Whew, lucky timing.

The issue ends with Tony having a stroke as he’s erasing his brain and making himself dumber–Fraction did a terrible job explaining the brain as a hard drive thing, I didn’t think it’d started actually erasing yet but apparently it has.

He’s on the floor, whimpering for Pepper.

Luckily, she’s decided to throw caution to the wind, piss off Norman Osborn and H.A.M.M.E.R. (don’t hurt ’em) and go find Tony.

Maria Hill finishes her adventure this issue. It’s really anticlimactic and turns out her whole story thread was a waste of time. But at least Fraction didn’t skip it and drag out other stuff.

I love Fraction’s writing on this book but I’m not sure it’s a good comic. Invincible basically started as the movie tie-in book and now it’s completely incomprehensible without reading every Marvel title.

As usual, great scenes, not at all filling.

I can’t help but wonder if Fraction is plotting out this story line based on The Empire Strikes Back. He splits up his triumvirate, gives each their own challenges–this issue being the Han Solo in carbonite issue (Pepper gets arrested, Maria gets captured by the Controller).

Fraction once again fails to give the reader necessary information. Namor’s the big guest star this issue (Pepper’s dealing with an out of control plane à la Superman Returns and Maria has the Controller’s drones). Namor’s fighting Iron Man like it’s 1962. Fraction doesn’t give any explanation for why Namor’s buddies with Norman Osborn, why he’s mad at Tony Stark… nothing.

Does it have to do with Civil War or Secret Invasion? Marvel does how many crossovers a year? A thinking person cannot be expected to kill brain cells reading them.

Fraction’s writing ability makes Iron Man excel, but it gets frustrating sometimes.

Okay, here’s Fraction’s problem–he’s doing too much at once. He’s got Maria doing something, Pepper doing something and Tony doing something. Tony gets the most attention, leaving Pepper and Maria stuck without a lot of space.

Fraction follows this formula every issue–it’s like having two backup stories injected into the main narrative. The scenes resonate because they’re compelling (more compelling than what Tony’s doing actually) but there’s never any payoff. They don’t get the big dramatic cliffhanger.

Take this issue for example, Fraction spends maybe a third of the issue on a staged fight between Tony and Rhodey (what’s up with his cyborg eye, by the way?). Pepper’s just gotten her own Iron Girl armor, much more interesting. Maria’s discovered a town where everyone’s being drained of their precious bodily fluids on a bad guy’s whim, also more interesting.

Fraction writes a great comic, it’s just paced for a trade.

Not sure I like Fraction’s pacing here. There’s something deceptive about it to convince the reader there’s more content. A lot of montages. Not bad montages–Larroca doesn’t have to stay consistent if he’s drawing different people around the globe–but montages.

It’s also pretty convenient. If Pepper didn’t throw a temper tantrum and throw stuff around the office, she wouldn’t have found her Iron Girl armor and escaped H.A.M.M.E.R. (don’t hurt ’em). Given how Tony was rambling about not being the greatest futurist anymore, it makes sense… he relies on temper tantrums to save lives.

Oh, and it turns out his brain hard drive isn’t erased yet. He apparently needs to quest for the Holy Grail to get it done. Apparently, the great futurist has never heard of Bluetooth.

Fraction’s story stretching measures aside (it’s not decompressed, it’s stretched), his writing of the characters is excellent and very much worth reading.

Technically speaking, it’s a decent comic book.

Larroca is no worse than last issue, maybe even a little better since he’s drawing less faces. Fraction’s writing is strong as usual. Except the majority of what he’s writing is expository dialogue from Tony. Lots and lots of it. He’s got Tony talking for pages recapping current events, explaining what Pepper and Maria have to help him do (wiping his brain, which proves to be a totally lame sequence) and probably something I’ve forgotten. It goes on forever.

Then there’s the issue with plotting. The events in the issue read like they take a few hours. However, there’s enough time for Maria Hill to go home, compose herself enough to grocery shopping, get kidnapped, escape her captors and get back to Tony.

All it needed were some labels identifying time passing.

It’s hard to dislike though. Fraction writes a great Tony Stark.

I do love Matt Fraction.

I started this issue ready to pounce because I’m just a negative kind of guy, but also because he opens with three separate narrators–Tony, Maria Hill and Pepper.

None of them narrator for very long and Fraction’s omniscient third person narrator doesn’t stick around the whole issue. It’s just setup and the issue needs setup because it’s not clear what it’s going to be about until the end.

Tony decides to mess with the newly all-powerful Norman Osborn.

Fraction ends the issue with Pepper, Tony and Maria hanging out at a toy factory with Tony revealing his plans. The issue could have actually used more exposition, since it’s all a Secret Invasion followup and I didn’t read that series.

Larroca’s art is funny. He doesn’t keep faces consistent between panels–his Osborn looks completely different one panel to the next.

Still, it’s great.