Nappaland's BookBlog Review

0ULTIMATE IRON MAN II, #2

by Orson Scott Card and Pasqual Ferry

(Marvel Comics)

 

Reader Appeal: Teens to adults

Genre: Superhero comic

 

Wow. A comic book written by a real author! And not just any author, one of the most famous and well-loved in the science fiction genre (Orson Scott Card). Sorry, I don’t mean to be unfair to the other comic book authors. They know their craft, and just because someone is a great novelist doesn’t mean they’ll be a good comic book author. So far, though, Card seems to be doing a pretty good job.

Ultimate Iron Man I was new origin story for the ultimate universe version of Iron Man. Ultimate Iron Man II keeps the story going, following Tony Stark as he manages Stark Enterprises (due to the wrongful imprisonment of his father) and tries to disentangle an apparent terrorist plot. Apparently someone is trying to build some nukes to blow up American cities and someone (the same someone?) is trying to kill his father. Tony is getting about in his armor foiling evil with his friend Jim Rhodes (in the War Machine armor), but so far everyone has been fooled into thinking they’re just robots.

It’s hard to judge the storyline of this series at this point. This is clearly one chapter in a larger (four-part) story. It’s building on a good foundation and seems to be going somewhere interesting, though the plotline seems a little vague at the moment and it’s hard for me to see how it can be satisfactorily paid out in just two more issues. There’s a lot more in here, though, than in a lot of other comics these days (sometimes a whole issue will be given to one fight), so I’m pretty hopeful. The writing is pretty good overall, though sometimes it seems a little clipped. I think this would probably play well as an animated movie or a good-length graphic novel. It’s a shame to have to make a novelist like Card compress his story so much.

The art is pretty good too, and has a very strong style to it. A few of the characters look weird to me, but they’re villains so they’re supposed to look weird. Nothing in this issue really stood out to me, except maybe the panel where Tony gets his arm blown off, but the artist gets the job done. 

Generally, this issue is pretty family friendly (as far as superhero comics get), which is probably thanks to Card (a Mormon). The attempted murder of Tony’s father is a bit gruesome, but is short. There are a couple of moralistic asides on the subjects of terrorism and government response that are interesting, but are a bit too clipped (they’re just thrown out there) to be significant or persuasive.

All in all, I enjoyed this issue a lot. Not as much as I would like to have enjoyed it (if that makes sense), but I like the series and I like the style and where it’s going. I really think it’s great that someone like Card is lending his talent to writing comics and that he’s giving attention to a character like Iron Man (who I inexplicably love). Hopefully the Iron man movie, when it comes out, will add another new dimension to this great character’s story and increase people’s interest in these comics. You might want to keep a weather eye on the saucy Terminator advertisement on the inside of the back cover, but other than that I can’t find anything to object to here. It’s a fun series, and if you haven’t checked it out, go back to Ultimate Iron Man I and give it a chance.

BOOKBLOG RATING: B+

AFTER THE STORY (optional)

If your family members are interested in this book, then encourage discussion about it afterward. You can use these questions to get started:

• As Si Ma says, sometimes the preservation of good is in the hands of people who aren’t perfect (or may even be very imperfect).

• Can you think of examples in the Bible that back this claim up? What does this teach us about God’s ways?

--MV

Note: All book or comics-related graphics in this column are standard publicity/promotional shots and are owned by their respective publisher.