Invincible Iron Man #256: Review

May 1990

Bob Layton, John Romita Jr.

Story Name:

Soliloquy In Silence

Review & Comments

Rating:

Invincible Iron Man #256 Review by T Vernon (December 26, 2017)

Comments: The Stark space station was contaminated by an A.I.M. virus in issues #215-216; the remains of the monster from issue #237 can be seen.

Review: Very suspenseful issue is handled masterfully with a final reminder of how Tony is a hero for protecting the world instead of himself. The vignette with him rewarding the employee who took a risk also shows us a different side of our hero, rewarding initiative even though it cost him some money. Don't know if I would go so far in his place, but then...I'm not in his place. John Romita Jr takes over a regular artist; he was never one of my favorites but I must say I like his early style (here and on Spider-Man at this time) than his later, especially with his 2013 run on CAPTAIN AMERICA.

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Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Invincible Iron Man #256 Synopsis by T Vernon

We start in the middle of the adventure: his back reinjured, Iron Man is trapped beneath a pile of wreckage on the contaminated Stark space station as it heads toward a blazing rendezvous with Earth's atmosphere. As he works to free himself, his mind goes back to the last three days....

Tony Stark made an unexpected visit to the accounting department to confront staffer Sarah Jennings—to reward her for making a risky decision on her own that turned out right. He also met with businessman Winston Cauwfield who had a plan to decontaminate the space station so that his company could lease it from Stark Enterprises. As Iron Man, he used a booster module to fly to the station to release a pair of powerful chemicals, one to mutate the virus and the other to kill it in its mutated form. Releasing the first chemical triggered a bomb left behind by A.I.M. and so our hero was trapped, his armor damaged in the blast....

And now, he uses a new type of adhesive foam to secure the second chemical cylinder in place and then blasts a hole in the hull, pulling him free but blasting him into space. As the hull reseals itself, Tony has under two minutes to return to the station as the life support systems come on again. And he makes it, passing out as the second chemical is released to destroy the virus....

Back on Earth, he blames himself for nearly allowing the deadly virus to be released into Earth's atmosphere. But Rhodey points out that he risked his life to prevent the disaster instead of saving himself and buying his way out of repercussions. One odd point: Tony's back no longer hurts as it did before he went up....