Meltdown
Coming off of a decent story of industrial sabotage by the dastardly rads we have a bit of a dud this month in the form of The Mysterious Melter. I'm going to be honest the only two things mysterious about The Melter are his fashion sense and why anyone didn't just tackle the dude whose only power is to melt iron.
A lot of time is spent in this comic showing the withering effects of mysterious acts of sabotage on Tony Stark's business... Hey wait a minute. #checks review for issue 46#. You cheeky buggers! It's exactly the same plot with a much less interesting villain! The Melter is lame. His identity and motivation are revealed at the start removing any Suspense from this tale leaving us with a clown that can melt Iron. The only reason he almost succeeds is because Iron Man is made from the only metal he can affect. Why didn't someone just wallop him with a brick?
The art retains the slightly more restrained palette that Don Heck has used throughout Iron Man's run. There's plenty of Heck's trademark destruction (top marks for the two magnets ripping a steam pipe apart). Also Heck does a good job with characters faces, Pepper in particular is served well by him, with a great sarcastic grin midway through. It's a shame the cover is one of the poorer efforts in Iron Man's run thus far. The scale feels off, the background is plain and the content is dull.
This is in every way an average comic. It further develops Pepper and Harry, with a bit of dialogue between them that sparks in the middle but the actual villain is dull and the plot is recycled from LAST MONTH. Finally The Melter. I mean why?
You? You Couldn't Find A Tree In A Forest!
Pepper Potts
