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Invincible Iron Man #5: Review

Mar 1997
Jim Lee, ?

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Story Name:

Inherit the Whirlwind

Review & Comments

Rating:
3 stars

Invincible Iron Man #5 Review by (July 30, 2019)
Review: So Tony Stark has turned himself into a tin-plated superhero—or knight in shining armor—as penance for the death of his college buddy Rebel. That sort of makes sense but not for long as later developments will show. The cool thing about Whirlwind: when he first appeared in TALES TO ASTONISH #50 as a foe of Giant Man, his power was patently stupid; eventually he was reinvented as Whirlwind in an effort to make him cooler and /or more formidable as a villain. Now in this reboot he starts out as Whirlwind—and Tony thinks his power is stupid. That's a nice way to cut through all the unnecessary bits and get to the nitty-gritty of stupidity. Anyway, the Tony/Whirlwind battle is a pretty nice sequence and he keeps a nano-flare on his contact lens for just such an emergency.

Comments: First mention of the Avengers in this book and Tony hasn't heard of them, though Pepper has. Title comes from the play Inherit the Wind which is in turn taken from Proverbs 11:29 in the Bible. And the first appearance of the Mandarin (though not for real, he's just a robot as revealed in #10).






 

Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Invincible Iron Man #5 Synopsis by Kevin Hollander
Stark's day begins by searching for the missing Hulk - last seen in issue #2 - at the bottom of the Hudson River. When he returns to his yacht, he finds Liz Ross waiting for him with a small firearm trained on him. She demands to know how he has managed to usurp her role as Tony's bodyguard. Despite his efforts to the contrary, Iron Man gets into an argument with Ross, which results in her taking a swing at him. Lucky for her, she doesn't break her hand. Stark knows she's acting out since Bruce disappeared.

Stark then receives a phone call from Whirlwind indicating that he's kidnapped Pepper. Whirlwind tells him to meet him at the Long Island branch of Stark International and emphasizes this is between Tony Stark and himself; not Iron Man.

Park Avenue South: Leonard Samson continues his unexpected call from Bruce Banner. Banner confesses to being the Hulk and for trying to help Hydra dismantle the gamma bomb in the first place. Samson tells Banner to turn himself in and they'll go from there, but Banner refuses. He thinks perhaps he should contact Reed Richards. When he sees people watching him, he quickly hangs up. Banner's paranoia serves him well as Sitwell had placed a phone tap on Samson's line.

Using a variety of high-tech gadgets Stark holds his own against Whirlwind, leading him to an experimental kinetic intake converter. Stark warns him to stop his attack or the machine will pull him inside the energy vortex. Whirlwind doesn't believe him and quickly disappears.

Elsewhere Madame Hydra - who contracted Whirlwind to kill Stark - is informed of her operative's failure. She is immediately contacted by the Mandarin - her superior - and informed not to attack Tony Stark again. Failure to do so will result in unimaginable suffering.

Back at Stark International, Tony and Pepper collect themselves. Tallying up recent events, Stark can't think of one thing that's gone right. Pepper points out that he was partly responsible for the formation of the Avengers. One of his building serves as Avengers' headquarters. Stark is unaware of who they are or what they do.

As Pepper tries to update him, they learn that Avengers' HQ is under attack.

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Barberoids 1 cover original artwork on ebay

?
JD
Martin Jimenez
Whilce Portacio (Cover Penciler)
Scott Williams (Cover Inker)
Letterer: Comicraft.
Editor: Mike Heisler.

Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.

Betty Ross
Betty Ross

(Elizabeth Ross)
Doc Samson
Doc Samson

(Leonard Samson)
Hulk
Hulk

(Bruce Banner)
Iron Man
Iron Man

(Tony Stark)
Pepper Potts
Pepper Potts

(Pepper Hogan)

Plus: Jasper Sitwell, Whirlwind (David Cannon).

> Invincible Iron Man: Book info and issue index

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