Iron Man: Hypervelocity #6

Creators: Adam Warren and Brian Denham

I’ve often said it’s hard to write an Iron Man story these days because there’s no more “gee whiz” factor to technology.  When I was a kid, a guy in a flying suit of armor was mind-blowing.  My kids put down their xbox and MP3 players long enough to look at a flying suit of armor and they think, “I wonder if he runs linux in that thing.”

I’ll grant you this:  It’s pretty likely that in three years, this book will look as dated and outmoded as William Gibson’s Neuromancer or Warren Ellis’ Authority do now.  But these kinds of things aren’t about three years from now.  They’re about right now, and right this very moment it kicks enough ass to put me in orbit.

Hypervelocity isn’t perfect, but it’s filled throughout with thoughtful details about technology and coding and music (I had to check.  Search & Destroy is indeed 3:30 long) and personality that seem plausible. As a result, you pass over the imperfections.

In addition to being bang-on with the technology, we get a good sense of what drives Tony Stark, and why Iron Man is still such a top notch character.  Stark’s taken so many turns as Brian Bendis’ whipping boy lately that he’s in danger of becoming a Dick Cheney charicature in crimson and gold.  But here we can reconnect with Stark, and with Iron Man, and we can feel good about it.

rating: Let Adam Warren write every Marvel book for the next ten years.

~ by The Comics Dad on June 21, 2007.