Iron Man [2020] #12 - Marvel Comics

IRON MAN No. 12, November 2021

Wholly centred upon the titular character’s ultimately successful infiltration of Galactus’ multi-decked worldship, Taa II, this twenty-page periodical’s plot certainly must have provided its audience with plenty of sense-shattering shenanigans. In fact, it is difficult to imagine what more Christopher Cantwell could have squeezed into Issue Twelve of “Iron Man”, considering the lengths to which the “massive solar system-sized ship in space” goes to in order to eliminate the two fully-armoured “burglars” wandering through its numerous sectors.

For starters, the American author ensures that this comic contains plenty of sizzling laser beams and a truck-full of micro-missiles – all of which seem intent of shredding both Tony Stark’s alter-ego and Avro-X given half an opportunity. These incredibly dynamic action sequences, marvellously visualised by Angel Unzueta and colour artist Frank D’Armata, really are quite mesmerising to peruse, whilst simultaneously working as an appetiser for an astounding appearance by the World-Eater’s Punisher robots; “Wait, I think your double-A batteries are in backward. Lemme help you switch ‘em.”

Likewise, the television director does a good job penning the arrival of Michael Korvac and Iron Man’s subsequent brutal battering at the hands of the human cyborg’s super-powered minions. This vicious encounter initially seems to be going the Golden Avenger’s way, when he angrily rips one of the false god’s limbs off. However, the combined might of the Unicorn’s “power horn”, and the Controller’s daunting physical strength soon prove to be too great a hurdle for an already badly beaten Shell-head to overcome.

Perhaps therefore this comic’s sole disappointment lies in the impotence of ‘guest-star’ Colin Richard, who despite wearing a state-of-the-art battlesuit, is instantly shown to be well out of his depth when it comes to exploring Galactus’ deadly home or facing the diabolical power of the utterly insane Korvac. True, the Canadian Major’s inability to avoid one of the worldship’s opening salvos definitely helps show just how much more experienced Stark is when it comes to tackling intergalactic threats. But ultimately Avro-X appears to have been solely included within “Let Us Now Cross Over” simply so Cantwell can have someone within the storyline’s secondary cast horribly murdered by the maniacal Michael.

The regular cover art of "IRON MAN" #12 by Alex Ross

Iron Man [2020] #11 - Marvel Comics

IRON MAN No. 11, October 2021

Whilst Christopher Cantwell’s narrative for “Walking Away From Omelas” undeniably brings Tony Stark’s adventure upon the “remote planet where he’s been marooned” to a concise conclusion, it is hard to imagine many within this comic’s audience being particularly persuaded by the numerous contrivances which the Chicago-born writer utilises in order to do so. Sure, this twenty-page periodical also contains a thoroughly enjoyable bout of pulse-pounding pugilism between Iron Man and Stilt-Man, but once it becomes clear just what is motivating Wilbur Day to ‘kill off his own loyal subjects’ using Ultimos, even this brutal battle appears disappointingly unconvincing, and manufactured simply to give the book an epic-looking ending.

To begin with the American author would have this publication’s readers believe that the "competent" super-villain somehow managed to make his own way to the distant astronomical body from Earth with a premeditated plan, and subsequently created/adapted the Interference Beam used to kidnap numerous hapless colonists thousands of miles from their homes. He then fortuitously “learned how to reprogram” the millennia old alien robots inhabiting the world so as to use them to cull the settlement’s population down whenever he realised he’d abducted too many to control.

In addition, Day also remarkably heard Stark’s S.O.S. signal from outer space, and decided to bring his arch-nemesis down to his personal nirvana simply to show the billionaire inventor what a great job he was doing in leading the ramshackle colony. Such revelations are debatably utterly bizarre, even if it is made crystal clear that the former Emissary of Evil is barking mad. And none of this nonsensical exposition helps to explain why the Living Tribunal enigmatically ‘pops up out of nowhere’ to helpfully transport Shell-head to “the worldship of Galactus before Korvac has even arrived”; “I’ll go. But only if you send all the people on this planet home.”

Agreeably, at least Issue Eleven of “Iron Man” contains some prodigious pencilling by Angel Unzueta, who does an absolutely cracking job in depicting Stilt-Man’s aforementioned scrap with the titular character. However, the inclusion of “everyone’s favourite armoured Canadian hero, Avro-X” does lead to some confusion as the bearded Colin Richard is the spitting image of Tony when not encased within his personal battle-suit, and is disconcertingly not even that dissimilar in appearance to the Golden Avenger when the Major in the Armed Forces is wearing it.

The regular cover art of "IRON MAN" #11 by Alex Ross