Comic Review – Tony Stark: Iron Man #3

Tony Stark, billionaire, playboy, genius, industrialist isn’t just famous for making his Iron-man suits. In Tony Stark: Iron Man issue #3 he’s moving into the world of VR and not just a test demo. An entire Virtual-universe where anyone can go anywhere and do anything. The issue revolves almost entirely around this virtual universe and the human test players which are tasked with hunting each other down in a world filled with AI NPC’s.

This review will contain spoilers.

Story

Tony Stark: Iron Man #3, written by Dan Slott with artwork from Valerio Schiti, Edgar Delgado and, Joe Caramagna, spends most of its time within Tony’s virtual universe only swapping back to the real world every so often. This virtual world itself doesn’t have any real purpose, Stark himself even says it’s just for “goofin’ around” which is dead in line with his character but I would’ve like to see more of a purpose behind it. We don’t actually see a lot of Tony in this issue instead we see through the perspective of a mysterious beat tester when she enters the VR. The world itself looks absolutely fantastic with bright neon colors and futuristic designs to the buildings and environments. Its a nice change of scenery from the regular world.

The issue spends most of its time with Jocasta, a character I desperately wanted to see more of after issue #2 as she contemplates her own existence and if she is simply and AI or a real person. Her robotic boyfriend Machine Man AKA Aaron Stack doesn’t seem to think so leading to some confrontation between the two. We see some plot points from issue #2 brought back here including a really nice moment between Andy and Ms. Armstrong. Andy also got benched a little this issue and so I hope to see more of him in the future. After seeing a bit more of how the VR world works our overarching plot comes back into play once again when Bethany, being controlled by The Controller, allows Machine Man to infiltrate the VR and wipe out the AI constructs who are in his mind are “dancing for humans amusement”. After all but one of the players are wiped out it’s down to our mysterious player to eliminate Aaron from the VR. Not only did this battle feel like it had a lot more weight behind it compared to the previous 2 issues but thanks to the psychedelic VR world it looked the most interesting too. It also had a killer cameo from Dr. Strange the Source Coder Supreme.

It’s then revealed our mysterious player is actually Jocasta in her human apperance that we saw in issue #2. Not only did I not see this twist coming it made the entire issue, particularly the last half so much more impactful. You really feel for Jocasta who’s simply trying to fit in and has to choose between her human friends or her own Mechanical boyfriend. They did a great job of humanizing her in this issue which I loved.

Tony Stark: Iron Man #3 is easily the most fun this series has had so far. It still takes time to deal with some hard-hitting themes and has some nice character development for Jocasta but doesn’t take itself too seriously all of the time. The overarching Controller plotline is easily the best here its ever been story wise but I still want to see more. It does, however, lead to the best action the series has had so far.

Characters

This issue is Jocasta’s story and it does a lot with her. Her inner battle between whether she’s a real person or simply an AI is genuinely interesting and when we see her long to be human it makes you feel for her. I loved what they did with her character by the end. Despite being Tony Starks story he takes a back seat here which might be a turn off for some but I personally didn’t mind swapping him out for Jocasta this issue.

On the flip side of that, this issues main villain Machine Man is easily the best villain we’ve seen so far. Tony Stark: Iron Man’s villains are so far one-and-done characters eventually leading up to The Controllers involvement which I’m sure we’ll see in later issues. Whilst Machine Man, unfortunately, feels like a one-and-done yet again his motivations easily make the most sense. His hate towards humans and their use of machines is at least understandable even if he is insane.

Honestly other than these two everyone else is unfortunately pretty forgettable in this issue. Tony Shows up close to the end and has some exposition near the start but other than that we don’t see too much of him. Rhodey, Andy and, Ms. Armstrong all barley show up and whilst we got plenty of Rhodey last time, I hope to see Andy step back into the limelight in future issues.

Artwork

This issue looks absolutely fantastic thanks to Tony’s virtual world. The futuristic Virtual New York looks brilliant with bright neon colors and futuristic designs. That goes without mentioning the trip to the wild west or the virtual mystic realm. Whilst issue #2 felt grounded in realism issue #3 isn’t afraid to get crazy with its ideas and the artwork shows that.

Overall I really enjoyed Tony Stark: Iron Man #3. I didn’t mind the lack of Tony Stark thanks to the character development Jocasta had. Its visually far more interesting than the previous 2 issues and has easily the best villain so far. I still want to see a bigger pay-off for the Controller story arc and would like to see some minor characters like Andy have more of an impact but as its own separate story, Tony Stark: Iron Man #3 is a great read. Heres to issue #4.

Harry Reviews