Iron Man DoS #30

Iron Man Director of Shield #30 came out this last week and my response is this: blah.

The plot itself was boring, very little actually happening, mostly background story on the new villain who is an expert at miniaturizing weapons. He was an acquaintance of Stark’s in the past and they looked to make weapons together after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Unfortunately the man’s country went into civil war and his wife was killed and himself imprisoned. So now he’s out for revenge, or justice, or whatever.

So very little happens, and IM once again goes in like a special troop squad with the Shield agents with Stark Tech as his backup. When they take out the bad guys HQ some two bit lame villain called Paladin brings Stark a message from his old partner who gives him the rundown on what happened.

And then comes something that pretty much angers every comic book fan of any character. Paladin shoots Stark with some kind of electrical charge that sucks away his armors power and makes it dead weight. And how was it explained? Well in the first part of the issue with the background Stark agreed to give the guy some access to Stark miniaturized technology, which apparently has to do with his Iron Man technology.

So let me get this straight, Stark actually allowed someone access to his armor technology that wasn't a totally trusted friend. Right. But furthermore, this guy probably had access to technology that has nothing to do with Extremis, or even the most recent armors. Yet he was able to figure a counter to it based on old technology. While not totally unfeasible it’s highly unlikely.

So yeah, the issue was pretty much a bore and some two bit villain taking down Stark with a two bit explanation would have ruined it even if it was a good story. All in all, a crappy issue. But at least colorist Dean White didn’t smudge things nearly as much as he normally does. Sadly that was probably the best thing about the issue.