Iron Man V. 3 #1– “Looking Forward” (December 1997)

Kurt Busiek (writer) Sean Chen (pencils) Eric Cannon (inker)

Synopsis: Iron makes his triumphant return from the Heroes Reborn pocket universe, foiling an armed attack on a trading company. Meanwhile, the media is abuzz over whether or not the newly-returned Tony Stark will seek to regain control of Stark Enterprises, which was sold to Fujikawa, Inc. in his absence. Tony holds a return party in his newly-purchased Stark Tower, at which the topic is also one of discussion. Tony later goes to investigate the site of a housing project run by the Maria Stark Foundation, intended for victims of the Onslaught attacks. While there, a group of mercenaries called the Death Squad attack. Tony puts on the Iron Man suit and quickly takes out each opponent, with the housing project destroyed in the process, and Tony torn over the toll of his Iron Man role. He calls a press conference the next day, announcing the formation of a new consulting company, Stark Solutions, and his decision not to pursue Stark Enterprises. He then plays a taped message from Iron Man, warning Tony and Iron Man’s enemies off, as a variety of figures react to the press conference.

Subplots: At Tony’s party, Pepper Potts dodges a comment about her husband Happy Hogan’s whereabouts; James Rhodes announces his new marine salvage company, Rhodes Recovery; The Death Squad have been hired to kill Tony, but their employer remains a secret.

The reactions to Tony’s press conference: Sunset Bain gets her employees hard at work at developing a project for Tony at her company Baintronics; MODOK gathers AIM agents to destroy Tony; Madame Masque plots against Tony, as do the Controller and the Mandarin.

Notes: This is the first issue of the third volume of Iron Man. The first ended when Iron Man (along with a large number of other Marvel heroes) sacrificed their lives to stop Onslaught at the end of that summer 1996 crossover. Volume 2 took place in the Heroes Reborn pocket universe, where the thought-dead heroes lived out alternate versions of their lives, and ran for a year. Following their return in the Heroes Reborn: The Return mini-series, Iron Man, The Avengers, Fantastic Four, and Captain America were all relaunched in new volumes.

Alex Ross and Allen Bujak are credited “for their armor design contributions” for Iron Man’s new suit.

In order to explain his disappearance during Heroes Reborn, Tony tells the press he was kidnapped by terrorists and forced to design weapons for them, until he was rescued when Iron Man returned. He was believed dead during his absence.

Notable guests at Tony’s party include Foggy Nelson, his mother Roselind Sharpe, Norman Osborn, Sunset Bain, Tony’s cousin Morgan Stark, Pepper, Rhodey, and Psylocke.

First appearance of the Death Squad, which includes Firefight, Rocket-Launcher, Airborne, Smokescreen, and Boobytrap. They escape at the end of the fight, after remaining silent on the name of their employer.

Stark Solutions is introduced as an all-purpose consulting company, available for any and all clients. All proceeds will go to the Maria Stark Foundation for reconstruction projects.

Thoughts: Kurt Busiek debuts what I assume will be his vision of the Tony Stark character, one characterized by benevolence, guilt over years spent wasting his money, and a desire to give back. This is an interesting direction to take the character in, but it’s a little too aggressive on that angle here. Tony spends too many pages either wallowing in his inability to make a difference or delivering a tortured monologue over the destruction of the housing project. I understand that characters need to grow, and this is a good direction for Tony to start moving in, but the break is too clean. There’s almost no aspect of the charming, brazen playboy here.

That said, this is still a strong debut issue. And I think Busiek still writes the lead character well. As Iron Man, there’s a joy to his dialogue that is refreshing. During the battle scenes, Busiek makes heavy use of narration, but it works. There’s a great effort made to show how in tune Tony is with the abilities of his armour and with his surroundings, through the armour. It makes the battle scenes much more interesting, especially when Iron Man is essentially facing two groups of boring mercenaries. But the situations Busiek is setting up are still interesting, with an unidentified employer setting enemies against Iron Man and Stark Solutions as a setup which can open a lot of story opportunities.

Sean Chen provides a fluid, simple look for Iron Man’s suit and action scenes, where he is particularly strong. Some of the figures are a bit stiff throughout, but are rounded by strong colours from Liquid! Graphics and inks from Cannon. It’s a crisp, attractive package, overall.