Comic Book Review – Iron Man by Christopher Cantwell

Iron Man: Books of Korvac I – Big Iron (2021)
Reprints Iron Man (2020) #1-5
Written by Christopher Cantwell
Art by Cafu

Iron Man: Books of Korvac II – Overclock (2021)
Reprints Iron Man (2020) #6-11
Written by Christopher Cantwell
Art by Cafu and Angel Unzueta

So, I’ve never been an Iron Man fan. I read issues here and there, and there are plenty of comics in which Iron Man appears. I’ve seen all the Iron Man movies. I just feel very meh about the character. If you had to compare him to a DC analog, I would say Batman is the closest. They are both rich white dudes who use their wealth to fund their superhero exploits. Batman is more interesting to me because of the darker aspects, and I think his Rogues Gallery is far more interesting than anyone who has ever fought Iron Man. 

My decision to read Christopher Cantwell’s brief run was based on the covers more than anything else. The legendary Alex Ross provided the paintings, which made me think this would be similar to Al Ewing’s Immortal Hulk or Ewing’s current Immortal Thor. It’s a story told in isolation from any crossover events and is character-centered. However, it really wasn’t like those books at all. In fact, I think this comic should have been titled Iron Man & Hellcat because the series is about them in equal parts.

If Christopher Cantwell’s name sounds familiar, you probably watched the AMC drama Halt and Catch Fire he created. I remember loving Halt starting with the second season, which served as a course correction. The characters were always at the center of that show, and I became very invested in where their lives would lead. Cantwell is no stranger to Marvel Comics, though. He’s penned a critically acclaimed Doctor Doom series and a run on Captain America in the last few years. But I had my reservations. I’ve found that when people from television crossover into comics, it’s not always a smooth transition, and success in one medium does not guarantee it in another.

Two-thirds of Cantwell’s Iron Man is focused on the hero’s rematch with Korvac. My comic knowledge is embarrassingly deep compared to your average person off the street. However, I know little to nothing about Korvac other than he was the antagonist in an Avengers story arc in the 1970s (?). I plan to – at some point – work my way through The Avengers comics up to around 1991 (like I did with Claremont’s X-Men), so I don’t want to spoil that too much beyond the bits & pieces mentioned in this Iron Man series.

As with any “fresh start” in comics, the first collection spends most of its time resetting Tony Stark. The billionaire tech bro is attempting to get in better touch with humanity. I feel like I’ve seen this before and wasn’t entertained. Cantwell tosses out some classic Iron Man villains like Unicorn or Melter. The former is the most prominent here and part of a larger conspiracy. I can’t say he’s given much character development. Patsy Walker, aka Hellcat, gets way more screen time and serves as the co-star to Stark. We also see a return of a more classic Iron Man armor. 

Hellcat becomes the Jiminy Cricket for Tony Stark, who feels spiritually lost. His company is gone, and Stark is experiencing life on the ground like the rest of us, shocking him. The conditions everyone else lives under are shocking; he can’t understand how people allow themselves to be treated this way. On a commercial flight, Hellcat tells Stark he can’t recline his seat until the captain gives them permission. He’s surprised, and she retorts that Stark only flies on private jets.

There’s a big cliffhanger at the end of the first volume, with Korvac making his first big move, and the repercussion is explored in the second volume, Overclock. Tony is a broken man and depends on a motley crew of B and C-tier heroes to work with – Misty Knight, Scarlet Spider, The Gargoyle, and Frog Man. It’s very reminiscent of The Defenders, a team that didn’t make it out of the 1980s and centered around Doctor Strange, Silver Surfer, Namor, and The Hulk. I believe Hellcat was a part of that group and knew that Gargoyle was. 

As a result, we see far less of Iron Man and get to know these characters more. Again, naming this book Iron Man isn’t exactly correct. Hellcat receives a more prominent role separate from Stark, less a supporting figure and more in a full superhero role. There’s a lot to Hellcat’s history in Marvel Comics that I know I’m not familiar with, and I don’t think Cantwell does a great job in catching new readers up, especially in regard to the superpower the character displays that seems like it came out of nowhere. There are also nods to Patsy Walker’s origination as the lead in a romance comic from the 1950s, which I appreciated. I like it when non-superhero books published in the past by big companies are folded into the larger universe.

We get some background on Korvac that helps us understand him and his motivations a bit. He’s one of those deluded villains who believes himself a hero who is going to save the universe. We get a lot more Iron Man villains who have been recruited and brainwashed to serve our central bad guy, but they don’t get much development at all. They are here to serve as punching bags for fights.

The bright spot in this is Tony’s side plot, getting transported to a planet deep in space where a commune of other outsiders is attempting to build a community. Among them are an ally from decades past and the Daredevil villain Stilt-Man, who appears to have reformed and is now the leader of this tribe. There’s a good mystery here about a danger on the planet which Stark is determined to unravel. I thought this whole plot would have made a good mini-series unto itself, and I sort of wish we’d spent more time here.

The second volume ends on another cliffhanger that sees Stark and a friend onboard Galactus’s massive ship attempting to get ahead of Korvac before the entire universe suffers.