Those buying these Fear Itself tie-ins with Iron Man 2.0 have to be doing so out of desperation to see anything of Jim Rhodes in action. In truth these issues have been more of an interlude involving Iron Fist and the Immortal Weapons and toward introducing into the Marvel Universe the character – Sun Wukong a.k.a. the Monkey King. As someone who has followed and enjoyed the Doctor Strange character for decades the link up with the events in New Avengers and Doctor Strange’s transfer of the Sorcerer Supreme role to Doctor Voodoo is welcome. Iron Fist’s subsequent fight and possession by an interdimension being there and the death of one of the characters is the required reading for what takes place in this issue. It also explains the prologue and epilogue which so delightfully rendered by the artist Carmine Di Giandomenico featuring Dr. Strange observing this Iron Man and Iron Fist adventure. Ariel Olivetti’s art of the main course of the tale is bland and functional by way of comparison as the threat of the portal to hell being opened to earth supersedes the initial threat of The Worthy, hammer-wielders Titania and Absorbing Man, which they were called in to respond to in the first place as part of this tie-in to the Fear Itself storyline. For that you are going to have to go buy Avengers Academy or read the spoiler reviews.
As to that gate to hell thing? Back in the now ended Immortal Iron Fist series closing the gate to the eighth city supposedly happened in issue #25 after the defeat of Changming but how this was so was quite murky with this supposedly one way portal. Here the seven Weapons begin to focus their chi in unison as they had to enter the Eighth City but Iron Fist is suddenly sort-of possessed by Agamotto (as revealed by Dr. Strange at the end of the issue), and he won’t let them get their mojo together to close the gate.
Iron Fist makes short work of the six Immortal Weapons, and finally true to the Prince of Orphans intuition, Jim has a crucial role to play in this fight. Again the art here is not up to delivering martial arts action anyway. He engages Iron Fist with some of the new armor’s cooler features like Ghost Tech (which lets objects phase through him) and Stealth Mode (which turns him invisible), but to little effect. Stepping up the game given the stakes, Jim prepares to unleash literally his big guns at the behest of the possessed Danny, but as he fires, he is unknowingly mystically enhanced by Dr. Strange, and Danny is knocked out and the Gate to Hell closes.
The epilogue conversation between Dr. Strange and his assistant Wong keeps the mystery of the possession going as it suggest that larger forces are at work in an interdimensional conflict because even Strange himself felt that he was being guided by something in stopping the Iron Fist. Where that story will play out is unclear even though they plug a Sun Wukong Fear Itself one shot issue at the end. The additional plug for the “Palmer Addley Lives!” in the next 2.0 issues isn’t near as important as the ad pages which let the reader know that if you want to gat back to the story from issue #4 you are going to need a #7.1 and then #8.
On the whole it is a pretty shabby 2.0/Warmachine story and while ‘annoying’ is one of the features of the Monkey King they get spot on it doesn’t entertain very much or add anything to the Fear Itself story either.
wooow, like your things about Iron Man 2.0 #7 – Fear Itself judgment | In extremis
thanks B, are you reading the comics? or just following along?