About Heroes

Writers: Daniel and Charles Knauf
Artists: Carlo Pagulayan & Jeffrey Huet

Iron Man keeps on ticking.  The focus of this book since the Knuafs came on has always been Tony Stark and technology, and now that Tony is director of S.H.I.E.L.D. we've seen the book take a more spy vs. terrorist approach.  Except here, the spy is Tony Stark and the terrorist is the Mandarin.  This issue has Tony telling Maya Hansen that the Mandarin has broken the Extremis virus to make it deadly and airborne, and that she needs to decode it so they can come up with some counter-measures.  Maya hesitates, saying she needs proof that the Mandarin has done so, because she doesn't want anyone stealing her formula.  Meanwhile, Tony is dealing with the mini-nuke he dropped on the Extremis infected thugs last issue.  This issue is not a huge step forward in terms of storyline, but when read in sucession with the other chapters of this story, it will read as a good middle chapter.

Carlo Pagulayan steps in for art chores this issue and does a bang up job.  His stuff  looks similar to what Butch Guice and Roberto de la Torre have been putting out in previous issues of the book, keeping the dirty gritty feel going.  I thought I had more to say when I started writing this review, but I realize now that this was a middle chapter and not much happened in it, which is dissapointing, looking back, even though I enjoyed reading it. C-