WAR OF THE REALMS
Written by Gail Simone, Dan Slott, Jim Zub
Penciled by Paolo Villanelli, and Valerio Schiti
Published June-July 2019
Now that Malekith has conquered 9 of the 10 realms, he decides to bait a man-dragon named Sadurang to help crush Midgard. Promising him riches beyond anyone's wildest dreams, he talks the demon into attacking Stark Unlimited, where this man whom is clad in golden iron keeps his riches. Rhodey counters the monster with his battlemech code named Manticore when finally Iron Man shows up to the fight as well. Eventually Tony scares the beast away with his Hulkbot, scores of Mark units and even Dr. Shapiro. But as the beast flees, they all notice Iron Man's armor is somehow leaking magic, even transforming into some kind of medieval looking being.
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| House of Stark. |
Later the monster returns in humanoid form to ravage the New York Stock Exchange. Tony prepares to fight him with a limited amount of spells he knows. Realizing he's definitely a worthy adversary, Tony uses a spell to fill the dragon's mouth with frogs as he makes a hasty escape. He has hulkbot rip the infected armor off of him and is unexpectedly joined by his girlfriend Janet Van Dyne, aka The Wasp. She distracts Sadurang long enough for Tony to ready his antiquated, non-robotic Mark 1 Giant-Man armor. Once activated, he beats the monster unconscious.
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| Again, just let Jason Aaron do all the dirty work... |
Now with the war over, Tony can deal with the fact he's just actually a synthetic copy of his original self. Plagued with the thoughts of falling off the sobriety wagon, he's able to wipe those memories - but unfortunately, there's a backup of everything - and the Spymaster breaks into Stark Unlimited to steal it.
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| Spymaster? |
That drive is later sold to Arno Stark, care of Baintronics. Tony's long lost brother is able to review the files while in the present, Iron Man and Captain Marvel fight every thing in Tony's arsenal thanks to Spymaster's autopilot. The issue wraps with Arno learning everything - from Tony's current replicated state to the fact he was able to even build engram of their parents. And while Iron Man is able to end his own weapon's assault, he's going to have a lot more to face soon. Jacosta Pym is introduced by Sunset Bain with a quest to become more human - something Arno Stark is more than happy to help with. What happens next? We'll have to wait to find out as this story arc drifts to a final conclusion.
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| Oh, that can't be a good look. |
So with this series winding down to it's end, Dan Slott is painstakingly setting up Tony's brother Arno to take over his mantle. What began with him being missing and presumed dead, we're slowly learning that the real Tony might still be out there somewhere. But he may not. It's a pretty brilliant twist that I personally can't wait to see what he does with it. For this story, and for the boring, beaten to death War of the Realms - the two plots kind of cancel each other out. But where it's heading is bound to be something amazing. I give these a 9/10.
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