This was the most personal Iron Man I've read from Fraction and Larocca in their run on Iron Man. The story is a tie in to the Fear Itself storyline but this is a smaller, more personal story about Tony Stark. After confronting something that terrifies him he doe his best to confront what he fears, which is himself. From their we see how a man with no faith finds faith in himself to confront what he cannot defeat. It's a very personal story for Tony who finds his only place to hide from his fear inside a wine bottle. From there we follow Tony as he does what he needs to do, be a Man of Iron. ( )

I'm always amazed when I think how they fit all of the content for one of these "marvel events" together with 30+ series all intertwined. I've read about 80% of Fear Itself now, some of them were lame, but most did a great job at instilling anxiety. The chosen are just freaking scary, I mean the Hulk as your enemy is already bad, but then add some glyphs and a bad ass magical hammer and I'm reading the comic with a blanket pulled over my head.

The Hulk actually wasn't in this one, instead we're faced with biblical-level catastrophe. The population of an entire city, Paris, turned to stone and often being broken into pieces. To a post Hiroshima culture, that has to be terrifying, right? It's pretty deep anyway, and the way they had it effect Tony Stark was spot on in my opinion.

One thing to remember is that there's a big build up here, but the final action "already" happened in the main series (last issue). To feel completely satisfied I had to go look at the comic I had read a year ago. I gave up on reading these in order a long time ago. ( )

This is the Invincible Iron Man part of the Fear Itself universe spanning story line. It's the 3rd TPB of the story line that I've read and like the Avengers and Red Hulk volumes there was something frenetic about it, not to mention that the story jumped around quite a bit in all three.

It's the standard sort of Iron Man story. He has to battle his own demons as well as the demons/monsters attacking him, and this time he's making his weapons on Asgard.

Pepper Potts is in the story, but I didn't really love how they used her. And then there's Paris. I've never been there, but did one of the writers/editors have a grudge against the City of Light and its people? Yikes.

I didn't love the art at all though. I've seen so many artists draw Tony Stark and the rest of the characters so much better. ( )

I have had a lot of trouble liking Iron Man after the events of Civil War. Steve Rogers may have forgiven him, but I'm less compassionate! The stories here, which tie directly into the Fear Itself crossover, show how hard Tony has it these days.

The main event book, and a few of the tie-ins, mentions the tragedy in Paris but Iron Man actually sees it up close and personal. I think this tie-in is essential mainly because it shows just how horrific Fear Itself is. Like superhero movies, comics rarely "show" high death tolls. Sure, a hero dies here or there (and gets resurrected, natch) but civilians die off-screen. That's not the case here. The Grey Gargoyle has been transformed into a Worthy with the power of Medusa - and the entire population of Paris has been turned to stone. And while Iron Man battles Gargoyle, he is constantly thinking about the collateral damage. These aren't just statues that he's crashing into..

The book also includes an expanded POV for Tony during the main event, when he goes to Asgard to make godly weapons for his colleagues to fight the Serpent's forces. He finds himself drinking with the dwarves and hitting rock bottom, which gives him the freedom to tell Odin off to his face! I'm not sure how these stories rate within Iron man's own series, but as a tie-in I thought they were very good.

Overall, this is one of the better tie-ins for expanding on the event, with emotionally charged stories. Highly recommended. ( )