Invincible Iron Man #6: Review

May 2023

Gerry Duggan, Andrea Di Vito

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Story Name:

A blast from the past

Review & Comments

Rating:

Invincible Iron Man #6 Review by Rob Johnson (May 13, 2023)

The 'Autobiography Of Tony Stark' story is over but it turns out that his voiceover in the previous issues was really him writing that book, and he hasn't stopped as he now writes down another memory for this issue.

The cover scene does actually happen inside the issue but it's pretty irrelevant. But the Silver Centurion armour and the original West Coast Avengers locate this within IM#200-232 and WCA2#1-31.
General Digger comments on Stark being worried about his tech falling into wrong hands. If this is supposed to refer to Armour Wars I. Most of that happened after he'd already fallen out with the WCA over it in WCA#29 and IM#227. But he started on AW in IM#225 and #226 with an active mission with the WCA in their #26-28 so this event could happen in there.
The appearance of black-suited Spider-Man isn't a chronological problem. The initial symbiote sequence Amazing SM #252-257 is earlier then the whole of the WCA series. But he wore a replica in ASM#263-300 which overlaps with the whole of the IM/WCA range.

I've never heard of Project Deadbolt. But the Magneto Protocols will be unleashed in 1993's Fatal Attractions event.

At this time Emma Frost would still be an enemy of the X-Men, running the rival Massachusetts Academy for mutants.

Stark says he developed the magnetic bolo for use against Quicksilver back when he was a member of Magneto's Brotherhood Of Evil Mutants. This seems unlikely.

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Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Invincible Iron Man #6 Synopsis by Rob Johnson

Tony Stark's voiceover reminds us that he sold Stark Unlimited but then used the money to buy up dangerous black market superweapons. So now he'd reduced to living in his workshop in a deserted cab company in Jersey. And Feilong (Kelvin Heng) has acquired the company and is using it to build mutant-hunting Iron Sentinels. But Tony's also now a writer who documents events of his past life as they surface in his memory. The current memory is of his time in the Silver Centurion armour with the West Coast Avengers.

We see Iron Man sparring with fellow members Hawkeye, Mockingbird, Tigra and Wonder Man. They defeat him and he gives in. We then learn that they're at a military base where they're testing a mind-control device which just forced the 4 to attack him viciously, but now they recover with no memory of what they did. But this demonstration was totally irrelevant to the reason General Dinger called them here, and the WCA all now leave to let IM return as Tony Stark who is the real person Dinger wants. (This of course is still in the era when Iron Man's civilian id was secret.)

The General says he's not asking Stark to return to weapons design but for help protecting tech from being stolen, a situation he expects Stark to empathise with. He trusts Stark because he's helped on Project Deadbolt and the Magneto Protocols. This last is already being installed to protect the US against the Master Of Magnetism but it's still too bulky to be included in the Iron Man armour.

The tech in question now is a psi-blocker like the 1 Magneto has in his helmet. The military have developed something similar but again still not small enough to be practical. And the prototypes were nearly stolen by someone who appeared to have Stark Enterprises credentials but turns out to be a complete fake id that's only 10 weeks old. He gives Tony a case containing the prototypes and asks him and his armoured bodyguard to get them to Nick Fury.

Tony flies by private jet to New York City. On the way he studies the fake credentials of 'scientist Hazel Kendal'. Dinger thinks she's a mutant telepath so Tony's instinct is to contact Charles Xavier or the Beast. But he promised to go to Colonel Fury so that's what he'll do. As he leaves the jet and flies down as Iron Man we see black-suited Spider-Man swinging by. Stark doesn't know why Fury didn't schedule a meet in the SHIELD helicarrier (which happens to be floating overhead) but in Hell's Kitchen. When they meet Fury claims it's because most of SHIELD isn't cleared for this project. But Nick calls IM 'Tony' which the real Fury doesn't know so Stark activates 1 of the prototypes he installed in his helmet ...

... and 'Nick Fury' is revealed to be Emma Frost/White Queen. He pulls out some handcuffs and 'arrests' her while she flirts with him. But there's a reason for her choice of meeting place. It's above the Bar With No Name which is frequented by supervillains who she's now mentally controlling. Dr Octopus and Stilt-Man assault him followed by the Rhino who Shellhead downs with a spinning manhole cover. Then the unpowered Turk Barrett hits him with a fire extinguisher. Emma speaks through the thug to remind IM not to use excessive force on a civilian, so he blasts the extinguisher open to cover his foe in foam. WQ organises a combined attack by Hydro-Man and Sandman to encase the Armoured Avenger in concrete while Electro zaps him. But he breaks his arms and body free to KO Electro and Sandman with repulsor blasts and freezes Hydro-Man with liquid nitrogen. Then he uses a magnetic bolo to trip Stilty up. But his legs are still trapped in concrete when Doc Ock tries again and 1 of his metal arms smashed the side of IM's helmet with the psi-blocker in. Emma takes the briefcase and then compels him to forget about her ... but he somehow remembers.

Back in the present War Machine (Jim Rhodes) has brought some weapons he stealthily 'stole' from Tony's cache (presumably the store of weapons he bought on the black market, which Bethany Cabe is guarding for him). Rhodey warns him that whether he succeeds or fails he'll be branded a criminal. But Tony says he can't let his tech be used in Sentinels so he has to destroy Stark Unlimited.

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