What I Read This Week: Marvel Sub Special

Marvel's mail order sub service used to get me my books the Tuesday before they hit the street.  Now?  Not so much.

Invincible Iron Man #24 -- Tony Stark remains in the bizarre dreamscape of his own head, while The Ghost attempts to murder him back in the real world.  Fraction delivers another underwhelming issue, ending the storyarc on a tremendous anticlimax.  He lays the anti-Stark crap on pretty thick, beating the reader over the head with imagery about Stark's legacy being one of blood and death.  I feel the need to reiterate at this point that, yes, we all get it, Mr. Fraction, please move on.  LaRocca's art is about the same as it has been, with some good pages and some not so good pages.  All in all this book is frustrating as all get out because for all the fanboys who never read Shellhead's series prior to this who gush about it, I find myself more and more turned off the longer Fraction writes it.  Perhaps #25 (with the teased debut of a new armor) will reverse this trend and bring us back to some armored action?  I'd certainly hope so, because this glum-drum stuff has worn thing.

Mighty Avengers #34 -- The Mighty Avengers head to Asgard with the intention of trapping their "benefactor" Loki and figuring out where the real Scarlet Witch is being held.  But Loki calls in help in form of his brother, the Mighty Thor!  Dan Slott does not have long on this title... in fact the title itself does not have long... so he goes out with what may be the closest thing to a "classic" Avengers story I have read since Busiek.  The pacing, the tones of voice, the story, all of it is homage to the original Avengers.  Witness the scene where the Avengers sit around the breakfast table, regaling each other with their tales of bravery (from other comics), which is interrupted when Quicksilver has had enough.  Or, when Hank Pym thinks to himself about Quicksilver being so angry that he is subconsciously vibrating himself at a tremendous speed.  Or Pym referring to trapping Loki in the Avengers first adventure.  And so on and so forth.  I got into this title late, and Slott's run looks to be cut short, but issues like this made it worth reading.