Iron Man by Gillen vol. 5: Rings of the Mandarin

Kieron Gillen wraps up his tenure as chronicler of the adventures of Anthony Stark by smashing up two, two, TWO stories in one volume.  The first, which was set up at the end of vol. 4, involves Stark going head-to-head with Malekith, Lord of the Dark Elves, for control of the Mandarin Rings that he has.  It’s a great “science vs. magic” setup that also has the novelty of pitting the title character against a villain he’s never fought before.  The pairing works as we see Malekith get under Stark’s skin in a way that few bad guys have in recent memory, and while the bad guys do have magic at their disposal we get to see our hero counter their attacks in some pretty clever ways.  Gillen’s wit is also on fine form here, whether it’s with the banter between Stark and his magical tech support girl Shevaun, or the put-downs he’s issuing to Malekith’s lackeys.  This is a fun romp while it lasts, let down only by some rough art from Luke Ross which makes it look like he was running up against all deadlines for the issues he illustrated.

Halfway through, the story changes as the wielders of the other Mandarin Rings come into play.  Ranging from obscure nobodies like French Nazi Alec Eiffel (a.k.a. “The Fascist Man Alive”) to genuine threats like the Mole Man, this group of ring-wielders teams up to advance their own agenda and bring down Stark and his friends in the process.  Between the two stories, this is the one that feels like it got the short shrift as its “bunch of bad guys teaming up to take out the title character” is end-of-a-run level plotting.  Unfortunately they don’t get much to do beyond team up and then get beat down.  There’s also a few different artists working on these issues and they’re all working in the same basic superhero style, which means everything looks fine but big money shot moments like Arno Stark’s “IRON METROPOLITAN SMASH!” don’t pay off as well as they should.  On the plus side, it is fun seeing the Stark Brothers work together with their friends to take out the badguys, Stark’s resolution to Liar’s hostage situation with Pepper Potts was genuinely surprising, and the writer wraps up his run with a decent amount of closure.  Not a complete loss, just not all it could’ve been.

Gillen’s tenure on “Iron Man” has been fun even if it hasn’t been on the level of his other Marvel work — I’m looking in the direction of “Journey Into Mystery,” “Uncanny X-Men,” and “S.W.O.R.D.” for reference.  He at least deserves credit for trying to do new things with the character, even if they didn’t always pan out.  The retcons to his origin that got us Arno worked, though the plans for Iron Metropolitan did not.  Bendis is the incoming writer here and he’s never been one to directly pick up on what other writers have done before.  So, regardless of what you thought of Gillen’s run, it likely won’t have any bearing on the new “Invincible Iron Man” title.  It’s a disappointing thought, but not a particularly heartbreaking one in this case.