This is the best thing I’ve read in a while. It’s about an ex-boxer truck driver making a delivery with another man in tow to make sure it’s done properly. Then, there’s a fight. The artwork is amazing. The story goes from comedy to action to horror and does them all well. It’s fairly short, but it makes good use of the space given and ends satisfactory. Great.

The latest Marvel space opera. The book is a good deal containing the story in one big book instead of the two or three books like Annihilation stories. The story itself is okay. It follows the same mold as Secret Invasion as it tells the framework of the main conflict leaving the details to be filled in by auxiliary books (which are not collected here), which makes it feel a bit rushed and incomplete. I like how the Annihilation stories were done better, where the mini-series continued the story chronologically one to the next with framing stories on the ends. It also seems more of a setup for Realm of Kings. My biggest problem was with the artwork, which has lots of unnecessary cheesecake that keeps pulling me out of the story and kept me from treating it seriously. I think Annihilation was better.

19 issues in a nice hardcover. There’s basically two story arcs here. The first seven issues take place before Secret Invasion where Stark’s tech gets out into the hands of terrorists. It’s about his fears that the Iron Man tech gets used for evil and the sacrifices he makes to stop it. It reminds me a bit of an early Authority story.

The next 12 issues are post-SI, with Stark being kicked out of S.H.I.E.L.D. (S.H.I.E.L.D. itself becoming H.A.M.M.E.R.) and being replaced by Osborn. Stark has all the important security info stored in his brain, which he has to erase so Osborn doesn’t get his hands on it. It’s a story about the world’s richest man on the run, going from hideout to hideout and scavenging tech, all the while slowly losing his mind, his memories, and his abilities to function. There’s a cool parallel with Stark’s devolving mind and him using progressively more simple Iron Man suits, eventually completely loosing his mind as he makes his way to the original gray Iron Man mk I suit. I liked this second arc better.

There’s also two stories going on at the same time. One is of Pepper Potts learning to use Rescue, a defensive only Iron Man suit. The other is a spy story featuring Maria Hill as she tries to get some info to Capt. America and that eventually involves Black Widow.

The only thing I don’t like about this volume is the coloring. It looks airbrushed and, especially early on, gives everything an unnatural sheen. It gets mellowed out by the end.

Another collection of Wondermark strips where Malki ! combines old drawings (mostly out of turn of the century catalogs) to tell a typical 3-4 panel gag strip. Usually it ends up being a tad surreal. These books are a great read due to all the extra little touches Malki ! puts into them. He packs everything from the table of contents to the afterword to the inside covers to the margins with little details and jokes. Great stuff from a guy that puts a lot of care into his work.