Once set for release in 2020, Jed MacKay’s summer event of one-shot stories is finally underway with Infinite Destinies: Iron Man this week. If you haven’t already guessed, this story revolves around the Infinity Stones and the first of the six plays into this issue. As the cover reveals, it’s all about Iron Man vs. Quantum as Tony attempts to get a little justice for Miles Morales.
This issue breaks down into four parts, starting with Iron Man and Miles Morales aka Spider-Man teaming up to figure out a recent Moloid problem. The Moleman creatures are inundating Brooklyn and in a fairly funny comedic bit, our heroes need to resolve the situation. This naturally leads to Iron Man finding out what happened to Miles way back in Miles Morales: Spider-Man #7, which introduced Quantum.
Enter part 2 of the story, which sets in motion Iron Man’s attempt to find Quantum and his overlords from ever harming Miles again. The smarts of Iron Man are shown in a cool way. MacKay does well to get at Tony Stark and the type of hero he is under the costume.
This leads to the action-packed portion of the book told with two rather cool 9-panel pages that test Iron Man in a variety of ways. Props again to MacKay — it feels like he understands the character and it’s a neat idea to tie his current battle to his origins.
Jed writes a good Iron Man!
Credit: Marvel Comics
Ultimately, the story wraps up well enough, since there’s some resolution. There is still a question of the Infinity Stones and there’s enough here to pique your interest for the next annual. There’s also a handy Infinity Stone guide similar to what Marvel used for the Infinity War event, which is appreciated.
MacKay is joined by artist Ibrahim Roberson and color artist Rachelle Rosenberg. The art has a finer line that’s detailed packing in a lot of pretty backgrounds and cool-looking gloss on Iron Man’s armor. Given the 9-panel pages, there’s a lot of art and story to be had in the already extra-sized issue. Rosenberg does well with light and particle effects and adds great details in the cityscape backgrounds.
The book ends with the “Infinity Fury” backup by MacKay and Juan Ferreyra that gets to do a lot in only a few pages. Fury comes off as a total badass and an adventure hero totally in control, always. As usual, Ferreyra does an exceptional job from panel to panel, utilizing Ben-day dots to create a retro feel, creating a cool vehicle, and otherwise making Fury cool as hell.
“Infinite Destinies” has kicked off its story with a strong sense that it understands its characters. In fact, the Infinity Stones are almost an afterthought, as it’s not the main focus that allows the annual format to be enjoyed as intended in a done-in-one story — though many will be intrigued by the idea of the Stones making their way back into circulation.
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