REVIEW: Iron Man #5

[CBR News]

"Iron Man" #5 presents another tightly plotted standalone script written by Kieron Gillen unfortunately mishandled by art from Greg Land.


Full review here.

[Nitz the Bloody]

So far the transition from Fraction to Gillen reminds me of the transition of Morrison to Whedon on X-Men, where a meticulously plotted, ingeniously iconoclastic, emotionally brutal, and outright stellar run on the franchise is followed by a conservative return to the traditional super heroics, by a writer who could definitely do better. Except that Whedon's Astonishing X-Men had John Cassaday on the artwork, who created beautiful imagery, sold all the emotional beats, and made convincing new costumes despite the regression back to spandex. Here we have Greg Land, who makes everything come across as superficial and sucks the life out of the potentially interesting characters and ideas.

I was even going to give Land the benefit of the doubt because he actually didn't draw Pepper with a porn face, but instead he recycles her same expression, which in this case makes her look like she's constantly sucking on a lemon.

[TonyStark1012]

So far the transition from Fraction to Gillen reminds me of the transition of Morrison to Whedon on X-Men, where a meticulously plotted, ingeniously iconoclastic, emotionally brutal, and outright stellar run on the franchise is followed by a conservative return to the traditional super heroics, by a writer who could definitely do better. Except that Whedon's Astonishing X-Men had John Cassaday on the artwork, who created beautiful imagery, sold all the emotional beats, and made convincing new costumes despite the regression back to spandex. Here we have Greg Land, who makes everything come across as superficial and sucks the life out of the potentially interesting characters and ideas.

Very very good comparison Nitz! Well said. Although I really did love this issue. I liked how Land drew the space armor and enjoyed the page where Tony was flying above Earth and the last page with him flying off. I really thought that this was a well done done in one story. Now bring on The Godkiller arc and Guardians of the Galaxy. Tony in space! CANNOT FRIGGING WAIT!

[Nitz the Bloody]

Very very good comparison Nitz! Well said. Although I really did love this issue. I liked how Land drew the space armor and enjoyed the page where Tony was flying above Earth and the last page with him flying off. I really thought that this was a well done done in one story. Now bring on The Godkiller arc and Guardians of the Galaxy. Tony in space! CANNOT FRIGGING WAIT!

....unfortunately, I didn't even find that scene impressive. Probably because Land's idea of drawing the suit with a rocket booster pack was to take the infamous "smokestacks from the Heroes Return Iron Man and flip them upside-down. It's especially depressing compared to Salvador Larroca, who surely would've knocked out some kind of insane masterpiece of techno-organic design just to draw a simple jetpack.

[Paladin King]

Yeah....this wasn't very good.

This issue probably had the most human faces in it of any issue thus far, which meant the art was truly deplorable. Pepper looked like a mannequin, Tony's facial features changed dramatically from panel-to-panel...yeah. Also, the new armor is ugly as sin. Guru eFx's colors aren't doing it for me either - what the hell is with that horridly unattractive orange/pink combo he uses for his flesh tones? Yuck.

Writing-wise, the first half of the issue is jam-packed with exposition from a character we're given no reason to be invested in. Then, in the second half of the issue, I still can't quite pin down Tony's stated logic for wanting to take the Extremis suit...first it's because it's just dangerous and people shouldn't work with things that are that dangerous, then it's simply because Tony doesn't think they have enough security, and finally it's just because Gillen has Tony come up with some crackpot theory where mankind must be forced to make all discoveries and advances the hardest way possible...or it doesn't mean anything. None of these arguments made even a lick of sense.

I want to like this book...but thus far, it's just not been very good. Hopefully it gets better now that Gillen is going back to traditional story-arcs, so he can flesh things out a bit more. Being in space also, hopefully, means fewer human faces for Land to draw and entire issues of Tony in armour.

[TonyStark1012]

....unfortunately, I didn't even find that scene impressive. Probably because Land's idea of drawing the suit with a rocket booster pack was to take the infamous "smokestacks from the Heroes Return Iron Man and flip them upside-down. It's especially depressing compared to Salvador Larroca, who surely would've knocked out some kind of insane masterpiece of techno-organic design just to draw a simple jetpack.

Oh I agree with you on Larroca, but I think this armor was some of Land's best work so far on this title. Again not a huge fan of his, but did enjoy Tony's new space armor.

[thirdfalcon]

I'm really liking the direction of this book, and I think Tony going into space to find inspiration is going to be good. I can see where people are coming from with Land, and I think he not ideal for something that needs to convey subtle emotions considering that this is about Tony exploring his spiritual side. However, I was able to get past that and caught up in the sense of exploration that Gillan was going for here.

I don't think the art is so bad that it ruins everything else. It's fine when he's in the suit. It's really just the facial expressions that bothered me.

btw Was that Obediah Stane? I thought he was dead.

[USERNAME TAKEN]

This book was ok.

Land's tech art is actually pretty brilliant, his people, not so much.

I am curious to follow Stark's space adventures though.

[Vic Vega]

Yeah....this wasn't very good.

This issue probably had the most human faces in it of any issue thus far, which meant the art was truly deplorable. Pepper looked like a mannequin, Tony's facial features changed dramatically from panel-to-panel...yeah. Also, the new armor is ugly as sin. Guru eFx's colors aren't doing it for me either - what the hell is with that horridly unattractive orange/pink combo he uses for his flesh tones? Yuck.

Writing-wise, the first half of the issue is jam-packed with exposition from a character we're given no reason to be invested in. Then, in the second
half of the issue, I still can't quite pin down Tony's stated logic for wanting to take the Extremis suit...first it's because it's just dangerous and people shouldn't work with things that are that dangerous, then it's simply because Tony doesn't think they have enough security, and finally it's just because Gillen has Tony come up with some crackpot theory where mankind must be forced to make all discoveries and advances the hardest way possible...or it doesn't mean anything. None of these arguments made even a lick of sense.

I want to like this book...but thus far, it's just not been very good. Hopefully it gets better now that Gillen is going back to traditional story-arcs, so he can flesh things out a bit more. Being in space also, hopefully, means fewer human faces for Land to draw and entire issues of Tony in armour.

Tony would have taken the Extremis no matter what. His reasons were only him justifying it.

Pretty much he took the Extremis back because Maya was killed creating it and he sympathizes with her.

Now she was no paragon of virtue herself and aside from the Lovecraftean nutters last issue, every last one of
these dudes are better than Maya who was a terrorist herself.

But she was Tony's buddy,so I guess the rest doesn't matter to Tony.

[Nitz the Bloody]

Tony would have taken the Extremis no matter what. His reasons were only him justifying it.

Pretty much he took the Extremis back because Maya was killed creating it and he sympathizes with her.

Now she was no paragon of virtue herself and aside from the Lovecraftean nutters last issue, every last one of
these dudes are better than Maya who was a terrorist herself.

But she was Tony's buddy,so I guess the rest doesn't matter to Tony.

That, and he just doesn't feel comfortable speaking ill of the dead, especially the recently dead.

[Starocotes]

I'm really liking the direction of this book, and I think Tony going into space to find inspiration is going to be good. I can see where people are coming from with Land, and I think he not ideal for something that needs to convey subtle emotions considering that this is about Tony exploring his spiritual side. However, I was able to get past that and caught up in the sense of exploration that Gillan was going for here.

I don't think the art is so bad that it ruins everything else. It's fine when he's in the suit. It's really just the facial expressions that bothered me.

btw Was that Obediah Stane? I thought he was dead.

No, it was a new character. Have a look at Kierons notes:
http://gillen.cream.org/wordpress_ht...on-iron-man-5/

Kieron also noted that he sees Lands art more like Tony's "view" into the world. So every woman more or less looks like a supermodel to him.