Review: Iron Man Vol. 4- Iron Metropolitan

Quick Summary

Pros: The concept here is interesting and the collection has a compelling mystery. Some of the action and suspense is fun.

Cons: Most action scenes and character motivations are weak. The pacing feels off and events go by far too quickly. A number of interesting characters and concepts are left underdeveloped.

Overall: Though this collection has its merits, it falls short of the entertaining storytelling seen in previous volumes. Instead, problems with pacing and focus bring the quality down and make this collection less enjoyable to read. It still has its moments and isn’t bad in most places but simply falls short of an average quality book. Those who enjoy Iron Man may still find a lot to like here but those looking for an all-around good collection may want to look elsewhere.

Story

Iron Man Vol. 4: Iron Metropolitan, by Kieron Gillen, is not necessarily a bad book, but it is definitely one of the weaker volumes in this series thus far. It offers a few positives, most of which revolve around the concept and the mystery behind it. However, the majority of the volume ranges from boringly average to slightly frustrating, as a number of problems work away at the collection’s ability to entertain. The end result is a lackluster chapter in the life of Tony Stark.

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The premise behind Iron Metropolitan is one of the collection’s most compelling attributes. It follows Tony Stark as he attempts to build the city of the future while grappling with Mandarin Ring-powered enemies. The most interesting aspect of this is the Mandarin rings, as their sentience and ultimate goal is a unique mystery. All of this comes together to form a compelling backdrop upon which the comic is set.

However, besides this positive, most of this collection just ends up being average. There is plenty of action and suspense but a lot of it is subpar and relies on lackluster cliffhangers to draw in attention. Plus, the motivations behind enemies and even some of the allies are rather weak. These are story elements that aren’t necessarily a problem but don’t do the collection any favors either.

The biggest problem with Iron Metropolitan is pacing. Tony’s experimental city goes from a concept to a working city over the course of a few pages. In a similar way, the Inhumanity crossover chapter goes by too fast for readers to develop any connection or sympathy with the main character. All of this negatively affects the sense of progression that would otherwise be a positive for this collection.

The problem with pacing also goes on to cause a problem with focus. Seeing the idea for Tony’s futuristic city is intriguing and creates a desire to learn more about it. However, the pacing goes by so fast that readers have little time to actually learn about what this city is or how it operates. A similar problem exists regarding most of the collection’s minor characters, who never receive enough development to contribute any sense of interest in the greater story. Reading this collection gives the sense that there is a better story out there, it simply isn’t being told right here.

(spoilers end here)

Art

Like the story, the artwork in Iron Metropolitan ends up ranging from average to slightly below average. Joe Bennett’s pencils and Scott Hanna’s inks do well in depicting the new city of Troy and giving the main characters good levels of detail. However, many of the collection’s splash pages lack an overall sense of creativity and come across rather bland. In addition, confrontations end up being rather chaotic and do little to enhance the book’s action scenes. In the end, the artwork here still isn’t bad but it also isn’t that good either.

Continuity

Iron Man Vol. 4: Iron Metropolitan continues the story from Iron Man Vol. 3: The Secret Origin of Tony Stark Book 2 (Review).

The story here continues in Iron Man Vol. 5: Rings of the Mandarin (Review).

This volume also makes references to other comic books, detailed below:

• Tony Stark mentions his time in space. He was in space in for the past two collections and also in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1: Cosmic Avengers (Review).
• The Mandarin was most recently seen in Invincible Iron Man #526, now collected in Invincible Iron Man Volume 11: The Future.
• This collection contains a tie-in issue to the Inhumanity event.