Invincible Iron Man #7: Review

Jun 2023

Gerry Duggan, Juan Frigeri

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Story Name:

Fight the future

Review & Comments

Rating:

Invincible Iron Man #7 Review by Rob Johnson (June 9, 2023)

Tony Stark is still accompanying the action with a past-tense voiceover which is supposed to be him continuing his autobiography, a conceit that has been running from the beginning of this series.

We saw Orchis, Dr Stasis and Nimrod in #4.

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Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Invincible Iron Man #7 Synopsis by Rob Johnson

In previous series Tony Stark gave up control of Stark Unlimited and then spent all his money buying up dangerous black-market weapons which he now keeps in a secure installation. But now Feilong (Kevin Heng) has taken control of SU and used Stark's tech to build Iron Sentinels, upgraded versions of the mutant-hunting robots which he's providing to the mutant-hating organisation Orchis. Tony's determined to destroy the Sentinels.

Now he and James Rhodes are outside the Sentinel factory near Amarillo, Texas at night planning to break in. There doesn't appear to be much security so it's possibly a trap. Stark asks for a head start before Rhodey comes in 'guns blazing'.

Next we see Iron Man walking brazenly up to the front door carrying a big gun from the weapon hoard. The 2 security guards tell him he's not allowed in but he blasts a big hole in the wall and walks through it. Once inside he advises all the staff to leave, and the foreman of the night shift agrees to it. When sensors indicate that the place is empty Shellhead starts planting disc bombs (also from the weapons stash) to destroy the building. A secondary motive was to see how far along the production line is, which question is answered when 1 of the big bots attacks him. IM dodges but more of the Sentinels are active, so he starts tagging them with bombs and detonating them as will as shooting them with the gun. Then he exits the place while calling his partner-in-crime to tell-him he's successfully stirred the hornets' nest.

It turns out that Iron Man was in fact Jim Rhodes, and Stark has used his head start to sneak up on the place in newly-built stealth armour he dubs the Mark Nil. Rhodey was just there to draw attention, and now Tony tells him to get away. Jim is enjoying flying the red&gold armour for the 1st time in years, it's fast and manoeuvrable compared to his heavily-armed War Machine suit. But he's still not fast enough to escape and has to continue battling the bots.

Meanwhile Stark has been planting the 'real' bombs from a kit bag slung over his back. He explains to Rhodey (and us) over their comm-link that these bombs that he invented will create a sphere around the factory which will then implode rather than explode. Along the way he interrogates the brain of 1 of the Sentinels and discovers that they're designed to take down superheroes as well as mutants. He plants the last bomb and then activates his boot jets for the 1st time for a quick exit because he can tell Rhodey needs some help. But that's enough to trigger a Sentinel into grabbing him in a giant fist. Then he triggers the bombs while still inside the blast zone ...

... but of course he survives by turning his jets to max and ripping the robot's hand free. He and the enclosing fist go bouncing across the ground outside the factory. Rhodey too has escaped and he flies the Iron Man armour to his waiting War Machine armour. He exits the 1st and tells its AI BOSS to take it home. But before he can enter his own armour a blast from another Sentinel separates the 2. Jim is badly injured and the Sentinel takes the WM armour and declares Rhodes under arrest.

Tony's stealth armour manages at last to pry itself loose from the inert robot hand. He rushes to find Jim but instead sees helicopters and Sentinels surrounding the hole where the factory used to be. It's all gone wrong and recovering alcoholic Tony craves a drink.

Hours later Feilong surveys the site with Dr Stasis and Nimrod of Orchis. He says this is a setback but he has other secret factories creating Iron Sentinels. However they won't have enough of them ready to take out *all* of the targets they planned on the mutants' upcoming Hellfire Gala night. They'll have to concentrate on the mutants and leave the Avengers and others for later. They confront the foreman who agreed to evacuate the factory and the Nimrod robot kills him.

Back in his current home in an abandoned cab company in Jersey Tony has been calling his lawyer Jennifer Walters (She-Hulk). She's been unable to answer because she's been on a flight to Texas. But now she tells him that Rhodey's been arrested and denied bail. He's charged with murder because they found a dead body on the scene. We see a picture of the foreman.

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