Invincible Iron Man 10 - Emma and Tony's Vegas trip

[lefthanded]

Summary:

The start of the issue is set shortly before X-men 26 ends.
Rhodey in prison and Stark at the Hellfire Club, both receive a cell phone call from each other. However, it is a phone call setup by Feilong so that Tony can hear his friend can attacked by other prisoners. However, sand starts swirling around and takes out the attackers, revealing the Living Laser and Sandman are here to protect Rhodey. We get a flashback where Tony asks Kingpin for a favor, resulting in the hiring of the two villains to protect Rhodey in jail.

The scene returns to how X-men 26 ends - Emma sees Feilong, is stopped from attacking him by Tony, Emma kicks Tony in the groin and removes her ring, and Feilong catches the two of them in what looks like a marriage proposal. We get a little more context from Tony's POV, as he pleads with Emma about needing what is in Feilong's mind and cautions about how removing the power inhibitor ring will bring Sentinels on site.

The comic then proceeds with Tony baiting Feilong by not inviting him to the wedding (to make Feilong want to crash the wedding), and then heading to Vegas with Emma for the wedding. Emma runs off to do her own thing (not shown), while we are shown Tony attacking one of Stane's secret bases to stealing some manufacturing equipment.

Tony then arrives at the wedding chapel, where Emma is waiting in a red wedding outfit. Feilong crashes the wedding alone, as Tony planned. Emma takes off her inhibitor ring, puts the officiant to sleep, and then both her and Tony enter the mind of Feilong.

They take the secrets of the Sentinels and a recording that Feilong watched of Howard Stark. Feilong's psychic defenses allow him to partially wake and attack Tony in the psychic realm, but Emma puts him back under, and discovers Feilong's secret motivation - his loving parents were mutants, but he was human, so he resented them for that.

Tony then tells Emma it is up to her what happens to Feilong next. Emma talks about possibly killing Feilong, or coercing him to publicly confess his crimes. But since she reasons that Orchis will just eliminate Feilong if he reveals secrets, she decides to let him live without any coercion but not remember this telepathic theft, so that the truth of Orchis and Feilong can be revealed in the future.

The issue concludes with Tony and Emma realizing that Howard Stark had theorized about Mysterium, which Emma shows Tony an actual piece of. The implication is that they will try and obtain more Mysterium so that Tony can build a new suit with it.


My thoughts:

Overall an enjoyable issue, but I still have issues with the supposed reason for the wedding.

*Start Rant*
As was established in X-men 26, Emma and Tony have to get married because not wearing the ring and using her powers will bring the Sentinels down on her. Here, Emma explicitly states that "in 30 seconds Feilong will be brain-dead, and a minute after that, I expect the first Sentinel will be here" after she uses her powers. Tony tries to convince her to put the ring back on by saying that he knows that the Sentinels have Tony's Anti-Magneto measures installed, but he needs Feilong alive to learn what else is installed.
They end up getting engaged because Feilong caught them in a sitcom-esque state of Tony down on one knee following a kick to the balls.

Emma communicates telepathically with Tony during the proposal (and had also telepathically communicated with Kitty at the same time in X-Men 26), which apparently doesn't trigger the Sentinels to arrive. So do the Sentinels only detect only certain types/levels of power usage?

The climax of this issue has (1) Emma take off her ring and use her powers, with there being no concern about Sentinels coming, and (2) Emma is able to relatively easily take the secrets from Feilong's mind.

Aside from the threat of Sentinels, there doesn't seem to be any specific reason why Emma can't just telepathically take secrets from Feilong at any time. The actual wedding and Tony's scheming occurs so that Tony and Emma can get Feilong alone, yet they were already alone in the Hellfire Club when Feilong discovered the proposal scene.

If she can use her powers in Las Vegas at a random wedding chapel to easily get secrets from Feilong, why couldn't she use her powers in New York at the Hellfire Club? The threat of Sentinels is a reason in one, but not the other.

If Duggan had established that Feilong has psi-blockers that are deactivated by something Tony built and setup at the wedding, then that could be a potential reason to go through with the sham wedding. If Duggan shows that the Sentinels have a geographic robo-fence around New York, that could be a potential reason why going to Vegas removes that threat.

This has been a big problem with Fall of X overall - inconsistency in what they are telling us with what they are showing us.

*End Rant*

Overall though, I am satisfied by this issue. It has enjoyable interactions between Tony, Emma, and Feilong, and the plot actually moves forward instead of just treading water. I was worried that it would be padded out this issue with Tony and Emma dealing with the engagement, then a separate issue showing the actual wedding, and then the third issue actually moving the plot forward. I am glad this all got resolved in one well paced issue.

[Nicoclaws]

So are they actually married ? or was it just an improvised plan ?
Maybe there are fewer Sentinels in Las Vegas ?

[RAWRlrus]

I'm enjoying them working together as long as nothing develops romantically.

The sentinels are super inconsistent throughout the event. They react super quickly to Emma apparently, but it seems like she's the only one. IIRC in the first issue Kwanwon and Monet talked about the sentinels showing up in a bit after they attacked an Orchis base. It took a while for a sentinel to show up after Kurt and Mystique were around for a bit in Uncanny Spider Man. Than you have Cable and Bishop walking around New York without a concern about the sentinels and Kate was right next to Emma in X-Men 26 without a problem.

So are they actually married ? or was it just an improvised plan ?
Maybe there are fewer Sentinels in Las Vegas ?

Tony married Emma's alias Hazel.

[JB]

I appreciate Kingpin sending Sandman and *checks notes* Living Laser to protect Rhodey in prison. When I saw that sand fist pop up and knock those goons out I was like "yeah!" and I don't even really follow these characters.

I'm also glad Emm and Tony got into Feilong's head and got the info Tony was looking for.

[RAWRlrus]

I appreciate Kingpin sending Sandman and *checks notes* Living Laser to protect Rhodey in prison. When I saw that sand fist pop up and knock those goons out I was like "yeah!" and I don't even really follow these characters.

I'm also glad Emm and Tony got into Feilong's head and got the info Tony was looking for.

Feilong's photographic memory coming in handy

[Uncanny X-Man]

The only thing I didn't like about this issue was Emma sitting in Tony's car with her feet out of the window - she has a bit more class than that

Other than that, wow. I really enjoyed Tony and Emma's dealings with the Kingpin, the wedding, the revelations about Feilong and the way they managed to snatch a significant victory from him, as well as the final tease about Mysterium. I think everyone suspected a new Iron Man armor made of that was coming but I'm curious to see how exactly they're going to pull this one off this time.

[myownlittleusername]

The only thing I didn't like about this issue was Emma sitting in Tony's car with her feet out of the window - she has a bit more class than that

It's Hazel, not Emma, she's just in character.

Other than that, wow. I really enjoyed Tony and Emma's dealings with the Kingpin, the wedding, the revelations about Feilong and the way they managed to snatch a significant victory from him, as well as the final tease about Mysterium. I think everyone suspected a new Iron Man armor made of that was coming but I'm curious to see how exactly they're going to pull this one off this time.

I don't see why it would be hard to get Mysterium for a new armor. They've already mined enough for use as a galactic currency last I heard, so why not just go and get some.
Did something happen to make it less accessible recently?
Seems so, since getting it will be some kind of quest apparently.

[Uncanny X-Man]

It's Hazel, not Emma, she's just in character.



I don't see why it would be hard to get Mysterium for a new armor. They've already mined enough for use as a galactic currency last I heard, so why not just go and get some.
Did something happen to make it less accessible recently?
Seems so, since getting it will be some kind of quest apparently.

I'm not entirely sure who has Mysterium these days or where it's stored... if it's Abigail Brand, it might be a problem. Also, Tony mentioned needing "all of it" - does that imply they need to get into the White Hot Room again to get more?

[ExodusCloak]

Iron Man to become Mysterium Man, great that this wasn't official

[myownlittleusername]

I'm not entirely sure who has Mysterium these days or where it's stored... if it's Abigail Brand, it might be a problem. Also, Tony mentioned needing "all of it" - does that imply they need to get into the White Hot Room again to get more?

I don't think he'll actually need all of it, that's just him being enthusiastic about its potential. At least it came across that way. Of course, Orchis will probably be hunting for it too, so maybe better not leave anything for them!

[darkalamator]

I hope getting off-world means getting into the Mercury.

[JB]

I'm not entirely sure who has Mysterium these days or where it's stored... if it's Abigail Brand, it might be a problem. Also, Tony mentioned needing "all of it" - does that imply they need to get into the White Hot Room again to get more?

Yeah I'm not sure where it is either. Jean got some for Wong (or Strange? or both) I think but not sure where exactly it came from. Getting off-world will be a bit of a task since they're both "broke" at the moment and likely have to call in some favors.