In the den of the lion, the Man of Iron..!

[thanekos]

With last week's #11 concluding both Iron Man Legacy's Industrial Revolution arc and the series as a whole, I'm left disappointed it led with War of the Iron Men.

While that arc gave us rampant Starktech misuse, deft usage of nationalistic superhumans, and Gyrich catching Pepper using a Tony LMD in the worst way possible, it still wasn't as different as Industrial Revolution or as potentially interesting as the formerly next-up Arno Stark arc or the "Tony vs magic" mentioned in initial interviews.

And yes, Iron Man/Thor and that one What If take on that last one after a fashion, but I'd still have liked to see Legacy's take if not just for van Lente's ability to exploit a story concept pretty damn well as Industrial Revolution demonstrated.

I got drawn into it because it promised a down-and-out Circuits Maximus era Tony turning his talents to building another company for the purpose of revitalizing a neighborhood, in the process going head-to-head with the gutter neighborhood's secret masters- LA's own cabal of diverse villainy, the Pride.



Not that there wasn't entertainment in seeing Tony and the Pride fight with seminars and sanctions, with improvised weapons and Serpent Society stand-ins, but I was just waiting for the misinformation to clear and for both of them to confront each other a bit more directly.

#9's end, happily, set that up with the Pride's own necessity; the Gibborim had come calling again, and hadn't Stark made a female acquaintance perfect for dealing with both them and him..?

#10's beginning exposited on that for those new to their premise:



(Ah, Tamara.. 99% "rational cynical woman burdened with caring for a severely mentally ill brother", 1% "Is that a black midget in that robot?!" Heck of a woman for Tony to dally with.)

And Geoffrey Wilder, in turn, sent to Tony in the depths of his LAPD-sieged factory: "Come alone.. or at dawn [your friends] die."



Whose tech is he using, anyway? Probably either the Steins' or the Yorkes'.

(And wow, the pencils got cleaner.. I suppose the change in penciller might've been an indication, in retrospect.)



("Her Brotherhood"; love van Lente's depiction of the Pride's awareness of power dynamics outside their reach. It helps to sell their actions in this arc as misjudgement, the shadows' limitations, and Geoffrey just needing a good gloat or three.)

The gloves're off for both of them, now; Tony comes roaring in through the doors in his golf suit, and Mister Yorkes takes out a whistle:



To summon.. well, let another Alex Wilder one-page cameo show you:



Tony puts the dinosaur down (it was hardly Fin Fang Foom) and handily cleans house, overcoming the Steins' kinetic drainer (thanking his armor) and fending off the Deans in midair:



It's the Minorus who bring him down with a handy magic little restrainer and power drainer.

All seems lost for Tony now, until he falls back on his mouth, opining on the Gibborim and the Rite of Thunder..

..leading them to wonder just HOW he knows that much:



(The Steins having had a first-name acquaintance with Tony at some point makes a surprising amount of sense.

Also, love Geoffrey recognizing his own mistakes.)

And just who the hell VROOOM'd on in:



(The Majesdanians must've done the Sh'iar wrong at some point or another.)

Alas, it is not some nonexistent vengeful Majestor S'kif, but:



Yup, Tony's br(i/ou)ght friends!

(Whose presence in the overall arc makes sense; we'd've called Tony stupid for not accepting/invoking them if he hadn't, and it essentially being two cabals going at it makes it work anyway.)

#11 chronicles their battle, and the end of the arc; you can guess what happens to the Pride, how that plays out in the long term with respect to their status quo, and maybe what happens to Tony's new factory.

I suppose there just wasn't a market for self-contained Iron Man stories.. ah well, Fraction manages to weave shared continuity in well enough.

It's why I've got my eye on #501-#502, after all.. and maybe #503.

Comments

[proteus_lives]

"Gyrich catching Pepper using a Tony LMD in the worst way possible"

Oh, this I gotta see. Scans please.

[blackruzsa]

Is that the French maid outfit thing?

[cainofdreaming]

"Gyrich catching Pepper using a Tony LMD in the worst way possible"

Cleaning the toilets, doing her nails, hanging the laundry, washing the dishes, etc, while dressed in a maid's uniform? Yes, please, that's a sight I don't want to miss either.

What? It's not like my mind's not dirty enough without going for the obvious.

[silverzeo]

It sad to learn that villains are teaming up and ending up being a mock "Team Channel Awesome" knock-offs...

Team Channel Awesome

[nefrekeptah]

...what are you talking about? This is actually pretty consistent with how the Pride were originally portrayed.

Re: Team Channel Awesome

[daningram.insanejournal.com]

I dunno about that. In Runaways, they were a well kept secret that avoided heroes and effortlessly manipulated damn near everything.

Here, they jump to conclusions, and are stopped in their efforts by Stark without even knowing that they're out there.

Re: Team Channel Awesome

[nefrekeptah]

They do jump to conclusions here. They also manipulate damn near everything effectively, and the efforts Tony is stopping are their efforts to kill him.

Plus, this matches their characterization very well; they're professionals, but at the same time really don't like each other.

Re: Team Channel Awesome

[daningram.insanejournal.com]

They don't manipulate things very effectively, not realy. Tony squating in a building is all that's required to put the breaks to their efforts to shut him down. Plus, professionals don't see a superhero skating down the freeway, and think that it's a covert attack on their empire.

Re: Team Channel Awesome

[nefrekeptah]

It's Tony calling in favors from powerful friends outside LA and cobbling together weapons to thwart assassination attempts that puts the breaks on their plans to shut him down, not "squatting in a building."

And they think Iron Man's there to invade them because he attacked their people, who proceeded to use ray guns on him, so it wasn't that much of a leap to think that he might at least suspect something was up.

Re: Team Channel Awesome

[daningram.insanejournal.com]

The Wilders saw Iron Man skating down the freeway, and assumed he was after them. They then sent the ray gun guys and it spiralled out from there.

[espanolbot]

Wha? Just because they have a mad scientist doesn't mean he's Dr Insano.

[werehawk.livejournal.com]

Looks interesting. Any chance of scans of the Serpent Society from the issues before this? (7 & 8?)

[icon_uk]

So... ummm... why does Stark have access to a Shi'Ar ship and what is Namor doing in it?

[thanekos]

It's Namor and the implied Strange acting in the capacity of the Illuminati.

[icon_uk]

Ah thanks.

That means, on the other hand, that the Pride WERE involved with heroes, despite Runaways making very salient points about avoiding ANY contact with heroes at any cost, and also that three members of the Illuminati were unable to stop the Pride, or even monitor their actions, since this is set well before the actual Runaways title.

Violates Continuity

[nefrekeptah]

Iron Man legacy is only kinda-sorta part of regular continutiy, so you can very easily say that this is just a fun what-if story.

Or in other words, it runs off of "it makes a good story, so who cares?"

Re: Violates Continuity

[icon_uk]

Because in this case, it makes Runaways Vol1, a far more effective story than this half-assed retcon, look a lot dumber. Making the Pride, who have been consistently depicted as a cautious, prepared and in control, freak out about this (When they operated quite calmly when the entire Avengers West Coast were based in their state) makes them look... inept, and they are very ept indeed.

Re: Violates Continuity

[daningram.insanejournal.com]

Exactly. They were smooth, intelligent, capable and were taken down only when removed from all their resources.

Here...they over react, poorly manage the situation and countered half the time without Stark even knowing who they are!

Re: Violates Continuity

[thanekos]

Yeah, attacking Stark because of some imagined gambit on his part was a little off (though to be fair, "man falls, vanishes, oddly turns up in our neck of the woods" does smack of a setup.)

I suppose even if they hadn't overreacted, they probably wouldn't have tolerated someone with observed ties to a known superhero in their territory.. especially when that superhero had been observing contending with the criminal presence they did tolerate.

[morgana006]

This is pretty neat, actually.