For today’s comic book review I set out to read and review the Iron Man story from Tales Of Suspense #49.  Hoping for an action pack story, filled with everything one could want, and even from the cover I knew that Iron Man would be up against another hero, X-men’s Angel.  Leaving me to wonder the why’s and hows.  but by the time I got finished, i was left with just one burning question. What where they thinking?

But before I get into that let me give a short summary of the story,  The Angel gets to close to an atomic test at one of Tony Stark’s weapons plants, and despite Iron Man’s best efforts to ward him off takes a strong blast of radiation.   The Radiation changes The Angels mind, making him evil, and now Iron Man has to stop him.

Story

From the summary there is no signs that it is as horrible as it is, but this story is filled with things that just  make it worse.  To start with lets talk about the dialogue; don’t get me wrong I am used to and even can enjoy corny comic book dialogue that was so common,  but here it just takes the cake.  When Tony stark refers to  his “Magnetic Doohickeys”  that hold his armor together, i about lost it.  and that is just one example of how its gone bad.

Then we have the inclusion of the avengers? for no other reason then to show one by one how everyone  is unavailable; and in that offering them even more character development then our featured characters get in this issue.   I am referring to  Giant Man and the wasp, being out on a ‘date’. something she has hoped for, but there has been no signs of Dr. Pym giving in so far, until  now when we just don’t want him available.

the issue just gets worse from there,  though, offering us none of the things that has made the last few Iron Man stories great, likely all in an effort to try to push fans into also reading X-man and possibly the avengers.

But do the X-men at least benefit from this story?  I would say they don’t, as they quite out of character rely on trying to get the avengers help to bring back one of their own, instead of doing it themselves.

Art

While I won’t call the art bad, it was lacking detail in most of the panels,  so much so that whole pages looked bland and empty,  I know not every panel can be crammed with details, but when looking at a whole page, one should see some level of depth to the art,  Instead we get lots of panels with solid backgrounds,  sometimes  not even offering a line between floor and walls.

Just take a look at the 2/3 of a  page i included next tot here,  four panels featuring the X-men fighting the angel whom just turned against them.  you can see the lack of detail in background, and then only a normal level of detail in the characters.  It is unfortunate that much of this issue is quite the same.

Originality & Continuity

While this issue does make sure Iron Man is using his new suit, and even calling him  “The New Iron Man” on the first page,  it does little to fit into continuity, for including the X-men and  the avengers,  it just sort of tosses them all in, and lets the pieces land where they will.

Characters & Development

Those said pieces, however are quite contrary tot he characters I feel comfortable in saying none of the guest stars felt right, and even Iron Man did not read like himself, This issue, almost seems like it was done by a bunch of stand ins while the real talent was off doing other things.

Final Thoughts

Rather you’re an Iron Man fan, or an X-man fan, I feel comfortable and confidant in saying that this is one story you can skip, it offers no lasting benefit for anyone involved. You may as well just not read it and treat it like it never happened.