Iron Man: Avengers Disassembled

Iron Man: Avengers Disassembled
Iron Man: Avengers Disassembled

By various (Marvel Comics)
ISBN: 0-7851-1653-2

A few years ago the “World’s Mightiest Heroes” were shut down and rebooted in a company-wide event known as Avengers Disassembled. Of course it was only to replace them with both The New- and The Young Avengers. Affiliated comic-books such as the Fantastic Four and Spectacular Spider-Man ran parallel but not necessarily interconnected story-arcs to accompany the Big Show.

To many fans Iron Man is the quintessential Avenger. A founding member, he has served with practically every incarnation of the team and in his other identity of billionaire technocrat Tony Stark, funds and arms the team. In this collection (re-presenting Iron Man Volume 3, #84-89) Stark is the current U.S, Secretary of Defense and his duty to the Administration is beginning to conflict with his role as a U.N. sanctioned Avenger.

When Secret Service men brief him that a World War II super weapon built by his father lies dormant beneath Avengers Mansion and a potential embarrassment to the government, Stark agrees to spy on his fellow heroes and covertly remove the Arsenal Weapon. Naturally it all goes cataclysmically wrong with lasting repercussions…

This two-part tale is by John Jackson Miller and Jorge Lucas, and annoyingly for the unprepared leads directly into Avengers #500 (for which you’ll need to have a copy of the companion volume Avengers: Disassembled ISBN: 0-7851-1482-3 to hand) before we resume with ‘the Singularity’.

Written by Mark Ricketts, drawn by Tony Harris and Scott Kolins with inks by Tom Feister and Charles Wallace this tale sees the hero’s life fall tragically apart as a component of the Big Show, wherein a sinister plot and betrayal drags the armoured hero to the brink of ultimate personal and professional disaster…

Despite the poor planning and editing this is a compelling tale that perfectly illustrates why Iron Man has remained such a popular character, and has a lot to recommend it, but for perfect clarity you really should have that Avengers book too.

© 2004 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.