The Good
I know this will shock some, but the highlight of this issue for me is Greg Land and Guru Efx's art. Despite some awkward panel layout, slightly jarring inking, and confusion over impact, the arena fight looked fairly solid as Tony grew battered and beaten while he attempted to evade massive pieces of rubble. The visuals also impressed with Death's Head and when Tony finally got a chance to step back into his armor. No matter how much you dislike Land's art, I think we can at least agree he does some pretty good work when it comes to the non-organic elements in the title.
Kieron Gillen does an able job with the dialogue and keeps conversations fairly amusing. There's no sharp banter here, but the reactions feel appropriate and he managed to give Death's Head an interesting personality. The concept of Tony having an armory following him around was both a logical and humorous development -- humorous to me because it essentially feels like a heavily armed space RV (and so begins the memories of Spaceballs).
The Bad
With so much buildup behind the gladiator-esque fight between Iron Man and Death's Head (not to mention a rather sweet cover), I was hoping it would be way more electrifying. The panel layout is less than ideal, cutting off a series of moments that makes you feel as though you're missing part of the action. As stated above, there's also an issue when it comes to a sense of impact when debris smashes and one panel where he's apparently. Additionally, moments later on that should feel bombastic come and go without a real sense of the devastating and powerful event that just happened. Instead, everything just wraps up abruptly due to a big twist and sets the stage for what's next. Now, the twist will obviously be greatly elaborated upon in the coming arc, but as of right now the minimal details sadly leave me not interested in what's to come.
The Verdict
We'll of course find out why a cloaking device is so important in due time, but as of right now, this isn't a direction that fascinates me nearly enough to warrant $3.99 per issue to eventually learn the details. That's too bad, too, because sending Tony into space seemed like a thrilling direction, but right now I'm feeling no strong desire to continue. I suppose I'll have to wait until the Guardians of the Galaxy are slapped on the cover before I'm motivated to jump on board again... and seeing as both franchises have movies on the way, it's safe to assume that day will come sooner rather than later.