Infamous Iron Man #1 Review

I Will Be Iron Man

Written by: Brian Michael Bendis

Art by: Alex Maleev, Matt Hollingsworth and Clayton Cowles

Cover Price: $3.99

Release Date: October 19, 2016

Review by: Josh Vermillion

Our creative team of Bendis and Maleev is spinning right out of All-New, All-Different and into Marvel NOW! I loved this duo on the International Iron Man book and was ready to see their take on Doom with the Iron Man armor. I’m a big fan of Doctor Doom and really think the concept of him being Iron Man is cool. I had some pretty high hopes coming into this book, so let’s see how it lived up.

The issue opens up with a full-on Doctor Doom sitting around with some other super villains. He’s acting very Doom-y and isn’t taking place in the current time, but it gives some backstory about Doom’s mother being captured by a demon and rescued by Doom. We get to see a glimpse of his power before moving to a more current Victor, scar-free and mask-free.

We get to see Doom do his first heroic thing of the series when he rescues SHIELD director Maria Hill from Diablo. The battle between Diablo and Doom is a little bit confusing and hard to follow, but you do get to see the ease in which Doom dispatches Diablo and frees Director Hill.

**Spoilers ahead for the ongoing shit show that is Civil War II**

Victor pays Amara Perrera a visit at Cambridge, and the only real point of this interaction is to confirm what most people already suspected: that this Civil War doesn’t end too well for Tony Stark. After talking for a bit, Doom vanishes. Ben Grimm AKA The Thing shows up to ask Amara if she knows anything about Doom’s whereabouts.

We see Victor in Tony’s laboratory looking at the Iron Man armor. Tony, or rather, Tony’s “essence” shows up to talk to Victor, who says he’s decided to take Tony’s place as Iron Man. The issue ends with Victor’s mom watching him fly around as Iron Man through a cauldron and talking to some unknown voice.

Think of this issue as a Rebirth #1 for Marvel, but instead of getting back to the legacy of Iron Man, they’re giving the title to a super villain. It was like the Rebirth books in that it sets the tone for the series and establishes what we’re going to be dealing with. I liked Maleev’s art enough, but there were times where I wasn’t entirely sure what I was looking at. I want to see more of Doom in his Iron Man armor as we go along, but for a setup issue, this wasn’t bad.

Bits and Pieces:

It’s hard for me to give a great score to an issue that was purely setup for the rest of the series, but I liked it enough. I’m definitely intrigued to see what Doom’s endgame is with all of this.

7.0/10