Marvel Adventures: Iron Man #2 - Marvel (2007)

And this one goes in my hold box. It's partly because Iron Man is one of my favorite comic-book characters ever. I'm not one of those people who thinks that Tony Stark's Civil-War/Illuminati characterization as a dickass has ZOMG! ruined the Marvel Universe forever!!!! but it has made me stop reading a character I used to look forward to seeing. As I said last month, Marvel has rebooted the character via their Marvel Adventures line and he's fun to read again.

Marvel Adventures is the anti-Ultimate Universe.

Fred Van Lente's story is simple and well told. Tony discovers that his main facility in China has shut down so he "sends Iron Man" to check it out. He finds out that (Oh, noes!) The Mandarin has stolen his workers to build nefarious devices for his eventual takeover of China.

Hell, yeah! I have loved The Mandarin ever since I read about his rings in the first Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe back in the day. This issue also has James Rhodes and Pepper Potts who mostly provide comic relief which fits well with the tone of the story.

My favorite part of this series is that the alerts that the Iron Man suit sends to Tony are superimposed on the panels. This effect looks cool, makes it feel like a neat techno-comic and allows for a different kind of storytelling.

Once again, James Cordeiro and Scott Koblish do a great job with the art. They've got a sort of Bagley-meets-Immonen vibe going which really jumps off the page.

And there's a cute Mini Marvels tale by Chris Giarruso at the end. All for the industry-mandated price of $2.99! What more could you ask for?