matt4hire's review against another edition
5.0
Such a great, great couple of stories. Given the benefit of hindsight, The Five Nightmares makes it eminently clear how Fraction's going to construct the rest of his run, and World's Most Wanted is a fantastic deconstruction of the Iron Man character. I have no idea how the Fraction who wrote this also wrote Fear Itself. The mind boggles.
oneangrylibrarian's review against another edition
4.0
It has been a long time since I picked up an Iron Man book. Personally, I felt like the character got a bit too played out. The art in this book is not my favorite by far but the story is pretty good. Tony Stark has many flaws and I feel that Fraction has not tried to hide them at all. This run is just before the Dark Reign story line so we will see how further volumes deal with Norman Osborne.
gohawks's review against another edition
4.0
Not a lot to say, but I love Tony Stark as a flawed hero and Matt Fraction captures what is best about this comic. He focuses on what makes Iron Man different. No radioactive spiders or genetic mutations or kryptonite. Just a really smart and rich engineer in a space suit who also happens to be a womanizing alcoholic. That's your hero. The plot is very "ripped from the headlines" with terror cells and 21st century military industrial complex ideas. I'd put it in my top 5 comics out there right now.
iffer's review against another edition
3.0
The first story arc in this omnibus, "The Five Nightmares" (#1-7), was 4-5 stars, while the second arc "World's Most Wanted" (#8-19), which doesn't even really come to a conclusion is 2-3 stars.
Five nightmares was action-packed, in the sense of being drawn along like it was a police procedural TV show. Although a bit contrived, I liked the framework of Tony Stark's "five nightmares" to tie the story together. In this story arc, Tony Stark still shot off his mouth as is characteristic of him, but his humanity and sense of responsibility was likeable.
"World's Most Wanted" started of well, but then it dragged. I just wanted to get to the resolution because the plot, characters, and interactions were just *too* silly and cartoonish, even for comic book, and even in a comic book written by Matt Fraction meant to be funny. Plus there were a couple issues in which the women characters just acted out-of-character-incompetent, wore tight clothes (really, did we need a Natasha-sitting-in-her-kitchen-with-thong-above-pants or Maria Hill-falling-out-of-the-shower shots?), were drawn badly (although I don't think that this was on purpose, since I didn't like the character art for anyone, BUT the Iron Man Suit drawings ROCKED), and had cat fights.
Norman Osborne was too much of a mustache-twitching supervillain, and Tony erasing his brain was just too unrealistic to keep me on the edge of my seat, because it's obvious that they're going to reboot his brain anyway (as ridiculous as that sounds). Just because Matt Fraction self-deprecatingly referred to how Norman Osborne was an unrealistic evil-with-a-capital-E dude, and that it would make more sense for Tony to just kill himself if he wanted to make sure that the dangerous information in his brain didn't get into the wrong hands, doesn't meant that it was okay to do those things.
Five nightmares was action-packed, in the sense of being drawn along like it was a police procedural TV show. Although a bit contrived, I liked the framework of Tony Stark's "five nightmares" to tie the story together. In this story arc, Tony Stark still shot off his mouth as is characteristic of him, but his humanity and sense of responsibility was likeable.
"World's Most Wanted" started of well, but then it dragged. I just wanted to get to the resolution because the plot, characters, and interactions were just *too* silly and cartoonish, even for comic book, and even in a comic book written by Matt Fraction meant to be funny. Plus there were a couple issues in which the women characters just acted out-of-character-incompetent, wore tight clothes (really, did we need a Natasha-sitting-in-her-kitchen-with-thong-above-pants or Maria Hill-falling-out-of-the-shower shots?), were drawn badly (although I don't think that this was on purpose, since I didn't like the character art for anyone, BUT the Iron Man Suit drawings ROCKED), and had cat fights.
Norman Osborne was too much of a mustache-twitching supervillain, and Tony erasing his brain was just too unrealistic to keep me on the edge of my seat, because it's obvious that they're going to reboot his brain anyway (as ridiculous as that sounds). Just because Matt Fraction self-deprecatingly referred to how Norman Osborne was an unrealistic evil-with-a-capital-E dude, and that it would make more sense for Tony to just kill himself if he wanted to make sure that the dangerous information in his brain didn't get into the wrong hands, doesn't meant that it was okay to do those things.
iggymcmuffin's review
2.0
It's about everything expected from a Marvel comic plus a bunch of morose and unpleasant 9/11 and Iraq parallels. Suicide bombers, buildings collapsing, super-WMDs that kill and wound hundreds (which seem a lot less super when compared to normal WMDs which kill thousands, if not millions).
It even has a panel where a bunch of reports condemn ironman as a fascist, killer and war criminal for saving the world (did the writer like Bush and Cheney that much)?
Top it off and you have your standard bad comic book writing (which is what I expected) about how the bad guy is bad because he's the son of the other bad guy and looked evil in public. OooOooOoo.
Question: Spider-Man having to "register" his identity. Is that a new take on something old in the Marvel Universe? Or is that base on post 9/11 erosion of privacy rights (e.g. you can't protest an wear a mask at the same time)? I can't tell because its never explained in the context.
It even has a panel where a bunch of reports condemn ironman as a fascist, killer and war criminal for saving the world (did the writer like Bush and Cheney that much)?
Top it off and you have your standard bad comic book writing (which is what I expected) about how the bad guy is bad because he's the son of the other bad guy and looked evil in public. OooOooOoo.
Question: Spider-Man having to "register" his identity. Is that a new take on something old in the Marvel Universe? Or is that base on post 9/11 erosion of privacy rights (e.g. you can't protest an wear a mask at the same time)? I can't tell because its never explained in the context.
pickett22's review against another edition
4.0
Jerk Tony gets Pepper blown up. I can't wait to read more.
clitchmore's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
renatasnacks's review against another edition
4.0
I feel like this series was designed to be friendly to those who have seen the movie but not read any other Iron Man comics, which is basically me. So... hooray.
I wasn't totally clear on what was up with Pepper? Like, Maria Hill was bitching about her being Tony's secretary but Tony said he was the only one he trusted to run the company when he was away, and
Overall I enjoyed this. I really loved Spider-Man in this. I think I need to read more Spider-Man books because I keep loving him when he pops up in other books I read. But maybe I like him because he keeps being like, a sassy troll to whoever the main superhero is. MORE RESEARCH REQUIRED W/R/T SPIDER-MAN.
Oh and I also enjoyed Tony playing chess with Reed Richards. Huzzah.
I wasn't totally clear on what was up with Pepper? Like, Maria Hill was bitching about her being Tony's secretary but Tony said he was the only one he trusted to run the company when he was away, and
Spoiler
after Tony saved her with magic chest implant technology, she was all "Wah I don't want to be a weapon" and he was all, "Nah it's cool I got it from a battery company." But like Pepper... you work for Stark Industries? Sooo maybe you don't need to be on your high horse about weapons? OR WHATEVER?Overall I enjoyed this. I really loved Spider-Man in this. I think I need to read more Spider-Man books because I keep loving him when he pops up in other books I read. But maybe I like him because he keeps being like, a sassy troll to whoever the main superhero is. MORE RESEARCH REQUIRED W/R/T SPIDER-MAN.
Oh and I also enjoyed Tony playing chess with Reed Richards. Huzzah.