Invincible Iron Man vol. 10: Long Way Down

One of the most impressive creative turnarounds I’ve read in years continues with this volume.  As the title implies, Tony Stark is currently in the process of losing everything dear to him.  His friends.  His status as an Avenger.  His company.  Even his role as Iron Man, and it’s all part of a dastardly plot by The Mandarin in order to finally break his most hated foe.  Usually a story that involves this level of loss is meant to be endured rather than enjoyed given how depressing they tend to be.  That’s not the case here as writer Matt Fraction manages the neat trick of making the reader feel like Tony Stark is completely in control even when things are coming down around him.

There’s a scene in the first issue collected here that exemplifies this feeling perfectly.  Near the end, Stark waltzes right in to Gen. Babbage’s (you know, the general who has been in league with the Hammer Girls all this time) office without an appointment.  Then he tells Babbage’s secretary to get her boss a scotch and a pellegrino with a lime twist for himself because Stark’s about to announce that he’s going to quit being Iron Man.  On the surface it may seem like capitulation, but there’s a swagger to the man’s actions in both his dialogue and movement, expertly rendered by regular artist Salvador Larroca that’s completely at odds with that idea.  It gives you the feeling that Stark’s decision to give up being Iron Man isn’t any kind of loss, just part of his master plan at work.

Most of Stark’s actions towards that end are fairly overt, witness the “thing” he has Reed Richards install after removing the Iron Man hardware from his body, and there’s also a good deal of “acting” involved in others.  That’s seen in his interactions with Jim Rhodes’ new Iron Man.  It’s also worth noting that his plan will work because this volume continues to outline the ultimate fallibility of his opponents.  After finally encountering a threat that he couldn’t talk his way out of, Ezekiel Stane starts making a concerted effort to get out from under his new boss’ control and winds up engendering a response that I never thought I’d feel for him.  Sympathy.  Of course The Mandarin continues to remain in charge and call the shots that make everyone else in this volume dance; however, we continue to see that he wants things done his way and on his schedule whether or not they can actually be done in reality.  That’s going to end badly for him and I’m going to enjoy seeing it happen.

Same goes for the Hammer Girls as well.  They don’t quite get their comeuppance here, but having the original pilot for Detroit Steel show up, kidnap Sasha, and then take control of the suit again was a joy to read up.  The mother/daughter team has spent all of Fraction’s run displaying pretty much one thing:  smugness.  Now their lack of depth is a flaw in his writing, but I was still entertained by seeing them struggle here.  Plus, even though they were back in control at the end of their subplot I figure someone had to have been watching that little showdown somewhere…

Now you might think that this feeling of confidence in Stark’s plan may lead to a lack of tension in this volume.  After all, what’s there to be concerned about if you know everything’s going to turn out all right in the end?  Well, this is a superhero story so the feeling is that Stark should emerge triumphant over his enemies at the end, with maybe a couple reminders of what he’s lost along the way to further define his victory.  If Ed Brubaker’s run on the latter half of “Captain America” has shown us anything, it’s that having your main character constantly lose to his opponents isn’t really any fun at all.  (Further proof of this can also be seen in the most recent volume of “Winter Soldier” where Bucky’s has the last laugh by wiping out his relationship to the Black Widow.  I was not entertained.)  There’s also the fact that we don’t know how Stark is going to finally put one over on The Mandarin, particularly when the villain’s hold over him is revealed in the last few pages.

I can see plenty of tension being mined from that and I’m already anticipating the unveiling of the title character’s master plan in the next volume.  Again, this isn’t something I was expecting after the utter misfire of “Unfixable,” but Fraction and Larroca have turned things around so well that I’m actually starting to think they may have planned it that way.  In any event, their final statement on the character and his struggles will arrive in “The Future” which is coming sooner than you think…