Labeled as a wanted fugitive by Norman Osborn's dark reign, Tony Stark is on the run, his Iron Man armor failing and his mind on the brink of insanity.
"How he got started in comics: In 1983, when Fraction was 7 years old and growing up in Kansas City, Mo., he became fascinated by the U.S. invasion of Grenada and created his own newspaper to explain the event. "I've always been story-driven, telling stories with pictures and words," he said.
Education and first job: Fraction never graduated from college. He stopped half a semester short of an art degree at Kansas City Art Institute in Missouri in 1998 to take a job as a Web designer and managing editor of a magazine about Internet culture.
"My mother was not happy about that," he said.
But that gig led Fraction and his co-workers to split off and launch MK12, a boutique graphic design and production firm in Kansas City that created the opening credits for the James Bond film "Quantum of Solace."
Big break: While writing and directing live-action shoots at MK12, Fraction spent his spare time writing comics and pitching his books each year to publishers at Comic-Con. Two books sold: "The Last of the Independents," published in 2003 by AiT/Planet Lar, and "Casanova," published in 2006 by Image Comics.
Fraction traveled extensively on commercial shoots. Then his wife got pregnant. So Fraction did what any rational man in his position would do -- he quit his job at MK12 to pursue his dream of becoming a full-time comic book writer.
Say what? "It was terrifying," said Fraction, who now lives in Portland, Ore. "I was married. We had a house. We had a baby coming. And I just quit my job."
Marvel hired Fraction in June 2006, thanks largely to the success of his other two comics. "I got very lucky," he half-joked. "If it hadn't worked out, I would have had to move back in with my parents.
Tony Stark is trying to erase his brain. I would recommend a thermos full of Green Russians, but Tony is an alcoholic so he has to settle for trying to wipe it with a fancy computer program linked to the hardware in his Iron Man suits.
Picking up where the last volume left off, Stark has been declared a traitor and terrorist by Norman Osborn who is charge of the super human watch group HAMMER. Osborn is desperate to learn Stark’s secrets to get the Iron Man hardware he has fully operational, but the big prize is the database that lists all the registered super heroes and their identities. Crazy Norman really would like nothing better than to pry that info out of Stark’s head with a crowbar.
As Tony races around the world to keep the process of mind wiping going by using the suits he had squirreled away as he tries to evade all the super goons chasing him, he’s also starting to see his intelligence slip. Maria Hill desperately tries to complete the last mission Stark gave her to get a critical item into the hands of Captain America while Pepper Potts deals with Osborn and some new responsibilities.
Fraction has written a great story where a desperate Tony is trying to stay a step ahead of Osborn's worldwide manhunt while dealing with the knowledge that his genius is slipping away. I especially loved how some of the classic Iron Man suits are worked in because Tony can’t handle the complicated new computer based ones with his limitations. A lot of the post Civil War stuff is paying off nicely in this series.
Just wow. Second time reading this and sure its lengthy but its so worth it just seeing Tony on the run and whats going on with Pepper and her playing a more proactive role throughout the story and how crucial she is to Nat and Maria hill and like rescuing them and all and the end battle with Stark and Osborn and what it means for Tony, just wow. One of the best Iron man arcs ever, it reads like a movie basically, its got it all from thrill to heavy action and big emotional character moments. __________________________________________________________________
THIS WAS SO GOOD!
Stark on the run and all the time he is trying to erase the info from his head but when Osborne makes it personal and sends Madame Masque and we see them fight and before that Pepper n Tony reunite (while he is in Crimson Dynamo armor) and its epic seeing the old lovers unite, ex and present gf fight and he on the run and that part where he has to use old armors and meanwhile losing intelligence and with Hill and Romanoff on their own missions and when these stories intersect and the big fight between Norman and Tony is here its just epic!
Ahh I loved it so much, it has everything that makes a great Iron man comic, lots of armor suits and a great megalomaniacal villain and I love how the writer shows Osborne's obsession with Stark and like why he considers himself to be one of Tony's superiors and then you have the big stakes and like relying more on the man than machine and harkening back to old storylines and like giving the supporting characters their own and it pays off in the end. I loved it and the ending is so good especially the twists and the next arc is gonna be huge!!
So this finishes up World's Most Wanted storyline. Tony goes out with a...bang?
So Tony is running. Running and running till he can't anymore. Osborn wants the man. He wants to crush him. Use him. Destroy him. But first he has to catch him. This is basically Pepper kicking some ass and taking names volume, coming to the rescue of multiple characters. On the flipside you have Tony losing his abilities, becoming slower, becoming less...smart. This leaves him only able to use one type of Iron Man. The original suit!
Good: The art remains good. Pepper gets some really great moments and her armor rocks. The ending is brutal yet it really actually makes me want to keep reading. Guess I gotta try it after all! Also Tony losing his mind is quite interesting.
Bad: It's a lot of talking and moments that probably don't need it. I also thought the hill/black widow stuff wasn't all that interesting.
Overall I'm still liking what I'm reading. ENough to KEEP reading. It's a solid, fun, Iron Man run. I can't ask for much more. A 3.5 out of 5.
Well, the story remains reasonably strong and finishes well though it didn't really need to be this long. You could have dropped 3 0r 4 issues and it would have still worked without dragging/repetiton. Setting up the women for a strong female lead worked nicely though I felt Hill's breakdown feels like it comes from nowhere; however, the Pepper/Nat/Hill dynamic provided a nice contrast.
Ultimately though the story go anywhere that unexpected and the nature of the secret hard drive that Hill has been sent after is fairly obvious. It would have scored higher with me if it had been condensed and a little less repetitive. All that said, it is engaging with an intriguing concept.
Wau, Iron-Man v podaní Matta Fractiona je každým dielom lepší a lepší. Naháňačka na mačku a myš z predchádzajúcej časti pokračuje ešte vo vyššom tempe. Tony napreduje vo svojej veľkolepej odysei po svete (výborná epizóda v sibírskej tajge) a v priamom prenose vidíme postupný rozpad jeho osobnosti. Na opačnej strane sveta zase bojujú tri silné ženské hrdinky (agentka Hillová, Čierna vdova a Pepper Pottsová) v špionážnej zápletke prešpikovanej Hillovej paranojou. Celé to napokon končí tam, kde to začalo a kruh sa uzavrie.
Wow, what a good Iron Man_S.H.I.E.L.D. story. Good Marvel Universe story. Maria and Natasha really show their stuff. Pepper really comes into her own. Read this one.
The core story is good, but it is really really stretched out to fit six issues. No spoilers: Stark travels around the world to destroy information Norman Osborn needs. That is really it. The Maria Hill/Black Widow sideline is stretched even thinner to try to fill this out. Good concept, but way too little goodness for the immense amount of art needed to tell it.
World’s Most Wanted book 2 continues my Invincible Iron Man reread. It is also the end of said story arc.
As part of the Dark Reign event Tony Stark has been branded a criminal by new head of the Avengers - Norman Osborn. This leads to a mad chase across the globe as Tony Stark has to get rid of the secrets he possesses. The only way to do that is to wipe his entire mind.
This sees Stark in an ever weakening and vulnerable state as his mind is slowly deleted. We also get a trip down Iron Man memory lane as he loses his capability to pilot the more advanced suits. Meaning we get to see some of the classic suits in action.
As well as Stark’s ordeal, we also get progress on the other two storylines and main characters so far. Maria Hill, former head of SHIELD has a hard drive of important information that has to get to Captain America. She is aided in this by a most welcome guest star.
Aside from Maria, we get a lot of development with Pepper Potts and her new status quo as Rescue. It balances working as an origin story plus tying into the overall plot.
There are great action set pieces throughout. Plus once again the artwork is fantastic! Some of my favourite art from any graphic novel.
I highly recommend this whole run of Iron Man so far. Whether you are a fan of the character from the films or the comics you will find plenty to enjoy here.
Norman Osborn's continued to takedown of Iron Man continues, with the Golden Avenger smeared in the public eye. With only Maria Hill and Pepper Potts as his two remaining allies, Stark's survival stands firmly on his ability to be resourceful in the face of mounting pressure from the government and the public. Pepper really makes her mark in this volume as Tony's desperation mounts, leading to a grandiose conclusion to the "World's Most Wanted" arc as begun in the previous volume.
Larroca's artwork improves substantially here, making this the strongest batch of issues drawn for the series yet.
Artwork-amazing! Plot- Fantastic! Vol 1 was good. Vol 2 pulled me in. This one had me feeling all the emotions and I CANNOT WAIT to find out what happens next!
Writer Matt Fraction's third volume of Iron Man and the second part of his "World's Most Wanted" story arc... well... It rocked.
Norman Osborn is still a maniac, he's still a bad guy, and he's on the cusp of taking over the world and destroying Tony Stark and Iron Man. He's in a position of power and Fraction makes the reader hate him so much and DAMN HIM FOR DOING THIS TO TONY!... But that's not the only thing going on in this one...
It's been a long time since I've read a book so filled with tension. This entire thing moved along at a fever pitch, nearly breaking me into a sweat as I frantically flipped the pages to see what was going to happen with the protagonists.
Fraction did pace this well enough to allow for moments of heartbreak, moments of pure depravity, moments of utter greatness.
Salvador Larroca and co. still continue to treat us with the eye candy and, as you may have seen in my reviews of prior volumes, my opinion of the artwork for this run is in very high regard.
This is a great one. I recommend this to almost anyone. You'd do well to go grab the first two volumes of Fraction's Iron Man run so you know coompletely what's going on, but seriously... Read this.
This might be the best Iron Man comic I've ever read. It was seriously awesome. Potts, Hill, and Romanov get stuck teaming up and it's amazing. And Pepper takes on Madam Masque and it's just so fantastic. Here's why it didn't get five stars (there are two reasons that form one problem): 1.) Pepper and Hill take turns wearing nothing but a bed sheet (Hill collapses in the shower at one point, but I actually liked that... that one had a purpose to it. The other two not so much) and 2.) there was one really awkward angle looking up at Tasha basically from between her legs, and while she WAS dressed it was not a nice angle. The two girls in bed sheets I could maybe see as being sort of sexy, this was not. It was awkward. These two things made the girls seem more like Tony's Angels than independent agents. However, I love all three of these women so very much and so I'm going to ignore these typical comic-book-problems and say it was awesome. Also, I love JARVIS.
As the story moves ahead and Tony loses more of his memory as he desperately tries to preserve the most vital information that guards most of the heroes in the world from falling straight into the hands of the notorious Norman Osborn builds up a tale to be read and preserved in the memories. (As long as we aren't going down Tony Stark's path)
Madame Masque is a character that resembles the classic I-fucking-hate-love-you psychopath that one tends to encounter in a pulsating edge to edge story.
However, the twist is the clear winner here. No arguments on that one.
A solid, action-packed payoff to the setup of the previous volume. "Flowers for Algernon" with with high explosives. Pepper Potts shines as a new hero; Tony's chickens from the civil war among the heroes come home to roost; and as always Larroca's art shines.
Bueno, bueno, la cosa acá sí que mejora. Este segundo arco de Fraction y Larroca a cargo de Tony Stark vuelve a estar influido por elementos externos a la propia serie, en este caso el final creo que de Invasión Secreta -aquella macrosaga que desparramara skrulls por todas las colecciones- y sus consecuencias, que esencialmente es: Norman "Duende Verde" Osborne salvó el mundo ante el fracaso de todos los héroes (con especial hincapié en nuestro protagonista). Ahora, con Osborne como cabeza del sistema de defensa -que pasa de llamarse SHIELD a HAMMER- Tony se da cuenta que sólo es cuestión de tiempo para el villano devenido en "salvador" le exija toda su tecnología, años de armas, elementos y artefactos poderosísimos respaldado su pedido por la Ley. ¿Pero donde se esconden los planos de tan maravillosas cosas? Nada más ni nada menos que en la cabeza de Tony Stark. Es así que se desarrolla una vertiginosa persecusión, a medida que Tony "borra" archivos en su cabeza -y pierde facultades mentales en el proceso- mientras que Osborne lo persigue cual perro rabioso. Tony cuenta con la ayuda de Pepper Potts y de Maria Hill -entre algunos otros pocos secundarios- pero esencialmente es él solo contra todo lo que se venga encima, en una carrera contra el tiempo. Aquí si Fraction puede volar bastante con la trama, con el desarrollo y con las consecuencias de lo que plantea, logrando de paso alta complejidad en el personaje de Norman Osborne, quien estaría un buen rato en esta posición de villano a cargo de los buenos. Del dibujo de Larroca no me voy a repetir, capaz que para esta altura ya me tenía algo más acostumbrado y me chirrió bastante menos.
I'm back for comics Tony Stark, which is never disappointing. *glaring at MCU* The Dark Reign started with Norman Osborn talking over SHIELD, his psychopath is showing out when he takes a revenge on Tony, driving him off the orbit and checking bill for his life. The plot is pretty much it, but the story is a whole new level of...something different. Unlikely the title, it follows mostly Maria Hill and Pepper Potts's arcs. Their support for helping Tony as a fugitive turns out to be the good grip for each issue.
The female characters have some spotlights on portraying some shades and complexities. It's the second time I read Rescue! Pepper, but it's been the first time she's able to put on the suit. It's still refreshing reading from her POV. And comics Maria Hill is totally badass. For some reason, she reminds me of Eponine in Les Mis; a tough girl struggling to find her place in the most messed up world with some hope to hide her trauma. The interactions, and actions are so good and easy to follow. The scene when Pepper infiltrates into Osborn's secured prison to help Natasha and Hill is my favorite.
Yeah, and Tony (I almost forget about him, lol) after the Extremis incident, is losing his memories. I hope my boy's got better in the next volume.
The conclusion of World's Most Wanted features Tony being chased all over the world by Norman Osborn in even more low-tech suits as his brain gives out on him, while meanwhile Maria, Pepper, and Natasha attempt to save the day. Features Tony and Pepper sleeping together when Tony's brain is falling apart, which is kind of creepy as I am pretty sure Tony can't really give meaningful consent at this point. (The Tony/Maria earlier in the arc was at least totally consensual.)
I will admit to liking the final fight with Osborn even though the whole setup was very MCU, and had, you know, quotes from the Iron Man movie all over.
Admittedly I am a lot like the Crimson Dynamo here because I too spent most of the plot wondering why Tony couldn't just vaporize his head in an irrevocable way if he needed his brain deleted. This is comics! They can make that happen!
I feel like I would have liked this more if someone else had written it. I like the basic idea of the brain deletion, but... eh.
The individual stories of World's Most wanted, Book 1 come together in Book 2 and do so well. As Tony Stark's mental capacities devolve, he needs to do so with regards to technical prowess too. It makes for a special type of wild-goose chase, with Osborn (and the cronies he hired) the horses in the game.
I am a huge fan of Norman Osborn's characterization in this work, as he is as petty as can be expected of him, while still maintaining a facade of professionalism. I enjoyed reading Dark Avengers for this specific reason, so seeing Osborn acting in a similar manner is entertaining. I am also partial to Rescue, but I won't delve deeper here to evade spoilers.
I hoped owning both books in the World's Most Wanted-saga would provide me with the entire plot of this mini-series, but it does not. Guess I will need to purchase other volumes too and I will: I have enjoyed the previous ones.
Reasons I loved this: 1. Pepper Potts is awesome! 2. It has lots of Tony angst and heroic drama. The way he's slowly losing his mind, his memories, and his intelligence, but still pushing on because he knows it's the right thing to do...it gets to me. 3. The voice and characterization of Tony really jives with RDJ's Tony Stark for me, which is a very good thing. He's self-sacrificial and determined and he's going to win against Osborn even if "winning" means that Tony loses everything. 4. Black Widow shows up for a while. 5. Pepper Potts is awesome, and even Nat acknowledges this indisputable fact. 6. I was genuinely surprised (!) by one of the twists in this. That doesn't happen very often. 7. Have I mentioned that Pepper is awesome?
Ok spoilers all around - Maria Hill’s mind control by the Controller was played out so well, she’s wasn’t physically raped but got ‘plugged in’ to the controller and it really affected her in what I considered human, realistic, and heartbreaking ways just like a sexual assault. This changed Hill, and changed the way that the readers see Hill and also made a powerful statement about being a victim and *who* victims are (spoiler - victims can be anyone no matter how badass and prepared they normally are, including the former shield director and super agent Hill).
Tony has sex with too many people IN THIS VOLUME ALONE.
I love the character of Madame Masque in all things.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Nota 7,75. Fim do arco "Mais Procurado do Mundo". Tem coisas boas e ruins... Positivos: Roteiro funcional com situações que mudam o status Quo do personagem, arte muito boa e moderna, ação bacana, rápido de se ler. Negativos: toda a parada do Norman Osborn ser herói agora é difícil de engolir, falta drama na história, plots secundários com Potts e Hills é muita encheção de linguiça, final previsível de "Vilão desmascarado pra mídia" e o maior defeito: 12 edições pra esse arco é um exagero. Fazendo o Gibi arrastar q é uma beleza. Enfim, um arco muito bom, mas não isento de falhas. O que é dizer muito de um personagem com tão poucas boas histórias como o Homem de Ferro é.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
There are very few feelings as enjoying a perfectly created capsule arc in comics.
When done right, the whole of the arc can feel like a fully realized adventure captured in 10 issues.
This right here, is phenomenal storytelling. Forget the medium. Ignore the fact that it is about a superhero.
This is just superlative storytelling, handled by an absolute master in Fraction.
Larroca's pencils marry beautifully with Fractions words and we end up with what might have been the best storyline from the entirety of the Dark Reign event.
All of the shit that Tony has pulled since Civil War finally comes back around to bite him in the ass, and it doesn't end well for him. Matt Fraction does a great job writing Tony, in that you know that he has all this coming to him, but you still wanna root for him. I can definitely see why this run is so well regarded. I know Marvel is starting to release Epic Collections for it, but why the hell does this run not have an omnibus?
Yeah, this still rules. I think maybe the women are all written a little too similarly, and maybe Hill’s storyline feels a little too much like a side quest/out of place, but those are about the only nitpicks I have with this. It holds up very well well. The art is good too! I’m glad they swapped colorists or whatever they did, because it’s much improved from the beginning of the run. 19 issues with the same artists on a mainstream title like this is almost unheard of these days.
Up late reading this one ... continues to captivate as it leads up to an unexpected twist conclusion. I admit the entire “Norman Osborne in charge of SHIELD/Hammer” storyline of DARK REIGN never rang particularly true for me, but it is put to good - if confusing - use here. Wild science and heartache galore.