Invincible Iron Man #10 Review

 

Writer: Gerry Duggan

Artist: Juan Frigeri

Colorist: Bryan Valenza

Letterer: Joe Caramagna

Cover Artists: Lucas Werneck; Chris Allen & David Curiel; Cafu; Meghan Hetrick; Bob Layton & Paul Mounts; George Pérez & Edgar Delgado

Publisher: Marvel

Price: $4.99

Release Date: September 27, 2023

 

Industrialist Kelvin Heng, a.k.a. Feilong, bought Stark Unlimited via a hostile takeover. He used Tony Stark's proprietary technology to aid Orchis' attacks on mutants by building thirty-foot-tall Stark Sentinels. Tony's bid to destroy the Sentinels ended with Rhodey, a.k.a. War Machine, in prison.

 

Forced to comply with a court order, Tony deleted his B.O.S.S. operating system and gave Feilong his Mark 70 armor. Can Tony Stark free Rhodey, turn the tables on Feilong, and save mutants everywhere from the evil Orchis organization? Let's blast into Invincible Iron Man #10 and find out!

 

 

Story

Feilong is all about the show. He gets a guard to hand Rhodey a cell phone, then uses a masked servant at the Hellfire Club to bring Tony Stark one. Feilong arrives in time to watch Tony listen while inmates beat Rhodey to death. Thankfully, Tony's made a deal with Wilson Fisk, a.k.a. Kingpin, the new White King of the Hellfire Club. The big man's got friends in places high and low. That includes the Polunsky Unit in Livingston, Texas, one of the harshest prisons in the United States.

 

Feilong doesn't realize that Tony could kill him at any time. Disguised as his assistant Hazel Kendal, Emma Frost would like nothing better than to use her psychic powers to fry his brain. But that wouldn't stop Orchis from hurting mutants or inciting hatred across the globe. Feilong holds all the cards, and Tony's only got one viable play. As readers of X-Men #26 know, opportunity strikes when you least expect it.

 

 

 

Feilong doesn't miss an opportunity to disadvantage Tony Stark in Invincible Iron Man #10. When he sees Tony hustle Hazel into a side room, he intrudes on Tony's privacy. Feilong misinterprets the inhibitor ring Tony wants Emma to wear for a wedding band. To see the former billionaire bachelor settling down with his secretary must smell like victory. How else can you explain Feilong following Tony and Emma to Las Vegas? Now that he's broken Tony, Feilong can help Tony rebuild his life. So long as Tony knows who's the boss.

 

Feilong doesn't realize Las Vegas is all a show for him. Or perhaps not all. Tony Stark's got practical reasons for slipping into Sin City apart from a shotgun wedding. Still, after Wilson Fisk lost his wife at the Hellfire Gala, Tony Stark gets a wife in Invincible Iron Man #10. Wilson Fisk wants Typhoid Mary back. Emma wants out of the relationship ASAP. As for what Tony wants, time will tell.

 

 

Art

Juan Frigeri portrays Tony Stark's reversal of fortune with imagery that celebrates Iron Man's rich history in Invincible Iron Man #10. Scenes inside the Hellfire Club marry well with those in X-Men #26. Colorist Bryan Valenza helps prison scenes hum with drama and surprise with explosive action. Some favorite moments include seeing images of Howard Stark, Tony clad in his first Iron Man suit, and the rented red Ferrari parked outside the aptly-named Gamble Of Love wedding chapel.

 

 

 

Joe Caramagna's dialogue occasionally shrinks in Invincible Iron Man #10, but most are easier to read than in X-Men #26. I especially like the typewritten narrative in light-blue boxes. Ostensibly extracts from Tony's memoir, they don't impress Emma Frost. Still, Tony Stark's autobiography could prove a best seller and fund his next financial empire.

 

 

 

Final Thoughts

Desperate situations call for unlikely partnerships and desecrating sacred institutions in Invincible Iron Man #10.

 

Rating 9.8/10

 

To preview interior art see my review at Comic Book Dispatch.