Iron Man [2020] #6 - Marvel Comics

IRON MAN No. 6, April 2021

Proudly proclaimed by “Marvel Worldwide” as the beginning to Book Two of Korvac, “Dreams Of Deicide” certainly must have pleased some within the comic’s audience, with its sense-shattering start as a mentally scarred Hellcat desperately tries to wheel a fatally-injured Tony Stark off to hospital in a shopping trolley. Indeed, Patsy Walker’s panicky attempt to save the life of her recent lover is probably the highlight of this twenty-page periodical, thanks to the former Defender’s determination to flag down a yellow cab in the pouring rain and Shell-head’s palpable pain whenever his unlikely four-wheeled conveyance clunks off the pavement onto the road.

Disappointingly however, this sense of urgency to get the billionaire industrial medical care soon evaporates once Christopher Cantwell pens Iron Man deciding to simply ‘sit tight’ inside his metal suit and just have Halcyon fuse “my armour’s cervical column rings together” so as to “stabilise the spinal injury and prevent me from suffocating.” This rather disconcerting course of treatment seems incredibly foolhardy, even for someone as egotistical as Stark, and arguably erodes any sense of genuine peril to the titular character when it not only results in the Golden Avenger being able to walk around without any impairment, but immediately afterwards beat the living hell out of an unwise Guardsman with a single punch; “What? I gave him a break. You know you’re not going to stop me. So you’re either with me… Or not.”

Sadly, Issue Six of “Iron Man” also portrays an irate Tony at his sanctimonious worse, with the American author unconvincingly trying to depict the one-time Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. as some greatly wronged victim who, having politely apologised for all his past mistakes, is still being unjustly treated by life. Such a holier-than-thou attitude just doesn’t work, as it’s debatably difficult for any bibliophile to sympathise with this particular incarnation of Shell-head when he cold-heartedly tells the Scarlet Spider that a badly-wounded Gargoyle is now “a waste of my time” after the super-hero lost one of his wings whilst saving the rest of the team’s lives.

Happily though, what this comic lacks in persuasive plot-points it somewhat makes up for with sumptuously-sketched layouts. Cafu’s pencilling is particularly noteworthy during Hellcat’s aforementioned trolley-dash with many readers doubtless feeling the pouring rain actually striking Walker’s colourful costume, as she bundles an uncooperative Iron Man into a taxi.

The regular cover art of "IRON MAN" #6 by Alex Ross