Dex's Comic Awareness

Iron Man: House of M #3(of 3)
written by Greg Pak
pencils & cover by Pat Lee

Sigh, yet another bad ending to another disappointing side story. Lee's pencils aren't nearly up to par with his usual fare and the story that Pak had constructed really ended with a whimper. It could have been at least mediocre but the ending of the issue really just ruined it.

Turns out Tony's dad was behind all the bombs and Pym and planned it all so that Tony would be in the position to kill Magneto. Right. Why is it that the master of magnetism is shown again and again as a giant pussy? He could have done any number of things to keep Tony from setting off the bomb in his hand. I can think of at least three off the top of my head. But don't worry, he doesn't kill Magneto just like we all knew he wouldn't. All these stories that revolve around attempts on Magneto's life kind of make for shitty stories when we know he HAS to live to keep the main plot moving.

Sigh. House of M has really sucked it up so far. This had promise but alas, they refused to do anything with it. I blame Marvel editors mostly for only giving Pak three issues. Yeah he could have really gone somewhere with them but he didn't.

Rating - Poor

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Iron Man: House of M #2(of 3)
written by Greg Pak
pencils & cover by Pat Lee

Greg Pak has been doing a fairly decent job. This is his second book with Marvel and it's already one of my favorite tie-ins. Pat Lee's artwork is perfect for this book. He's known for drawing robots really well and a book about Iron Man vs. Sentinels seems like his bag. Of course, there is all that controversy about him and Dreamwave's demise. Here are Newsarama's two interviews with both Pat Lee and some upset writers:

Writer's Want Money They Earned

Pat Lee Speaks Out

I'll let you decide for yourselves how you feel about the issue but I will say that the two writers got hosed no matter who you side with. And they have been pretty good about not just flinging mud at individuals. So I have a lot of respect for them. Pat Lee seems fishy but not overtly so. I'm not gonna be making any "stands" by not buying his books or anything. But as he admits, he has a large responsibility in the bankruptcy.

Back to the comic: in a world of mutants, Tony Stark defends a sapien race that loves him and a bunch of mutants fear him. Pretty much the back story here. Tony and Johnny Storm, who wasn't in the space pod with his sister and Reed as FF:House of M tells us, are both arena fighters who use big suits of armor to fight each other and Sentinels. The issue starts with Tony pinned under a Sentinels foot that is controlled by his father. His father helps him to destroy the evidence but when Tony is leaving, he thinks he sees his dad beginning to kill civilians. He fights him off and then fights some more robots. He and Johnny team up with their armor to fight the oppression and that's when they find Henry Pym going into a concentration camp. They save him but he has a surprise of his own. He had developed a virus that only killed mutants.

The dialogue between Tony and his father are intelligent and well done. Pak doesn't let you get a firm grasp of what Tony's dad is playing at. Tony's drinking is showed but it doesn't become an issue. Pak also does a good job with the filler characters. Magneto's crony sent to watch Tony is fairly inventive. While the two head thing has been done before; it's new enough to Marvel that it's not trite.

The whole plot line with Pym's terrorism is a good progression of the character and is well within his personality to do something like that. It's a twist that keeps the book fresh. I wish this team would do the normal Iron Man all the time. They mention the Vision Project but I wonder if we'll see him at all with only one more issue to go. Probably not.

This is a good issue that definitely builds off the first one to surpass it. It’s a fine read and a good tie-in to pick up because of it.

Rating - Good