Iron Man V. 3 #3 – “The Art of the Deal” (February 1998)

Kurt Busiek (writer) Sean Chen (pencils) Eric Cannon, Sean Parsons (inks)

Synopsis: Overwhelmed by the Dreadnoughts, Iron Man is able to lead the robots into battle with the Siege Engineers, and leaves to investigate the ruins of Stephanie’s chalet. He finds Stephanie and her butler alive and flies them to safety, then returns to the site of the battle to find it deserted. Tony contacts Pepper, to get her help in identifying the handiwork behind the Siege Engineers' facemasks. Stephanie later confides her business troubles to Tony. After her husband’s death, his friend Andreas Kapelos tried to strong arm the manufacturing company from her, and slowly began taking control of it. Tony learns from Pepper that the Siege Engineers' facemask is connected to the Arms Merchant. He calls for a tv interview to reveal how close he is to bringing down the Merchant and exposing his client list. The Dreadnoughts attack Iron Man that night. He overloads their heat centres, and leads them to Kapelos, in Stephanie’s facility. He blackmails Kapelos for info on his clients, receiving it in return for leading the Dreadnoughts away and calling the police. Tony does so, as the robots follow him into the mountains and explode. Later, Tony rekindles his romance with Stephanie, while worrying about the major project Kapelos was working on for an unknown client.

The Subplots: More troubled comments are exchanged between Happy and Pepper, although their divorce isn’t outright mentioned. Happy later takes Doreen, a woman delivering supplies to Stark Solutions, out for dinner. She then contacts a mysterious informant with her insider knowledge of the company; Last issue’s shadowed figure, employing the Arms Merchant, watches Tony’s interview angrily. He steps considerably out of the shadows, and is clearly the Mandarin. He is also behind the Dreadnoughts; Tony surmises that the Arms Merchant’s biggest client is building a fortress or a space station.

Notes: Stephanie and her butler survived by hiding in the stone-walled wine cellar.

Pepper identifies the Siege Engineers' facemasks from a Daily Bugle photo of the Thunderbolts arresting a flunky of the Arms Merchant in Thunderbolts#3. That was the first appearance of he and his staff, when they were caught selling weaponry to Don Fortunato.

Thoughts: Busiek wraps up this story, and while it’s a bit clunky in its execution, it’s so slickly done that it’s easy to ignore some of the choppy plotting. For the second issue in a row, Iron Man leaves a fight in the Alps, and goes about his business with Stephanie, and then is drawn back into another battle. This worked fine last issue when the conflict was still building up, but it ruins any sense of urgency created by the opening battle scene (which looks stunning) to have Tony casually chatting with her in the middle of the issue. There had to be some other way for Stephanie to tell Tony her troubles than at a dinner smack in the middle of an action issue. But this isn’t the worst offender – Tony’s tv interview about the Arms Merchant really stunts momentum. It’s such an odd transition and its sole purpose seems to be to alert the Mandarin of Iron Man’s involvement in his scheme. Again, for the sake of the story’s flow, couldn’t there have been a better way to do this?

Still, somehow, Busiek holds the issue together despite the loopy plotting. I think this is mainly accomplished through Tony’s narration. Busiek is overloading this title with it, but it largely works, and here it holds together those choppy scenes. Busiek is really presenting Tony as a tactician in battle. He also has a softer side, but is much edgier than the Tony of #1. It’s Tony’s voice that unites the issue, navigating the readers through the clues of the overarching mystery. Although that mystery, of the Arms Merchant’s client, isn’t too complex, it’s coming together well and there’s a good sense of Tony’s frustrations with the unknown assailant. It’s not the most exciting story so far, but it’s backed by strong art, and there are worthwhile elements to it.

Iron Man V. 3 #2– “Avalanche!” (January 1998)

Kurt Busiek (writer) Sean Chen (pencils) Eric Cannon, Sean Parsons, Al Milgrom (inks)

Synopsis: Tony takes on his first consulting assignment for Stark Solutions, helping his former girlfriend, Countess Stephanie De La Spirosa with accounting irregularities in her manufacturing company in Switzerland. Tony notices she is keeping him from getting any work done, and goes to investigating her company’s facility as Iron Man. He’s quickly attacked by armed troops referring to themselves as the Siege Engineers. He covers them in an avalanche and escapes, with suspicions that Stephanie’s company is manufacturing advanced weapons. The next day, Tony confronts her about her efforts to evade him from doing any work. He escapes after a skirmish with the armed men in her house, and is soon suited up as Iron Man, flying towards the facility. The Siege Engineers re-emerge, and, while Tony fights them, Stephanie’s chalet explodes. Out of the smokes emerge a squad of Dreadnoughts.

The Subplots: Happy and Pepper are now both working for Stark Solutions. Hints are dropped about their separation; At an undisclosed location, a young girl informs a shadowed figure that their Swiss supplier has been compromised, and that Tony Stark is involved. He asks for the counter measures to be activated; Tony is still pondering who hired the Death Squad to kill him.

Notes: Countess Stephanie De La Spirosa first appeared way back in Tales of Suspence#69 as a jilted lover of Tony’s, who interfered in his fights with the Titanium Man, and, later, the Thinker. They have apparently buried the hatchet since.

The Dreadnought robots were once the exclusive possession of Hydra, but have been employed by other criminal organizations, such as AIM and the Maggia.

Although the mystery figure is shadowed, it’s not too difficult from the decor to determine who it is. It’s heavily implied that his “counter measures” are the Dreadnoughts. The mention of his “Swiss supplier” implies another figure involved in all of this.

Thoughts: For me, things pick up considerably from the first issue. Gone is the Tony who exclusively sat around and moped. He’s replaced with a Tony who is astute and a bit harder, but still thoughtful and likable. Busiek is also doing a great job in his portrayal of Iron Man. Getting into the way Tony uses his armour and his components has made for some fun scenes. Chen has thrown in a bunch of POV shots that demonstrate Iron Man’s different abilities, livening up some standard battle scenes.

Busiek also does a good job jumping into Tony’s first Stark Solutions case. In typical Busiek fashion, he brings back a minor character from the 1960s for a major role But this appearance barely relies on that continuity and works well, and better than just creating an “old flame” for Tony. The intrigue of her business troubles is well-done, if straightforward. The breakfast scene, where Tony confronts her, is a fun, dramatic one for all involved. The only drawback is the villains. The two fight scenes, both nicely rendered against the snowy Alps, are fun, but this far all Tony has faced in this title are armed soldiers.

Overall, it’s still a good, straightforward superhero story, with effort put in to make its lead character seem intelligent and interesting. Sean Chen is doing a great job. The scenes with Iron Man in action look excellent, as all of the technology looks great and the battles are well-staged. His people can look a little stiff and not too expressive, but Liquid’s colours really bring them to life, rounding them and their surroundings to make them pop.

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.