We’re back with Tony Stark: Iron Man and after spending an entire issue with Tony’s deranged cousin it felt like a breath of fresh air to be back with the team. In fact thats the best way to describe this issue. A breath of fresh air for the series. It not only mixes up the formula of the past 5 issues but it’s also the first issue to truly carry on a storyline from previous issues and it’s one of my favorites.
Story
Tony Stark: Iron Man #6 is once again written by Dan Slott with artwork from Valerio Schiti, Edgar Delgado and, Joe Caramagna and is the first part of the “Stark realities” storyline. We’re back with Tony and the team and more importantly, we’re back exploring the eSCAPE VR world Tony was building back in issue #3. After a fairly successful beta test, minus the whole killer robot boyfriend thing, the eSCAPE VR system is now available to the public. Whilst the masses are going wild trying to get there hands on this thing Tony’s biological mother, Amanda Armstrong isn’t so enthusiastic as she and Andy sit down for a heart to heart she tells him how disconnected she feels from her son. I really do like these two together, and Amanda and Tony have felt pretty distant throughout the series. Her small emotional moment is cut short however when we dive headfirst into a heist chase. Tony, Rhodey and Janet all suit up to try and stop a truck full of eSCAPE merch from being stolen. It was a nice change of pace having some genuinely cool action at the start of the issue rather than at the end but it did undercut Amanda’s moment sadly. After the heist is quickly stopped, we cut back into the VR world with some nice callbacks to the classic west coast Avengers and even a cameo from three M.O.D.O.K’s. Virtual versions of M.O.D.O.K of course…
We follow a mouthy brat through the VR until his bad language and frankly horrible attitude get him kicked out of the eSCAPE world by ARSENAL, the eSCAPE’s personal admin avatar. We get a few short scenes with Jocasta, who is feeling extremely tired after spending all night in her perfect VR world and has to deal with her own crazy ex, Machine Man trying to win her back. This issue did yet again, a great job of humanizing Jocasta.
After getting back from his early morning hero work Tony rather crudely shuns his mother off, before realizing that thousands of players are being booted off for apparently no reason. So he steps inside his own VR world to sort things out. Unbeknownst to him he shortly followed by his mother, with a little help from Andy who wants to talk to him and after telling Tony Stark, The Ultimate Class Admin that she won’t listen to him she attracts the attention of Arsenal who is programmed to remove her from the world and won’t even stand down after Tony instructs him too. The issue ends with Amanda being rejected from the VR world which actually causes some real-world damage to her all before we finally see the man behind it all. The Controller. He opens the eSCAPE’s back door up to all those players who had been rejected letting them flood in to cause carnage and it seems some real damage.
I really enjoyed this issue of Tony Stark: Iron Man. It switches up the rather generic formula of the last 5 issues, and shifts the attention back onto, what I think was the coolest story of the series so far, Tony’s VR eSCAPE world.
Characters
After seeing Morgan Stark, in issue #5 it was really nice to be back with Tony, and I think they absolutely nailed him here. Speaking on a live press release whilst fighting off bad guys trying to steal his merch and completely ignoring his mother to focus on fixing his VR project all felt completely in line with his character. No out of this world suits this time around I’m afraid but it was great seeing him, Rhodey and Janet all kick some serious ass. His best friend and lover didn’t have a huge part to play in this issue unfortunately but when they did show up they were great.
Andy and Amanda spend most of their time together in this issue and I think it works really well. I really like these two together. Andy gets to show off his technical skills once again here, only this time it ends up hurting Amanda rather than helping her. I did feel for Amanda ever so slightly when she was trying to reach through to Tony but it felt a little rushed and could have been handled a little better.
I liked Jocasta in this issue, although there wasn’t a lot of her. They are still doing a really great job with her character and I can’t wait to see more. Bethany and The Controller continue to disappoint me, although here we actually get to see him in person. Which is at least better than nothing right? Either way, hopefully, we finally see more from him as a villain soon.
Artwork
Once again this issues looks great, and it was really cool going back into the psychedelic VR world of the eSCAPE. The action looked great, both in and outside the VR world. Tonys stealth suit he used inside eSCAPE looked fantastic I just wished he used it more or maybe used it outside the eSCAPE. The Arsenal had a cool design to it as well but we don’t get to see too much of it, unfortunately.
Tony Stark: Iron Man issue #6 is a really nice continuation of the series. It marks a nice change of pace which I hope is carried on in later issues. Most of the characters are handled well here, espcially Tony Stark and it feels less like a “one and done” issue which has held the previous 5 stories back. Hopefully, Tony Stark: Iron Man #7 will build on this to make it even better.
