World Famous Comics: Iron Man Vol. 2: Execute Program
Iron Man Vol. 2: Execute Program
By: Daniel Knauf, Charlie Knauf Publisher: Marvel Comics Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: Marvel Comics Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 144 Publication Date: February 21, 2007 Reading Level: Young Adult
Product Description: Carnivale's Daniel Knauf and Cable & Deadpool's Patrick Zircher take the armored Avenger in an unexpected new direction! Having exposed himself to the Extremis enhancile, Tony Stark is a new man - literally! But that's what has his New Avengers allies worried! And who is the mysterious figure working his way down a list of politically sensitive targets? Collects Iron Man #7-12.
A Zucchini In the Closet I picked up this volume hoping for a continuation of the themes and tone established by the superb Iron Man: Extremis. Unfortunately, Execute Program does nothing quite so well as make you appreciate the subtle ways in which Warren Ellis made Extremis a satisfying whole.
Extremis features, among many other things, a mystery done right: you are slipped the necessary clues early on, so that when the characters puzzle out the solution, you think, "Oh! Of course!" and feel slightly dumb for not having figured it out yourself.
Execute Program, on the other hand, features what an acquaintance of mine called "Zucchini In The Closet" syndrome: near the end, someone throws open a door and exclaims, "Wait! There's a zucchini in the closet! This explains EVERYTHING!" We, the readers, are left to wonder why we should care about characters affected by a plot development we could not, indeed were intended not to, see coming.
I finished this book feeling not only that I'd misspent my time and my money, but that I'd managed to cheapen the memory of Extremis in the process. (Re-reading the latter a few times, and pretending that Execute Program never happened, has helped to largely wash that nasty aftertaste away.)
A Collector's Review This Book is spectacular, I highly recommend this book as an essential evolution of the Iron Man character. The Art work inked in this comic book series is better and superior to the artwork in Iron Man: Extremis, which I also purchased; but I like this book much better because it is inked in an enhanced traditional comic book fashion that is colorful, bright, dramatic, intriguing, exciting, entertaining, and action-packed.
Iron Man gets bad... in more ways than one! Following Warren Ellis' run on the six-part "Extremis" story is a tall order... I was pleasantly surprised, though at the job done by scripters Charlie and Daniel Knauf, who deliver an intelligent, exciting extension of the concepts Ellis put forth. Here is a concerted effort to make Tony Stark the baddest of the bad in the Marvel universe: he crosses swords with Nick Fury, carelessly throttles Captain America in a brief, distracted fit of pique and creates a line of remote-control robo-Iron Men that keep the Fantastic Four and various and sundry Avengers scrambling to keep up. I'm not sure I'm totally in favor of making ol' Shellhead the #1 big dog in town, but this was certainly an entertaining, engaging story arc. A fun read, definitely worth picking up! (ReadThatAgain book reviews)
Failure to Execute This collection of Iron Man #7-12 builds nicely for the first five issues, thanks to intrigue, pacing, and characterization courtesy of television writers Charlie and Daniel Knauf. When the final issue (#12) begins, though, the story devolves into a generic action-packed mess that doesn't follow the logic set up in the first five issues. Perhaps it had to be cut short for #13's Civil War tie-in?
Interesting but LAME ending I was a huge fan of Ellis' prequel to this volume - he has a voice that is unmatched in intensity, perfectly suited to a new, hardcore Iron Man. This follow-on wasn't bad, decent enough mystery going on, and it had a few interesting things to contribute to the Extremis concept.
However, all that went out the window with the inexplicable climax and last-page ending. I won't give it away, but suffice it to say that it didn't feel to me like it logically flowed from anything we'd seen up to that point. Instead, it felt more like the author realized he only had a few pages to wrap up the broad storyline he'd created - and the last scene was a pure bolt-on, just serving to provide a bridge to the Civil Wars storyline (though I don't buy that Stark would've come to such an arresting conclusion out of the blue).
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