Invincible Iron Man Omnibus

Reprints Iron Man #115-157
Written by David Michelinie, Bob Layton, Bill Mantlo, Jim Shooter, Roger Stern, Peter John Palmer and Alan Kupperberg.
Penciled by John Romita Jr., John Byrne, Carmine Infantino, Bob Layton. 
Inked by Bob Layton, Dan Green, Tom Palmer, 

Over 800 pages of Bronze Age Iron Man action!

Highlights include:

Tony Stark is ambushed by the Ani-Men before he has a chance to put on his Iron Man armor! He's even more shocked when he learns the brains behind the attack is his girlfriend Whitney Frost, AKA Madam Masque. She orders Stark to help restore the health of her dying father, Count Nefaria...or else!

Stark has to put on his armor in front of the Ani-Men!

Pressure mounts on Stark when he learns that SHIELD has been secretly buying up stock in his company, Stark International. This depresses Stark and he develops a drinking problem. At the same time, a crooked billionaire named Justin Hammer has a device that allows him to take control of Iron Man's armor. Hammer uses the this to make Iron Man kill a foreign diplomat.

Stark will have to stop Hammer and his army of super-villains if he wants to prove Iron Man's innocence.

  

But dealing with Hammer is only part of Stark's problem. He's hit rock bottom. His drinking gets completely out of control. His drunken, cruel behavior causes his longtime butler Edwin Jarvis to resign. But Stark's girlfriend Bethany "Beth" Cabe helps him kick booze. Beth's ex-husband had a drinking problem that cost him his life, she doesn't want to lose someone else to the bottle.

Tony Stark asks Beth to help him deal with his alcoholism.

The Hulk arrives in New York City. His alter ego, Bruce Banner seeks help from Stark, hoping he can cure Banner of the Hulk for good.

Hulk and a new friend play with Micronauts toys!

Unfortunately it doesn't work and Shellhead finds himself in a battle that nearly costs him his life. It's up to Scott Lang, better known as to the world as Ant-Man, to save Iron Man.

Iron Man's old foe Titanium Man attacks New York. He's fallen out of favor with his former bosses in the Soviet Union and believes trashing Iron Man will win back their good graces. Titanium Man and the Golden Avenger duel at the ice rink at Rockefeller Center.

Whiplash get's a power upgrade and takes the name Blacklash. He goes after Stark's chief of security.  In the process, Stark International is set on fire!


Stark learns that Doctor Doom is trying to acquire equipment from Stark International. Iron Man pays a visit to Doom in Latveria and a battle ensues. Iron Man and Doctor Doom wind up sent back in time to the kingdom of Camelot. They find themselves on opposite sides of a war between King Arthur and Morgan Le Fey.

Review:
It's difficult to review a book this long, but I'll do my best cover the high and low points. This review contains a few 30-year old spoilers.

Story:

Back in 2012, I reviewed a book called Iron Man: Demon In A Bottle. I wrote that "One problem with Iron Man is that I've always felt he's too damn powerful for most villains and that most of his top foes are just other guys in armor." That happens far too much in this book as well. In addition to that, we get quite a few gangs of generic gunmen and terrorists that Iron Man easily dispatches. 

Not only are many of the villains easy outs, they're not particularly compelling either. There are two stories that feature Dreadnoughts as the villain. Dreadnoughts are basically just generic killer robots and not very interesting.

An unmasked Stark faces off against Madame Masque and her Dreadnoughts.

There's also a moment that indicates (in my opinion) that Michelinie was tiring of a major plot thread. At the height of Stark's alcoholism, SHIELD secretly purchased stock in his company to gain a controlling interest. After Stark is rude to Jarvis, the butler sells his stock, allowing SHIELD to take over. This is a crushing blow to Stark.

But then he tells off Nick Fury and easily gains back control of Stark International in two pages! It sort of undermines major elements of the "Demon In A Bottle" storyline.  

We get not one, but two stories where Madame Masque is allowed to escape. She may be Stark's ex-girlfriend, but she's also a leader of the Maggia crime syndicate and a dangerous criminal. I'm thinking an Avenger would've at least tried to bring her to justice.

But there are some good, solid enjoyable stories here.

A three-part guest appearance by the Hulk features a great battle between Iron Man and Ol' Greenskin.  Michelinie also makes good use of Ant-Man in that story. Scott Lang saves Iron Man by shrinking to ant-size and fixing Stark's armor. This is sort of a homage to an earlier story where the original Ant-Man (Henry Pym) crawled inside the Vision, but it's still a cool sequence. 

James "Rhodey" Rhodes made his first appearance in stories that are reprinted in this book. Rhodey became a major character in comics, first as Stark's right-hand man, later wearing the Iron Man armor himself, finally becoming War Machine.

Rhodey's first appearance.

And of course Rhodey has shown up in the Iron Man animated series and movies, so Michelinie deserves credit for creating a supporting character with staying power.

Speaking of new characters, Bethany Cabe makes a great love interest for Stark. She runs her own security company and is proficient in hand-to-hand combat, more than capable when attacked by bad guys. But the storyline involving her husband is soap opera level silly. I won't spoil it beyond that.

Beth helps Iron Man tackle Hammer's hired villains.

 

The fight against Blacklash is pretty good, as the former Whiplash's new powers make him much more dangerous.

I've been a fan of the Titanium Man story since it was brand new back in 1980.    

The alcoholism storyline and the Doctor Doom time-travel tale have been reprinted in smaller books, but they'also high points of Iron Man Omnibus.

Romita and Layton also make Justin Hammer look like actor Peter Cushing, which is a nice touch.

Art:
The art in this book is fantastic.

The vast majority of Invincible Iron Man Omnibus is penciled by John Romita Jr. and inked by Layton.  These stories are some of Romita's earliest work and look nothing like the art he later produced as a fan favorite. That's due to Layton's heavy inking. But they make a great art team. In later stories (such as the Doctor Doom two-parter), we see Romita asserting himself a little more.

Doom shoots rubble out of his fingertips!

A few other pencilers and inkers take over for an issue's worth of pages, but Layton inks almost everything here, so the "look" of the art consistent throughout. John Byrne guest-penciled one issue reprinted here, he and Layton are a good combination.

Stark is thrown from the Heli-Carrier and changes to Iron Man in mid-air! 
Nice art from Byrne & Layton.

Carmine Infantino pencils the re-telling of Iron Man's origin.

Tony Stark flashes back to his creation of the Iron Man armor.

How does it look?:
This scan was taken from Iron Man #129:

And here's how the same pages look in this book:

Looks good to me.

Extras:
This book contains a boatload of bonus features.

We get the detailed back-story of Jarvis' resignation letter, early drafts of several covers drawn by Layton, two diagrams of Iron Mans armor that were originally published in The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe and thirteen pages of original art.

In the book's final story, Iron Man battles a giant space spore!

Invincible Iron Man Omnibus contains some good stories, and a bunch of stories that weren't very interesting. Unless you're a diehard fan of Iron Man and/or the creative team, the price tag will scare away many readers. I would recommend that the "casual" fan of Iron Man would be better served by picking up the Demon In A Bottle and Doomquest reprint books instead of this omnibus. But the artwork adds a half-Sal to its grade.

J.A. Morris' rating:

  

.5



2 and a half Sals. 

Avengers: West Coast Avengers Assemble

Reprints West Coast Avengers Vol.1 #1-4, Iron Man Annual #7 and Avengers #250, plus material from Avengers #239, 243-244, 236 and Avengers West Coast #100
Written by Roger Stern, Bob Harras and Roy Thomas.
Penciled by Bob Hall, Al Milgrom, Luke McDonnell.
Inked by Brett Breeding, Peter Berardi, Joe Sinnott, Ian Akin, Brian Garvey, Roy Richardson.


After an extended absence, Hawkeye returns to the Avengers' Mansion and introduces the team to his wife, Mockingbird.

A short time later, at a team meeting, the Vision is selected as the new chair of the Avengers. He has an important announcement to make: a new team of Avengers will be formed and are to be stationed in Los Angeles. Vision announces that Hawkeye will lead the West Coast branch and the West Coast Avengers are born!

Vision & Government Liasion Raymond Sikorski
announce the forming of a new team of Avengers.

Hawkeye and Mockingbird set up headquarters at an old Hollywood mansion and decide to call it the Avengers Compound. Wonder Man, Tigra and Iron Man are all contacted by the Vision and called to the compound. Unbeknownst to the others, the man in the Iron Man suit is James "Rhodey" Rhodes. He has taken over as Iron Man because Tony Stark has had a relapse of his alcoholism.

When Tigra is contacted by Vision, she has been working in San Francisco as a Private Investigator. She departs for Los Angeles in a hurry, prompting her business partner, Jessica Drew, to worry about her. Jessica calls someone in L.A. to shadow Tigra.

Hawkeye tells the heroes they've been invited to join a new team of Avengers. In the middle of their meeting, they realize someone has broken into the compound. It's the Shroud! After a brief battle, Tigra explains that he's a friend of hers and stops the battle. It turns out to be just a big misunderstanding.

Iron Man catches the Shroud snooping around the  compound.

The team has barely had a chance to settle into the compound when an old villain shows up in the City of Angels.

Erik Josten, formerly the Avengers foe known as Power Man, has been called into town by the mad scientist Dr. Karl Malus. In addition to restoring Josten's super strength, Malus injects him with growth serum. With only one dose, Josten becomes a giant and takes the name Goliath. 

Goliath is born!

Goliath wreacks havoc in downtown Los Angeles. Police try to shoot him but their bullets are ineffective. Iron Man arrives, but Goliath is furious to see him and the Golden Avenger is easily defeated. Goliath says he "deserves" a victory over an Avenger, after years of frustration. 

Goliath throws Iron Man out of L.A.

Iron Man's new teammates Hawkeye and Wonder Man are around to help against Goliath, but they're defeated just as easily. The three heroes regroup and realize that they can't match Goliath in power, but that their combined skills could be enough to defeat him.  

Following that battle, Wonder Man stumbles onto a bank robbery in progress. The thief has a "blank" appearance. It turns out that he's wearing a belt that generates a force field and obscures all of his recognizable features. Wonder Man calls the robber "The Blank", and the name sticks. The force field allows the Blank to escape with stolen money. 

Shortly after the robbery, the Blank sees a man made of energy and helps him. It turns out to be the Avengers' old adversary Graviton, who joins forces with the Blank and attacks the Avengers. Hawkeye and Wonder Man remind their teammates that Graviton almost beat the East Coast Team a few years earlier. The West Coast Avengers come up with a plan to stop Graviton that utilizes Tigra's private investigator skills plus Iron Man's technological genius.  

A tense moment between former Iron Man Tony Stark & new Iron Man James Rhodes.

Last but not least, the East Coast and West Coast Avengers team up to fight the Deviant-Inhuman madman known as Maelstrom, who has gained the ability to siphon off kinetic energy from the Earth itself. This alters the planet's rotation and could have catastrophic consequences if the combined Avengers from both coasts can't defeat Maelstrom. And if that's not enough trouble, Maelstrom's Minnions are also on hand to battle the good guys!  

Review:
Not a classic, but certainly a lot of fun. I always liked the West Coast Avengers and I bought these issues off the racks when they were brand new. Arriving late in the Bronze Age (1984), the main story (from West Coast Avengers 1-4) today almost feels like the last gasp of an era. It's a just a fun story with little of the grim, angst-ridden stuff that came along in the mid-80s. Plus, I've always gravitated towards "B-Grade" super- teams. I was an avid fan of the Champions and Defenders, so the West Coast Avengers were right up my alley.  

Story:
Roger Stern does a great job here transforming Hawkeye. Throughout his career as an Avenger, he was always cast as something of a malcontent, clashing with his teammates and Avengers chairpersons. To make him a leader of a superhero team overnight probably seemed like a stretch when it was pitched, but it's nice to see Hawkeye mature as a character.

There's a great scene where Hawkeye calls Iron Man an "amateur" when he learns it's Rhodey and not Tony Stark in the armor. When Rhodey reminds him of all he's done since taking over the title of Iron Man, Hawkeye flashes back to his early days as an Avenger, when Captain America called him an amateur. Hawkeye apologizes and fully accepts the new Iron Man as a teammate.       

Tigra and Wonder Man are also well-written by Stern. Tigra felt like a weak link in her earlier stint as an Avenger, and she deals with that here as well. Wonder Man is believable as a reluctant superhero who would rather be a movie actor. Stern really gets these characters.

Bob Harras also does a nice job scripting the portion of the book taken from Iron Man Annual #7. The new Iron Man wrestles with self-doubt while trying to establish an identity beyond Tony Stark.

The high point of the story is the battle with Goliath. It's an epic battle that has an almost cinematic quality. Despite his villainy, Erik Josten has always been a sympathetic character to me. Sure, he's a villain, but I think he was also victimized by people like Zemo and the Enchantress early in his career,  and even Iron Man has sympathy for him at the end of their battle. This story is Josten's first appearance as Goliath and he would go on to be a major foe of the Avengers throughout the 1980s (and beyond).

Erik Josten recalls his origins as a supervillain.

The bulk of the book comes from the West Coast Avengers mini-series. It's a simple story, featuring the formation of a new team, a bank robber (the Blank) and an old foe seeking revenge (Graviton). It's an exciting saga, but you never get the feeling that Graviton has plans to destroy the world. And that's a good thing.

The story that features Maelstrom (from Avengers #250) is more of your standard "uber-villain threatens life as we know it!" tale. It's included because it features the first-ever team-up of the East and West Coast Avengers. It doesn't detract from the "lighter" fare.

Art:
We get good-but-not-great art here from various art teams.

Bob Hall was never very flashy, but his pencils are very good here. Brett Breeding's inks are a nice compliment to Hall's work. The portion from Iron Man Annual #7 features nice art by Luke McDonnell, inked by Ian Akin and Brian Garvey.

The weakest art is found in the story reprinted from Avengers #250. Al Milgrom handles penciling duties, inked by Joe Sinnott, plus the aforementioned Akin and Garvey. Three different inkers in one issue is distracting and it gives me the impression that this art job was a bit rushed.  

How Does It Look?:
This two-page spread shows how great it looks:

Extras:
We get a post-Bronze Age story that flashes back to the day Hawkeye and Mockingbird bought the compound. It's okay, but hardly essential.

There are also entries from The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe for Hawkeye and Mockingbird. These are fine, but they've already been reprinted in the Avengers: Hawkeye tpb, reviewed here last year.

Avengers: West Coast Avengers Assemble is a highly recommended tpb. It contains stories originally published in the Summer of 1984 and it will provide nice Summer reading today in 2013.

.5


3 and a half Sals.

Iron Man: Demon In A Bottle

Reprints Iron Man #120-128.
Written by David Michelinie and Bob Layton
Penciled by John Romita Jr. and Carmine Infantino
Inked/Finished Art by Layton
Note:
This storyline has been published several times. My copy is the 1984 edition published under the title The Power Of Iron Man.

Summary:
Tony Stark and his alter ego Iron Man are going through a rough patch.

S.H.I.E.LD. is trying to buy up his company, Stark International.

When Stark takes girlfriend Bethany Cabe to dinner in Atlantic City, he's attacked by three of his old villains: Whiplash, Blizzard, and the Melter. Stark learns that they're working for a man named Hammer, who turns out to be a rival business man.

 Alternate Cover

His Iron Man armor has recently malfunctioned several times and he suspects someone is tapping into his armor and causing this to occur.  

All this trouble has caused Stark to drink more than usual. Three Martinis turn into four. He begins drinking as early as 9:30 one morning. At one point, his drinking affects his ability to fight back in a battle. 

Finally, Iron Man loses control of his armor and causes a tragic international incident. New York Mayor Ed Koch demands Iron Man place his armor in the custody of the city. Stark is forced to fight without the armor. But thankfully, his friend & pilot James "Rhodey" Rhodes is around to help him out. It also helps that his girlfriend Bethany Cabe is a professional bodyguard.

 Cover for 1984 edition

But the real villain in this story isn't Hammer or Whiplash. It's Stark himself, who could lose everything if he doesn't wake up and realize he's an alcoholic.  

Review:
One of the defining storylines for Iron Man that has impacted the character for 33 years and was even referenced in Iron Man 2.

Story:
I better get this out of the way: I'm not a big fan of Iron Man or his series. I always thought he was a character who worked best as an Avengers rather than a featured solo character.  

The final chapter of this tpb (the only portion actually titled 'Demon In A Bottle') is excellent. It's a classic of the Bronze Age. Comic book characters had suffered from drug abuse and addiction before this story, but it was always sidekicks or support characters (like Speedy and Harry Osbourn). Writing Stark/Iron Man as an alcoholic was truly groundbreaking and Michelinie and Layton should be commended for it (Editor Roger Stern and Editor In Chief Jim Shooter also deserve kudos for approving it for publication).  

But what comes before that isn't so great. One problem with Iron Man is that I've always felt he's too damn powerful for most villains he faces and that most of his top foes are just other guys in armor. 

Iron Man dispatches about a dozen villains in this story in less than half an issue. True, most of them are B-grade baddies, but Constrictor held his own against the Hulk shortly before this and Whiplash has previously given Shellhead an issue's worth of trouble. Yes, alcoholism is the "real" villain here, but a superhero should be given villains who can last for more than a few pages.

One of my favorite scenes in the book features Iron Man saving a woman driving a car full of little leaguers from one of the worst menaces in the universe: a dead car battery!

Iron Man charges a car battery!

Michelinie also does a great job of strengthening Iron Man's supporting cast. Rhodey is cemented here as Stark's best employee/best friend and closest confidant. And Bethany Cabe isn't just a great romantic match for Stark, she chips in and saves Iron Man at one point. 

Art:
In a word:gorgeous.

John Romita Jr. is listed as "penciler" for these stories, but Bob Layton has just as much to do with the artwork as JR JR. In fact, Layton should really be credited as co-penciler instead of "inker" or "finishing" artist. And that's not a slam on Romita. I loved his later work on Amazing Spider-Man and Daredevil, but the art here looks nothing like that.

Demon In A Bottle also contains a retelling of Shellhead's origin, drawn By Carmine Infantino.  

How does it look?:
The version I own looks great, nothing weird or off about the colors. This splash page (along with the "car battery" paged scanned above) is a good example of how the book looks:

Iron Man is attacked by Blizzard,Whiplash & Melter

I don't own any of the more recent editions of the book, but I have checked them out in comic shops.  They look just as good if not better than the scans you see here (you'll just have to take my word on that!).  

Extras:
The 1984 edition features an introduction by Stan Lee. He praises Michelinie, Layton and Romita as only Stan "The Man" can. In the 2008 reissue, Michelinie writes the intro, he details why he and Layton decided to make Stark hit rock bottom.  

Despite my criticisms of the story, Iron Man: Demon In A Bottle is still a worthwhile tpb. The last chapter alone makes it worth reading and the artwork is great. Any Bronze Age fan should check it out.  

My rating:

3 Sals.

P.S.
Last year, at my blog dedicated to Assistant Editors' Month, I wrote a post about Tony Stark's alcohol relapse, read that post here if you're interested:
http://assistanteditorsmonth.blogspot.com/2011/07/iron-man-178-part-2.html