Tony Stark is familiar with the chips being stacked against him. With his enemies teaming up and his suit not at 100%, he's going to wish he was still in Asgard preparing for the battle in FEAR ITSELF.
The Good
Matt Fraction and Salvador Larroca have been consistently great on this series. Iron Man is often portrayed in different manners but here we see him as a hero and a struggling businessman. With the PR disaster resulting from needing to get drunk in FEAR ITSELF, his credibility has been called into question. He's being attacked by the press and by the combined forces of the Mandarin and Ezekiel Stane. To make things worse, before he can fully repair his suit, an army of Dreadnaughts is attacking in China. Iron Man will do all he can to help but even joining forces with the Chinese heroes, the Dynasty, won't be enough.
Iron Man's dealt with a lot of problems in the past but thanks to the Mandarin and Stane, things keep getting worse and worse. Tony will accept help but isn't always the type to rush out and ask for it. The tension is building as the Mandarin's plan continues to unfold.
Larroca's art is complemented by Frank D'Armata's colors. The flying suits of armor shine, especially when surrounded by explosions and the thrusters of each suit.
The Bad
While there is plenty of action with Iron and the Dynasty against the Dreadnaughts and we do see more of Mandarin's plan, it almost feels like we're passing the time for something big next issue. Mandarin can sometimes come across as a little boring and I want to see him get straight into the action. There also needs to be some resolution with Tony's other problems.
The Verdict
When it rains, it pours. There's a giant poop-storm headed in Iron Man's direction. He's finally becoming aware of how bad things are getting and will hopefully start to sort everything out. Fraction and Larroca continue to tell Iron Man adventures the way only they know how. We get a lot of big action scenes here but are only seeing parts of Mandarin's plan. It's all escalating and Tony better get his act together if he hopes to come out of this in one piece.