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captwinghead's review
5.0
Wow! What a breath of fresh air after so many mediocre Iron Man comics.
This is just... this reminds me why I never hated the 616 Civil War arc. It also reminds me why the MCU version is such a disappointment. Some of the best Marvel runs came during and after that arc and this is one of them. I don't believe I've read much by Daniel and Charles Knauf before but I'll be checking out more of their stuff because their work in this series was fantastic! I've never seen someone understand Tony Stark's mentality this well since Busiek stopped writing for him. They seem to get precisely how Tony's brain works and how he would feel about being put in charge of SHIELD. These hiring choices were made at a time when Marvel actually gave a damn about who was writing their comics.
The Knaufs understand one simple fact: Tony Stark never won the war.
He lost one of his oldest and best friends, he took another close friend off life support, several of his former teammates stopped talking to him, the world hated him every other day and he was put in charge of an organization that didn't want him. He was doing his best, okay?
This series does something so wonderful with Dugan and Tony. Dugan hates him and his leadership style from the get go but, over time, we get to see Dugan come to realize that Tony doesn't want to be in charge either and he's doing his best to protect others. Tony has always been more of a solo act and trying to put him in charge of a military sort of organization was the worst thing for him. The mutual respect that forms between Dugan and Tony was just wonderful to see! I'm still so attached to it because it was so well done! By the end of the book, Tony calls him "Tim" and they trust each other enough to communicate without words.
So much was done with Tony’s self destruction, grief and depression post the war! They really did a lot to show their understanding of Tony Stark's desire to prevent more death. He will do everything in his power to avoid killing and so much of his tech is designed to protect others. He equips SHIELD agents with Iron Man suits! Yet, here he is trying to run SHIELD like a business, because that's what he knows, and we have Dugan explaining that SHIELD can't work that way. The difference between Stark Industries and SHIELD is that Tony's orders could get people killed and Tony admits that he knew it but he didn't feel it in his gut the way Dugan and Nick Fury did. It was so interesting to see, although it tore Tony apart of do the job.
The treatment of female characters isn't perfect. Maya and Maria Hill are footnotes. I didn't like the decision to have Tony sleep with Maya, to be honest. It's probably part of why that ugly ass, misleading cover is on this book, to be honest.
I must say, the use of the Mandarin was A++ here. I gripe about Iron Man 3's decision to go for humor all the time because holy shit is he an amazing villain! He's so powerful and with a great artist like the one in this book, the fight scenes were glorious to see! I loved every showdown between him and Tony.
The art was wonderful, I must say. Tony was gorgeous but more than that, they captured expressions so well! Tony's grief when he spoke of the war, Dugan's loyalty when he refused to stay with SHIELD if they got rid of Tony and Tony's face when was sentenced. Such a great team working on this book!
I expected to hate the World War Hulk tie in but, surprisingly, I was just intrigued. The writing for that was wonderful as well! So many people mistakenly assumed that Tony sent the Hulk to space on his own but this issue (and the issue where they actually send him) confirm that the Illuminati made the choice; not just Tony. But this tie in speculates that Bruce would have approved of Tony's choice and I agree with that, to be honest. The tie ins were actually interesting and showed more of the growing closeness between Dugan and Tony.
That ending line was killer! (There was also a Firefly reference!) It's definitely a recommend from me and it's the best book I've read in 2018 so far!
5 stars
This is just... this reminds me why I never hated the 616 Civil War arc. It also reminds me why the MCU version is such a disappointment. Some of the best Marvel runs came during and after that arc and this is one of them. I don't believe I've read much by Daniel and Charles Knauf before but I'll be checking out more of their stuff because their work in this series was fantastic! I've never seen someone understand Tony Stark's mentality this well since Busiek stopped writing for him. They seem to get precisely how Tony's brain works and how he would feel about being put in charge of SHIELD. These hiring choices were made at a time when Marvel actually gave a damn about who was writing their comics.
The Knaufs understand one simple fact: Tony Stark never won the war.
He lost one of his oldest and best friends, he took another close friend off life support, several of his former teammates stopped talking to him, the world hated him every other day and he was put in charge of an organization that didn't want him. He was doing his best, okay?
This series does something so wonderful with Dugan and Tony. Dugan hates him and his leadership style from the get go but, over time, we get to see Dugan come to realize that Tony doesn't want to be in charge either and he's doing his best to protect others. Tony has always been more of a solo act and trying to put him in charge of a military sort of organization was the worst thing for him. The mutual respect that forms between Dugan and Tony was just wonderful to see! I'm still so attached to it because it was so well done! By the end of the book, Tony calls him "Tim" and they trust each other enough to communicate without words.
So much was done with Tony’s self destruction, grief and depression post the war! They really did a lot to show their understanding of Tony Stark's desire to prevent more death. He will do everything in his power to avoid killing and so much of his tech is designed to protect others. He equips SHIELD agents with Iron Man suits! Yet, here he is trying to run SHIELD like a business, because that's what he knows, and we have Dugan explaining that SHIELD can't work that way. The difference between Stark Industries and SHIELD is that Tony's orders could get people killed and Tony admits that he knew it but he didn't feel it in his gut the way Dugan and Nick Fury did. It was so interesting to see, although it tore Tony apart of do the job.
The treatment of female characters isn't perfect. Maya and Maria Hill are footnotes. I didn't like the decision to have Tony sleep with Maya, to be honest. It's probably part of why that ugly ass, misleading cover is on this book, to be honest.
I must say, the use of the Mandarin was A++ here. I gripe about Iron Man 3's decision to go for humor all the time because holy shit is he an amazing villain! He's so powerful and with a great artist like the one in this book, the fight scenes were glorious to see! I loved every showdown between him and Tony.
The art was wonderful, I must say. Tony was gorgeous but more than that, they captured expressions so well! Tony's grief when he spoke of the war, Dugan's loyalty when he refused to stay with SHIELD if they got rid of Tony and Tony's face when was sentenced. Such a great team working on this book!
I expected to hate the World War Hulk tie in but, surprisingly, I was just intrigued. The writing for that was wonderful as well! So many people mistakenly assumed that Tony sent the Hulk to space on his own but this issue (and the issue where they actually send him) confirm that the Illuminati made the choice; not just Tony. But this tie in speculates that Bruce would have approved of Tony's choice and I agree with that, to be honest. The tie ins were actually interesting and showed more of the growing closeness between Dugan and Tony.
That ending line was killer! (There was also a Firefly reference!) It's definitely a recommend from me and it's the best book I've read in 2018 so far!
5 stars
"How many have died?" he asked. "Too many", I said. But I didn't tell him the rest. What happens when you... make those decisions. All those people I've touched... I remember them. I remember them all.
adoras's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
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