Invincible Iron Man #5 Review and *SPOILERS* - Marvel Monday

Fuckin’ Ninjas, Man!

Written By: Brian Michael Bendis
Art By: Stefano Caselli, Marte Gracia
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: March 22, 2017
Publisher: Marvel

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

Well, the first story arc with our new Iron Man is coming to a close and honestly, it’s been a little rocky but I think it’s going to end up being pretty good. Riri Williams is a good character but this first story has been bogged down by having to fully flesh out her character, something Brian Michael Bendis really should have done prior to her run as this character. However, now Riri is without her suit, teamed up with Pepper Potts, and taking on one of Tony’s previous enemies. The question is, how will she be able to overcome the obstacles in front of her? How will this story end, and how will Riri rise to the occasion? Let’s stop talking about it and just jump right in.

Our issue begins back in Riri’s home where her mother walks into Riri’s shop looking for her. She finds a piece of armor and talks to it, hoping she’ll get in touch with Stark’s AI. She rants about how hard it has been to raise Riri. She wants to support her but she worries that she’s going to hurt herself. She knows that Riri would be able to take care of herself so she doesn’t want to push her away. She finishes her rant and is answered with silence. She accepts that she was simply talking to herself and she leaves the piece of armor in on Riri’s table before heading back into the house.

We cut back to where we left things off as Tomoe has taken control of Riri and Pepper’s armor but They have sent an early version of the Iron Man armor to attack her. She immediately begins to absorb the armor as well. This is when Riri puts her plan into action and launches a virus into the suit to disrupt Tomoe’s abilities. While she has been able to disable Tomoe’s abilities, she and Pepper are now still facing an expert swordswoman. Tomoe approaches them and Riri grabs a sword to fight her. We get a flashback where Riri’s dad attempts to train her how to fence but Riri blows him off. Needless to say, Riri is completely outmatched in this fight.

Tomoe launches toward Riri but is stopped by Pepper Potts who was able to retake control over her suit. With Tomoe out of commission, Riri and her begin to reassemble their armor. This is when S.H.I.E.L.D. shows up. Turns out Pepper sent them a message before the conflict went down. Commander Carter meets with them and is impressed with Riri. She wants to bring Riri into S.H.I.E.L.D. to train her but Riri doesn’t want any part of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Commander Carter seems to take a lot of offense to this. Riri and Tomoe lock eyes once more before she takes off. We meet up with her again when her mom comes into the garage to find Riri asleep in her armor. Riri wakes up and the two talk for a moment before Riri and her mother embrace. Even though she doesn’t say anything, Riri knows her mother is struggling with this. We cut to Tony Stark’s lab where we see Tony Stark’s AI looking into some files. He is greeted by Friday and the two talk for a moment before it would seem Tony Stark’s AI reveals his nefarious intentions. This is where the issue leaves us.

This is a perfectly acceptable final issue of this story arc. In fact, it's really good. I was hating on this book because we simply didn’t know enough about Riri Williams and hadn’t been properly introduced to her. This book still suffers from that but this issue managed to give us a little bit more about this character and even make her likable. We slowly are getting more parts of her past and I think that’s going a long way to making her a better character and making this book better because of it. In addition, we got an amazing cliffhanger as Tony Stark’s AI seems to be going rogue and of course, this series always gives us absolutely amazing art. I’m really excited to see how this book progresses

Bits and Pieces

While some of the flaws that exist in the book are still glaringly obvious, this issue raised the bar for this entire series and for that I have to give it props. We are slowly but surely getting to know this new character more and we got some really fun and exciting action scenes. The art is fantastic but that has been obvious this entire run but honestly, I think the book is finally where it should have been at issue #1. We finally have an understanding of who Riri Williams is (a small understanding but a understanding nonetheless) and we have a compelling storyline that I’m looking forward to see it develop.

8.5/10