The Good
Tony Stark's interactions with the dwarven smiths have been the highlight of this tie-in, for me. It's similar to his interactions with his Stark Resilient employees: they're capable, confident and don't put up with any of his crap. I like Splitlip, and hope he makes more appearances in Midgard - it would be a terrible waste of character otherwise.
Stark/Splitlip's "mushroom" analogy was just... apt. I loved that conversation, and they definitely served as great foils of one another. Like I've said in other reviews, dialog is just as important as action, and both this conversation and Pepper's inner dialog was just the icing on the cake for a tremendous issue.
As a journalist, I know how Pepper Potts' story is going to end with the Hammers and the "press spinning." It's a barbaric world, but it's a reality - you cannot show any kind of weakness as a CEO, or blogs, news stations and pundits will just pounce. I applaud Fraction for showing this reality, and I really hope this "mole" storyline doesn't go away any time soon.
The Bad
I made the mistake of reading this week's Fear Itself #7 first, before this issue; that was a grave mistake. There seems to be a lot of crossover between the two events, and by comparison, this book seems non-essential. However, what is present is setup for the next arc of Invincible Iron Man. This is definitely a good thing.
The Verdict
I think this is a fitting end to Tony's Fear Itself involvement, and I'm glad to see that the book is on a course back to normalcy. Stark Resilient's corporate espionage was really fun, and it just seems to keep getting sucked into other events, like Siege or Fear Itself. Hopefully we'll get a little bit of cooling off, a lot more backstabbing (figuratively!) and we'll get to deal with the aftermath of Tony's alcohol binge. Great book!
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