Iron Man: Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. - Haunted

The Invincible Iron Man (2004) (Collected Editions) #6

by Daniel Knauf (Writer), Charlie Knauf, Roberto De La Torre (Illustrator)

Tony Stark's duties with S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Initiative take him to Omaha, Nebraska, where Iron Man encounters an old hero with a grudge, and two all-new superhumans.

Collecting: Iron Man 21-28, Annual 1

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Graphic Novels, Superheroes, Comic Book, Science Fiction, Fantasy

256 pages, Paperback

First published July 2, 2008

Reviews

[Ryan Loveless · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is just going to plot. So spoilers ahoy.


Shield Director Tony Stark is haunted by visions of the dead. Captain America, Sal Kennedy, others he blames himself for. He spends all his time in his suit, causing concern for his mental state. He's placed on enforced psychiatric leave and forced to wear an anklet that inhibits Extremis. But he continues to investigate a rash of mysterious disappearances and soon finds they are linked to human testing on the extremis virus upgrade that the supposedly dead Maya Hansen is building. She is working with the Mandarin (in disguise), unknowingly. Tony fights off extremis enhanced individuals. It doesn't go well. And then he gives the order for SHIELD, now with Maria Hill on his side, to Stark!Nuke the place and destroy all extremis enhanced individuals. He, Maria, and Dugan are arrested right after. While the trial goes on, a head of state who used to be buds w/ Cap America and who had also been duped by Mandarina, goes undercover to find and kill the Mandarin himself. He fails. Super badly. The court finds evidence to try Tony for treason and strips him of his title, but then Maria and Dugan stage an escape and get him out of the courtroom. (Oh and in the meantime, Mandarin has been manipulating Maya to believe Tony is with her so she will tell him a key secret to the new extremis she has developed so 95% of the population will die and only the superior extremis-compliant ones will remain. She does and then realizes her mistake.) Then Tony arrives to combat the Mandarin. Things don't go well, so he cuts off his heel to get the anklet off and "defeats" the Mandarin. Then he wakes up a few days later (apparently) with Dugan in his bedroom asking how he's feeling, and he says fine. Seems his ghosts are giving him some peace, and the public thinks he's a hero again.

I feel like the trouble for Tony is just getting started...

[Xiti L · Rating 4 out of 5]

Este es, como tal, el primer cómic de Iron Man que leo, aparte de algunos números relacionados con el evento crossover de Civil War, y lo que conozco del personaje es gracias a las películas del UCM y algunos fanfictions.
En este libro, Iron Man tiene el poder de Extremis que le da grandes poderes (este elemento lo conozco aquí en este cómic y tengo pendiente conocer el origen de este), tiene a su cargo S.H.I.E.L.D luego de ganar la Guerra Civil contra el Capitán América. Mientras tiene que lidiar con "El Mandarín" que está desarrollando una versión militar del Extremis para dispersar a todas las personas, este virus ayudaría con distintas patologías a las personas y, sobre todo, mejorarlas para la batalla. Pero esta versión militar de Extremis tiene una taza de mortalidad del 97.5% y Iron Man tiene que detener su dispersión.
"Embrujado" puede aludir a que durante este trabajo Iron Man tiene que lidiar con visiones que podrían ser indicios de esquizofrenia, a demás de que hace a S.H.I.E.L.D. ultra dependiente de sus movimientos, es decir, Stark tiene problemas para delegar funciones. Más adelante se conoce que las visiones son la forma en la que el cerebro de Stark puede lidiar con la velocidad de procesamiento de información a causa del Extremis.
Puedo decir que este cómic me ha gustado mucho y resultó especialmente entretenido que a fin de cuentas es lo importante en este tipo de historias.

[Ellen Schoener · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dark and gritty thriller about the Mandarin threatening the world with a global deadly pandemic.
After 2020, this has become much scarier, due to certain real life events...
The story is dark. Tony is not in any fun mood, and is not playing around, he means serious business.
However, the threat to his mental health could have been played up a bit more...
or maybe I had just expected a bit more from the story summary.
The short second story is Tony going undercover to fight Hydra- this is a fun, bit not very deep story, and Tony gets to let his hair down a little after the tour de force in the previous adventure.
Some reviewers have commented on the overly sexualised art of this second story.
Yes, it is quite.... expressive. Not sure I would not call it sexist, however, since both males and female are affected by these drawings, and for me the most blinding example would be showing off Tony's golden buttocks in all their glory. In close up. Especially glaring when using Guided View on the digital version. Not sure what that panel was about. But for lack of a better idea, I would go with "parody on overly sexualised comics".

[Brandon Daniels · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a solid story that builds on the Extremis thread that has been running through the series from the start of the run. With Iron Man at the top of the world as Director of Shield, it only makes sense to bring back his big bad. Mandarin is not my favorite character, but he’s more of a Lex Luther analogue here than the Fu Manchu caricature he used to be. The art is very good throughout, and it is similar to the Epting stuff in Brubaker’s Cap run from this time. Shout out to Dean White for tying the different art teams together with a wonderful painterly style. The included Annual is more of a mess; and the art and depiction of women feels like something from at least a decade earlier.

[Harrison Delahunty · Rating 1 out of 5]

Boy, this was dull. Every page is extremely wordy and the plot is so decompressed as to feel like there’s no progression until, very suddenly, the story slams on the pedal and is almost exclusively action and little dialog.

The annual is hardly even worth mentioning. It’s just stupid, to the point of self-parody. It doesn’t even work as a satire (if that is, though unlikely, its intention), because it’s so gratuitous as to be even more obnoxious.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my favorite Iron Man arcs. Written by the Knaufs in some ways, its the culmination of the Extremis story and the ultimate Mandarin story.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of the best Iron Man story arcs I've ever read. With any comic book character, it's not enough that a story be well written, it also has to complement the protagonist. Tony Stark as Iron Man is essentially the American military-industrial complex incarnate. So the technothriller aspects of this story (a bioweapon that will kill 97.5% of humanity if released) and the political intrigue meld perfectly with all the superhero action. Iron Man emerged from Marvel's Civil War event as an unlikeable megalomaniac, albeit one who recognizes some of his flaws. One reason the "Haunted" arc is so great is that it doesn't try to "fix" this aspect of his character. For the first half of the story, Stark becomes more and more unhinged, and stops taking his armor off for weeks at a time, alarming S.H.I.E.L.D. personnel, since he is now their director. Forced to wear a power-dampening ankle bracelet by a psychiatric order, Stark goes off the reservation and gets the job done with a variety of his older suits, none of which are as powerful as he is used to. Recommended for old and new fans alike.

[Indah Threez Lestari · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh, rupanya arc ini yang sempat dikira para comic geek bakal dipakai di film Iron Man 3. Kenapa? Jelas karena villain utamanya Mandarin, yang mempergunakan keahlian Maya Hansen untuk memproduksi virus ekstremis yang dapat menyebar lewat udara dan membunuh 97,5% umat manusia yang tidak kompatibel dengan virus itu.

Capeknya jadi Direktur S.H.I.E.L.D., apalagi kalau di Security Council punya banyak musuh yang tidak sabar untuk melengserkan kapan saja, terutama Norman Osborn.

Kalau dipikir-pikir, jadi superhero sukarelawan bukan cuma capek fisik, tapi juga capek pikiran dan hati. Sudah berkorban habis-habisan pun, salah sedikit saja bisa jadi pesakitan atau World's Most Wanted sekalian. Pantas kalau di arc Stark: Diassembled, Pepper sampai menangis waktu harus mengambil keputusan membangkitkan kembali Tony dari brain-dead atau tidak. Superhero sudah selalu siap untuk mati. Tapi siap untuk hidup kembali dan menderita kembali? Mengapa tidak diberi kesempatan beristirahat dengan tenang saja? #LhoKokEmosi

N.B. Waktu lihat ripyu pembaca lain, jadi tahu aku bukan satu-satunya yang sedang maraton baca komik Iron Man saat ini XD

[Sineala · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Director of SHIELD run is basically Tony Stark being (a) absolutely hypercompetent and (b) two steps away from a complete breakdown at the same time. Haunted really epitomizes this, because here Tony has to fight the Mandarin and prevent him from releasing weaponized airborne Extremis virus at the same time as he's hallucinating various people whose deaths he was responsible for. (Hi, Steve.)

Also the ending... oh my God, Tony. Tony, no. This has to be one of the most OH TONY NO plans I have ever seen. Anyway, this is really good; read it.

[Fugo Feedback · Rating 3 out of 5]

No me gustó tanto como el tomo 1 y en algunas partes se vuelve medio denso, pero tanto los capítulos centrados en World War Hulk como aquellos en los que el enemigo es un resucitado Mandarín me parecieron muy bien armados, y un con promedio gráfico bastante bueno.
Eso sí: me encantan las ediciones Marvel Deluxe de Panini, pero creo que este tomo tiene la introducción más aburrida y con notorio espíritu rellenista que haya leído en la colección.

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked the first story arch of this book. The art was great and it had this cool spy feel. Plus whenever a powerful hero gets stripped of some of their powers and has to really on their wits to make up for it makes a good story. I had read Marvel's Civil War and thought this was a good follow up.

The second story with Lady Viper... meh. It was not totally bad though.

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dense reading. Technically, this should get four because of the storytelling but I just didn't enjoy it enough. It was a moody tale, with a lot of politics and character study, but a huge downer. The Mandarin gets some play and Iron Man losing his mind is well done, but overall, it's a bit too dark for my taste. Especially compared to how much fun the character used to be.

[Karl Kindt · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is some of the best post-modern age Iron Man. It was great to see Tony back in some of his old armor, the classic Bob Layton style. As ever, I love Jackson Guice's work on his portion of this book.

[Automation · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think I would give this a 3 if I was feeling a bit more generous. It was the best of the crap heap that is the post-extremis Iron Man stuff (that I have read). Nothing really essential going on here, you would be better off just reading New Avengers...

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

A solid Iron Man story, lots of fun with Tony being smart, crazy, and a bit of that playboy phillanthropist we all love. Even though I didn't know anything about the continuity of The Mandarin or Extrimis, it was still easy to follow and wrapped up well.

[Luis]

this is the best book i ever read ..

[Eòsaph · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was the weakest story in the director of SHIELD series so far. Had to force myself to finish this one.

[Rajiv Ashrafi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was amazing! Such a great story. And the ending pays off well.

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun book that shows how efficient Tony can really be, so much so that he is heading for a breakdown. The rest of SHIELD really shine, and it is very much character based. A good read.

[Jedhua · Rating 3 out of 5]

ABSOLUTE RATING: {3/5 stars}

STANDARDIZED RATING: <3/5 stars>

[dude · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5