Iron Age: Alpha (2011 series) #1

Sep 2011 on-sale: Jul 8, 2011

Rob Williams
writer
 |  Rebekah Isaacs
penciler

Iron Age: Alpha (2011 series) #1 cover

Story Name:

The Iron Age Alpha


Synopsis

Iron Age: Alpha (2011 series) #1 synopsis by reviewer T Vernon
Rating: 4 stars

Aging mad scientist Dr. Donald Birch, living in an undersea lair, served by a staff of robots gives the order to launch several robots into the sky. Elsewhere, Tony Stark is hosting a charity event which is attended by Danny Rand and Luke Cage, the latter still resenting the role Stark played in the recent Civil War. While the three heroes are chatting, Birch’s robots arrive and easily take down Cage and Danny. Tony instantly dons his Iron Man armor but a sudden pulse from the robots disables the armor and they carry him off….

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Tony awakens in Birch’s undersea lair. Birch reveals who he is—the Phantom, from the earliest days of Stark International, and still hostile toward Tony for what he considers Tony’s theft of his work and the ruination of his career. Revealing he is dying of cancer, he tells Tony he has brought him there to watch his final revenge: having reconstructed Dr. Doom’s time machine from components scattered all over the world, he has his robotic minions bring Dark Phoenix from the past. The robots fire upon Phoenix, making her angry enough to—and Tony leaps to try to stop it—destroy the world. Which she does: the entire Earth explodes in a fireball….

But Tony has fallen through the time platform to sometime in the past and he sees the platform dissolve behind him. He finds himself in a Manhattan alley with his shirt on fire in a pouring rain. Wrapping himself in a discarded blanket, he heads to his penthouse, passing an unsurprised guard, and enters to find an earlier Tony Stark, wearing the Iron Man armor, and drunk out of his mind….

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Characters
Good (or All)
IRONFIST  
Iron Fist
(Danny Rand)
IRONMAN  
Iron Man
(Tony Stark)
LUKECAGE  
Luke Cage
(Power Man)
PHOENIXJG  
Phoenix
(Jean Grey)
Plus: Phantom (Donald Birch).


> Iron Age: Alpha (2011 series) comic book info and issue index



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Main/1st Story Full Credits

Rebekah Isaacs
Rebekah Isaacs
Andres Mossa
Ariel Olivetti (Cover Penciler)
Ariel Olivetti (Cover Inker)
Ariel Olivetti (Cover Colorist)
Additional Credits
Letterer: Jared K. Fletcher.
Editor: Thomas Brennan. Editor-in-chief: Axel Alonso.



Review / Commentaries


reviewer
Iron Age: Alpha (2011 series) #1 Review by (July 31, 2021)
Comments: One-shot lead-in to THE IRON AGE. Story takes place between IRON MAN #170 and 171. Donald Birch/the Phantom’s previous appearance was way back in TALES OF SUSPENSE #66 in 1965. Cameos by doomed Hank Pym, Cyclops, Meggan and Brian Braddock. This alternate reality was called Earth-81191.

Review: If you’re looking for an unforgettable way to kick off a story, the end of the world is a pretty good choice. After all, it worked for Douglas Adams and it works just as well here, with some nifty art to portray it effectively. So, we have a nice set-up for the main series, Tony, trapped in the past, trying to find a way to a) get back to his own time, b) prevent the destruction of Earth, and c) make sure the rest of the series lives up to this intro. Tall order, especially the third one. We’ll see.




Thor

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