Scans_Daily

This week, Iron Man 2.0 took Fear Itself in stride.

It managed pre-empting more of Rhodey's cat-and-mouse game with a demonstrably dead man pretty elegantly, timing his lighter-and-leaner Stark-given upgrade so that Sin's Nazis resurged right on its heels.

With that plot set aside, it goes on to set up another Worthy and introduce unfamiliar readers to the this-and-two-more guest-starring Immortal Weapons and their deal without too much fuss.



(Unless new Ghost Rider makes a sudden inexplicable appearance, of course.)

This new fellow further eats up Rhodey's page space, taking half the issue to introduce himself and reintroduce the Eighth Heavenly City from the end of Immortal Iron Fist, but it's still a good story.

Being a resident of that hell-by-way-of-K'un-Lun, he's naturally someone special. He's the kind of person who "calls [the Eighth City] his playground"; free of its constraints, he plays spectator to its goings-on, occasionally darting in to have bits of fun like stealing the victory-in-the-arena feast of a strong, unscrupulous poisoner.

And when that fellow and some of the city's demons come calling, he provides them a physical and verbal CV:



No, Olivetti didn't forget a layer; it's just a lack of background to emphasize our new friend and his credentials.

It's effective, and it gets one thinking that much quicker; doesn't some of this sound a bit familiar? Aren't these the exploits of someone with a definite fictional history, previously established?



Yes, it's this guy! (Or a very, very reasonable facsimile..)

What he was doing in K'un Lun's dumping grounds, other than amusing himself, is a thing to think about; it's certainly proof that Spencer can do more action-heavy writing than he's tended to have so far, and do it pretty well.

He closes his speech and the fight with the Eighth City as backdrop on the same theme ("This whole burning kingdom is MINE!") when one of the Serpent's Hammers falls: "And this is mine, too."

The book is still Rhodey's, though, even if he only gets four-five pages.

Most of which are taken up by the Prince of Orphans (still pitching in with Steve and friends, holding the line in Washington) explaining that the Eighth City's summoning the Immortal Weapons to protect it from the Serpent's incursion.. and perhaps because of that foreign magic, new-and-improved War Machine's coming along for the ride.

The first to arrive is Danny Rand, in the flaming streets of Beijing, watching demons whirl in the skies; the hammer's power has ripped open the Eighth City's gates.

Opposite him stands someone Worthy and someone soon to be, in a spread made effective by its much less minimalist background.

Danny's seen a lot of things, but this?



(Considering his history.. probably. Without the demons, though, it'd be a bit less.)

The buildings're a little iffy, but I like the definite depth in this.

Next month, it's War Machine and the Immortal Weapons versus the demi-god Titania and the not-yet-god Absorbing Man (I love that the Serpent was nice enough to choose the both of them) with a monkey in the middle!

(I wonder who's going to lose their temper with him first?)