Tony Stark: Iron Man #3 Review - Marvel Monday

Virtual Insanity

Writer: Dan Slott
Artist: Valerio Schiti, Edgar Delgado, Rachelle Rosenberg  and VC's Travis Lanham
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Release Date: August 15, 2018
Cover Price: $3.99

I have been enjoying this Iron Man "Fresh Start" so far because it's been a fun time.  I'm sure that some have complained that they want something more hard-hitting right off the bat, but it's a nice diversion from the doom and gloom that I've had to deal with overall (slight shade at DC there) and for once, I kind of like Tony.  Yea, I am not a huge Tony Stark fan, but being new to Marvel, that opinion is a little skewed by my hate for Robert Downey Jr.  I can't help it, I'm a Christian Slater man and while that probably makes no sense to 99% of the people out there, that 1% knows what I'm talking about.  Where was I?  Oh yeah, Iron Man...I have never been a huge fan, but Dan Slott is turning me into one.  So, does this issue continue the fun ride?  Let's find out...



The issue opens with a POV shot of a beta tester logging into, getting the rules and eventually playing in Tony's eSCAPE virtual world.  It's a huge cyberscape where everyone is Iron Man and are charged with finding the real characters among the millions of NPCs...basically Tony, his family, and friends.  Usually, this type of thing would make me roll my eyes, but I liked seeing all the different Iron Man armors the testers are able to use and it just leads to a lot of fun.

While this is going on, we get flashbacks with Andy still crushing on Tony's mom, Rhodie wanting no parts of this nonsense and Aaron Stack (Machine Man) acting like a total tool.  Through this, I still really like Jocasta even if she has THE WORST taste in (machine) men. 

Back to the beta test, once we get a little settled, the world is attacked by...you guessed it, Machine Man.  He is going to town on the entire thing in the name of A.I. rights, but during another flashback, we see who the real villain is.  It's not a total shocker if you've been reading, but I won't spoil it here.

The rest of the issue is a mad race between Machine Man and our POV beta tester to find Tony and either destroy or save him.  There is a twist at the end that again isn't a real shocker, but the way that Tony gets out of his own virtual world is pretty cool and again, makes me love a certain character even more.  I'm sure you can guess who that is. 

This issue was fun.  I said that fun is what I'm looking for from this book so I may score it a bit higher than some, but I'm okay with being the positive one for once.  I really like Valerio Schiti's art and besides Aaron Stack being a little too over the top at times, I enjoyed the story.  Does it push the overall narrative forward a ton?  No, it doesn't, but it had some nice character moments and a bit of setup for future stories.

Bits and Pieces:

While this issue doesn't push the overall story ahead much, I liked the art, the character moments and yes, the fun.  Dan Slott is making me like Tony Stark, but I'm loving some of the other characters as well, especially Jocasta.  This continues being one of the books I am glad I jumped on for Fresh Start.

8.0/10