Editor's Note: Invincible Iron Man #4 arrives in stores tomorrow, August 6.

"Neutron Bomb Heart"

I'm sure that we all knew it was coming, but the small explosion of all things Iron Man is being scaled back by at least one, with the imminent rebranding of the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. title, leaving Invincible as the central Iron Man book. The fact that industry pop-star Matt Fraction was handed this book tells us that Marvel has long-term plans that don't involve alien invasions or heroes beating on each other. So, now that we know that Iron Man is, essentially, Fraction's baby for the foreseeable future, let's have at the fourth chapter of "The Five Nightmares."

The overall nightmare, apart from technology designed for ostensibly noble purposes being perverted into weapons of mass destruction in the hands of madmen, concerns the integration of man and machine. This was Iron Man's original purpose, after all, what with the shrapnel encroaching upon Tony's irreparable heart. We've since seen Extremis and some of what techno-organic symbioses can mean. Invincible began with the cartoonishly evil Ezekial Stane, permanently honked off at Stark for his role in the death of Stane's arguably even more cartoonishly evil father, Obadiah, and Ezekiel's "repurposing" of Stark technology to include personal implants making him a walking weapon.

The theme is continued here in the person of Stark's (now real-life Hollywood famous) executive assistant, Pepper Potts, who sustained grievous injury after Stane blew up one of Stark's office towers. When I say "Stane blew up", I mean that literally, though he's designed himself to survive his own shenanigans. To save her, Tony incorporated bleeding edge technology into Pepper. Now that she's up and around, Pepper has some issues with her boss, mosly of the "I refuse to accept my life based on technology designed to kill people." It's a tough position to refute as the parts that went into Iron Man that orginally saved Stark were derived from his weapons business. There's more to it than that, however, as Tony explains, with fascinating results.

Zeke Stane, meanwhile, has used up his stash of black-market Stark-tech in upgrading himself, leaving him short to outfit his Bizarro-United Nations of would-be human bombs. Being a really bright guy, Stark is a half-step ahead of his current nemesis and sets a honeytrap using, of all people, the father of that cute, little redhead from New Avengers #7 (the guy who collects superhero, and villain, objects). Stark makes his deal and the game is on. Why he's dragging Paris Hilton around is a little beyond me - that's more of an Ultimate Tony thing, or was - but we'll let it pass for now.

Deputy Director Hill, meanwhile, has some choice words for her boss, which Stark tolerates up to a point. Maria insists that he release his miracle cure for Pepper for utilisation by the military, going to some length to explain the benefit for battlefield troops. Like Pepper, she's assuming that Tony employed Iron Man technology, and he's content to allow her to continue to believe it, while explaining for what is probably the gazillionth time that the IM designs are "private and proprietary," and by no means ready to be shared with the larger world. He doesn't use Stane's recent insanity as an example but, then, he shouldn't have to. Maria probably just needed to vent and Tony, being the Ultimate boss, knew it.

Stane eventually gets his hands on the Model 01 grey boilerplate piece that's spent the issue making the rounds between "collectors," and a stealth tracking system lights up in four different cities. Essentially, the four pillars of Stark Industries which, if brought down, would take the company with it. Stane's not just after Tony but his entire world.

Despite some heavy concepts, the story comes off on the light side. There's still enough happening in the right ways to warrant a slightly above-average rating, abetted by what is probably some lovely work by Salvador Larroca (I'm inferring this based upon the layouts and design, as the PDF transfer of the preview was equal parts murky and blurry). Little details like Stark's opening virtual conversation with Reed Richards as they play a half dozen chess games simultaneously also help to up the ante - Tony leaves Reed in check across every board, if you're wondering. The details behind Tony's acquisition of a Coca-Cola multinational analogue is also very clever.

Anyway, as I said, there is deeper meaning to be had, but the motif is so light, and the narrative so... bright, the story seems fleeting. A light breeze flitting through a serious conversation. Not necessarily a welcome breeze, but a mildly pleasant one that makes one wonder if we aren't really in the eye of the hurricane.

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