THE SEARCH FOR TONY STARK finale
Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Penciled by Everyone on Earth
Cover by Chris Sprouse
Published May 23, 2018
Tony digs up Col James Rhodes and somehow returns him to life. Although both now completely bald, the once dead former War Machine is clearly confused. But a big brohug later and they’re ready to rock.
Meanwhile Riri and Dr. Tony Ho continue their meet up with the real Leonardo Da Vinci. Displaying his new workshop, complete with Blade the Vampire, training apparently begins immediately. They’re later joined by Spider-Man Miles Morales, care of Cable and parents Rio and Jefferson and the new era of SHIELD is officially underway.
On Erik Lynch’s boat, the Hood and his army forces Lynch to sign full control of Stark Industries over. Before he can though, a horde of Doombots attack them all and a massive firefight ensues. As if that wasn’t enough, Tony and Rhodey join the ruckus with their own troop of Iron Man bots. In the middle of everything, Tony gets a weird message to call mom. Before he can call her back though, he finally gets to have the conversation with Victor Von Doom we’ve all been waiting for.
Problem is that conversation is immediately interrupted by Rhodes going into the ocean, as both he and Tony's armor appears to be hijacked from some strange demonic forces. Doom picks up the Hood and rockets him into the air while Erik Lynch officially offers his resignation from Stark Industries.
As Victor fights Robbins, it's revealed that the Hood is possessed by a demon. The entire ruse was to gain control over Stark's body in order to wield influence. Doom has no plans to back down though and their fight goes the distance. It ends somewhere between the Hood grasping his face and Doom slinking back to his castle in Latveria. He's badly wounded and drags himself through the ruins until it all dissipates into a weird, pink mist thing.
At Amanda Armstrong’s apartment, she deals with former lover and Tony’s biological father, super Hydra agent Jude. He eagerly awaits a meeting with his son as the old lovebirds hash out some old drama. Luckily for her, Mary Jane Watson appears and shoots the old stranger with a tranquilizer. This of course triggers scores of Hydra agents to pour out of a helicarrier, but their met with Riri, Toni Ho, Spider-Man, Cable, Blade the Vampire and the real Leonardo Da Vinci. Just before Jude can fire at Amanda, he's incapacitated by an arriving Iron Man and War Machine.
The issue ends with a bizarre epilogue. In the future, former X-Man Eva Bell enters the Sanctum Sanctorum and meets with new Wong appointee, Nightcrawler. She seeks Doctor Strange, but when she reaches him, the sorcerer supreme is none other than Dr. Anthony Stark. Who this mystery man is, or what relationship he has with current Tony Stark will have to wait though, as this issue and this series is officially concluded.
So in what could be described as the absolute most content Bendis could cram into these 40 pages, there's enough plot twists that are sharply resolved to match a similar amount of those that aren't. I love the way he wrote Iron Man but as much as he was ready for a change, I think all fans could gain some perspective by adding Dan Slott to this series. The Bendis farewell tour officially wraps with this issue, but seeing as he had some things to finish up, I'd say he did the best he could. The mismatched art was kind of a stretch but overall, I'll take it. It was a good issue. I give this one a 9/10.
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