After over a decade of writing Amazing Spider-Man, Dan Slott’s finally left the character behind and jumped onto the MCU’s foundational character, Iron Man. Slott is a very inconsistent writer who can occasionally turn out some great books, like his early work on Superior Spider-Man and Silver Surfer, but can also quite easily churn out complete rubbish – and unfortunately the latter applies for Tony Stark: Iron Man, Volume 1: Self-Made Man.
It has the wispiest of stories: some dull rubbish about corporate espionage that doesn’t seem to bother Tony all that much and a Z-list villain called The Controller, who’s, that’s right, controlling Tony’s head of security. Not that anything happens with that limp storyline. And giving it away right from the get-go takes away any potential drama and mystery it might’ve had. So. Yeah. Real edge of the seat stuff!
In the meantime, Tony pointlessly battles the Marvel Godzilla, Fin Fang Foom, test-drives a new AI program and goes on a date with Janet Van Dyne. Rhodey has claustrophobia/PTSD about the War Machine armour so he gets a slightly roomier armour and seems to be better – don’t think that’s how either claustrophobia or PTSD works? Tony’s brother, Arno, a holdover from Kieron Gillen’s awful Iron Man run, is saving some GM-cows – good grief. This is definitely not the best way to get people excited over the start of a new series!
Oh and apparently robots/AI have the same rights as people so Slott can get all social justice-y about that – one robot, Machine Man, even accuses Tony of “appropriating robo-culture”! Even if Slott is satirising the West’s current ultra-sensitive/cry-bully/protest political climate – though, given that this is 2019 Marvel, he really might be sincere! – it’s still eye-rollingly awful to read. I’m just so fed up with loathsome identity politics artlessly forced into stories where they don’t fit. Jocasta is such an annoying character and I couldn’t be less interested in her Pinocchio-esque sub-plot. But then I don’t like any of the supporting characters or anything they’re doing!
Artist Valerio Schiti is channelling both Stuart Immonen and Terry Dodson HARD, which isn’t a bad thing as I like their styles. And, as pointless as the Fin Fang Foom opener was, it was fun to see Giant Robo Iron Man and then nanobot Iron Man – I can definitely see Kevin Feige using both ideas for future MCU movies! I’m also glad to be reading a Tony Stark Iron Man book and not one starring that stupid Riri character, or whatever her name was. I don’t know, maybe she’s still around somewhere, but “Iron Man is now a black girl!” was such a bad idea. Up yours, Bendis!
As popular as his movies are, there are surprisingly few good Iron Man books out there and Self-Made Man is just another one to add to the crap pile. I was mostly bored and irritated with this one and can’t recommend it to anyone after a fun or entertaining superhero comic.
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