Invincible Iron Man #10 Comic Book Recap/Review

Invincible Iron Man #10 Recap/Review: Infiltration

Invincible Iron Man #10 Comic Book Recap

In Osaka, James Rhodes and Tony Stark get a knock at the door.  When they don’t answer, the tech ninjas break through the door.  The disguised Tony is confronted by the group’s leader, who introduces herself as Zhang, and insists that Stark, still disguised as a man named Richard Franco, put on a Spider-Man mask and come with her.  Unseen by the others, Rhodey has escaped from the apartment and flees the scene.

Tony wakes up and finds himself face to face with a woman who greets him.  She says her name is Tomoe.  She says that this man, Richard Franco, recently helped her gang.  He was with SHIELD, a fact that Franco says is supposed to be a secret.

Meanwhile, Mary Jane Watson is having trouble contacting her former agent, and is bothered by news of Stark’s company in trouble.  When Spider-Man swings by, Mary Jane quietly slips away from the crowd and goes home.  There, she finds a package, which contains a button, and instructions to press it.  She does, and Friday appears before the woman.  The AI explains that Mary Jane is desperately needed back at Stark Headquarters.  The company is in trouble.  But Ms. Watson does not see what this has to do with her.  She did not accept the job.  Friday ignores this and tells her that the Stark Board of Directors are planning to seize control of the company from her, while Tony is missing.  She does not say where Stark is, only that he is not dead.  Mary Jane demands to know what could be so important that he’d risk the company he spent his entire life building.

Meanwhile, Tony proves himself in combat to Tomoe by defeating a pack of her ninjas.  She is impressed by his disguised form’s work, and explains to him how she got her powers.  Tomoe is an Inhuman with the ability to control technology.  She built this criminal empire in secret, freeing Japan’s underworld from the foreign control by the likes HYDRA, AIM, or the Brotherhood of Mutants.  And now, they’re going to reach out.  America, SHIELD, HYDRA, Wakanda, Atlantis, Attilan… Tomoe has big plans for all of them.  She invites Tony into her gang, and all he has to do to prove himself is find and kill James Rhodes.

[Related: Click Here For Marvel’s Civil War II Reading Order Checklist]

High in the sky, Riri is enjoying her new armor.  The feeling is incredible as she soars through the air.  It’s difficult to control though, and the girl realizes this is why Stark uses and AI.  She’ll need one too, but for now, she thinks she can do this.

Elsewhere, Rhodes has a meeting.  Tony Stark is alive.  Or at least he was, up until yesterday.  But now, even Rhodey has lost contact with his friend.  That means he is even deeper undercover and everything is fine, or things have gone wrong, and are about to end very badly.  So Rhodey is coming now to them.  It’s going to be difficult.  They’re going to have to get by with a plan involving no technology whatsoever.  They’re going to have to rely completely on their natural talents.  And if Stark doesn’t survive, if he’s already gone, then they’ll have to Avenge him.

Invincible Iron Man #10 Comic Book Review

Hello and welcome to Comic Island!  My name is Arden, and this is my recap, and review, of Invincible Iron Man #10!

If you haven’t been following my videos, I’ve been pretty down on this series.  And while I do still think this story arc on the whole is pretty lackluster, this issue included, I do like this ending.  It’s a great set-up for issue eleven and promises some pretty exciting things along the way.  I just wish it didn’t take so long for us to reach this point.  Up until now, things have been moving very slowly and not much in terms of excitement is going on here.  The fact that the tech base ninjas, are, on the whole, pretty boring, standard villains doesn’t help, and while the presence of the Avengers, War Machine, and Spider-Man could have made this comic fun, I feel they were really underused over the last five issues.

[Related: Click Here For Marvel’s Civil War II Reading Order Checklist]

I also finally have a better idea of what is going on with this Road to Civil War II business now that the first issue of that event has come out.  Now, if you haven’t read Civil War II issue one yet, watch out, because I’m about to spoil something pretty big.  Okay?  Okay.  So it’s pretty clear that this arc of Iron Man serves two purposes – one, to kind of be a farewell story for Rhodey, and two, better establish the relationship between Tony and the other Avengers, while also continuing the basic plot threads of Iron Man’s solo series.

That’s fine, great in fact, I just wish this story was told a lot better.  It feels plodding and slow moving.  There are less fun character moments or memorable action scenes compared to the first story arc, and overall, if you want to have a farewell story for Rhodey, well it kind of sucks that there are much, much better comics involving this character out there already.  So, no, I don’t really recommend this comic.  At this point, I don’t really think this one is worth your time.  This comic isn’t bad, it’s just that, quite simply, there’s other, more interesting stuff going on in other corners of Marvel right now, including content by the writer of this very comic, Brian Micheal Bendis!   There’s no reason I can see that you won’t be able to just keep going with this series post Civil War II without there being any major changes other than what happens in the core seri5es of Civil War itself, so for now, this seems like an issue that can safely be skipped.