Volume 51: Fallen Son: The Death of Captain America

Fallen Son: The Death of Captain America

Capt America #25: Author: Ed Brubaker / Illustrator: Steven Epting
Fallen Son Miniseries: Author: Jeph Loeb (from a premise by J. Michael Straczynski) / Illustrators: Leinil Yu (#1) / Ed McGuinness (#2) / John Romita Jr. (#3) / David Finch (#4) / John Cassaday (#5)

"...[A]nd one day, it'll be different. The load won't feel as heavy. 'Course, then you'll hear a song or somebody will laugh or the wind will blow the wrong way...and the hole will tear wide open again."

A number of heroes died during the Civil War arc (Volume 50), and while every human life should be equal in value, it's a fact that those closest to us leave the biggest vacuum in the world, an absence that's immeasurable in size. For many of the superhero community the death of Captain America cuts deeper than any of the others because of how inspirational he was. He's the reason so many of those able to protect the innocent were moved to do so in the first place. Steve Rogers was a man, but his costumed self was an almighty symbol that had the power to speak in place of the person beneath it.

The stories of how the death affected those closest to Steve is structured like the Kübler-Ross model (aka The Five Stages of Grief, as observed by Swiss psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross), with each issue exploring one of the stages: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance. The particular hero chosen to lead each issue isn't random, there's a method at play whereby the emotion will have a special resonance with that particular character.

Before we get to the Fallen Son issues, we're given the issue of Captain America in which the hero was killed (#25). It's a great issue, with the focus split between Steve's situation and the world around him, but favouring the latter, surprisingly.

Stage 1: Denial: Wolverine. No stranger to loss as one of the X-Men, Wolverine needs confirmation of the death before he can begin to heal. The sketchy lines and dark colours suit the tone.

Stage 2: Anger: the Avengers. The team who lost a friend and leader. While some grieve openly, some choose distraction. Choosing not to vent anger doesn't necessarily make it go away; it still affects but quietly, and can do even more damage in the long term.

Stage 3: Bargaining: Capt. America. It's named for Cap, for reasons that will be obvious upon reading, but it's mostly about Iron Man and one specific other. Without going into detail it was the best issue so far, by quite a margin. I loved how the chill of the rainy night adds to the cold reception.

Stage 4: Depression: Spider-Man. Another good issue. Peter carries the weight of the world on an ordinary day, but when his failures (real and imagined) gang up on him as one, past and present blur and the web-slinger aches like only he can.

Stage 5: Acceptance: Ironman. The acceptance doesn't mean an end to the grief, but allows reflection. The future is changed, but for the superhero community it must go on.

The book collects together Captain America #25; and Fallen Son #1-5 (i.e. Fallen Son: Wolverine; Fallen Son: Avengers; Fallen Son: Captain America; Fallen Son: Spider-Man; Fallen Son: Iron Man).

Verdict:

Volume 43: Iron Man: Extremis (2005)

Iron Man: Extremis (2005)

Author: Warren Ellis  |  Illustrator: Adi Granov

"John Pillinger says the Iron Man suit is a military application. I told him he was wrong. I'm trying to decide if I was lying."

Extremis, perhaps more than any other individual Iron Man story, is responsible for the origin and aesthetic of the first Iron Man live action film. Warren Ellis is a good writer, he's not afraid to take bold chances with existing properties and it paid off this time, mostly.

It was a new start for the character, bringing him up to date while remaining faithful to the original team of Stan Lee, Larry Lieber, Don Heck and Jack Kirby. In approach, it's less superhero and more sci-fi thriller. Iron Man is a weapon, not a flying hero in metallic tights.

In an abandoned slaughterhouse a test subject is injected with a secret serum; it transforms him into something more than human. Iron Man is called in by an old friend to fix the situation but he's carrying around more baggage than just a heavy suit of armour.

It places Tony temporarily out of the convoluted continuity of the extended Marvel universe and focuses on the man; it humanises him, exposes his flaws and shows that being a high-profile millionaire isn't always just necking champagne and bedding bunny girls. When it works it's fantastic, and he still finds time to have the obligatory fight scene with people lifting cars over their heads, etc.

The real star, however, is Adi Granov's amazing art. He sketches in pencil and colours with watercolour, inks, gouache, etc. He takes that into Photoshop and renders there. It's a mix of the traditional and the new (like the story) and the result is emotionally-charged and dramatically staged panels that often tell a story without the need for words. It needs to be seen to be understood properly. It's a slow process, it took him a year and a half to complete the work, but the finished product is definitely worth the wait.

The book collects together Iron Man (Vol.4) #1-6.

Verdict:

Volume 01: Iron Man: Demon in a Bottle

Iron Man: Demon in a Bottle

Authors: David Michelinie / Bob Layton  |  Illustrators: John Romita, Jr. / Carmine Infantino

"I'd grown up in a small town that'd grown up into a big city. They called it 'progress'. I called it a shame."

If you read the books in their final numbered order, as opposed to the strange order they were released to shops and subscribers, then the collection kicks off with a 'Bronze Age' Iron Man tale exploring Tony Stark's alcoholism. Damn billionaire first world problems, eh, Stark?

Lightly incorporating real-world problems into fictional settings had proved beneficial to the stories of other Marvel heroes, but it was time to take it to another level. That goal was achieved with Iron Man.

It helped the man who could buy an island if he chose to seem a little more relatable. All it required of the reader was a putting aside of external trappings and a focus on the underlying fragility of the man beneath the impenetrable suit. In short, an understanding that the suit protects Tony from harm but in no way protects Tony from Tony.

Before it can get to the heart of the topic, however, it has to satisfy the story-telling devices and expectations of the era, which it does in exaggerated comic-book style with action that's fast-paced and at the upper end of the 'super heroics' scale (i.e. ridiculous but fun).

The spoken dialogue and thought bubbles are standard stuff for the most part, but Michelinie and Layton occasionally put more effort into what's placed in the text boxes; at times they're like something you'd expect to find in a novel, not a mass market off-the-shelf comic from 1979, which was the year it was first published.

The chapter from which the collection takes its name doesn't appear until the end, but, in hindsight, much of what happens prior to it is affected by the root cause, i.e. the 'demon' of the title, and even allows for both it and the 'bottle' to be interpreted in different ways.

The book collects together Invincible Iron Man #120-128.

Verdict: