Invincible Iron Man #15

A lot of people like to complain about how Dark Reign forces changes to be made in their favorite books which hurt the overall stories being told. In fact sometimes I am one of those people, but one book that has vastly improved since and partly because of Dark Reign is Invincible Iron Man. Norman Osborn taking control of the Marvel Universe has given Matt Fraction the chance to craft an excitingly original Iron Man story with a villain on par with the brilliant Mr. Tony Stark.

Before getting into anything else however I need to take a second to mention how the art in this book has improved. In earlier issues I would sometimes cringe looking at the faces of characters who looked like a shiny photo-referenced train wreck. Thankfully things have improved greatly, just take a look at the first page of the issue and then compare it to an issue from six or eight months ago. Now I no longer need to hope that Tony is in costume the entire issue to have any hope of enjoying the art.

Storywise Fraction starts exactly where he left us off last issue with Tony and Pepper staring each other down. From their later interactions we get the best glimpse yet into what kind of impact Tony's mind erasing mission is having on him, and these scenes are wonderful. We also catch up with Maria who has finally found Black Widow, and who could complain about watching these two chase each other around. After only seeing Maria for about one page last issue it is nice to have her plot thread once again take up a good chunk of the issue.

Lastly, and this is something this book has done better than any other in recent months, Fraction leaves you begging to be able to read the next issue immediately. It says a lot that I almost enjoyed this more than a Morrison/Quitely comic that also was released this week.