We’re back with Stark realities part 3, as Tony and team fight against The Controller to free the players trapped inside the eSCAPE, who are still causing some real-world chaos, whilst his biological mother Amanda is fighting her own battles against the VR world’s motherboard, AKA Maria Stark! Whilst the action is tensing up, I have to say The Controllers ultimate goal seems too ridiculous to be genuine and God, I hope isn’t. Surely it can’t be that simple, right? Also, can we appreciate how amazing this cover art is!
(This Review Will Contain Spoilers)
Plot
Tony Stark: Iron Man #8 is written by Dan Slott with artwork from Valerio Schiti, Edgar Delgado and, Joe Caramagna and picks up over in Russia of all places where people are causing all sorts of calamity, hacking down real people for experience points all whilst believing they’re battling an orcish army inside the eSCAPE. We see Russia’s Winter Guard, (basically a band of Russian Superheroes) From what I could see I think the team is made up of Ursa Major: A mutant who can transform into a humanoid bear. Crimson Dynamo V – Russia’s answer to the Iron Man armor. Darkstar – Laynia Petrovna, a mutant who can draw power from the Darkforce Dimension. She has died once and was later resurrected and finally, Red Guardian – Nicolai Krylenko, also known as Vanguard, leads the current roster of the Winter Guard as the Red Guardian. A mutant with the power to reflect energy at his attackers, (I may have some of those names wrong). It was pretty cool seeing some of these lesser-known heroes having to deal with Tonys mistake and showed just how widespread The Controllers plan really is.
Speaking of the genius, billionaire, playboy, we cut to him, Rhodey and Janet at The Controllers main base who are faced with an army of warehouse workers currently in the VR world under The Controllers…well control. Switching to non-lethal weapons the trio mops them up pretty easily as it’s reported that the players are making use of Baintronics weapons in the real world. A nice tie into earlier issues. Tony then has the brilliant idea to use video game logic to beat this, choosing to take out The Controller himself and by defeating the “boss” so to speak will win the game. A surprisingly decent idea if The Controller himself hadn’t already thought of it. The Controller reveals himself as this huge, heaving mass of power, after significantly leveling himself up from the energy he takes off those he controls. He looks seriously intense here with a great look which makes his might match his brainpower.
We cut to Andy Bhang who is struggling to keep things together whilst Tony is away. He has a brilliant idea to build a blocking signal for The Controllers control discs, but before he can ever finish it, Bethany Cabe, head of security and Controller sleeper agent knocks him out. Finally, we get a pay off for all those small moments we’ve seen of Bethany under The Controllers control.
After a rather hectic start, the issue slows down around halfway through, as we switch to Amanda inside the eSCAPE with holographic A.I projections of Tonys adoptive parents: Howard and Maria. The catfight between Amanda and Maria about who is the “better” or “real” mother was a little bizarre to me and just for a second, took me out of the issue. In a genuinely shocking twist as Tony is fighting The Controller, it is revealed that Friday, the A.I inside the Iron Man suit is actually dead, and its been Motherboard AKA Maria inside all this time. Maria turns Tonys whole Iron man suit into a VR rig, causing him to see some strange things, including a retro throwback to The Wasps original look. Tony Stark himself is now trapped inside his own VR world.
We see Jocasta now awake and fully charged, thanks to her metallic boyfriend, Machine Man who is using his backdoor entrance to the eSCAPE as an ace in the hole for our heroes. No doubt he will be essential to taking down The Controller in later issues.
The issues end with Tony entering Motherboards, hidden bonus room inside the eSCAPE in his own retro-looking suit and to Amanda’s horror accepting a drink from his A.I. father Howard! Once again going back to the drink after his infamous Demon in a Bottle story arc from the ’70s. This might be the scariest thing to come out of this whole issue, Tony going back on the drink? Then again if it’s in a VR world is it a real drink, or simply yet another simulation?
Characters
Tony is once again in the center of the story but is pretty much as you’d expect. He’s stressed and worried, his creations are once again causing chaos and death on a global scale, something he vowed to end once he became the armored Avenger. His back and fourths with Janet and Rhodey are once again brilliant and his sprinkling of humor throughout his fight with The Controller helped add a little comic relief to the whole story.
Aside from Tony, the issue quickly skips through almost all of our favorites throughout. Janet and Rhodey are pretty standard support for Stark in his battle with The Controller. Andy again shows off his technical prowess, only to be knocked out by Bethany Cabe who might not be the best head of security. Jocasta and Aaron have their typical domestic disputes. Maria, Howard and Amanda’s interactions are a little strange to me, and I hope they are fleshed out more in the next issue.
As for the issue’s villain, Controller certainly steps up to the plate, but It did leave a rather bad taste in my mouth. His master plan, to hijack the eSCAPE and turn Tonys latest invention against him was just so The Controller could get “jacked” off all the energy he would consume. His end goal was just to get power, actual physical power. Like he couldn’t just hit up the gym or something? I’m hoping there is more to his master plan because his brawn finally matches his brains and now he needs to start using both.
Artwork
Once again, Tony Stark issue #8 looks fantastic with great action and character design throughout. I loved the sections where the eSCAPE gave everything a retro look, hearkening back to comics of old. The Controller looked fantastic, as did all of the issues heroes and I can’t wait to see more of him in issue #9.
Tony Stark issue #8, is the third part of the Stark realities story arc and overall it is an action-filled issue, with some decent character moments sprinkled in, all leading to a dramatic ending which nicely sets up issue #9. The Controller’s end goal, didn’t quite sit right with me and Amanda’s and Maria’s fight halfway through took me out of it for a short while, but overall there’s plenty to enjoy here. Now issue #9 has to explain what the hells going on inside the eSCAPE with Tony’s mothers and hopefully give The Controller and little more depth.