The Invincible Iron Man - #18

The Invincible Iron Man - #18
Here it is, the penultimate issue of Matt Fraction’s classic storyline. I say classic in that unless Fraction gives up completely on plotting the last issue of this story arc, this will go down as one of those runs where if someone asks for a good Iron Man story, you will tell them about World’s Most Wanted.
The issue picks up where the last issue concluded with Tony in Afghanistan, almost completely devoid of his knowledge. We have Maria Hill and The Black Widow in a H.A.M.M.E.R. cell in Avenger’s Tower and the former armor, Rescue, of Pepper Potts being held by Norman Osborn.
The majority of the issue is limited down to just two threads. We have the Afghanistan plot line and the Tower plot line. The Tower plotline is not entirely what is expected. Instead of being focused on the escape operation of Maria and Black Widow, instead we are given a story of a former SHIELD operative locating Tony Stark and feeling terrible about doing his job and reporting to Norman. Despite this being an Iron Man book, the emotional core of this issue is held entirely by this operative Christopher Walsh. It is a testament to Fraction’s writing that in the span of a single issue I completely cared about this character and found his conflict perplexing. Every single panel of this character feels like someone who hates themselves but keeps doing their work because it is their job. This has a lot to do with some of Salvador Larroca’s art. He has casted Walsh with a sorrow and emotion that most characters (and let’s face it, actors) can’t portray. You will be convinced that this is a man completely tortured by the conflict before him even without words. In fact some of the best material comes when he doesn’t have any words. It is also during these scenes that we get the single most Norman Osborn moment that Fraction has written. I’ve been on the fence about Norman’s portrayal in this book but with the line “I’m Norman Osborn. That’s all the authorization I need.” And then he winks at the reader. In this small, almost insignificant moment, I completely believe this is Norman Osborn and not a writer trying to write Norman.
Now in close second for emotional moment of the issue is Tony Stark’s interaction with kids in Afghanistan. And I am going to be honest, I saw this sequence begin and I was ready for this to be a clichéd moment just before we get to the final act of the World’s Most Wanted storyline. But instead, we have Fraction proving he was born to write Stark by keeping him consistent with everything that has been established about Stark in Fraction’s run and in general by recent writers.
Larrocca’s art needs to be addressed. Other than Walsh, most of his people look off. Most of them have the same head shape but more dramatically contrasting is the look of Tony Stark without his shirt on. He doesn’t look like a person. He looks like a cracked rock and this is a problem. That is not to say that all of his art is bad. All of his machines and settings look great. He can draw an Iron Man Armor like no other, but he really needs to improve his people.
8.9