Invincible Iron Man #3 Comic Book Recap/Review

Invincible Iron Man #3 Recap/Review – Tony goes to the Marina!

Invincible Iron Man #3 Comic Book Recap

In Montreal, Tony finds himself overwhelmed by Madame Masque. Friday is unable to detect the energy source emitting from this woman. Tony’s suit is being corrupted, and its hardware is failing. In spite of his protests, the suit activated its emergency protocols. A massive gravity field is created, sending Madame Masque flying and tearing Tony’s armor to pieces. Luckily, enough of the suit survives, and Tony is able to activate his remote program. Now controlling the suit from a safe distance, he begins to battle against Masque. They launch a massive wave of energy against each other.

Tony asks what is going on, and how she thinks this will all end. The villain has no answer, and strikes out, before teleporting away. Stark regroups with his armor and has Friday explain what has happened to the authorities, but his AI is quick to point out that they will want to talk to him. He realizes he is probably going to have to buy the hotel now, but Friday points out that he’d have to sell his armor to do that. Stark tells his AI not to bum him out with facts. He then has her contact Dr. Strange.

Over in MIT, Amara is returning to her office. She is surprised to find Tony Stark waiting for her there. He wants to talk, but she is points out that he could have called, or, you know, at least not have broken into his office. But he didn’t want to interrupt her while she was working in her lab. He’s never do that to a fellow scientist. Stark explains that he almost died tonight, and though that happens a lot in his line of work, he doesn’t care for it much. He explains that he has been thinking about Amara all day, and this near-death experience has him rattled. He can’t go to other superheroes over this, as they always have a much worse story. “I was almost eaten by Galactus.” “I died and was resurrected as my own child.” And he doesn’t have a lot of friends. He knows a lot of people, but they don’t like to hear Tony talk about his problems. He’s rich. In their eyes, his problems aren’t really problems.

And even fewer of the people he knows challenge him intellectually, while the ones that do are well… insane. Amara asks if he gets this way during every Iron Man kerfuffle, and Tony replies this only happens after fights he can’t figure out. Masque is behaving strangely with unidentified powers. She’s planning something big, while Doctor Doom is so damn helpful and so damn handsome, that Stark really has no idea what is going on right now. Amara once again asks why Tony came here, as they have only just met. Stark replies that he realized she is totally and completely out of his league, on every level. Morally, intellectually, and she even has better hair. But the reason that he came here is that Tony thinks that he is becoming a man that would actually deserve someone like her. She would be a very good goal for him at this point in his life.

Amara says that was a very lovely thing to say, and they kiss. Taking the moment in, they are suddenly interrupted by Friday, who says Dr. Strange is returning his call. Stark is frustrated but knows this is important. But Amara understands. While she assumed that Tony left their date over some made up story about Iron Man business, she now knows he was telling the truth. He goes to see Stephen, and promises to call Amara as soon as he has figured this all out. They share another kiss, and Tony says two words to her – “Hail Hydra.” This confuses Amara, but Tony says in his line of work, it’s important to check for stuff like this.

In the Sanctum Sanctorum of Doctor Strange, Tony explains the situation to his fellow hero. Stephen is disturbed by this news, and states he is unable to locate a sorcerer as powerful as Doctor Doom. However, the mystic is mostly interested in this new Wand of Watoomb, and is disturbed over the idea of it coming from another dimension. Stephen then detects Madame Masque pulling energy from another realm, and pinpoints the location to Marina Del Rey in California, which Tony finds gross. Stark asks if he can confront Masque on his own, as the two have history together, which Stephen readily accepts. The mystic has his hands full here, as he is trying to open a door to somewhere he calls Dimension Q.

Stark thanks Stephen and wants to give him a high five, but Stephen says there is a good chance that Masque will hurt herself or others so Tony needs to hurry up, but Stark doesn’t accept this. When Dr. Strange refuses, saying he swore he’d never do this again, Tony is left hanging.

In no time at all, Tony travels to California, activating his suits stealth mode. Friday does not detect anybody at the location Madame Masque was casting her spell, and they infiltrate the building successfully. There they find a tape recording waiting for them, and Tony has Friday scan the device. She confirms it is a tape recorder, and when Stark asks if hitting play will disintegrate the Western Seaboard, she replies that it would certainly be surprising if it did. As Tony wonders where she even found such an out of date device, he presses play.

He hears Whitney speak. Madame Masque is sorry for their earlier confrontation, as she has issues with rage and impulse control – plus Tony is kind of a dick. She asks if it drives Stark insane that their lives seem so intermingled. With all the other heroes and villains out there, these two always seem to cross paths. She wonders if Tony is tracking her down all the time, or if this is some form of fate. Perhaps these two have the best relationship that either of them are capable of. Tony dismisses these words as crazy, but the recording continues.

Masque goes on to say that the reason she is gathering artifacts is the same reason Tony builds power armor. They are both addicted to power. But while her power is found, Tony’s is manufactured. Her power is real. Tony’s is an illusion. She tells Tony that she thinks his attraction to her is driving him insane, and warns Stark to stay away from her. The next time she sees him, Whitney will murder her former lover. She will straddle the man and suck in his last breath as it crawls out of his body, and then rip his skin off with her bare hands. She will pull that smirk right off of his face and EAT IT.

And if Stark thinks this is all a bluff, he should really consider the fact that Whitney is always one step ahead of him. She thinks it’s only fair to tell him that Stark is not the only one looking for her. And the other people who are chasing her, well, they don’t even want Tony to know they exist. So they will try to kill Stark, and they will succeed. So, you know, things are looking up for Madame Masque.

Invincible Iron Man #3 Comic Book Review

Hello and welcome to Comic Island! My name is Arden, and this is my recap, and review, of Invincible Iron Man #3.

Alright, so here we are. Man, they are really pumping out these Iron Man comics. I’ve got to say that’s actually the worst part about this series. Double shipping, i.e. shipping comics out twice a week instead of once a month, has always been a pet peeve of mine. For one thing, it clogs up my production schedule like nothing else, leaving me with less time to cover other material. It also puts a really taxing burden on the creative team behind these comics, especially the artists, and almost always seems to leave a negative affect on the quality of comics.

But the worst thing about double shipping is that it has been statistically proven to really affect readers. Basically, the average person buying comic books has a budget for only so many comics in a week. By double shipping, readers are forced to constantly divert some of that budget towards Iron Man, or any other title being pushed out like this, leaving buyers with less money and time for other series, be they from Marvel or otherwise. So it doesn’t even help Marvel’s bottom line because now people are only spending money on one double shipped series as opposed to two or even three monthly series. So if it doesn’t help the reader, the creators, or even the company itself, what, honestly, is the point of double shipping?

So it’s not a very good idea at all. Luckily, I’m kind of willing to overlook all of this, because so far, Invincible Iron Man has been really, really good. Yeah, this works, and it works well. I honestly thought I’d be a little sick of Iron Man by now. Between AXIS, Superior Iron Man, and Time Runs Out, I’ve been talking about Tony Stark on this channel for a long time. But this Tony is very different from the Tony pre-Secret Wars. It feels like Stark is back to normal. He’s confident and competent while also well-meaning and vulnerable. That’s the Tony I know and like to read about, and it really makes a big difference that he’s back.

Bendis’ dialogue is, unsurprisingly, rather well written. There’s a lot going on here. I actually had to read this comic in two sittings because there’s a lot to digest, which I usually never really have to do for a single issue of any comic. But this one was thoughtful and it left me in a rather reflective mood. I really, really like Amara. I think she is a good character and compliments Tony very well. I’m looking forward to seeing more about their relationship. The Doctor Strange scene was also really well done and I like the humor in this comic. Tony and Friday also have great banter together. The one part I didn’t really like at first was Madame Masque’s tape recording, which I thought was the part of the comic that really started to drag things out. But after I read this scene again, I’ve got to say I was initially wrong about this. Her dialogue is supposed to be overly long. It’s supposed to rambling and not make any sense. This scene rather effectively conveys there is something very wrong with Whitney, that she’s very clearly disturbed and unstable, and now it’s kind of piqued my curiosity. I’d really like to know what’s going on with her, because she seems off the rails crazy at this point. And while this villain has always been a little nutty, this seems… different. It’s interesting.

As for the art in this issue, well, it’s really good, and does a great job showing off the new Iron Man suit. It still looks a little funny to me, but they do such a great job at showing why this suit is different and better than past models. Usually, Tony gets a new suit, and while it looks different, it rarely actually does anything that Iron Man couldn’t do before. They make this mistake a lot in Iron Man comics, but here, we keep seeing Tony use his armor in creative and new ways. That’s good for an Iron Man comic.

And to top off all of this awesomeness, what do we get at the end? A promise of Pepper Potts’ return next issue. This series is amazing. This is how you write a good comic. You take your time, tell a good story, and leave people wanting more. It’s honestly good enough that I can overlook it coming out every other week. And while I haven’t really had the time or interest to check out a lot of Marvel’s new titles, as this is their third reboot in five years and they can go fuck themselves at this point, if every new title were as half as good as what this one is shaping up to be, this would be a very good, new direction to be taking the comics in. Because honestly? I’ve been reading Iron Man comics for a long time. I’ve read a lot of them. Not all of them, but a lot. And the way things are going here… this is shaping up to be one of the best Iron Man comics I’ve ever read. Not the very best, but it certainly ranks up there with Demon in a Bottle or Matt Fraction’s run.

So yeah, I recommend this, because it’s really well made overall and just an excellent comic book. It’s totally worth getting your hands on if you have the time and money for it. Let me know what you guys think in the comments section below. And don’t forget to like, subscribe, and keep reading comics.