Iron Man - Extremis part 3, Written by Warren Ellis, Illustrated by Adi Granov
Well, after considerable delay, it's finally here. My review I mean. When I set out to review Iron Man issue three, one of the questions I originally planned to examine was "was it worth the wait?" To which I say, of course it was worth the wait, sometimes these things take time, give the artists some space, lets not get all caught up in deadline mania.
Ok, yeah, you got me. I try not chuck too many stones when I'm typing in the greenhouse.
Time issues aside, Extremis part three is pretty good. The pace has begun to quicken, and while it has less dialog and more action than the previous installments, what there is continues to add to what we know about our hero and our villain. It's very much like what you might imagine an Iron Man movie should be like. Tightly focused on Stark both as executive and technologist, with enough expository bits to fill in the newcomer. The villain is frightening, but he's there more to show how our armored hero differs from the frighteningly superhuman foes he has to confront. He doesn't seem to have grand designs on the world, he's just out to hurt people. We could do a lot worse.
The art continues to be excellent, though for some reason the Iron Man armor seems to be perpetually in a shadow in the latter half of the comic, even in well lit areas. It's a little jarring in some panels to see sections of the armor reduced to a black silhouette with only the glow panels visible against a day time sky. I suspect this may have been a concession to get the art out the door, but that's only a guess. They could have been going for a more funeral air for this particular issue. That quibble aside, the art continues to help make the story work. We are treated to a brutal fight in this issue, (though not in the same league as the Authority), and the realism of the art helps to transform it from a simple exchange of blows and explosions into something much more visceral and believable. You wince at some of the panels, and the little touches with the armor's HUD help to further sell the pain and violence to the reader. You do not come away saying "wow, that was cool," as much as "good lord, that hurt."
Now, if only they can get the next issue out the door a little quicker.
