Iron Man #501 Review

Tweet

In the past month we have been treated to two great issues of Invincible Iron Man issue #500 saw the conclusion of the 'Resilient' story line and the expertly written #500.1 gave us a recap of the entire Iron Man story in the unique form of an AA meeting. With issue #501 Matt Fraction and Salvador Larroca start a new arc entitled 'Fix Me'. The story opens with the first meeting of two gifted scientists, one a cocky, brash young man, Tony Stark and the other an insecure, yes man, Dr. Otto Octavius. Their first meeting isn't exactly a success with Octavius' dismissal of Stark's 'God Number' theory, the minimum amount of moves that any problem can be solved in. Their next meeting goes even less smoothly, while Tony watches an interview he did talking up the future of the 'Resilient' brand he is attacked by Doc. Ock who threatens to detonate a nuclear bomb in the middle of the city if Stark doesn't meet him face to face. He issues a challange, let's find out who is smarter, seems the old Doc is still smarting from that meeting all those years ago at the technology symposium and now, in true psycho fashion, he thinks he has found a way to get his own back. He tells Stark that he's dying and unless he fixes him, like he managed to fix himself and regain his mind after what Osborn did to him, he will detonate the nuclear bombs and let the whole world know that it's Tony Stark's fault, that he could have prevented it all if he had just admitted he wasn't smart enough to fix Doc Ock. 

That's what it all boils down to, he sees the way to beat the man is to attack his ego, drag him down by forcing him to attempt the impossible. As insurance he had Electro and Sandman kidnap one of Stark's employees, Tim, and he will die if Doc Ock stops checking in. In his madness he thinks his ultimate victory over Tony Stark will be for him to say 'I can't fix you'. In a nice little exchange Stark lays out his opinion on the Doc, he's nothing but a sad rip off artist whose 'octobots' are sad copies of old Stark tech and the reason why he has never appeared on Starks radar since the symposium is simply because he isnt worth his time. Then in true Tony Stark fashion he gets to work proclaiming 'I'm going to fix you, you sad weird bastard'. Just when you thought things couldn't get more interesting, Pepper show's up an Tim's apartment separated from Electro and Sandman by nothing but a door. Could we see Rescue in a little smack down with 1/3 of the Sinister Six. I hope so.

Overall it's a nice start to the next arc, I'm a fan of Fractions writing the more and more I read him and the quality continues here. I like his take on Tony Stark a lot, he really makes you believe that Tony is changing but there is still that old arrogance bubbling away and the possibility that he could implode at any time is always there. When I first started reading this series I have to admit I wasn't a massive fan of Larroca's art style but as the series continued it grew on me and now I couldn't imagine the book without his unique brand of visuals. Invincible Iron Man is still one of the most quality titles to hit the stands month to month and with Marvel seemingly pushing a return of the Sinister Six pretty hard over multiple titles I am interested in seeing where the story will go from here.  

Writer - Matt Fraction
Artist - Salvador Larroca
Colors - Frank D'Armata
Letters - Joe Caramagna
Cover - Salvador Larroca
Publisher - Marvel Comics