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Iron Man #2 Review: High-Octane Iron Man Action With Sitcom-Grade Dialogue

  • Written by: Joshua Williamson
  • Art by: Carmen Carnero
  • Colors by: Nolan Woodard
  • Letters by: VC’s Joe Caramagna
  • Cover art by: Ryan Stegman, Frank Martin (covert A)
  • Cover price: $4.99
  • Release date: February 25, 2026

Iron Man #2 (Marvel, 2/25/26): Writer Joshua Williamson and artist Carmen Carnero push Tony Stark into an A.I.M. pressure cooker as Iron Man hunts kidnapped Stark Award geniuses in a tense, action-forward rescue thriller tale. The result is visually kinetic but saddled with glib, MCU-lite banter that undercuts the stakes, Verdict: Worth reading, but only if you think the MCU after Phase 3 is peak Marvel.

First Impressions

Iron Man #2 looks and moves like a confident flagship title, with Carnero and colorist Nolan Woodard pouring clean layouts, expressive acting, and strong atmospheric color into every sequence. The issue reads fast in the best way, chaining embassy chaos, captive scientists, and a Madripoor brawl into a smooth line of escalating momentum that feels like a well storyboarded episode.​

The problem is that the script cannot stop mugging for the imaginary camera. Williamson keeps Tony in late-phase MCU quip mode, dropping punch lines into moments that should feel sharp, tense, or quietly haunted, and the constant riffing sands down any real sense of dread about A.I.M., Madame Masque, or the trauma these captives are enduring. You get a slick package that entertains in the moment, but the emotional weight slides right off because the book keeps nudging you in the ribs whenever it should let a beat sit.​

Recap

In Iron Man #1, Madame Masque and A.I.M. kidnapped Tony Stark Award recipients worldwide to force the creation of a new, weaponized “Tony Stark” under cave-like pressure. Tony already knows the targets were his handpicked protégés, and the Avengers leadership has quietly started talking about how to stop him if his old contingency plan for a worst case scenario spirals out of control. Iron Man #2 continues that thread by following Tony as he chases A.I.M. across the globe, while the kidnapped scientists suffer escalating psychological torture to see which of them, if any, will break the way Tony once did.​

Plot Analysis (SPOILERS)

The issue opens with Tony Stark narrating his complicated history with Whitney Frost, Madame Masque, framing her as the one that keeps getting away while he admits his real nightmare is another Tony Stark forged by trauma who chooses selfishness instead of heroism. His flashback lays out that he built a contingency plan in case someone like that ever appeared, a choice that now clearly haunts him. From there the story cuts to the Latverian embassy in New York where Tony crashes a tense diplomatic moment with Captain America and the Dreadknight, trying to shake loose intel on A.I.M. while Steve complains that Tony’s love life and crisis management have become a global problem.​

In the middle of that standoff Tony takes a call from Luna, a woman he met at his own award gala, and the scene turns into playful flirtation as they banter about dinner plans while Steve and the embassy security look on. Tony’s tone stays jokey even as he jumps back into the fight with Dreadknight, using quick analysis of the villain’s armor mesh to turn the suit’s flexible joints into a weakness that lets him win the skirmish cleanly. After the battle, Steve tries to have a serious talk, pointing out Tony’s recent health scares, personal failures, and scattered behavior, and admits he is worried that Tony is not actually okay in spite of all the bravado. Tony brushes off the concern with more glib confidence and rockets away to keep hunting A.I.M., promising coffee later.​

Meanwhile, in A.I.M.’s facility, the kidnapped Stark Award recipients are marched down a corridor by armed guards and shoved together into a holding area where Adam Ware meets fellow captive Melrose Morrison and other specialists from different fields. The Fixer arrives to explain that A.I.M. has assembled the “world’s greatest minds” that Tony handpicked, then demonstrates the stakes by subjecting weapons designer Chuck Armstrong to agonizing energy shocks when he mouths off. Narration explains that Arcade, Mojo, and Mysterio tech has been fused to create high end torture chambers that bombard the prisoners with horrific simulations in a deliberate attempt to recreate the kind of crucible that once made Tony. Madame Masque steps in to counter the Fixer’s ego, insisting that the experiments are useful whether or not they spit out a new Iron Man, because even their survival ideas could give A.I.M. the next big weapon.​

Back at Gamma Base, Pepper Potts and Melinda May monitor the situation from Tony’s Iron Man workshop, sharing the bad news that the victims’ families still do not know they were targeted because Tony chose them. May points out that even if Tony saves everyone he will face a legal and moral avalanche, suspects he is still hiding something critical, and questions why he insists on handling everything alone while they work channels and wait for A.I.M. to panic. When Pepper asks where Tony went next, May admits he is in Madripoor, a criminal haven that practically guarantees trouble the second he walks in the door.​

In Madripoor, Tony strolls into a seedy bar unarmored, trading casual greetings with old underworld acquaintances until Grizzly warns him that he is about to cause an international incident. Tony insists he only wants to look around for A.I.M. contacts, but Grizzly pushes back, reminding him he has no jurisdiction and that showing up without armor is a foolish flex. The room turns hostile on cue, Grizzly snaps his fingers, and the thugs jump Tony, leading to a quick hand to hand scuffle that ends when a crashing figure plows into the bar.​

That disturbance reveals M.O.D.O.K. trying to enjoy his “me time” in a spa-like setup, and Tony immediately confronts him, demanding to know where Madame Masque and A.I.M. are hiding. M.O.D.O.K. insists that he is not working with Masque after their previous symbiote business and tries to take the conversation down to “Tony and George, man to big head,” but Tony escalates, threatening to blast him in the face. Before M.O.D.O.K. can give him anything useful, A.I.M. soldiers storm the place with orders to kill the big headed villain, and Tony realizes they are not here as backup but as an execution squad. The issue ends with M.O.D.O.K. begging Iron Man to save him from A.I.M., promising more chaos in the next chapter’s clash between Iron Man, A.I.M., and M.O.D.O.K.​

Writing

On a pure pacing level, Iron Man #2 hums along efficiently, threading embassy confrontation, captive torture labs, and Madripoor mayhem into a sequence that always feels like it is moving forward. Williamson keeps scenes short and focused, and he does a solid job of bouncing between Tony’s hunt and the captives’ ordeal so the reader never forgets what is actually at stake beneath the globe trotting. Structurally the issue sets up three key tensions, Tony versus his worried allies, Tony versus A.I.M., and Tony versus the possible consequences of his own contingency plan, and those elements are arranged with clear intent. The problem is that the tone glides into glibness at almost every turn, especially in the embassy and Madripoor material, so the script reads like a high budget action comedy when the premise is screaming for something sharper and more unnerving.​

The dialogue leans hard into quips, and not just for Tony. You get Luna teasing him while he is in the middle of an international incident, Steve trying to drag him into a serious talk while the script keeps tossing in little jokes, and Tony mugging his way through Madripoor even as he wades into a den full of criminals without armor. In isolation, most of the lines are snappy enough, but in aggregate the constant banter chips away at dramatic seriousness and makes it difficult to believe this guy is truly haunted by the idea of a darker Tony out there. When your lead is threatening to blast M.O.D.O.K. in the “big ass head” in one breath and talking about existential nightmares in another, the dissonance lands as tonal whiplash instead of layered characterization. The writing wants brisk spectacle and weighty introspection at the same time, and right now the spectacle voice is winning.​

Art

Carmen Carnero’s art is the backbone of this issue, and the clarity of the storytelling does as much heavy lifting as any script beat. Action is staged cleanly in the embassy and Madripoor fights, with readable panel-to-panel motion and camera angles that highlight how Tony reads a battlefield, whether he is dissecting Dreadknight’s armor mesh or improvising in a bar brawl. Character acting is strong throughout, from Steve’s exasperated expressions to Pepper’s weary concern and the captives’ fear in the torture facility. You can feel personalities in the faces and body language, which helps ground the constant banter in something that feels like real frustration instead of pure snark.​

Nolan Woodard’s colors support the shifting locations with smart tonal choices, giving the embassy a cooler, more official palette, the A.I.M. labs a harsh, artificial glow, and Madripoor a humid, neon crime den vibe. The contrast between Iron Man’s armor sheen and the dingier environments sells him as the disruptive element in each scene. Lettering from Joe Caramagna remains clean and well placed, keeping sound effects and dialogue readable without cluttering the compositions or stepping on Carnero’s line work. Visually, this is exactly what you want from a modern Iron Man title, crisp, kinetic, and consistently polished.​

Character Development

Tony’s motivation is spelled out clearly in the opening pages, he fears a darker version of himself born from similar trauma, and the knowledge that he built a contingency plan for that nightmare keeps him in a constant state of restless overreach. In theory that is rich material, but the issue often treats it as background flavor rather than letting the fear truly shape his choices. His decision to walk into Madripoor unarmored, trading jokes with criminals and an old foe, reads more like a stock “Tony the reckless cool guy” bit than a man whose guilt and anxiety are pushing him into risky corners.​

Consistency across the cast is a mixed bag. Steve Rogers feels grounded when he lists Tony’s health issues and failed relationships, yet the scene undercuts his concern by bouncing back into Tony’s breezy deflection almost immediately. Pepper and Melinda May come across more believably, voicing frustration with Tony’s secrecy and pattern of taking everything on alone while they try to manage fallout in the background. The captive scientists get just enough introduction to register as human beings with specialties rather than faceless victims, but they are still more function than fully realized people at this stage. As for Madame Masque, she remains more of a stylish concept than a deeply explored character, a femme fatale who spars with the Fixer over methodology without getting much interiority this issue.​

Originality & Concept Execution

The core concept of trying to engineer another Tony Stark through curated trauma has the right mix of sci fi horror and character introspection, and stitching Arcade, Mojo, and Mysterio tech together as the torture engine is a clever, Marvel flavored touch. Framing Tony’s real terror as the idea that someone like him could go wrong instead of right is also potent, especially when you factor in his long history of mistakes and overreach. The problem is that Iron Man #2 mostly pushes those ideas forward in exposition and brief narration instead of really leaning into the horror of what A.I.M. is doing.​

What you actually feel on the page is a polished superhero romp with a grim premise sitting just off to the side, acknowledged but rarely allowed to dictate mood. The engineered nightmare concept should make the A.I.M. scenes claustrophobic and unnerving, yet the torture chambers get explained briskly and then folded back into villain banter. Tony’s hunt for A.I.M. plays out like familiar globe hopping, embassy fights, Madripoor bar visits, a surprise M.O.D.O.K. appearance, with only occasional reminders that his own choices helped set this nightmare in motion. The book is not out of ideas, it is simply keeping them on a tight leash in favor of a quippy, late phase MCU vibe that feels less fresh than the premise deserves.​

Pros and Cons

What We Loved

  • Sharp, readable action layouts that showcase Iron Man’s tactical brain in combat.​
  • Expressive character acting and color palettes that differentiate embassy, labs, and Madripoor.​
  • High concept A.I.M. experiment using Arcade, Mojo, and Mysterio tech for engineered trauma.​

Room for Improvement

  • Excessive MCU style quippiness that erodes dramatic tension in key scenes.​
  • Limited exploration of the psychological horror behind the captives’ torture scenarios.​
  • Madame Masque and the scientists feel more like plot devices than fully developed characters.

About The Reviewer: Gabriel Hernandez is the Publisher & EIC of ComicalOpinions.com, a comics review site dedicated to indie, small, and mid-sized publishers.

Follow @ComicalOpinions on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter

The Scorecard

Writing Quality (Clarity & Pacing): 2.5/4
Art Quality (Execution & Synergy): 3.5/4
Value (Originality & Entertainment): 0.5/2

Final Verdict

Iron Man #2 delivers enough slick action, clean visuals, and forward plot motion to justify a slot in a Marvel reader’s pull list, but it does not quite earn a blind buy from anyone looking for heavier drama. If you are comfortable with Tony Stark written in full late phase MCU chatty mode, cracking jokes while the world tilts around him, the issue will probably play as a fun, fast read with an intriguing big picture hook about manufactured genius and weaponized trauma. If you want the premise to land with genuine weight, if you want to actually feel the nightmare Tony fears and see Madame Masque treated as more than a stylish chaos engine, the constant quipping and tonal lightness will likely leave you cold.

6.5/10

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