Welcome to the halfway point of the second volume of a run that will not end. In Tony Stark: Iron Man, we were treated to such highlights as Tony Stark is alive again, and who could forget such tracks as ”No I guess not he is just an A.I. clone with all Tony’s memories and life experiences.” Well if you liked those numbers you will love this issue.

Spoilers Ahead

When we last left Tony he was a smear on the pavement, and after the shutdown, I am happy to inform you…He is still a smear on the pavement. Luckily, Tony is the only person on the planet that the cleaning bots will still do a good job for so they mop him up into a garbage bag (I’m assuming) and putter out of there like Rosie Jetson.

It’s a decent issue to come back to after a break because nothing was really going on in the story anyways and this issue pretty much gives everyone a cameo (that’s shade), so you get reminded of who is all involved. There are a couple of twists and turns that happen in this story but I won’t spoil them. You have to have something to look forward to. Personally, I’m looking forward to June. What I will tell you is the dead Tony was the real Tony the whole time, oopsie. Oh wait… correction… his consciousness was sucked out at the last second and he needs a new body stat.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

Pete Wood’s art is pretty good but I think the story itself hurts the issue. Most of the time there is a lot of stuff going on in the background but the subject matter keeps it homogeneous. When we get a little breathing room in the VR world with the white background, your eyes get a bit of respite but there is so much dialogue that it makes your eyes hurt in a whole other way. Additionally, I truly hate potty-mouthed HERBIE. It feels like a desecration of a character and it happens every time he says something. It stopped being shocking and giggle-worthy four issues ago. This is a tightly plotted and expertly written story. It is just a bad story that didn’t need to be told.