Fraction Bids Farewell to the "Invincible Iron Man"

[CBR News]

With the final issue of his and Sal Larocca's "Invincible Iron Man" fast approaching, Matt Fraction takes a look back at his time writing the armored Avenger and his memorable supporting players. Plus, exclusive art!


Full article here.

[Lemurion]

I'm glad it's ending. I've enjoyed many Iron Man runs over the years, but Fraction's take on him always felt dreary. Just turned me off completely. (Now the Knauf's book was good.)

[Vagabond]

I'm glad it's ending. I've enjoyed many Iron Man runs over the years, but Fraction's take on him always felt dreary. Just turned me off completely. (Now the Knauf's book was good.)

My sentiments exactly. Bring on Gillen!

[Expletive Deleted]

It's been a good run. Not without its flaws (inconsistent pacing, stiff art), but overall I've enjoyed it. I hope his supporting cast, especially the Resilient crew, sticks around to some extent.

[Destro777]

An amazing run - possibly the best Ironman run ever. I havent read any better. Much respect to Larocca for penciling every issue (pretty sure D'armata colored every one too) - you do not see this in modern comics and needs much applause.

[xheight]

Don't let the door hit you on the way out. Sheesh. Looking over my now near extinct blog I realize it hasn't been just my life that got in the way but month after month of a slick writer who thought he could have Tony be all things to everyone and wound up making bogus excuses for the character. It started with the presumptive If I was the CEO and got to this flaw which really hasn't been there before in "His pride, his flaw, his damage, stood in the way of him doing the good thing. She wasn't armed with all the facts. So his fundamental character flaw is that he can't ask for help. He's pathologically incapable of it. And people always pay the price."

[Vic Vega]

Fraction was writening Robert Downey Jr's Stark

Considering how popular the movies were, it was only natural for Marvel to turn that into the offical version.

[Memphis Raines]

So glad to hear this!!! This run started off nicely but quickly got boring and slow. It really was a chore to read each month, and The only reason I didn't drop it is because I love the character. I trust that Gillen will do something completely different with this book and make Iron Man and his adventures fun and exciting again.

Iron Man is one of Marvel's most important characters and one of the most versatile and powerful characters in all of comics. There's absolutely no reason at all why his title should be so boring, slow, and dreary.

[Memphis Raines]

Fraction was writening Robert Downey Jr's Stark

Considering how popular the movies were, it was only natural for Marvel to turn that into the offical version.

I think that's what he was Trying to do, but even Robert Downey Jr.'s Iron Man was better and more exciting that Fraction's; a lot of times, it's really hard to make something like RDJ's personality and demeanor that goes over well on screen with moving pictures and much quicker pacing translate well to the pages of a monthly comic.

Also, as someone else mentioned, Larocca is not a bad artist at all and he deserves props for drawing every issue at consistently high quality, especially is this day and age. But I realized I was really bored with his art and that it was detracting from an already bad story when he re-designed Iron Man's rogue's gallery and EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM from Blizzard to Chemistro to the Living Laser looked EXACTLY the same and were only distinguishable by color. The Fear Itself elf stuff was pretty awful and almost made me drop, but this slow ass, badly designed "Mandarian and the rogues" stuff is really when I knew this title needed a new creative team.

[Paladin King]

Kind of surprised to see all the hate. I've been reading Fraction's monthly since issue 6 or so, and I've loved it. It's a really great book. It got slow for a while, but the last two arcs have been fantastic.

[CMBMOOL]

Good riddance to bad rubbish.

Now Fantastic Four and FF, I hope Fraction can work well in.

I hope as a fan of the She-hulk, that Fraction will do okay with her.

[z1co80]

Kind of surprised to see all the hate. I've been reading Fraction's monthly since issue 6 or so, and I've loved it. It's a really great book. It got slow for a while, but the last two arcs have been fantastic.

Yeah, Although i haven't been reading Fraction's Iron Man i was under the impression it was supposed to be quite good.

[Nitz the Bloody]

Don't let the door hit you on the way out. Sheesh. Looking over my now near extinct blog I realize it hasn't been just my life that got in the way but month after month of a slick writer who thought he could have Tony be all things to everyone and wound up making bogus excuses for the character. It started with the presumptive If I was the CEO and got to this flaw which really hasn't been there before in "His pride, his flaw, his damage, stood in the way of him doing the good thing. She wasn't armed with all the facts. So his fundamental character flaw is that he can't ask for help. He's pathologically incapable of it. And people always pay the price."

Cases where Tony's been unable to ask for help when he probably should've, pre-Fraction;

-- Tony's first bout with alcoholism, where he was only able to ask for Bethany's help getting dry when she confronted him

-- Tony's second bout with alcoholism, where he pretty much dropped off the face of the Earth and refused every attempt to help him

-- The Armor Wars, when Tony didn't tell any of the West Coast Avengers why he was doing what he was doing, even though the help of both teams would've worked better than a lone crusade

-- The period in Busiek's run when Tony's armor was killing him, and he kept up the Iron Man chores despite that (instead of trying to find a temporary replacement)

-- Tony's Extremis-induced breakdown in the Knaufs' Execute Program, where he became increasingly secretive and paranoid and wasn't able to seek help until he was being controlled into killing people

-- Tony's second Extremis-induced breakdown in Haunted, where he didn't seek any help until he was suspended from his Director job

-- Avengers Disassembled, when Tony disbanded the Avengers out of guilt without consulting anyone else, and didn't restart the team until Cap coaxed him into it

-- Civil War, when Tony acted unilaterally to try and diffuse the SHRA from within, without actually explaining his intentions to anyone else and just acting like a Tin Hitler

-- The Secret Invasion (albeit with just cause, because he didn't know who he could trust)

[xheight]

It is a far cry from rugged individualism (and Fraction's attempt pathologize it along with the defense industry) and being unwilling to get help or work with people. Granted Tony does have a pathology in his alcoholism but that not caused his loner point of view but a symptom of it. Frankly few do have the ability to see the world from Tony's POV. As to your examples let's look at the errors of interpretation.

Cases where Tony's been unable to ask for help when he probably should've, pre-Fraction;?????
-- Tony's first bout with alcoholism, where he was only able to ask for Bethany's help getting dry when she confronted him

As noted the disease/pathology of Alcoholism is fueled by denial and that there is a problem at all; and really what could Bethany have done. Not to put the point Beth but cases have shown that real help comes not from reaching out to people in general but to be with experience in addictive behavior. More often an intervention not reaching out is the path to help. Tony helping Carol rather than Carol reaching out to Tony.

-- Tony's second bout with alcoholism, where he pretty much dropped off the face of the Earth and refused every attempt to help him

This is perhaps the only genuine and natural instance of isolation rather than individualism or alcoholism but one has to factor in the situation as much as the nature of the man before calling it a flaw. The depression and following isolation that resulted in the collapse of Stark's business was major part of the storyline of Tony's downward spiral.

-- The Armor Wars, when Tony didn't tell any of the West Coast Avengers why he was doing what he was doing, even though the help of both teams would've worked better than a lone crusade.

While one can't argue that Tony acted on his own it is also hard to ignore that it was a Stark owned tech problem that like property rights center on the individual. Calling it a crusade strikes the wrong note about an ideology at promoted rather than rights or principle defended. Tony was an aggrieved party and that is hard to convey much less get someone to fully empathize toward action. Doing the right thing while not having much understand or backing is often thought of as dickish but again is that a flaw?

-- The period in Busiek's run when Tony's armor was killing him, and he kept up the Iron Man chores despite that (instead of trying to find a temporary replacement)

I think the replacement situation has been tried before (Eddie March and James Rhodes) and offered up its own guilt trips and questions about responsibility. If one follows Armor wars as an extension of propriety and ownership than so goes the role of being Iron Man.
If that a flaw or heroism? From the start Tony's heart was always at risk.

-- Tony's Extremis-induced breakdown in the Knaufs' Execute Program, where he became increasingly secretive and paranoid and wasn't able to seek help until he was being controlled into killing people.

One of the points of the story was that Extremis took Tony to extreme levels beyond his norm. And what superhero who has ever had secret id or a CEO not had something to be secretive and paranoid about.

-- Tony's second Extremis-induced breakdown in Haunted, where he didn't seek any help until he was suspended from his Director job

Tony or extremis manipulated by the Mandy? I think we can agree that as a theme isolation and going it alone are called upon as questions to the whole enterprise of heroism but Fraction goes too far in tagging Tony with it as a personal flaw.

-- Avengers Disassembled, when Tony disbanded the Avengers out of guilt without consulting anyone else, and didn't restart the team until Cap coaxed him into it

I think this is really reaching for unilateralism as some sort of flaw as the anti-SHRA avengers showed that Tony's bankroll does not a team make. He only put to voice what others felt in the Disassembled conclusin.

-- Civil War, when Tony acted unilaterally to try and diffuse the SHRA from within, without actually explaining his intentions to anyone else and just acting like a Tin Hitler.

Factually not correct and that Tony eventually led the effort is a function of his leadership not his isolation as we must recall that Richards and Pym were along side with others backing Law and public safety in coming together behind SHRA.

-- The Secret Invasion (albeit with just cause, because he didn't know who he could trust)

If anything it also showed that while Tony could be secretive as in the case of the Illuminati he worked with tight groups up until they were proven failures.

At best one can say that Tony leads a solitary life out of the roles he leads as much as out of personal preference or flaws.
Part of the problen with Fraction is that he acted like a villian by turning what extent Tony has internalized the roles he has into personal demon's and failings spoke to the readership as a new low for the character.

[Timmy]

This is one of those weird series where it reads much better in trade over floppies. I am looking forward to borrowing the full collection when it comes out and reading it over the course of a couple days before I make my judgment on this run