at, I expect to feel a warm metal of some kind. In this issue, I expected to touch one of those petrified people and feel the cold grittiness of stone. Nothing, though, matches the downright freaky expressions of the victims when they were frozen. There’s so much uneasiness as I read and looked at this comic that I have to say this is one of the most effective comics I’ve read from one of the major publishers in years.
This comic should please just about any Iron Man or Matt Fraction fan. Salvador Larroca’s fans are already aware that he can do this in every issue, but his visuals add to the shear horror of this story.
A COMIC BOOK BLOG RATINGProsConsSpectacular visuals and mood from the brilliant creative team. This is what we should get out of tie-ins all the time. It's just a damn effective comic.None Rating100% All Fear Itself reviews:Fear Itself: #1 | #2 |Fear Itself: The Home Front: #1 | #2 | Fear Itself: Spider-Man: #1 |Journey Into Mystery: #622 | #623 |Invincible Iron Man: #503 | #504Avengers: #13 | For more visit our Fear Itself tag @ acomicbookblog.com/tag/fear-itselfYou might also like...
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Journey Into Mystery #623 ReviewBy BlogsdnaTagged with: Fear Itself Invincible Iron Man Iron Man Matt Fraction Salvador Larroca2 Comments
MaventPosted on May 22, 2011 at 9:37 amHoly smokes, how much does Fraction pay you to write this crap? Yeah, yet ANOTHER issue of Iron Man where our “hero” is completely ineffectual, thousands of innocent people die, and the bad-guy wins. That’s pretty much been Fraction’s entire run.
Reply
Geoff ArbucklePosted on May 22, 2011 at 10:43 amFirst of all, if I could get a paycheck from Matt Fraction or Marvel, I’d accept it. Seriously, there’s things to look at here.
1. All heroes have their struggles, for Iron Man, his struggles will more likely lead to death more so than Batman or Spider-Man. He’s a guy who flies around in a weapon of mass destruction.
2. This is the first issue of an arc. If Iron Man wins in one issue, there’s no drama, no cliffhanger, and, worse, the writer of Marvel’s event just proved Fear Itself isn’t worth winning because the heroes will wrap it up in one confrontation, one issue, and walk off smiling and patting each other on the back for a job well done.
I appreciate the comment and your opinion, but this is the basics of writing. If heroes never confront tragedy and conflict, they wouldn’t be heroes. They’d be just some dudes in funny costumes.
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This post was added on 18 May 2011, 17:35 by Geoff Arbuckle who has contributed 403 posts to this blog.
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