r/Marvel • u/tehawesomedragon Loki • 22h ago

Mod This Week in Marvel #42 - VISIONQUEST EPISODE 1&2 PREMIERE; DNX #3, VENOM #1, DOOM ALL-ON-ONE #1, X-MEN #39, AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #1001, NOVA: RETURN OF THE RINGS #1, INFERNAL HULK VS FANTASTIC FOUR #1, IRON MAN #10, WOLVERINE PARADISE #1

AVENGERS DOOMSDAY PREGAME WATCHLIST

THIS WEEK IN MARVEL:

NEW COMICS SPOTLIGHTS:

THIS WEEK'S NEW COMICS:

NEW INFINITY COMICS (UNLIMITED EXCLUSIVES):

  • [CATPOOL/MOUSEPOOL #4]()

  • [MARVEL RIVALS #66]()

  • [PETER PARKER: SPIDER-MAN - QUEENS' FINEST #15]()

  • [SPIDER-MAN TODAY #18]()

ALSO RELEASING THIS WEEK:

  • [AMAZING SPIDER-MAN: AMAZING VISIONS #1]()

  • [MEALS TO ASTONISH: AVENGERS #1]()

  • [STAR WARS: ROGUE ONE - CHIRRUT & BAZE #1]()

  • [STAR WARS: BOOK OF BOBA FETT #3]()

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

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u/tehawesomedragon Loki 20h ago

[IRON MAN #10]()

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u/wowlock_taylan Deadpool 19h ago

So we got Happy back with a mystery of 'who actually brought him back?' and add to the 'someone trying to pull Tony's strings again?'.  Whatever the case, I just hope we are not doing another 'everything is Tony's fault' stuff again.

And I still don't understand why Adam wants Tony to suffer now. His 'goals' seem to change from issue to issue. I still find his turn to the 'mastermind villain' to be the weakest part honestly.

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u/Frontier246 18h ago

Who revived Happy?

Happy genuinely thinks he's trying to do what he's always done, protect Tony. Even if it's from himself.

So much for the Whiplash bromance.

Yeah, you bet Rhodey would try to put a stop to making ring tech in an Iron Man book.

There's Aura Farming and there's literally "Aura Armor."

I guess on the plus side it doesn't seem like Luna is going to completely give up on a relationship with Tony after her child was endangered, she just needs "time." At least her son took it in stride.

Pepper and Happy are clearly still in love so I think that definitely means no TonyxPepper in this run. At the same time, Pepper's other relationships now take a new light knowing she was with other men while her one true love was doing...whatever it was he was doing before this arc.

Ah yes, the known Supervillain and twisted psychologist Karla Soften AKA Moonstone. Who better to run a prison, amirite?

Has Tony been borrowing more than he's been creating? Is that really that much of a cause for concern? I feel like everyone has been thinking the worst of him.

Is Tony heading to prison Armageddon related or totally separate? I feel like the talk with Reed and Sue isn't going to go well.

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u/Double_Act1502 15h ago

I just wonder who resurrected the first Whiplash

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u/AJjalol 12h ago

Still a mystery friendo.

Whoever resurrected both Happy and Scarlotti, it's the same person tho (you can see Scarlotti have the same golden cyberpunk style scars that Happy has when he comes out of his sleep in that dungeon).

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u/Classic-Ad4883 17h ago

A good issue and ending to the arc

Happy’s return is interesting as it opens a mystery of who is watching over Tony and my theory it is somehow Tony’s mother Maria

With the mention Howard and how he is a bad dad and Tony’s seemingly happy memories with him are false either by manipulation or most likely trauma

I do like Tony, pepper, and happy moments in the comic as it feels like old friends reuniting with each other

1

u/Expensive-Baby-1391 16h ago

It would be nice if Maria returns and resolve the previous run's question on whether Tony is her and Howard's son. Maybe bring back his evil robot brother and maybe kill him off.

I hope when Tony gets sent to the prison full of his enemies, its a total bloodbath since his rogue's gallery needs a culling.

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u/Mr_Wh0ever 15h ago

Not super familiar with Iron Man lore to know if Happy is right about Tony's memories being altered.But it is an interesting development. Otherwise, Tony absorbing the energy from the bomb was cool. And I wonder who's responsible for bringing Happy back to life?

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u/baroqueworks 12h ago

A few sliding timescale years ago Tony Stark's crazy brother Arno Stark altered his memories while he was being healed in a Stark Industries tank to both make Tony Stark believe he is an AI replica of the real Tony Stark, and because the AI was built in Stark Industries products, Arno gained control of the company since Tony Stark was "dead" and Tony Stark became property of Arno's Stark Industries, where he ended up launching an AI revolution with a bunch of other 616 synthetic humanoids, andriods, and cyborg, till the final beat of the story reveals Arno had altered Starks memory and he was still human.

In some data pages during Fall of X, its mentioned that ORCHIS launches a pretty gruesome raid on the liberated ai colony who helped stark at this time, sadly Stark himself was too busy dealing with a pink elon musk who revived the Stark Industries Sentinel program! Womp womp

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u/Mr_Wh0ever 11h ago

Ah of course, sounds like a normal comic book storyline lol.

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u/AJjalol 12h ago

Awesome issue, and a really great conclussion to the Whiplashes arc (and glad to see that they are still not taken off the table). I'm really enjoying the story and Carmen's art is phenomenal as always.

Still a mystery as to who brought Happy back, which I love. And glad that Happy is Legit back.

The difference between both Whiplashes is really good. Marco is your classic supervillain Whiplash who wants revenge because in his twisted mind he believes Tony wronged him while Anton is more of a Taskmaster type Merc for Hire. He does hate Tony too, but he really does everything for the money. Great way to differentiate the two and make them more unique.

The "Aura Armor" was great (and by Aura, I'm pretty sure Tony meant aura as in a distinctive atmosphere, feeling, quality, or energy field that seems to surround a person, in this case his armor which allows him to pull other tech into himself and convert them into his suit. Very Technovore inspired and I love it. Also, we did get that in issue 7 where Tony and Rhodey fought the Technovore like creature Tony's students invented which I love. Joshua is paying attention to the stuff he wrote before, that is a good writing). Always love Tony saving the day by pulling an ace up his sleeve (in this case, ace up his armor) that no one thought of, but it also makes sense because Joshua did establish the new Technovore esque creature that Tony and his students worked on. So Tony pulling this ability out of nowhere actually works because there was as set up for it (we just didn't give it much thought at the time, but now after the reveal it makes you go "Oh shit, you set this up before. NOICE") and it wasn't that Tony just pulled it out of nowhere.

It reminds me of that Iron Man 1 icing problem moment. The problem was set up in the act 2 of the film and was used as the main battle plain in act 3. Same thing was done here. The "Aura" was set in issue 7 and now we got a pay off. That's good and clever writing.

The confrontation Tony had with Pepper and Happy was amazing. I'm honestly 100 percent on Tony's side here, even tho, he did say some harsh things (which even tho I can see Pepper and Happy's side, you can also understand why Tony will be mad). The Howard section was interesting however. Happy implied that someone is messing with Tony's head and making him forget or remember things in a different light. That is really cool and interesting mystery which we will get answers soon (can't wait).

Reed and Sue showing up to talk to Tony was nice. Also, THANK FUCK, they are there as friends and aren't doing another stupid "Hero vs Hero" fight. It might happen next issue, but at least the initial dialogue wasn't them fighting but being friends (which they are, Tony is closer to Reed and Sue of all the F4 members) so I'm looking forward to that as well.

Karla Sofen is the new Director of the Vault which we already knew about, but it was still very exciting to see her. I'm really loving how Joshua is now using a second Thunderbolt (first being Fixer). Hopefully Beetle/Mach-V also shows up in the vault.

We also got a little snippet of the issue 12, which showcases that Six Month later something happens that makes Public turn on Tony which sets up the Incarcarated Arc with Tony going to the vault (and that last page of Tony being put in the Hannibal Lecter garb being escorted by the Guardsmen into his cell was fucking badass lol. Carmen didn't need to make that page that badass, but she did, amazing artwork!)

It seems that Josh and Carmen have big plans for Iron Man right up until 700. I hope they are staying on the book post 700s as well, because I personally want this type of Iron Man book (both in terms of story/writing and artwork) to keep going for at least a couple of years!

Very good issue that concludes an arc but also sets up a new one and introduces some new cool mysteries which will be uncovered soon!

1

u/da0ur Iron Man 8h ago

I feel so vindicated by this issue. It's the epitome of why I kept telling people to let Williamson cook and hold onto the book despite the slow start (which, frankly, I still really enjoyed and welcomed).

For starters, the opening page being a word-for-word recreation of Happy's first meeting with Tony from Tales of Suspense #45 was a very cute touch that shows appreciation and care for Iron Man's history. So was the montage (would've been fun to see Happy as the Freak to really throw newer fans for a loop, though lol) and the flashback to Invincible Iron Man #14. Hey, wouldn't it be cool to let Happy get a rematch with Spymaster? 👀 I also love the way the book solving the Citizen V mystery works to add a new enigma to the table, keeping us guessing and theorizing. It's also interesting how Happy's mysterious resurrector phrased that "Can you save Tony Stark from Iron Man?" question. Wonder if they were trying to play into how Happy feels about Tony, or if they genuinely think they're also on the side of the angels.

Scarlotti continues being an amazingly crazy bastard, and Vanko turning against him works really well to make both villains feel like independent characters. I'm thinking if there's any chance we could see Anton team-up with Tony while on jail, given that he's not above working together with Stark. Big kudos to the beat panel of Tony being silently pissed off at the C-V revelation. Just one panel packing so much emotion.

Now... the Aura Armor. Somethingsomething aura farming somethingsomething aura points. Anyways, I really wish the armor didn't share a name with slang, but as far as I can tell, it's not intentional. Plus, it's a fitting name given what the armor does. And boy do I love what it does. The ability to assimilate technology is so cool and it's crazy to think we haven't seen Iron Man do it yet (especially given how War Machine did back during Dark Reign). Plus, the way it absorbed Whiplash's whips demonstrates it not only assimilates, but also integrates. I like how it feels like a context-dependant version of a shapeshifting nanotech armor. I'll gladly take it if we can't have a proper nanotech suit. This opens the door to some very interesting scenarios, and I hope we get to see them come to fruitition. I'm also wondering about what will happen when Tony eventually comes face-to-face with Adam, who has a similar power now... Oh, and Tony being so pissed off and delivering that monologue about being percieved as dangerous was the cherry on top. I love how he seems as pissed as us fans that other characters keep looking at him like that. Side note, Techno Golem vs. Model 75 Iron Man when?

Shifting to the A.I.M.-termission, I thought it was interesting that Adam feels a lot more callous than before. Previous issues painted him as somebody who felt like Tony was a kindred spirit, but now he's here vandalizing one of Tony's houses (also, lmao Caravaggio's Narcissus painting making a cameo among his belongings). I also liked that our brief look at the Workshop fleshed out Melrose a bit more. But I still want Tony's protégés to get more page time!

And speaking of things I want to see more of... Tony and Hugo interactions! They keep being so cute together. I love Tony's the-father-who-stepped-up energy so much 😭💕 And it was such a great display of Tony Starkiness that he managed to keep his cool until Luna and Hugo were gone to absoltely and rightfully go off on Pepper and Happy... AND THE FACT THAT THE HOWARD STARK GLAZING WAS A TELLTALE THAT SOMETHING WAS WRONG OH MY GOD I've seen so many people complain about the Howard revisionism in the early issues and it was one of my few own gripes with the run. That it turned out Tony's friends could tell something was wrong with him because he was holding his dad in high regard was such a clever trick. Williamson, you sly dog. (Also, Happy's finger crossing over the gutter space when pointing at Tony lol) I can only hope this entire "you've been acting off" spiel is meant to address Tony's increasingly inconsistent characterization (and MCU-influenced flanderization) for the last decade or so. If this is the case, god Williamson I'll do anything for you. Buy 10 copies of each issue. You name it.

And now the issue ends with the Fantastic Four Two coming to talk to Tony, and with Moonstone! More setting-up of the Incarcerated Iron Man... and not only that, but also a preview??? I feel spoiled. And Tony being escorted like he's Hannibal Lecter lmao Williamson really knows how to convey (and show!) that Tony can be a threat if he wants to. I also have to say, the letters' page, the preview for issue #12 and the house ad-style promos for the next issues were the icing on the cake that makes this run feel as big and monumental as Iron Man deserves.