Would Tony even recognize a laundromat? No jokes here, since Tony's got a broken neck, and that's still like the least of his worries! From 2021,
Iron Man #6/631, "Dreams of Deicide" Written by Christopher Cantwell, art by Cafu, color art by Frank D'Armata.
Damn, I think I slept on this run until it was all but over: I maybe got the
Iron Man/Hellcat annual; but this one's much earlier in their latest storyline together: a resurrected Korvac has just trashed Tony and Patsy, and had a solid crew of lackeys: long-time Iron Man foes the Unicorn, Blizzard, the Controller, and...the Guardsman? I don't know why he was Team Korvac here, but he seems like a true believer, volunteering to stay behind to deal with the escaping James Rhodes; while Korvac led his assault on Galactus's worldship, a stepping-stone in his quest for ultimate cosmic power. It's also like the best that suit has looked in years!
Patsy didn't seem to be in great shape either, but she gets Iron Man...to a mechanic? That might be what it takes to hold him together at this point, as the mutant
Halcyon and Misty Knight work on him. Tony's also on a lot of drugs, which he knows is going to be a problem later, but right now he couldn't even take off his suit until he was ready for surgery, and no time for that. Also, no time to wait for another injured member of his crew, the Gargoyle, who was hurt badly saving the others from an explosion. (Tony also had Frog-Man and Scarlet Spider on his team; the rationale being these were guys that wouldn't be on Korvac's radar.) Tony then has a conversation with Patsy, who might have been seeing visions from Korvac, of the perfect universe he promised. Tony doesn't buy it, claiming he could probably create a better universe than him...ah, how hard could it be?
Rhodey arrives, in full War Machine gear, and tells Tony he'll take it from there. That goes over great; but Guardsman then arrives...and immediately realizes he's bitten off way more than he could chew. Tony clocks him, smashing a bunch of cars, and puts Rhodey on pilot duty: get a ship.
I'm going to have to find this run in trade; I dug this one!
It definitely looks like it'd be a good read & Bonafede sleeper of a hit.
ReplyDeleteI do remember this when it came out, pleasantly surprised they brought Korvac back, and then gave Tony a legion of, well hate to say losers, so c/d-listers, and allowed them a chance to shine.
I'm sure it's already available in trade by now.
Did you read the Force Works/AI storyline with IM 2020 and all those?
I bought the Hellcat mini-series Cantwell wrote last year, that came out after his Iron Man run (and thankfully after he broke Patsy and Stark up, what terrible taste in guys she has.)
ReplyDeleteThat mini-series was lousy. Just a weird, janky mess of stuff about Patsy's dad abandoning her and her mom at a young age because he was scared of "something" in them, and Patsy actually being a delinquent who got away with it because of her mother, blech. It put Cantwell on my "avoid" list for writers in big, bold letters.
Jesus!!!! Yeah that definitely reads like an example of bad current day writing/writers. What happened!? I know now ALL modern day writers are bad at their jobs, but the ones who are certainly tend to stick out more.
DeleteI feel like most writers want to do something "definitive" with a character. Maybe going back to Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee on "Hush", when they just had to use all the major Bat-villains in their one big yearlong story.
ReplyDeleteEither that or they know, given the lax approach to continuity Marvel and DC have these days (I have no clue what's in canon at DC anymore for any given character), that whatever they do, the next writer will probably just undo it, so who cares?
In this particular case, Patsy was being haunted by her mother's ghost (even though I think they've buried the hatchet at least 2-3 times), Sleepwalker's human host had a crush on her, Hellstrom was trapped in a stuffed rabbit (something Patsy did to him in an Iron Man/Hellcat annual Cantwell wrote; Hellstrom not being able to get over it is the one consistent thing in Patsy's history at this point.)
I should add, it's too bad, because that strange lineup of characters in the last panel is intriguing. I just have no confidence I wouldn't get frustrated at how Cantwell wrote all of them, or if most of them would even get enough page time to make it worth their being there.
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