Review: World's Most Wanted

The “highly acclaimed and award winning” story arc World’s Most Wanted has finally come to a conclusion after twelve long issues. While Marvel and critics claim this arc to be epic in nearly every aspect, you have to wonder if it really is. I don't know how much weight you’ll put into my opinion (I’m guessing zero), but here is my review of World’s Most Wanted.


Story
The story itself wasn’t highly original. Stark is on the run from Osborn and HAMMER and he is losing his mind in the process trying to keep the Super Hero Registration files from falling into Osborn’s hands. It’s reminiscent of Armor Wars when he was on the run from SHIELD and later when his body was failing from the damaged nervous system, just rolled into the same arc. Different yes, but somewhat the same principle. I’m not going to say it’s a copy, but it’s not 100% original either.

The other big problem I have is that it’s really more of making Stark look low. This is Marvel once again punishing the guy they have made popular by writing out of character to be the bad guy. Fraction said he saw it as Stark atoning for all his sins, not just the Civil War crap, but given what he’s gone through in his life; the artificial heart (twice), alcoholism and losing his company, his nervous system ruined, paralysis not to mention that whole death thing, how much more does the guy need to atone for?

This doesn’t mean the story didn’t have potential. It could still have been a fun read if the right things were done, which unfortunately they weren’t. There was so much filler that this arc could have easily been six issues and without missing out on any of the excitement that was present.

The start of the saga wasn’t bad, Stark eliminating his armories and having big names like Namor sent after him added an interesting element. This didn’t last and soon it became Stark fielding less and less advanced armors while continually trying to escape some D-rate villain that had a single appearance in an obscure 1980’s issue or something along that line. The using a less sophisticated armor didn’t make much sense given how newer armors capabilities would allow the onboard computer to do much of the things he wouldn’t be able to handle. It seemed like another lame excuse to start using the classic armor again. Seriously, the armor had its run but put the thing to rest already.

The addition of Pepper becoming a fighter was iffy at best. If you changed it from Pepper to Bethany Cabe, then beating Masque, being Iron Maiden (or whatever you want to call it) would have been far more believable. Pepper is just too much of that nice cheery girl to be really seen as a warrior, even in extraordinary circumstances. I do like the things Fraction had her do, but I just felt Pepper was ill suited to it.

Despite all the room for things to happen, too little transpired and what did was often repetitive. Too many issues felt the same.

Grade: C-


Writing
Fraction made one big mistake throughout the story: he told instead of showing. We were always told how Stark was losing his mind, he said it himself three times an issue. This was horribly repetitive as if we could somehow forget it. I started to roll my eyes every time Stark mentioned this. When Fraction did show it he did a good job (i.e. “Who is Happy?”) but too often that wasn’t the case.

Pacing was also bad. As I said earlier there was a ton of filler in this arc. We were greeted to a few pages of Stark going on about his mental state which by the second issue was a total waste of space. The issues all started to feel the same mid arc and that is never good.

Grade: C


Art
Larocca isn’t my favorite artist, but I’ve seen his past work and it’s better than this. There was nothing wrong with his pencils or the inks, it was the colors. Every person looked plastic and fake in the issues, making Larocca’s art look cartoonish at times. Osborn often looked ridiculous in my opinion, his hair further making him look like someone I expect to see in a Sunday morning comic strip.

Just like during the Knauf’s run, the colorist is taking away from the visuals. We went from dark and drab to everyone being shiny like they were just waxed.

Grade: C


Finish
Marvel and other outlets billed the ending of World’s Most Wanted as shocking. Iron Man fans billed it as totally predictable. I will give credit to Fraction; even though everyone knew what was going to happen in issue #19 it was still a very entertaining piece. We all knew Stark couldn’t die and Osborn was still going to be in control; it couldn’t end any differently, so a win for both signs was a given. I can forgive Fraction for the predictable ending because he had little choice.

Stark won because Osborn didn’t get his hands on any of the information he wanted. Osborn won because Stark was no longer a threat. Like I said, predictable. I did like at the end how Stark smiled and said “I won” which pissed Osborn off to no end, classic Stark (another Kudos to Fraction). Stark also had his contingency plan in place, knowing about all the legalities of SHIELD and having Donald Blake (a.k.a. Thor) as his doctor with power of attorney. It was also nice to see Pepper sabotage the stolen armors, throwing yet another wrench in Osborn’s plans.

In addition the video feed of Osborn beating a helpless Stark was shown all over the world, setting up the beginning of his fall. It looks like public opinion will begin to shift away from Osborn now, so by the time Siege rolls around chances are things will be going badly for him.

Grade: B+


Final Thoughts
Despite the positive critical reviews the majority of long time Iron Man fans have been giving it a big thumbs down. The arc overall was boring, laced with far more filler than substance and a storyline that repeated itself way too much.

Marvel no doubt points to the Eisner win a testament to its quality, but I counter with the opinion from long time Iron Man fans (the ones who have kept the book going for so long) that are ripping it apart. I’d venture to say those opinions are more telling than an award because who knows the character better than the ones who have follow all his exploits for decades? Are we not the ones who can determine if each action is in or out of character, instead of some committee that only gets handed the product when submitted? Ask the long time fans and all of them will tell you World’s Most Wanted can't hold a candle to previous sagas such as Armor Wars, Dragon Seed, War Machine and the other classic arcs. That the arc could have easily been half its length and contain the same amount of quality substance is a fact that should not be overlooked and frankly it should be questioned why it was allowed to happen.

All in all, Worlds Most Wanted despite its critical acclaim was unimpressive. Too long, too boring, and a predictable ending never make for a good story.

Final Grade: C-