Gerry Duggan and Juan Frigeri have put Iron Man in a corner with his business taken away from him and Feilong, aka Kelvin Heng, hellbent on making him his archnemesis. The Invincible Iron Man has been a good thriller from the start, and things are only heating up with Stark Sentinels potentially on the way. Thankfully, Tony Stark is communing with Emma Frost, and surely she has all the answers.
The Invincible Iron Man opens on Krakoa, where Tony gets the 411 on Feilong. Duggan is clearly setting up the X-Men for the upcoming battle, but it also makes sense to have info on Feilong come from Krakoa. He had ties to Mars before it was turned into Arakko. Armed with new info–and more aware than ever that he’s dealing with a major threat–things only get worse for Tony as the story progresses.
This issue does a few things well, starting with giving Feilong a new edge. Now that he’s the boss of Stark Industries, we get to see him put in the work to find every edge he can get by combing through files and records. This leads to a major find tied to Tony’s father. This smartly ties Feilong’s antics to something incredibly personal for Tony, further turning the knife in his back.
This dude is committed.
Credit: Marvel
The other thing it does well is establish the threat of the Stark Sentinels. Frigeri draws the mammoth machine in great detail with a good sense of scale. This thing is massive and more frightening looking than a common sentinel. As we learn from Tony, it’s also far more dangerous and powerful. Duggan smartly layers in some captioned thoughts from Tony, setting up the fact that Feilong has been up to something. That’s appreciated since stories tend to spring things on readers with no setup.
On the reverse side, the files Feilong finds are a bit too convenient. Finding them does take him some detective work, but it’s certainly convenient to the story. But hell, that’s comics. My only other gripe is how easily Tony walks into a trap. Based on his fight in the last issue, he knows his power, and Emma Frost helped him understand he’s formidable, yet he rushes into a situation he could have avoided. That said, this final scene thoroughly proves Iron Man has an uphill battle in front of him.
The stakes are raised in The Invincible Iron Man #5 with a major accomplishment in making the unfamiliar Feilong seem as formidable as any foe. Stark Sentinels are coming, and this issue will get you hyped for the war ahead.
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