Tony Stark: Iron Man #3

SELF MADE MAN pt III

Written by Dan Slott
Penciled by Valerio Schiti
Cover by Alexander Lozano
Published August 15, 2018

   As the Stark Industries’ new Project eScape platform launches, the team welcomes thouands of beta testers to take part. The day before though, Jacosta is met by her cybernetic boyfriend Aaron Stack, and the Machine Man himself takes umbrage to the team appropriating robo-culture.

So robots are just as depraved as humans? Got it.

   Meanwhile in the virtual world, players get to zoom around as Iron Man trying to find the hidden humans inside the interface. Eventually though, the realm is breached by a familiar intruder. Machine Man starts zapping the testers, ending their foray in the game prematurely.

HELLO!!!

   The night before, which followed his outburst against Jacosta, Stack finds himself in a robot bar. He’s approached by a mystery robot, who gifts him his own mask as a key into the interface. He jumps at the opportunity and as the mystery robot walks away, it’s revealed to be Bethany, Tony Stark’s traitorous undercover head of security.

Your girl sure gets around.

   With the attempt to frame him, Stack fires at will all across the virtual landscape. Targeting humans and NPC’s alike, his goal is to bring the system down. He soon finds himself opposed though by Tony, dressed as Dr Strange, and scores of magicians. With the destruction imminent, the player finds herself as the last human player. She decides to blast herself which effectively shuts the game down.

She committed cyber-cide.

   The issue wraps with the victorious player being revealed as Jacosta Pym. Later on, the couple fights at their apartment over her fraternizing with humans. She leaves the Machine Man and heads back up to the office, informing her boss she intends to live there from now on. Once alone, she puts the eScape mask on and enjoys living life in the virtual world as an actual human. With that, this issue comes to an abrupt close.

What a waste of gametime.

   So really at this point, it's pretty obvious that Dan Slott is starting slow but building something incredible with these characters, and that's absolutely cool with me. Given his track record, I"m more than happy to give him as much time as he needs. In the meantime, the series is already excellent. With the small things he's doing to add depth to the characters, you can tell this is going to be another one of his very bests. I give this one a 10/10.

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