Invincible Iron Man #14 Spoilers

[Panfoot]

Remember how something actually happened at the end of issue #13, how Tony finally seemed to capture Doom and was prepared to figure out what the heck he's up to? Well that would be interesting to see so FORGET THAT!

So instead we have:

- An actually fairly nice 2 page spread of news reports essentially recapping everything that's happened in CW2 so far

- Tony going to an AA meeting that Carol also shows up at, which results in them talking outside, of which about 90% of the comic consist of. It can mostly be summed up as:
Tony: We are friends
Carol: Yes
Tony: You're wrong though
Carol: No you're wrong
Tony: Stop
Carol: No you stop

- Tony's recently discovered actual Biological mother, Amanda Armstrong, coming to a newly rebuilt Stark Tower to meet with Tony, which after talking with Friday, ends with Friday saying something came out, Amanda asking if Tony is okay, and Friday responding with "You haven't seen the news?"

Continued in CW2/Invincible Iron Man #1!!!

Never have I seen so little actually happen in a series.

[Diamond]

Ugh... This issue was so bad... It's everything bad about Bendis, starting with his tendency to assume you read every series he writes.

Regarding Doom, I'm also curious if Bendis messed up things again and had to discard story parts.

[Panfoot]

Ugh... This issue was so bad... It's everything bad about Bendis, starting with his tendency to assume you read every series he writes.

Regarding Doom, I'm also curious if Bendis messed up things again and had to discard story parts.

If were lucky, we'll get the reason why Doom is taking up the mantle for seemingly no apparently reason by the end of Infamous Iron Man. Maybe.

[ZeroBG82]

Never have I seen so little actually happen in a series.

This has been true since about issue 3. It's why I got out. It's also not surprising, a lot of Bendis comics suffer from Nothing Happens Syndrome. It's sort of his unofficial style, at this point.

Which makes his best work stand out, because it's the series where stuff actually goes down at a meaningful pace. Daredevil? Alias? Both are slow and moody but filled with turns and character moments that his other works just don't have. Even the first 100 issues or so of Ultimate Spider-Man (which is where I got off the bus), which are almost glacial in their pacing, have stuff that happens.

This is why I hesitated picking up Jessica Jones #1 today. I keep saying, "No more Bendis!", but then he says all the right things and I'm back in. I'm a battered spouse. I hated his Avengers. I hated his Guardians of the Galaxy. I swore again no more. Then I bought into the interviews before Iron Man (which turned out to be totally bogus across the board). And then he returns to one of his true masterworks, Alias, which I genuinely love (second only to his DD run). Ultimately I caved on that one, but I'm calling that an exception due to the combined creative team/character synergy.

[Frontier]

Not addressing that Doom cliffhanger at all is pretty poor storytelling, not to mention leaving the fate of this title's supposed main character up to an event book and a relaunch starring a new main character.

Though I guess it's only fitting that such an underwhelming and uneventful Iron Man run closes out in the most lackluster way possible.

I kinda liked that whole sequence with Tony and Carol at the AA meeting because it actually acknowledged their history together (in a Bendis-y way, granted) and had the two actually talking things out instead of just clobbering each other. Sure, they're both still too stupidly stubborn to actually work this whole issue out without heroes having to fight each other for the umpteenth time, but it's something at least.

Oh hey, here's Tony's "real" mom, in case anyone wanted to forget about International Iron Man and Bendis' attempt to make something out of Gillen's retcon. Are we going to have to keep reading about this person in the other Iron Man books? Does she really have anything to add at this point, especially with Tony apparently gone?

[Panfoot]

Honestly the worst part of his "Nothing Happens" issues are that the very few times something actually is about to happen, like the big fight with Tony, Rhodey, Peter Parker and that inhuman villain that ended up in an explosion, or like the capture of Doom in the previous issue, NEVER go anywhere. They are all IMMEDIATELY passed over and just left unresolved or to hopefully followed up later on. I went into this series and international iron man fairly neutral, the only thing of Bendis I read prior to the start of these series was House of M in TB just by itself with no real context for what was happening in the comics at the time, and thought it was more or less okay. After this stuff though...just, yikes, should have listened to the warnings of Guardians of the Galaxy fans.

[Michael Watkins]

I was close. I predicted that Doom would cooperate and calmly demonstrate that he could have exited Stark's "trap" whenever he chose to. instead, they just ignored the scene altogether. lol.

[SuperiorIronman]

Bendis is cut short on International but it at least did what it set out to do and that was tie up a loose end from Gillen's run. Not perfect but it did what it intended being an international adventure about Tony finding his parents.
Invincible has stories that scream unfinished. Like Bendis was so focused on Civil War 2 and International that Invincible becomes the weakest link. Honestly it feels like editorial has something to do with this considering stories post-Rhodey team-up just end. Given that Marvel editorial wanted Iron man to be the face of the company it wouldn't surprise me that they messed with Bendis's run and to get Riri Williams out early considering the diversity push.
Given that Civil War 2 has heavy emphasis on Iron man I wouldn't be surprised if it was more an Iron man story that got worked into an event, or if this was Bendis adding to his run through an event comic considering major events for Iron man happen in CW2.

Regardless Invincible started strong and somewhere somebody stopped caring.

[Marvell2100]

Remember how something actually happened at the end of issue #13, how Tony finally seemed to capture Doom and was prepared to figure out what the heck he's up to? Well that would be interesting to see so FORGET THAT!

So instead we have:

- An actually fairly nice 2 page spread of news reports essentially recapping everything that's happened in CW2 so far

- Tony going to an AA meeting that Carol also shows up at, which results in them talking outside, of which about 90% of the comic consist of. It can mostly be summed up as:
Tony: We are friends
Carol: Yes
Tony: You're wrong though
Carol: No you're wrong
Tony: Stop
Carol: No you stop

- Tony's recently discovered actual Biological mother, Amanda Armstrong, coming to a newly rebuilt Stark Tower to meet with Tony, which after talking with Friday, ends with Friday saying something came out, Amanda asking if Tony is okay, and Friday responding with "You haven't seen the news?"

Continued in CW2/Invincible Iron Man #1!!!

Never have I seen so little actually happen in a series.

This about sums it up nicely. A series about nothing.

[Biclopcicle]

Wow. That was the biggest waste of #14 issues I've ever read. I have to take exception to the above poster regarding International Iron Man - Bendis interviews specifically stated that series would feature Doom as his unlikely partner as they deal with international threats. Absolutely 0% of that happened.

Similar issue with Invincible . Many times Brevoort said this was supposed to be the flagship Marvel book, that it was going to have all the big lead-ins to CW2, etc. The Biohack ninja story was specifically promoted as introducing a new threat to the Marvel Universe that would be addressed in CW2. Nothing remotely close to that happened. This book was basically 3 throwaway arcs. International was one big non-arc. Absurdly bad. Sadly I am still curious about Doom. As for Riri, Bendis has sealed his own fate on that one. Any chance I had of reading that one is way down the tubes

[Cmbmool]

You know this issue could be Bendis version of Civil War: Causalities of War by Christos Gage. I mean it had them not physically fighting in the issue, right ?

[MindofShadow]

This issue is bendis at his absolute worse

[Diamond]

Honestly the worst part of his "Nothing Happens" issues are that the very few times something actually is about to happen, like the big fight with Tony, Rhodey, Peter Parker and that inhuman villain that ended up in an explosion, or like the capture of Doom in the previous issue, NEVER go anywhere. They are all IMMEDIATELY passed over and just left unresolved or to hopefully followed up later on. I went into this series and international iron man fairly neutral, the only thing of Bendis I read prior to the start of these series was House of M in TB just by itself with no real context for what was happening in the comics at the time, and thought it was more or less okay. After this stuff though...just, yikes, should have listened to the warnings of Guardians of the Galaxy fans.

As many will tell you, stick to Ultimate Spider-Man, some Icon books and his pre-Avengers comics. Those were his best, and much, much superior to his current output.

Having said that, while I'm frustrated with the series, that abrupt change in the second arc was clearly meant to be a part of the mystery. You know, "what happened to Stark?" It just happened to be poorly written... a short, basic, explanation of how they survived would have been appreciated.

[jackolover]

A very reflective issue of Tony Stark (and Carol Danvers) as nicely portrayed in Deodato's moody night scenes. I was particularly struck by them both in vulnerable moments, and together, on this issue of CWII and how they have held back so far, but won't be holding back from now on. We learnt Tony was particularly lonely, because he couldn't talk about CWII with Rhodey or Bruce Banner, his friends, because they were dead. The fact that Bendis brought Tony and Carol together at a place they thought they could feel safe from the others presence, (the Alcohol Anon meeting), was both stunning, and in-continuity, that both were joined by this similarity. They seemed to be shocked that one or the other would be crass enough to enter this holy of holies where none may enter, yet, as both were members of the same club, it brought home the similarities they had, as against the differences they had. I was also struck that Amanda Armstrong, Tony's Mother, appeared after Carol was referring to Tony as "the broken little boy", so that was a nice thing Bendis did there, connecting Tony's orphan status, to Tony's referred status by his friends.

I'm a little concerned now that 2 weeks later, Friday is saying, "There's been a development...you haven't seen the news"? And Starks stocks are the lowest they've been in history. It appears to signal something grim about Tony, but that could be just dramatics. It could also be as a result of Tony or Carol not holding back as inferred in the earlier exchange they had.

[jackolover]

Not addressing that Doom cliffhanger at all is pretty poor storytelling, not to mention leaving the fate of this title's supposed main character up to an event book and a relaunch starring a new main character.

Though I guess it's only fitting that such an underwhelming and uneventful Iron Man run closes out in the most lackluster way possible.

I kinda liked that whole sequence with Tony and Carol at the AA meeting because it actually acknowledged their history together (in a Bendis-y way, granted) and had the two actually talking things out instead of just clobbering each other. Sure, they're both still too stupidly stubborn to actually work this whole issue out without heroes having to fight each other for the umpteenth time, but it's something at least.

Oh hey, here's Tony's "real" mom, in case anyone wanted to forget about International Iron Man and Bendis' attempt to make something out of Gillen's retcon. Are we going to have to keep reading about this person in the other Iron Man books? Does she really have anything to add at this point, especially with Tony apparently gone?

Well this issue does have the ring of being a continuation of International Iron Man, rather than Invincible Iron Man. Maybe that cliff hanger in issue #13 was to be left to Infamous Iron Man to develope, not CWII?