Okay so this ish really throws a ton of bullshit at your face and then it drops a piano on your head.

We go from this entire bs scene where Ruthy who is not a warrior or has not shown any prowess besides lucking out and killing a giant dinosaur with one blow has an equal fight with the genocidal maniac Krem who has killed god knows how many people. All she does is kick him a few times in the face and bites his arm. The depravity of Krem should have been on full display here and the reader should have been put on edge that Ruthy might get killed becaue of her arrogance to fight a genocidal monster on her own. But no we need to Girl Boss this. It made no sense at all.

Tom King do you like Last of Us? Because I felt like I was reading TLOU II when Abby and Ellie were having their bloody cat fight on the shoreline. And just like Abby and Ellie, Ruthy doesn't cut off Krem's head. Then to teach Ruthy a lesson Supergirl attempts to cut off his head only to be stopped by Ruthy because she learned her lesson that killing is bad or something.

Okay it gets more contrived and stupid. So they put Krem in the phantom Zone and he serves 200 years and is rehabilitated. Supergirl with Krpyto who by the way, Supergirl lied about having to find the antidote on Krem just to have an excuse to go with Ruthy on her chase for vengeance. Krypto was fine the whole time, Kara lied. This is not Supergirl, toying with us on Krypto is disgusting, Superman would throw Kara into a tub of kryptonite for being so douchey.

So Supergirl visits th boring and lame Ruthy who is now an old woman, Supergirl is still young with a short haircut okay. She releases Krem unto Ruthy, Krem is an old man begging Ruthy for her forgiveness. Ruthy kills him. So what was the point of that over-bloated moralizing throughout the entire issue Mr. Kingfucius? Supergirl didn't even stop her she just stood there. So if Ruthy was goingto kill him then why didn;t they kill him on the beach when he was evil? Killing him when he did 200 years begging for forgiveness (while he is still a douche) still makes Supergirl and Ruthy look like unhinged psychopathic murderers.

This is not Supergirl, this is Tom King placing his psychosis on her.

You guys giving this a high rating are taking some kind of DMT, bath salts, or bio-engineered weed. more

This is by far the best ish in the series, the art is magnificent here.

However it still suffers from Tom King-Itis and it really shows here. Tom really tries to impress the reader here with some of his greatest hits on "wisdom". Clearly after reading and being pleased by "The Analects of Confucius", King miracuosly summoned the very soul of Confucius and imparted this ancient piece of knowledge;

"This is the question of a fool who has never hit a man in the face knowing that one hit won't do it and the next thing that's going to happen is that man is going to hit you right back as hard as he damn can. And you will taste your own blood before this day is ended."

From that another Tom King characteristic that shows up, rather mildly compared to Wonder Woman for example. Is how frenetic and unfocused the pacing of the story is. For example in WW around ish #18, or the one with Detective Chimp I think, the narration goes from Day 1, to Day 21, to day 12, etc. It is a mind numbing and pointless experience. Well it is not that extreme in Supergirl, but it doesn;t allow you to develop any connection to anybody at all. Comet comes in the comic too fast, Krpyto has been barely mentioned at all still and I still feel was totally treated like shit. Krem's capture was anti-climactic, Ruthy's arc has been not only predictable but too easy as well. Supergirl is just a pissed off walking tank that adds nothing interesting to the story dialogue-wise oher than the fact that she is Supergirl.

I have seen mini-series do a better job with getting the reader to buy the world and setting, this fools most readers because of the colorful fun art.

DC's tired strategy of putting make-up on a pig can't last forever. Or can it, are most people okay with the pig?

Lastly here is why I gave this a 4 instead of a 2 or 1 like the last issues. Solely for the art. Clearly the artist here really went all out, from the Supergirl fighting the Brigands on their D&D Spelljammer cosplay session Space Pirate ship, too the boring uninteresting Ruthy on the beautiful blue utopian planet. The setting, Comet, lines, design, and the beautiful color is truly perfection here. If anything, it would be improved if you just took out all of King's narration bubbles and just showcased the art this Deluxe Edition would be a 9 out of 10. more

Wow I can't imagine what everyone was smoking to give this such praise. It must just be the colorful art because otherwise the story is still really bad and the pacing a slog. And again the cursing is so redundant and off putting because the artstyle feels like it is aimed at 5 year olds. So one can't help but feel like they are reading a well drawn, colored book that was written, edited and approved by monkeys, but frankly I think monkeys would do a much better job.

If the art style is childish and colorful, where does saying fuck every other panel match? Am I reading Supergirl or MAX Punisher By Garth Ennis which I would rather be doing but I need to finish this to have a full opinion.

Good try about Kara's experience wth her father surviving the aftermath of Krypton suviving in the floating asteroid city. But honestly even the goofy Supergirl 1984 movie did a way better job than this lmfao. yeah I brought that movie back from the grave. Atleast Supergirl 1984 was funny and even had Faye Dunaway. This isn;t fun, funny, or the least bit intriguing. CIA Ghoul continues to prove to me tha the comic industry deserves to collapse f it continues to put phonies and pseudo-intellects like King up on a pedestal. more

While this is so far th most bearable ish, it still sucks. The art is top notch here, the monsters, the deadly planet with a green sun that was made to kill superman is all awesome. Kara is weak and unable to defend herself, and so Ruthy is holding the line until the green sun sets and Kara can power back up. But throughout this beautifully renditioned ish, the writing itself turned reading through each page a total slog and I was thankful for each moment I was getting closer to the end.

Now look, I'm not a stingey goody two shoes when it comes to cursing, I curse plenty in my daily life. So having Kara curse doesn;t bother me totally however it is out of her character. When people complained about Batfleck cursing on BvS I defended it. Knowing it was out of Bruce's character I always used the excuse "it's Snyder's universe, its darker, Batman's mortality is more prevalent than ever, and his human side comes out more." Still you won't see me advocating Bats cursing on comics though, leave that in the films.

So Kara cursing gets really annoying in this, I mean she makes me look like a saint! It just comes off like constant b*tching and complaining. Now if Superman ever cursed I would call it out in any medium comic or movie. Superman unlike Batman is not a human being, he is a Kryptonian with super god like powers. And retaining his "boy scout" image everyone these days scolds him for is not Superman being a hypocrite. I don;t even believe it takes much for him not to curse, in fact I believe the urge to curse never even occurs to him even under his worst moments. He's just so above that, that's like Wonder Woman cursing like a sailor too, a goddess formed by clay or in ther renditions the daughter of friggin' Zeus.

So actually Mr. King, holding our darling Kara Supergirl to the same standard as our boy Kal and wanting her to avoid cursing is more of an equal progressive attitude than what you are lowering Kara too in these sh*te comics sir. Your basically saying Kara is so much lower than Kal, weaker mentally, that she resorts too cursing constantly under duress. She just can't handle the pressure, and even says "I get why people f*cking hate Kal". Even in some of the worst action comic runs during the Phillip Kennedy Johnson times, Supergirl was positive, as mentally strong and compassionate as Kal. The artist even give her this constant b*tch face through most of the panels. If she is going by Supergirl act like it. But no we can't do that, the former CIA ghoul has to deconstruct some of the most iconic women in comic book history.

So yeah this ish was just waiting until the green sun set, and boring Ruthy holding up her sword and killing a dino 10 times her size in one shot. And King trivializing Kara to a petty jealous piece of trash. more

Just... just when I think Tom King has started to get it. Just when I think he has read up a bit on the character and I will be happy to finally give this book the score that the art deserves, he burns it all down again in the blink of two pages.

There it is again - the out of character cursing... the care-not attitude that is the opposite of everything the character has stood for. Destroying the very soul of the character that Binder created.

This isn't the greatest idea ever. Every single writer before knew that it was possible to write Supergirl this way. They chose not to. more

So I've made a mistake. Krypto is not dead. But me thinking this only proves King is a horrible writer. Why?I went back to issue #1 to see where I misread Krypto's death and here's what the last few panels say. "The mender explained that there had been hunting poison on the arrows-- it didn't affect people too bad, but it was killing the animal." "He could save the pup, but he would need a hefty sample of the original poison, for each hunter mixed it differently." Here's where I misread and thought Krypto was dead.

"As Krem of the yellow Hills was nowhere to be found, the animal was lost". And the panel shows Krypto with his eyes closed, and the artist drew his body disfigured and emaciated. Everything about this panel screamed "KRYPTO IS DEAD". Even the artist interpreted it that way clearly.

Further evidence of King's tell don't show philosophy Ruthy goes on too narrate "Later, I was by her side as she stroked the sick dog's face, I saw her tears fall." This should have been an amazing one page panel of Kara tearing on a sick Krypto with his eyes open looking at her eyes too. This would have made Krypto's fate more clear and hopeful, maybe with Kara whispering too him "I'm gonna find you that cure boy, just hold on."

So in ish #4 when Kara randomly shouts out "I have to save Krypto" it comes off mental and completley random because there was barely any mention of Krypto's status in ish #3. I'm happy he's still alive but this comic still suffers from Tom-Kingitis.

This comic has no grounding, no consistancy at all except the generic themes of adult and child journeying and seeing evil things with moral lessons as cliche as Taylor Swift. Gail Simone's Wonder Woman for example had that grounding, familiar characters would come in to remind you of Diana's world, and Diana's world of supporting characters and lore only made her story more of a rich experience. King takes Kara away from her grounding and expects her to float all on her own. A clever writer would make Kara the main character in her own story and use the familiar characters of her past runs serve as supporting structures. But no, Kara has to be strong feminist who needs no writing structure.

And yes, King fails at using supporting characters in his WW run as well but in this they don;t exist at all. more

Okay so where to begin on this, lots of thoughts from this sh*t ish. I'm still bummed about how Krypto's death was handled like nothing happened. I mean this is KRYPTO. King completely glossed over any emotion this could have brought out of Kara,but I guess we can't afford Kara to look or be vulnerable because muh feminism...It comes off though like Kara didn't give a crap after he died. I know the real Supergirl would never act this way, I mean c'mon Superman showed more emotion in James Gunn' horrible movie when the robot died in the end then Kara did for Krypto. POOR WRITING.

Secondly the more annoying and overly written Ruthy is the more her bubbles just go over my head. I find my mind forgetting her meaningless tripe the second I finish her dialogue. She is also a reminder of wy I hate the Last of Us, (I love the Last of Us) but I hate how it createdthis trend in all media of the little girl being carried around dangerous situations and bonding with the protector. It only worked beautifully in LOU I, everyone else trying to do this it comes off bland, lame and unimaginative. But with Ruthy it is worse because King doesn't do anything to me her stand out or be likeable at all. A particular immersion breakingscene in this ish is when Ruthys gets hot at while sleeping and Kara bviously saves her. But in his action packed moment that should be intense, King ruins it with this over the top bland narration that makes you say "damn, they missed!"

I must also question further James Gunn who after Superman I suspected to be a poser. And no Gunn posing in pictures with old Action Comic issues is not enough to convince me, that is pure PR. Gunn wanting to base his Supergirl movie off of this only solidifies my feeling that he is a fake. Why? Well this is the worst Supergirl comic I've read, and this only exposes Gunn's level of Comic lore. you can go back to Peter David's Supergirl run and have superior content you can use for a Supergirl movie compared to this generic trash. So that also tells me that he is only picking this because it is the newest thing by Tom King and for some reason DC has a hard on for King, as King also influenced Superman movie which is evident because how bad it was. Gunn's decisions are corporate based, he is no Sam Raimi who had a genuine love for Spider-man comics in his life for example.

Back to this ish, the art has taken a major hit and looks worse than previous two. The beautiful color design can't make up for the lackluster pencils in this particular ish. The story continues to suck and clearly King has no original ideas in his mind and regurgitates concepts he reuses. For example his horrid Wonder WOman run, issues 22-24 i believe with the "Mouse Man Knows" mantra seems to have seeped it's way into this. Kara and Ruthy discover the Blue aliens committed a holocaust on the Purple aliens and Krem joined in on the genocide before Kara and Ruthys arrived. Wow he must have committed this systemic genocide pretty quick from when they left the first planet to this one. MORE BAD WRITING.

King can't help but lecture his readers about things we already know about. He forgets he's writing a superhero comic. more

I'm starting this off with a 1 out of 10 for Krypto. Really,you had to kill off Krypto? Is that what we have to look forward to in the Supergirl movie? What BS, now we get stuck with Ruthye who is as interesting as Bebe Newell playing Lilith on Cheers but atleast Bebe is funny and talented. The story is already crap, and Tom King continues his campaign of over-narration and he completely missed the lesson "Show don't tell.

Ruthye and Supergirl in this ish are traveling through space, and Supergirl teaches Ruthye to wash her hands with soap. Yeah seriously. Back to the over-narration point this is no joke. Most of the pnls are filled with Ruthye's annying, emotionless, wordy bubbles that don't add anything to the story. She literally at the end ofish 2 explains to you what happened right after ish #1 on how Krypto dies. This was a cheap trick by King, and should have been shown to you the reader in the beginning of the comic not told to you by some manaquin. But whatever King would have done would not make up for killing Krypto. This is a comic, you could come up with any solution to save Krypto.

So with Krypto out of the story, the interest is already dying down. This would be unique and nice with a favorite super-pup besides Kara (even this raunchy, nasty, modern Kara OF version). In fact with Krypto this story would stay tolerable but already the tolerability is low. So hat was really dumb Mr. King...

The art is still good but that's it so far. I know you don't believe me but I tried to go into this positively despite King's involvement but he makes it very difficult... more

I'm reading this through the deluxe edition because I want to get an idea on what the upcoming Supergirl movie will be like. Not being a fan of Tom King on how he has been handling WW and Trinity so far this is tolerable compared to those atrocious depictions. Nonetheless I can;t help but feel like Kara is out of character and written like a trashy whore you would meet at 3AM in a dark part of the city. I understand it is her birthday and she goes to planets with weaker suns so she can feel the affectsof getting drunk but frankly this feels like I am reading e beginning of some Deadpool knock off. Which urks me greatly because this is why I hated king's Trinity so much where he turned her into a wanna-be Deadpool.

Now it's a very basic introduction to this version of Kara and of course you can;t go without King's over-bloated narration which in this is done by Ruthye. Ruthye is seeking someone to kill a wretched killer named Krem who murdered her father in cold blood. She crosses Kara's path in a bar and the story goes from there. Krem steals Kara's ship and the ish ends with Supergirl stuck on this planet, Krypto has an arrow in his upper shoulder etc. This is very basic so far and feels like I am watching a storyboard for a movie.

Now the nice part about the deluxe edition is the re-coloring really makes this a stand out, and the drawings are really nice. Each page feels like it flows beautifully from one to the next. I can see there might be some good development of Kara as you go through this series but so far so good.

Lastly, Tom King has an introduction in the Deluxe Edition and I have to give him credit for being slightly aware that he is aragant and bragadocious and his story about his daughter was a nice touch. Yet this does not make me overlook his destruction of WW sorry. And as always everything is about him. I have read many introductions written by the greats from Stan Lee, Peter David, etc. They write about themselves in such a way that was entertaining and educating at the same time. Peter David would tell you in detail what inspired him to create a darker Aquaman and thoughout his preface didn't need to brag about his "career", he imparted his comic knowledge and love of the medium in a beneficial way toward the reader.

Another example is how Stan Lee in his introduction to the Silver Surfer Omnibus made it very clear that comics were designed to transcend Hollywood movies, not be Hollywood movies. He wrote that beautiful intro back in 2007 in such a beautiful and honest way that I always refer back to it once in a while when talking about Stan Lee.

Tom King however always has to remind you that he was in the CIA, served in war twice in his "misspent" youth. While in this intro he seems to attempt a stab at modesty, it fails again and comes more off like bragging points. I don't get a sense of a true love of the medium of comics like I always did from the past greats of our time. more

Just EPIC and totally underappreciated series...

There are some amazing two page splashes of the robo dragon that look stunning.

The highlights of this ish however is the conversations between the Mandarin and Tony. Plus all of this insanity and the creation of the monster turns out to all be a test he Madarin made for Tony Stark. For what ends we don;t really know but can only guess at.

Anyway Tony is tied up and the Mandarin and him have a heart-to-heart, mono e mono, and these moments produce beautiful dark dialogue between them. You see the ish references how Iron Man defeated Mandarin in Iron Man Vol. 1 #312, and the Mandarin (Mandy for short) reincarnated as a janitor who worked in Stark Towers. This new life from this perspectvie gave Mandy a new evil plan. No longer did he want to destroy all the worlds technology to bring us back to feudalism and make China the world conquerors.

Dont take my word for it here is Mandy and Tony:

Mandy says, "My mind clouded -- my true memories only surfacing in dreams -- I endured unspeakable humiliation for one such as I. But I must thank you -- and the heart -- for such a valuable lesson." Tony confused, "A lesson --?

Mandy goes on, " I'd thought to destroy technology -- to erase two thousand years of progress and restore feudalism. But I discovered -- That feudalism was not dead, merely transformed as I. Coolies, masters, magistrates, mandarins -- the manual labor of peasants generated power, which flowed ever upward -- growing greater at each level, until it rested in the hands of the truly deserving -- the noble classes. And nothing was changed -- My coolie labor enriched those above me, and above them -- until it reached yu. Anthony Stark. Feudal Lord of a modern age." TOny disgusted, "Not lord..."

Mandy continues, "How foolish to reject what I should have sought to understand. And more foolish still, to rage at the idea of Iron Man, a vassal, as my greatest foe -- rther than see beyond him, to my true enemy."

Tony also finds out here that the Mandarin wasn't behind everything, just the death squad in the beginning, so there still remains many unanswered questions as to who else is after Ton. We are then shown something about Madame Masque in her secret HQ getting murdered by an unknown killer. Not sure I remember what that has to do wit anything.

While this is going on the Guardians and the Avengers are trying every trick in the book to take out the giant Dragon ship with no success.

The epic conversation continues:

Mandy "But ahh -- then my dreaming ind awakened -- and I returned to myself! It is a thrill few people in the world can share, I know -- But surely Anthony, you are among them! To know you are superior --- in mind, in body, in spirit. EVERYTHING! To know that power is your birthright -- to know that untold thousands exist on thisworld for no reason but to serve you-- To channel their power through your empire, be it of land or of business -- channeling it upward to fuel you, to fuel your glory!"

Iron Man repulsed goes back at Mandy with "It doesn't -- power doesn't work that way Mandy. Or it shouldn't... The people who worked for me -- wrked at Stark Enterpises -- Werent slaves! They didn;t work because they were property -- They worked there by choice, to better their lives, provide for their families! Employees not vassals -- Give their employers their best because they hope and trust that employers will do the same. And they'll be rewarded in kind, paidfairly for their efforts. Too often employees are disappointed -- Disappointed by people like you, who see loyalty as a one way street -- who think they have a right to power. Instead of earning it by winning their employees loyalty fairly!

Mandy saddened by this explanation, "You disappoint me, Anthony -- mouthing such populist cant, as if you've been brainwashed by the world's ignorant rabble. BUT by all means, go on -- And convince me if you can -- How there can possibly be any sort of parity between those who sweat and toil in the fields -- and men such as ourselves..."

We never really here a verbal counter argument by Tony because as they were conversing he was figuring out ow to slowly regain control of his suit and break free from Mandy's hold. Iron Man flies around to find the very core of the roo beast and with all the taunting and talk of Mandy Tony stayed focus and aimed at the core. Mandy was overjoyed that Tony ignored the all the emotional obstacles and mental games andproved to Mandy that Tony is the one and only TRUE ENEMY.

As the beast is falling apart Iron Man attempts to save Mandy but Mandy throws himself itno the fire.

This was epic beyond words, as good as any movie you can watch...Great end to this little arc! more

So Tony literally dies for a moment, and Natasha uses her electric bracelets to bring him back to life. Grasping for life, pulverized, bruised, bloodied internally and out, Tony ask Black Widow to get his suitcase and she reluctantly does this worried for his life. Putting on the Iron Man suit in half a daze Tony tells her to call the Aveners and meet him where e ends up.

A cool detail is while Tony travels the skies in his Iron Man suit how he drinks water is by pressing a button with his chin and it automatically delivers water. Being almost dead the water makes him vomit almost. Feeling tired he sets coordinates aand activates auto-pilot to fall asleep in his suit. Little details like this really give life to Iron Man and makes me imagine being in the same scenario.

Ending up in Russia some kind of skirmish is happening with the Red Guardian and his crew (Darkstar, Vanguard etc), he tries to convince them the attack on their soil is being led by Mandarin. Without any evidence they stay on the frontlines to deal with the attack while Tony goes to the Mandarin up in the sky. So the Mandarin was behind everything in previous issues, the Death Squad, Stark Fujikawa, the Arms Merchant, the forced technological enslavery. It was all to hep the Mandarin create a huge Dragon ship.

The Robo Dragon swallows Iron Man and as he follows the vast empty tunnel of its inner body, the Mandarin traps Iron Man. The entire ship is empty of soliders and only the Mandarin is in it. With the power of his rings he controls every facet of the Dragon and torments Tony by crushing him, tying him up with metallic wires and has Tony near death. more

Another solid issue here, it immediatly starts off with Tony being chased by Whiplash. WHiplash is jacked, donned in S&M gear and proves to be pretty deadly for Iron Man.His whips are so fast even against Iron Man's speed and technological advantages that he overcomes Iron Man multiple times. Tony blieves the whips must work at a "molecular level", since he can feel his armor becoming brittle with each hit.

Whiplash' motive is really unknown and apparently he use to go by the name Blacklash, and he eventually ent straight for his family and kid. But during the Elektra run of this time around issue #6 or #7, he was deemed unfit and is going berserk over this. Now one might argue that Whiplash' design up against Iron Man is ridiculous but it makes sense in it's simplicity. Mark Scarlotti is ripped to an extreme degree and simply relies on his natural acrobatics and ability with the only technological instruments he uses are external like his glider and his molecular whips. With the mobility of the glider, Scarlottis natural talent, and his ferocious whips he can end Iron Man pretty fast if Tony let's his guard down. Whiplsh gets away and knocks Tony out of the game.

While Tony is on his search for Scarlotti and also looking for some mysterious recording's origin he enjoys his time in France with a woman named Yvette. Every issue does not shy away from Tony being a smooth guy with the ladies, I would be disappointed if these comics decided to stop this.

After that while searching for the mystery man, Pepper and Happy have an argument, Happy falls on the floor from Pepper's dog treat and finds a bug under her desk. They figured out that chick Happy was going out with bugged the room and that means whoever was listening knows every location TOny has been at and that he is Iron Man.

Tony freaks out and immediately leaves the building only to be welcomed by a group of 5 mercenaries who beat the shit out of him to a bloody pulp. One of the mercenearies took his briefcase and threw it in a river, that's why he couldn't become Iron Man and save himself. Whoever hired the mercs didn't tell them he's Iron Man and kept it to themselves. While Tony is getting beaten he sees a man up watching named "The Spymaster". Who is he and what is his role in this?

Tony would have been dead if not for Natasha (Black Widow) coming in to save him on time.

This must of been the handiwork of the Mandarin which should be next ish.

Great stuff here! more

One thing you have to admit about these old comics even these 90s one, you were getting your monies worth in terms of length,size and dialogue. these comics take me a bit longer to read through than most of the modern comics I go through like water no joke. But these issues feel like really good animated episodes you would watch on TV except you would have to imagine the animation in your head. And the amount of detail in the dialogue boxes are really good and allows you as the reader to really get lost in the characters' thoughts and ways.

I remember liking this particular ish when I first read it last year because of he interesting dynamic of Carol and Tony in here. This was the first time I learned that Carol had alcohol problems like Tony too and this made Ms. Marvel more interesting to me to eventually read her comics overtime.

The bad guys in this are okay, the big bad really is the return of the Supreme Intelligence who apparently according to this ish was killed by the Avengers #347. A bunch of douche Kree revived him and need a power plant for some reason.

But what makes this ish great is how Carol gets angry at Tony for calling out her using alcohol to get through her problems. This is also where he first reveals his identity to her for the first time.

When Tony and Pepper go to Power Source Plant where the Kree are secretly based, Ms. Marvel causes a reaction wen she comes crashing at Tony and yelling at him for appearing to judge her even though he wasn't and he completely understands everything she s going through. He smells the alcohol on her breath and it literally makes his"mouth water". These small vulnerable details of both f these heroes for me adds so much depth to them and is why I didn;t mind doing a second reading of this comic series. more

I enjoyed seeing Black Widow and Iron Man team up together in tis issue. Some beautiful old school artwork in this ish, from the character designs to the simple but sweet environmental backdrops or social settings.

Tony and Widow make a good match but to be honest TOny seems to fit well with any woman, I would even go as far to say that he is the Clark Gable of comic books. Devilish, classy, cool and rogue at the same time. And having a set of armor in a suitcase helps this persona immensely.

Anyway, Tony makes a deal with Natasha to help her find out more bout brilliant scientist nd technicians who are disappearing systematically.

Tony and Natasha go all over extravagant places with important officials and the like to use him as bait. Obviously Widow gets distracted by a assassin ad Tony gets kidnapped while she is busy. These scenes here I really liked specifically one page where they are dancing together in a ballroom with jazz musicians playing. These couple pages are really nice to look at and feels very classy.

So Tony ends up at some Technician facility that is forcing all these brilliant minds to create an unknown technology. Tere not told what it is. Unlike all the other hostages Tony eluding the guards creates a beacon that contacts Natasha so she can find him.

They end up fighting Tuatara who has some giant lizard bitch monster form.

This is real 90s stuff here. more

Tony handles Firebrand like Superman pretty much, hacking his less complex suit that contains his energy and using it against him and turning him into a huge laser to cut a new land path for the lava to flow in and save the people.

Firebrand is insane and was created to be even worse by the terrorist organization Flaming Sword. Using his insanity to have him believe he is fighting for a cause against the rich when actuality he is just their tank to make pillaging and robbery easier.

Iron Man gets pulverized a bit here and puts up a good fight with Firebrand.

Im glad this part of the story is over and look forward to see what Natasha is up to on the next ish. Otherwise this just seals off Tony's new relationship with Rumiko, and ends up with him wanting Happy and Pepper to work things out.

I really enjoyed the art but some of the pages blend too much into each other at times. This series will stand out more if it had som more divisions or separations more often. more

So Tony finds out early on in the ish that Pepper and Happy went through a divorce and he feels extremely narcissistic for not seeing this. Even though he was out of the picture for a while, he still blames himself for not being able to read the situation so to speak.

Hanging out in Isla Suerte "The shining jewel of the Caribbean" with hotels, resorts and casinos or as the villain Firebrand would later call it the soft play thing of the rich. Honestly my favorite part of this ish is the introduction of Rumiko. Shes a sexy 27 year old women who is Fujikawa's daughter.From a rich line but not allowed to actually work in the business for being female. Rumiko rebels in her own ways and mixes great with Tony Stark when they are together. She comes off as your cliche rich spoiled brat but you find out she's much more interesting than that and when the island gets attacked by Firebrand Iron Man sees her aiding the civilians and saving lives in the best way she can, fearless girl she is.

In this Firebrand sticks out because he shows his distaste for the rich throughout his moments and some of whatt he says is not wrong at all. "You live off the sweat and toil of others -- live like kings by standing on their backs-- and then fritter away your workers lifeblood in plush, useless places like this!

I did read the first 24 issues back in March of 2024 but honestly I don't remember what happens after this ish, like why does Firebrand have such a hatred toward the rich, does that get explained later on o is it nothing special?

It was funny when Firebrand asked Iron man "Your an employee Iron Man -- a worker! You should be siding with the cause, not protecting the parasites!" Iron man resonds "This isn't exactly the place for a political discussion but business doesn't merely exploit -- it provides people a means to make a living."

The ish ends with Firebrand activating a dormant volcano on hte island. more

This has a better pace than #2, the Dreadnoughts zap Tony with plasma beams with a temperature of 95,000 degrees. His suit takes the hit but he has to fall back and cool off the outer shell. In the meantime he saves Spirosa and her butler from the debris caused by the Dreadnoughts.

We also find out in this ish that Pepper and Happy are actually on the outs for some reason. Happy is openly flirting with this blonde woman in front of Pepper and the tension between them is pretty clear.

Spirosa tells Tony how an old friend of her dead husband named Kapelos has taken over the company to create weapons for the Arms Merchant. Kapelos claimed to cause her husband's death and threatened her life unless she gave him the company and allowed him to create high tech weapons.

Tony sets up and interview on live TV and calls out the Arms Merchant and that he will find him and his entire client list. Putting a target on his back intentionally.

Tony has to face the Dreadnoughts again, using a piece of long steel and threatening the egotistical Dreadnoughts of hitting them with hit like a bat, the Dreadnoughts fall for his smart ass remark and shoot their heat beams at the steel. The steel melts and Iron Man throws the melted steel onto each Dreadnought. The cold of the winter and snow contrasted by the extreme heat allow it to stick onto the surface of the nights.

He then flies into Kapelos operation bringing the Dreadnoughts and uses them as a threat to make Kapelos spill the beans and give him the information he has on a disc. They make a deal and Iron Man then in return flies as high as he can into the sky making the noughts follow and the melted steel heat causes the noughts to blow up and almost kill Tony in the process.

So he saved and freed Spirosa from the grip of Kapelos but Kapelos is just the tip. The girl Happy Hogan is flirting with and went out to eat with is really some secret agent trying to extract Stark secrets. Who exactly she is working for not sure, there are multiple villains with many different angles yet to be revealed. more

So this isn't as talky as the last issue but we have a nice little build up of mystery between Tony and Ms Spirosa who according to this ish she once tried to expose Tony's identity as Iron Man with the Mad Thinker back in Tales of Suspense #72.

We find out in the beginning that Tony has no idea that Pepper and Happy Hogan are married to each other while he was thought dead.

So invited by Ms Spirosa in Switzerland Tony is asked to check on her financial books of the company she is running and inherited from her third husband. He figures out pretty quickly that Spirosa has been forced to entrap Tony by a mysterious force seeking to destroy him most likely connected to Stark Fujikawa. Using his smarts he slips out from the goons and comes out as Iron Man only to be ambushed by Dreadnoughts.

The art is really nice but the story pace is a little tough here but still solid all round. more

I started reading this series as my first Iron Man comic maybe around March 2024. I wasn't really focused at the time because I was going back and forth with my grandfather for his eye surgery and helping him daily with his basic needs so really I kind of read these in a haze.

I read up to number 24 and lost track because I got busy with life let's say. I want to revisit and start over and write down what I think because this Iron Man comic for me allowed me to start liking Iron Man beyond the MCU Robert Downey Jr. version.

So this is after the Heroes Reborn event which I haven't read, where Franklin Richards (Reeds son) starts over the whole universe or something Idk, and the only characters who didn't get reset and are trapped in the previous one are Thor and Dr. Doom.

Tony's origin story and all the things he did in the previous runs though haven't changed it seems so I don't really understand what the whole Heroes Reborn thing was about and I'm not really interested in reading that.

The world now thought Tony has been dead, Fujikawa took over Stark industry, Pepper and Rhodey watched over his main assets, and Tony in this story is in a reflective stage and questioning what the purpose of his life really is. He's not acting so much likes playboy and seems very deep in this. And unlike the films he keeps himself separate from Iron Man to protect his secret identity. Having people believe Iron Man is a bodyguard for Stark.

We have a lot of characters introduced for various reasons we don't know yet until future issues. Side characters show up at his comeback celebration from Foggy Nelson, Foggy mother, Pepper Potts who is married to Happy Hogan now, Rhodey. J.J Jameson, Norman Osborne and Starks cousin Morgan who he refers to as the family black sheep.

Tony goes through the motions and gets annoyed how everyone "knows what he should be doing". He doesn't get an answer until he gets a run in by the Death Squad who was most likely hired by Fujikawa to get rid of Stark so they can keep the company. He gets away and fights them as Iron Man. Defeating them but in the process he accidentally helped destroyed a construction building that was being built for a desperate neighborhood that was affected by the "Onslaught". Feeling like his life is a joke of destruction and than rebuilding he decided to make Stark Solutions to purely rebuild and help government, private business and individuals who can pay. The money would all go toward projects of rebuilding for a better tomorrow.

So Tony in this is very conscious and is trying to change things he might not be able to change.

Real beefy comic with plenty of dialogue to keep you busy and become immersed in this world. more

Oh okay so it looks like Peter David is keeping elements of Jim Aparros Aquaman, which I've never read but I just know about it because of the horrible thing that Aquaman goes through in it. In this ish it shows Aquaman chronicling his life still and recalling his time as King. His celebration has Aqualad Mera, Arthur Jr. and King Travis. I wonder how Aquaman was able to forgive a man who abandoned him as a baby at Mercy reef but that was probably all in the Aparros run.

Anyway Orm attacks and reveals himself as the man who almost killed Keko many years ago. He was jealous and angry because he loved Keko and was enraged that Arthur took her away. We find out that Orm is the half brother of Arthur just like in the movie so that's great 👍 but Arthur doesn't put 2 and 2 together until years later when he is chronicling his past.

Clearly the time when he is chronicling his son is dead, he is separated from Mera most likely and Aqualad I don't know. Did Aparros kill off Aqualad too or did Aqualad go off on his own hopefully will find out more because I liked Aqualad in the Silver age comics.

This is really solid storytelling, and Peter David really did try to make Aquaman be taken serious by more people at the time which is sad because Aparros seemed to have some really good stuff before and the silver age comics were actually fun to read for me. more

Peter David in this ish adds a well written tragic heros journey to Arthur's youth. Starting off in Alaska, Arthur saves a Eskimo girl from getting eaten by a polar bear. They manage to kill it together but from the ravage bear Arthur falls unconscious after the fight. Kako the Eskimo girl take shim to her home.

Her grandfather is a man who is weary of white men because he blames them for corrupting his native land and their traditional way of life. To his surprise he comes to his sod hut with a young boy (Arthur) being cared for. Despite his weariness the old man welcomes Arthur for saving Kako.

The ish also shows that Orm is not to far away but is living more like the modern times rather than the traditionalist way. He's arguing with his mother and he talks about how he was a bastard. How did Orm end up all the way here and what's the story with him and his mother? Hopefully we find out more later on.

Arthur and Kako get real friendly, and at one point Kako takes her coat off and ask Aquaman to "warm" her 😉 and they get it on. In the distance Orm was watching them f**k and later on when Arthur wakes up he finds Kako all bloodied and beaten up. Still alive but barely.

When he brings her back she gets visions of the lands native goddess treating him, but he manages to defeat her by commanding her hair of sea snakes to go after her. When he wakes up Kako is saved, he tells the family what happened and the grandfather freaks out that Arthur has angered their native goddess and dies from a heart attack. The mother screams and blames Arthur for destroying the family and makes him leave.

This has some really good emotional moments that adds some real emotional depth to Aquamans development. This imo is how you do a great backstory of a heros youth unlike the most recent Mark Waid Superboy run which is the opposite and has absolutely no emotional weight to it at all... more

Wow this was really well done this ish!

It starts off with a Japanese ship hunting dolphins with tuna nets and Aquaman describes the horrible experience the dolphins go through during their capture. A baby dolphin when it is born immediately jumps out of the water to breath fresh air. However the moment it is caught by a net sometimes it chooses to stop breathing essentially committing suicide.

The mother dolphin and the baby are thrown into the ship struggling for life and the Japanese crewman is about to end their lives and Aquaman stops it right on time.

He then goes on while writing up in his book why he feels he owes his life to the dolphins.

King Travis of Atlantis abandoned Arthur as a baby and left him on Mercy reef. Atlantean babies only able to breathe in water would lay in the water and eventually the water of the reef would recede and the air would suffocate the baby. This didn't kill Arthur being that he is half Atlantean and half human. A female dolphin found him and had a baby dolphin named Drin. Prome the mother was scorned by the lead Dolphin but she convinced the pack to hold onto the defenseless human baby.

Like Tarzan raised y apes or Romulus by wolves this was a brilliant and beautifully rendered myth come to life on these pages. We watch Arthur grow up with these dolphins barely surviving and barely fed until he adapts. He slowly learns if his super strength from a near death with a shark that tried to kill a female dolphin named Nera. And yeah he falls in love with her but he is told she is not for him and the dolphins help him discover other humans.

One day Drin and Arthur are pestering each other and Drin accidentally jumped onto the blades of a boat and dies. Arthur refuses to leave his body to the sharks but Prom makes him face the harsh reality by letting go, and from there he eventually leaves to find his own way.

Loved every page. 💕 more

So the only Aquaman comics I've read a couple years back were in the DC Showcase Volumes, so that was real silver age stuff. I watched Aquaman with Jason Mamoa tonight for the millionth time on a 4k Blu-ray though for the first time and loved it even more. I recall reading the silver age comics because of the Aquaman movie I watched on Blu-ray at that time.

Tonight I absolutely was immersed in the films bombastic unapologetically over the top world. A far cry from the themes and seriousness of the Snyder films since this was directed by James Wan but honestly I'm happy this turned out this way. The Aquaman movie is great and Momoa looked fantastic and every shot by Wan is spectacular. The use of the water effects and the overall sound design is unbeatable and it shocks me how most people sh*t on this film then and even now, while praising shallow movies like FF and Superman 2025 that have some of the worst cinematography and use of space I've seen in the superhero genre.

Well I finally decided to dive into my Aquaman Peter David collection I collected, I have the first two tpbs than the rest in issues.

TPB starts with the mini series Time and Tide and starts Curry over. Writing in his diary he explains how his mother Atlanna he believes was insane, and the stories she would tell of his lineage were the babblings of a madwoman. He then recollects about the first time he was called hero and we go back to when he was discovered in this version by the Flash during one of the Flash's run ins with the trickster. The Flash goes unconscious and almost gets eaten by sharks but Aquaman speaks to them on time.

At this point Arthur lives in a dark cave and is more creature than man. The Flash convinces him to give the surface a try, and Arthur is really grouchy and has no patience with humans in this ish.

Already the writing is solid here. more

I just have no patience at this point for Waids writing. His last arc really gave me a bad impression and this isn't doing any better here. The art is nothing to write home about and feels mostly devoid of any soul. I don't even care about anyone in here. Let alone Clark himself here, he comes off as generic and has nothing interesting going for him except the overly done "struggling teenager" persona we've seen countless times at this point in comics but not even done well here...

And Captain Comet? Dial the 🌽 cornball writing by a 1000x, what a dumb character to put into the development of Supermans youth. Oh and also in this ish a horde of locust show up and Clark uses his freeze breath in one panel so like I said in previous ish why didn't he just use his freeze breath on the fire?

Emphasis on the emptiness of soul, every character just says the most uninteresting sh*t and it comes off like a corporate pamphlet about how "were all one big happy family".

Congrats 🎉 if you enjoyed this but you would have to deprive me of any good comics for a millennia to ever get me to say any of this was worth my time. more

If your looking for something fresh, different or interesting don't look here. This is a coming of age story done a million times over.

Unless you have absolutely no background in reading literature or comics than maybe you will enjoy this otherwise it's a walking cliche as predictable as the cycle of the day.

And why the hell didn't he use his freeze breath on the fire in the school? Instead he took a water tower that he even says "a farm town like this needs" and waste it all on the school. When all the kids escaped all he had to do was ice breath or anything else but that.

Waids writing feels like he's under a gun and is unable to come up with anything really solid or genuinely enticing that one can add to the Superman mythos. more

It was okay, kind of was more excited to finish it just to be done. Art is lame, feels like a corporate safe direction, I'm not into Waids style really, and after his horrible Phantom Zoners run and Xa-Du I'm not particularly excited about this.

I mean the only nice part was when Pa Kent helped Superboy focus in on the fight but otherwise the plot is pretty stupid and again the art sucks. Feels like a baby 🍼 Disney cartoon. more

Waste of space.