written by Brian Michael Bendis
drawn by A Whole Lot of People including Stefano Caselli, David Marquez, Leinil Yu, Jim Cheung and Mark Bagley to name a few
colored by A Whole Lot of People including Marte Gracia among many others
I don't quite feel qualified to review this issue given that I have not followed Bendis' Iron Man book since I finished his first five-issue arc on it with David Marquez many years ago. That said, Chris Sprouse's cover reached out and grabbed me (and in fact, I briefly mistook it for another Ed McGuinness masterpiece) and I thought it would be a fun read, as I had some time to kill.
In brief, this book ties up Bendis' tenure on the title quite neatly, bringing Tony Stark back from the coma he was in after the events of Civil War II, bringing Rhodey back from the dead, where he had been since just before Civil War II, and stages a grand climax in which the newly-returned Tony and Rhodey, with the help of Victor Von Doom, face off against Parker Robbins, a.k.a. the Hood, who was just on the verge of taking control of Stark Industries. In the background, Tony's biological father, who apparently wasn't Howard Stark but a HYDRA agent named Jude, confronts Tony's biological mother, who apparently wasn't Maria Stark but a SHIELD agent named Amanda and things get ugly. It all wraps up neatly--perhaps a bit too neatly--in the end. Tony's protege Riri Williams, who was actually the lead character of this series for a while, will now head off to another book and Tony will resume his heroics as Iron Man.
Like I said, I have virtually no context for how this issue plays out as part of a larger tapestry, but as a single issue, I have to say quite honestly that it reads like a total clusterf**k and a deplorable example of the "jam" issues that Bendis was so fond of during his now-ended Marvel tenure. Having read a far superior pair of "jam" issues from Mark Waid and a gaggle of extremely talented artists which were structured much more sensibly, I really have a sense of how Bendis' "jam" issues are really nothing more than Bendis showing off how much clout he has with top-level artists, i.e. he can ask them to come on over and squirt ink all over his books.
In truth, the last time I truly enjoyed Bendis was when he created Miles Morales in 2011, but really, as far as I'm concerned he lost his "mojo" not too long after that. His dialogue is tiresome, and the visual presentation and structure of this issue are just plain sloppy, and not the sort of thing you'd expect from all of these top-tier creators. His nearly two-decade Marvel run, during which he has written just about all of the major characters and more than a few minor ones, has definitely had its fair share of highlights for me, but it's really long past time he's moved on and I'll be more than happy to see other creators stomping around the Marvel Printed Universe now.
I'm just sorry he had to go out on such a weak note.
6/10
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