Review: Tony Stark Iron Man #6

Dan Slott“s run on Iron Man so far is a good example of sometimes less is more. Six issues in and there is a lot to like about what Slott is doing. He is able to keep things fun and entertaining without sacrificing the significance of his narrative. At the same time though he is throwing so much out there many of the side stories and subplots become more of a hindrance to story progression. It is a series not without merit as issue six shows. He simply needs to clean up the messiness.

Here we see Tony Stark ultra-focused as ever. His new VR immersive tech eScape has been released and is affecting the world as no other system has. Imagine if you put the impact of cryptocurrency, social networking, a next-gen video game platform, and whatever the new massively popular Holiday toy is that causes parents to dip into their kid’s college funds just to buy it on the toy black market into one piece of equipment. People will literally kill to get their hands on it as Tony, Rhodey, and Janet Van Dyne are discovering as they fight off a group of criminals attempting to steal a shipment of tech.

It is an effective sequence that works on a pure entertainment level and also demonstrates the addictive nature of this new eScape reality. Valerio Schiti“s art works best in these moments. His interlocking panel design gives the action a dynamic sensibility as each major beat intertwines with the next. What happens, however, is the overuse of panel this bleeding causes moments to eventually feel cluttered and unclear. Even smaller moments were packed with panels giving it a claustrophobic feel. Giving those moments more room to breathe would have also helped the overall scripting.

Dan Slott as a writer likes to keep a lot of balls in the air. He writes for the long haul developing storylines that linger in the background for some time before they have a major impact. The benefit of this style is that it gives every character purpose and something to do. It is a big reason why so many Slott books have had spin-offs as he does have a way with building character. The downside is it can cause the structure to become overly bloated. Here, for example, every time the book stops to acknowledge what is happening with Jocasta the pace comes to a screeching halt.

Where Slott struggles the most as a writer is when he attempts to add any level of social commentary to his stories. Too often his messages are full of surface level analysis or cover territory that is rather well-worn. Something like eScape as a story device can work especially for a character like Iron Man that leaves and breathes tech. Using it though as a device to comment on our current addiction to technology lacks originality. To be fair to Slott it is only a minor piece to what he is developing, and hopefully won“t hinder what the larger goals this series is heading towards.

When it comes to characters and developing their relationships Slott excels. Here the most promising piece is the relationship between Tony Stark and Amanda Armstrong. Changing Stark“s parentage was always an odd choice, and if it was one of those story choices that eventually went away it would probably be for the better. Slott has always been about respecting what came before and he is finding a way to make it work in his book. He makes you want to see them work only to create more and more ways to stop it from happening–a great way to consistently build dramatic tension.

Final Thoughts:

Tony Stark: Iron Man #6 is a mixed bag of execution. One that benefits from Dan Slott“s ability to craft characters, however, suffers from that same ambition to pack his ongoing narratives with numerous and ongoing threads. If that scripting can be fine-tuned and a proper thematic weight added the strengths of this series will greatly benefit.

[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]

Story: Dan Slott
Script: Dan Slott & Jeremy Whitley
Artist: Valerio Schiti
Colorist: Edgar Delgado
Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramanga

Author Profile

Daniel Clark

A fan of all things comics. Growing up on a healthy diet of 90's Batman and X-Men cartoon series ignited a love for the medium that remains strong today.