There’s several books, particularly at Marvel, that can give All New Wolverine a run for its money when it comes to delivering fun and engaging humor, and there’s several books under the Batman group at DC that are exploring the toughest realities in a humane and nuanced way, but there aren’t any better at integrating both qualities into a single book. All New Wolverine is the pound for pound best superhero comic on the stands today.
All-New Wolverine #1 confidently establishes its premise, visual style through the slash-style layouts of David Lopez, and even comic relief in the interactions between Angel and Laura. Writer Tom Taylor and Lopez show Laura Kinney own the mantle of Wolverine as soon as she pulls off her overcoat and wears his original blue and yellow costume in the crowded streets of Paris with colorist Nathan Fairbarn blending the costume’s yellow with the twilight skyline. All-New Wolverine #1 acknowledges X-23’s past while laying the foundation for her redemption-tinged rise to the name and costume of Wolverine and has a freshness that hasn’t been present in a Wolverine comic since he was wandering around a barren wasteland fighting in-bred Hulks.
Tony Stark’s path towards shaping the world in his own image continues in the pages of Superior Iron Man. For those not up to speed, the golden Avenger, Tony Stark, has found his personality inverted. Now with a carefree playboy attitude, sinister cunning, and a shiny new suit fused with a symbiote, the Superior Iron Man is set to wipe out a portion of the Earth’s population to ensure environmental stability. There’s only two people in his way, first is his former right hand woman Pepper Potts and the other is, well, himself. A copy of Tony Stark’s own mind from eight years ago is his secret contingency plan walking around in the Silver Centurion armor. The war between man and machine is waged and only one can come out on top.
After taking out fellow San Franciscan hero Daredevil and putting would-be villain Teen Abomination at his side, the superior Tony Stark is close to unstoppable. There’s only one person with the gumption to take him back from the fold and that’s Pepper Potts. Her ultimate weapon is Tony’s own contingency plan a Mark II Iron Man armor with the mind of an eight years younger Stark. It’s a battle of the wills between the superior and inferior.
Superior Iron Man returns. While it is entry lacks a great deal of the edge that has made the book so compelling, it carries through a lot of the series’ promise. The issue opens up in good form, as Tony Stark strong-arms the American military to buy blueprints to a superweapon else he sell them to Russia or China. However this is the issue where Pepper Potts finally steps to rival her employer turned mad man. Tom Taylor, as always, injects his characters with rich personality and charm. However Teen Abomination, who received an extended origin last issue, has little to do beyond act the role of a wall of muscle. Pepper Potts reads like she’s missing a few traits, though she is trying to stand strong in what Tony himself would deem a nightmare scenario.
Perhaps it’s just coincidence, but it seems February has become a month where Marvel releases issues to ongoing series set in between arcs which fall a bit short of expectations and a fill in artist impersonating the person they’re filling in for. It’s certainly the case with Superior Iron Man with the conclusion to the Daredevil vs. Tony Stark battle that has made up the series thus far. Yildiray Cinar signs off this issue and in his place is Laura Braga. What makes this issue stand out from the pack is how laid back it is. It’s a mostly using Superior Iron Man as a frame to tell the origin of supporting character, Teen Abomination.
Superior Iron Man returns to spinner racks and this time with one of the most politically charged and hard hitting issues to date. If the idea of Tony Stark donning Apple styled armor and being hailed as San Francisco’s technological messiah wasn’t on the point enough, this issue puts on the brass knuckles and starts giving out political gut punches. Tony Stark unveils the next stage of his Extremis 3 program, Iron Sight, a mass of flying camera drones with the private information of everyone in the city with specific programing to protect only those who can afford Extremis in the first place. Yep, all within the span of five pages, Tom Taylor sounds off against drone warfare, street monitoring, excessive police action, corporate control of law enforcement, online privacy, and data mining, and he doesn’t give an inch. This sort of brutal takedown is the breed of futurist thinking which lesser writers either lack the intelligence or gall to do. Yet Taylor does it as an opening act.
Superior Iron Man #3 Written by Tom Taylor Art by Yildiray Cinar Published by Marvel Comics Superior Iron Man continues with its excellent character inversion of the beloved Tony Stark. The meat of the issue is mostly a single conversation between the titular “hero” and Daredevil. It’s a direct follow up from the last installment …
2014 was an incredibly rewarding year to be a comics reader. Veteran creators, like Grant Morrison, Kurt Busiek, and Matt Wagner continued to churn out some of the best work of their career while new creators, like Noelle Stevenson, Babs Tarr, and Tula Lotay had very strong starts. Marvel and DC published their fair share of events, including Original Sin, …
Superior Iron Man #2 Written by Tom Taylor Art by Yildiray Cinar Superior Iron Man leads right off from Tony Stark getting the entire city of San Francisco addicted to a new form of Extremis, which enhances one’s physical condition and charging it $99.99 a day. The city is thrown into chaos as people fight …
Jumping out of the pages of Marvel’s still ongoing event Avengers & X-Men: AXIS, Superior Iron Man marks a new status quo for the armored hero. Tony Stark was hit by a mental wave created by Doctor Strange and the Scarlet Witch, altering his personality into slightly sinister version of himself from his pre-superhero days.
Earth 2 #28 Written by Tom Taylor & Marguerite Bennett Art by Alisson Borges, Andy Smith, Trevor Scott, Javier Fernandez, Diogenes Neves, & Marc Deering Published by DC Comics This month’s issue of Earth 2 does something quite unexpected by focusing on the Furies of Apokolips. A major question that’s loomed over this series since …
With the launch of a weekly series, Earth 2 marches onward with Tom Taylor at the helm alongside Earth 2: World’s End co-writer, Marguerite Bennett. Sadly, this issue marks the departure of long term artist Nicola Scott, who is replaced by Andy Smith. His work is commendable, but isn’t quite able to leave the Nicola Scott shaped hole in the series.
There aren’t many ethnic minority characters in comics, so there is something heartening about seeing Val-Zod, a person with dark skin, sporting a symbol as important to comics as that of the House of El. In the nightmare world of Earth 2, where the world’s greatest heroes are no more and the best of them has been corrupted by Darkseid, this young boy may be the best hope that world has.