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Iron Patriot #4 – Review

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By: Ales Kot (story), Garry Brown (art), Jim Charalampidis (colors)

The Story: James doesn’t need back-up; he’s got family.

The Review: Despite our villain’s (he doesn’t have a name yet; Kot merely refers to him as “The Villain”) assertion last issue that he wasn’t going to explain why he was doing any of this, I pressed on anyway. As a reader, if not a citizen, I believe I have a right to know why someone would inflict a series of senseless acts of terrorism across my fictionalized country. Frankly speaking, he better have a pretty good reason, or it’s just a shallow excuse for a story, otherwise.

At this point, it’s still impossible to tell if he has any justification for what he’s doing. Probably not, really. At best, he offers a choice overstatement (“The world only responds to force.”) as well as a few cheap cracks (“You think the men you work for are your friends? They are politicians.”) in lieu of an actual explanation of his motivations. You have to say this for the man, though: he’s got personality, even if it’s more irritating than threatening.

Like many villains, he’s more inclined towards theatrics than intelligence, if the randomness of his many attacks and his insistence on livestreaming the impending murder of the former president* is anything to go by. But true to comic book form, that doesn’t stop his plan from working. In possibly the quickest flip-flop from a politician, fictional or otherwise, you’ve ever seen, one Congressman Meyer suddenly reverses course from his earlier support of James’ domestic initiative, declaring “if we want to win, we have to take the war to our enemies.” Repugnant his decision may be, but it’s also just nonsensical. Given that no one has any idea who these attackers are or where they come from—no one has even hypothesized that the attackers are foreign—using them as an excuse for military interventionism is a stretch, even by today’s standards of political logic.

Meyer’s press conference aside, nobody seems very alarmed by these attacks, which is all the more remarkable when you consider how widespread they’ve been. You’d think, if Kot’s intent is to drive the nation towards the brink of revolution, that more people would be talking about these events, but no one does. But maybe that’s a good thing; if the entire nation was actually thrown into a panic, then some other superhero would probably be obliged to get involved, especially since everyone seems to think James may be dead. And how awkward would that be if our hero was prevented from saving the day due to the well-intentioned assistance of, say, Captain America—that other patriotic hero—or Iron Man, who probably has an interest in not seeing his armors misused by villains.

If you can set aside these noticeable deficiencies in the plot, the chain of events isn’t half bad, especially where Lila and Terrence are concerned. Not content to leave James outclassed by his superheroic peers, Kot also seems keen on having James’ thunder stolen by his family as well. With Lila taking remote control of an Iron Patriot suit using a punked laptop in a coffee shop restroom, and Terrence slipping into that suit himself to save his son, watching James getting jerked around by a man who looks like a cross between Speed Racer and the White Power Ranger feels like an even bigger fail.

At times, I look at Brown’s art and I’m reminded of Jeff Lemire’s work. Not in terms of looks—Brown’s is a more pleasant, agreeable style by far—but in terms of how both have far greater vision than actual linework. More than half the time, Brown’s figures look quite decent, especially once Charalampidis gives everything a good coat of tension-seeking colors, but quite frequently, you’ll encounter some distinctly raggedy visuals.

Conclusion: It could’ve been a great issue if there was more integrity to its political spin, but when you’re not all that interested in the hero anyway, what does it matter? Dropped.

Grade: C

- Minhquan Nguyen

Some Musings: * I’ll say this for the ex-Prez: at least the man doesn’t cower in the face of assassination.

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Filed under: Marvel Comics, Reviews Tagged: Ales Kot, Garry Brown, Iron Patriot, Iron Patriot #4, Iron Patriot #4 review, James Rhodes, Jim Charalampidis, Marvel, Marvel Comics

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