Review: Iron Man Annual
Pros:
-This is an extremely tightly written story. I never felt that even a single panel in this book was wasted space. I was immediately sucked into the story and it didn’t let me go until I read the last line. I’ve read very few Iron Man books pre-Fraction’s Invincible Iron Man, so I really know very little about the Mandarin. I absolutely feel like I know everything I need to know about the character’s personality after reading this story.
-The story hit all the emotional high and low notes at all the perfect moments. Fraction did a great job giving each character, even the less prominent characters, moments where I felt something for each of them. This ranged from sadness, to joy, to understanding, to “Holy crap this guy is kind of insane.”
-The art took a few pages to grow on me, but once Mandarin started explaining his life, the art really fell into place. Being shown the Mandarin’s actual life while he was explaining his delusional version of his life was a spectacular touch.
Cons:
-Tony Stark doesn’t make an appearance at all in this book. In the context of this story, I’m glad that Fraction didn’t try to shoehorn him in here though. However, that makes me feel like this should have gotten an over-sized One-Shot or something.
Overall:
-I wish more comics were as good as this on a weekly basis. This book is certainly worth every cent. I’m definitely looking forward to seeing more Mandarin in the pages of Invincible Iron Man in the future. This book definitely deserves a…
4.5/5