This issue starts off terrible. Fraction uses three narrators–Ben Urich, Tony Stark and Peter Parker–and it’s a rough fit. Well, maybe not with Tony and Peter, that transition is actually, pretty smooth. But the Ben Urich narration? With Fraction capitalizing every proper noun to show EMPHASIS?

It’s horrific.

But the story isn’t bad. There’s a lot of content, with a lot of action scenes. Well, there’s some silly stuff about the story–Iron Man and Spidey team up to hunt down black market super-arms dealers… and Fraction skirts over why such a hunt makes any sense following the last arc. It doesn’t.

The issue’s particularly confusing now, because it’s set during Civil War, before Peter reveals his identity… but there’s no blurb placing the story. I guess it didn’t need it at publication date.

Oh, and Larroca’s people art–his Spider-Man too–is lousy beyond description.

Aww, the Iron Man helmet on the last page looks so sad.

It’s a bad issue, to be sure, and a terrible way to end this story arc–it’s way too compressed–but it’s only the third worst issue so far in the series (and, I’m hoping, the last bad one in the series).

I think there’s some big fight. I don’t really remember. The comic reads in three minutes.

At the beginning, we quickly discover how Tony Stark outsmarted Zeke Stane. Fraction pulled off the trick by also tricking the reader, which is sort of dishonest given he’s using Tony as a narrator for the series. I mean, when Arthur Conan Doyle used similar devices in Sherlock Holmes stories… it’s not like Holmes was narrating.

I don’t really care, I just think it’s lazy and far beneath a writer of Fraction’s ability.

Like much of the series so far.

Well, this issue’s pretty lousy.

Not much in the way of people in it–mostly just Iron Man versus Iron Monger Jr.–so Larroca does all right. The fight scene isn’t exactly exciting or engaging, but it’s a competent action scene.

But the writing–not even the entire issue, just the end–is awful.

See, if Tony Stark’s supposed to be a genius and is supposed to know what Zeke Stane is doing… he should be better prepared.

And all Tony Stark’s prepared for in this issue is to get his butt kicked and set Zeke up for one of the lamest cliffhanger lines I’ve ever read. This issue is a lot like the first in the series, with Fraction’s “movie” writing appealing to the least intelligent reader (or is it viewer) in the audience.

Again, I’m back to counting down to this story arc ending.

It’s getting rather tiresome.

I’m of two minds about this issue.

Maybe three.

On one hand, it’s a talking head book. There’s almost no Iron Man armor appearance (with Tony in the armor) and, even when there is an appearance, he’s talking to someone.

In other words, it’s a Salvador Larroca talking heads book. It’s exceptionally ugly. But the dialogue is great, so it’s somehow ugly and passable. Dealing with Larroca as the delivery system for Fraction’s great conversations… unpleasant but necessary.

But then there’s the content itself, the plotting. The way Fraction puts the issue together, he gets a lot done in a relatively speedily paced issue. It feels like time passes and situations progress (it might just be the small things, like Tony taking time to argue hilariously with Maria Hill).

The issue ends with a successful cinematic moment (Fraction’s “romance” between Tony and Pepper is actually really sweet), probably biasing me.

Bring on the expository dialogue, I haven’t heard enough from Zeke Stane about his stupid skin getting burnt up by his organic Iron Man setup. Is his name supposed to sound like a synonym for track marks? Because it kind of does; it’s appropriate, because he’s a crap villain.

This issue reads, again, like a sequel to Iron Man, only this time, it’s Pepper Potts who gets to become… Iron Woman? Iron Girl? Iron Lady? Iron Maiden? If Pepper’s a maiden, though…

A lot of it is decently written, so the ending with the expository rant is out of place. It’s also unbelievable SHIELD has due process and they can’t just arrest Zeke Stane. Fraction pushes for a “reasonable” Marvel Universe, post-Civil War and all, but it just doesn’t compute.

I have nothing to say about the Larroca art this issue, which is probably a good thing.

But eh.

What’s with Larroca and faces? Hasn’t anyone told him his digital art for faces looks just plain awful? The issue has really solid art for the first eight pages or so and then I realized why–he’d only drawn like one or two faces.

Once the faces are there, it looks awful again. I can run Photoshop filters on photographs on my own, I don’t need to buy a comic with them in it.

This issue’s a little better than the first–there aren’t any Iron Man movie references until the end, when Fraction brings in the bad flirting Tony does with Pepper. It works pretty well here for a second, but it’s not believable he’d send her for champagne. Not in the comics.

And the stuff with Thor is really lame and feels contrived to tie in to Civil War.

Otherwise, it’s safely on the low end of mediocre.