Written by Tom Taylor
Art by Yildiray Cinar, Felipe Watanabe, & Ruy Jose
Colors by Guru-eFX
Published by Marvel Comics
After taking out fellow San Franciscan hero Daredevil and putting would-be villain Teen Abomination at his side, the superior Tony Stark is close to unstoppable. There’s only one person with the gumption to take him back from the fold and that’s Pepper Potts. Her ultimate weapon is Tony’s own contingency plan a Mark II Iron Man armor with the mind of an eight years younger Stark. It’s a battle of the wills between the superior and inferior.
This issue marks the point where Superior Iron Man draws its closest parallels to its earlier Spider-Man counterpart as Tony Stark of past and present fight for control. Granted this all seems to be build up to the inevitable confrontation with Pepper Potts. While she’s been mostly observing the events of the series from the shadows, she’s making her move and Pepper is by far the greatest threat to the new sinister Iron Man. Tom Taylor continues with his great affection for strong characters, fascinating turns on old concepts, and political commentary. It’s here the reader gets hint at some of the grander schemes Tony Stark has for the world, and they’re anything but ideal.
This issue welcomes the return of Yildiray Cinar. He’s not alone as a few pages penciled and inked by Felipe Watanabe and Ruy Jose. Cinar has is expected glossy style. He makes armor look amazingly slick though his fight scenes could use some work. There real treat is seeing armor fly around, both the fantastic sentient Mark II armor and the Superior suit. The latter gets a monstrous look when fighting on its own. The pages by Watanabe and Jose are serviceable. They only have a few odd pages and they do a decent job to make the book look consistent.
While Superior Iron Man has been loosing its steam as of late, this issue regains some of the lost momentum. The confrontation between Tony Stark and Mark II leaves a bit to be desired and ends unclimactically. However if that if build up between Pepper vs. Tony, the book can more than recover. Tom Taylor has earned enough good faith to let a few issues not hit the nail on the head and the return of Yildiray Cinar makes the book pop.