Iron Age Alpha 1

I’m not sure if this is heading for a crossover or miniseries or what, but the setup has decent plot potential. A dying mad scientist with a grudge against Tony Stark kidnaps him and makes him watch as he uses one of Doctor Doom’s time machines to somehow pluck Dark Phoenix out of time. He provokes her and Tony gets to see her destroy the Earth – but he also gets thrown back in time, so I assume the rest of the story is Iron Man gathering forces to somehow prevent this. The mad scientist had images showing, for no apparent reason, of Giant Man, the Torch, Cyclops, Dazzler, Captain Britain, Power Man and Iron Fist, which I imagine tells us at least some of who will be involved.

Admittedly it’s one of those comics that feels like all setup and little substance. We are given cursory background on the mad scientist, and Luke & Danny get a brief scene where Tony is taken. We aren’t informed of how and when/where Phoenix was captured, and I have no clue how they can dream of stopping her, but I always like a superhero comic that sets the odds so hugely against the heroes – Grant Morrison has always been magnificent at that, but hopefully Williams has a stronger ending in mind than we sometimes got from Grant. I don’t know what has happened regarding Datk Phoenix since that original storyline, which may be a problem in my appreciating this.

The scripting is tidy enough, giving the mad scientist some strong lines that bear repeating as Tony realizes what he was leading up to. The art is efficient enough, a little plastic and stiff, but clear and with some good designs for the mad scientist’s base and equipment, and it does pretty well on a few key dramatic moments – certainly above average for mainstream superhero work these days.

I was highly dismissive of Rob Williams’ Ghost Rider 0.1, but that seemed to be an issue requested when he didn’t really have anything to put in it; this is rather better, a plot setup with genuine potential – how much of that will be fulfilled I have no idea, but I am at least inclined to stay with it to find out, which is what you want a prelude issue to achieve.