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The Invincible Iron Man (1998) #1-7

Iron Man: Deadly Solutions

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Back from the dead (again!), Tony Stark's rebuilding his corporation from the ground up - but enemies old and new remind him his work is never done! With romance, rivalry, and robots to keep him busy, can Iron Man still help Avengers teammate Warbird in her match against Stark's own worst enemy...the one in a bottle? Guest-starring the Black Widow and James Rhodes, a.k.a. War Machine!

Collecting: Iron Man 1-7

192 pages, Hardcover

First published May 12, 2010

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About the author

Kurt Busiek

1,859 books627 followers
Kurt Busiek is an American comic book writer notable for his work on the Marvels limited series, his own title Astro City, and his four-year run on Avengers.

Busiek did not read comics as a youngster, as his parents disapproved of them. He began to read them regularly around the age of 14, when he picked up a copy of Daredevil #120. This was the first part of a continuity-heavy four-part story arc; Busiek was drawn to the copious history and cross-connections with other series. Throughout high school and college, he and future writer Scott McCloud practiced making comics. During this time, Busiek also had many letters published in comic book letter columns, and originated the theory that the Phoenix was a separate being who had impersonated Jean Grey, and that therefore Grey had not died—a premise which made its way from freelancer to freelancer, and which was eventually used in the comics.

During the last semester of his senior year, Busiek submitted some sample scripts to editor Dick Giordano at DC Comics. None of them sold, but they did get him invitations to pitch other material to DC editors, which led to his first professional work, a back-up story in Green Lantern #162 (Mar. 1983).

Busiek has worked on a number of different titles in his career, including Arrowsmith, The Avengers, Icon, Iron Man, The Liberty Project, Ninjak, The Power Company, Red Tornado, Shockrockets, Superman: Secret Identity, Thunderbolts, Untold Tales of Spider-Man, JLA, and the award-winning Marvels and the Homage Comics title Kurt Busiek's Astro City.

In 1997, Busiek began a stint as writer of Avengers alongside artist George Pérez. Pérez departed from the series in 2000, but Busiek continued as writer for two more years, collaborating with artists Alan Davis, Kieron Dwyer and others. Busiek's tenure culminated with the "Kang Dynasty" storyline. In 2003, Busiek re-teamed with Perez to create the JLA/Avengers limited series.

In 2003, Busiek began a new Conan series for Dark Horse Comics, which he wrote for four years.

In December 2005 Busiek signed a two-year exclusive contract with DC Comics. During DC's Infinite Crisis event, he teamed with Geoff Johns on a "One Year Later" eight-part story arc (called Up, Up and Away) that encompassed both Superman titles. In addition, he began writing the DC title Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis from issues 40-49. Busiek was the writer of Superman for two years, before followed by James Robinson starting from Superman #677. Busiek wrote a 52-issue weekly DC miniseries called Trinity, starring Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman. Each issue (except for issue #1) featured a 12-page main story by Busiek, with art by Mark Bagley, and a ten-page backup story co-written by Busiek and Fabian Nicieza, with art from various artists, including Tom Derenick, Mike Norton and Scott McDaniel.

Busiek's work has won him numerous awards in the comics industry, including the Harvey Award for Best Writer in 1998 and the Eisner Award for Best Writer in 1999. In 1994, with Marvels, he won Best Finite Series/Limited Series Eisner Award and the Best Continuing or Limited Series Harvey Award; as well as the Harvey Award for Best Single Issue or Story (for Marvels #4) in 1995. In 1996, with Astro City, Busiek won both the Eisner and Harvey awards for Best New Series. He won the Best Single Issue/Single Story Eisner three years in a row from 1996–1998, as well as in 2004. Busiek won the Best Continuing Series Eisner Award in 1997–1998, as well as the Best Serialized Story award in 1998. In addition, Astro City was awarded the 1996 Best Single Issue or Story Harvey Award, and the 1998 Harvey Award for Best Continuing or Limited Series.

Busiek was given the 1998 and 1999 Comics Buyer's Guide Awards for Favorite Writer, with additional nominations in 1997 and every year from 2000 to 2004. He has also received numerous Squiddy Awards, having been selected as favorite writer four years in a row from 1995 to 1998,

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5 stars
23 (19%)
4 stars
37 (31%)
3 stars
42 (35%)
2 stars
15 (12%)
1 star
2 (1%)
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
Profile Image for Nicolo.
3,487 reviews205 followers
August 2, 2024
I see this book and I'm reminded of a scenario of what if Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross made this their follow up collaboration to their award winning Marvels.

It never happened, Busiek still scripted an Iron Man series and Sean Chen did a fine job on the art.

However, it could have happened. Busiek and Ross submitted a proposal and character designs. This version of the armor was based on the Ross design. That book would have been awesome.
Profile Image for Scott.
2,261 reviews268 followers
March 20, 2021
"I swear, Iron Man - You'll pay for treating me like this! You'll pay!" - the villainous Firebrand

"Yeah, yeah, yeah - Will you take a Platinum AMEX card?" - Tony 'Iron Man' Stark

I fell victim to a little bit of bait-and-switch here -- despite its listed 2010 publication date, these five connected stories are actually from the late 90's run of the series with the 'invincible' superhero. Also, the cover art is misleading - the slinky Black Widow turns in a nice supporting appearance, but it is only in a single chapter late in the volume, although it is arguably the best segment. (I'll also take an educated guess that the release of the cinematic hit Iron Man 2 in 2010, which featured the on-screen debut of Black Widow, was fully meant to coincide with the release of this book.) That said, this was a relatively undistinguished but evenly-paced collection that didn't skimp on the required bombastic and explosive action scenes. Oh, and a sly cameo appearance - though a dated reference these days - of detectives Sipowicz and Simone from the TV series NYPD Blue didn't hurt, either.
Profile Image for Clarissa.
422 reviews19 followers
February 10, 2017
Okay, I really liked this run!

This is the Tony Stark we need in our lives and the one that the MCU failed to give us. Don't get me wrong, I freaking love RDJ, but I adore how much insight we get into Tony's personality here. He's as charming as always but we can actually see him be clever both on and off the battlefield.

Seeing him get to team up with Nat was awesome! There was more interaction here in one issue than in 4 MCU films where they basically didn't speak for 2 of them. Plus Carol! I love the two of them together!

The only downfall to this volume is that there's no resolution at the end of issue #7 but, since I'm reading them as issues on marvel unlimited, I don't care haha!
Profile Image for Jonathan  Terrington.
596 reviews606 followers
July 26, 2013

Artwork: 8/10
Story: 8/10
Character exploration: 9/10
General feeling: 8/10
Why am I doing this: 7/10
Am I just rating things randomly: 10/10
Iron Man is really cool: 10/10
As in really cool: 10/10
Yeah this is just a gimmick: 10/10
I should stop soon: 7/10
Just once more: 8/10
Iron Man: 10/10


So, now to take a step back from the silliness. And then a step forward again. It's a part of who I am and I have no regrets when it comes to writing a more rambling, thought centred review of graphic novels. Part of my sudden 'fit' of humour may come from the fact that it's well past midnight and I've been working hard all day.

What can I say? I know I'll regret having written such a pointless review later. But with a graphic novel like this all I can say is I enjoyed it and I felt it focused a lot on the character of Iron Man as he should be shown. In fact the main reason I'm writing anything here at all is to keep up the habit of writing a review and to go through the process of properly completing a book. That people actually read these reviews is something altogether different and great. I'm thankful that people do. And if you are reading this then I recommend you work out if you like Iron Man or not because this book has a lot of Iron Man and Tony Stark. "Really?" You say, "gee, I was hoping for Captain America with that title." But yes, there is a lot of the armoured hero and a lot of different episodes, each with a classic Iron Man flavour to them.

This was, as you might say, my 'deadly solution' to working out how to write something brief and semi-humorous disguised as a review. The point is that Iron Man enthusiasts should like this. Unless something like Iron Man worrying about being cooked by a villain but not getting cooked flying into lava worries you. Aside from that, it's a solid Iron Man story, I've just tried my graphic novels in the wrong order with reading Iron Man: Extremis first.
Profile Image for J.
1,561 reviews37 followers
April 17, 2015
Pretty solid, traditional comic book starring Iron Man after the Heroes Reborn saga. This volume deals with Tony Stark getting settled back into his life, the new turns he takes with his business career, and kicking the ass out of some bad guys.

The Black Widow co-stars in one storyline, and Warbird, aka Carol Danvers, aka Ms Marvel, aka Binary, also guests when Iron Man decides to visit her and find out what is going on with her over in the Avengers title. Carol is shown to be very messed up, emotionally and psychologically, of course. Since the same writer here was writing Avengers, there is some good continuity between the titles dealing with the Avengers screwing her over some 18 years or so earlier.

Good, solid art by Sean Chen and Patrick Zircher.

This isn't the Marvel comic you'd buy today. Each issue takes more than five minutes to read! heh. Seriously, it's full of exposition and dialogue recaps and most importantly, each story arc is just one or two issues each. So this volume is a bargain at around 3 or 4 stories out of the seven issues collected.

3.5/5
Profile Image for Tom.
299 reviews15 followers
January 2, 2016
So I have to send up a pretty big disclaimer on this rating/review: I may be the the least qualified person around to be commenting on this or any other graphic novel. My daughter gave me this book as a gift after learning that I was something of a Marvel Comics nerd back when I was in high school -- in the 1970s! I'm sure she gave it to me to re-kindle a bit of nostalgia and I'd have to say that it worked. I really did enjoy reading this book and discussing it with her. I do have to confess though, that it was rather confusing for me personally. The story arc assumes quite a bit of prior knowledge about the characters and events, both presented and referenced. And that's expected for this medium, but it turns out that a number of things about the Iron Man/Tony Stark story have apparently been a bit...re-invented in more recent incarnations than what I remember. Well fair enough. That has been a heck of a long time. Unfortunately though, that leaves me kind of clueless about saying whether or not this story was well written. But as I say, I did enjoy it and absolutely have to say that it is brilliantly presented. Amazing artwork! Couldn't have imagined that kind of art (or at least that good of reproduction) back in the old days.
Profile Image for Chelsea 🏳️‍🌈.
2,045 reviews6 followers
November 29, 2016
Busiek's run of Iron Man is the best run of Iron Man. This is no exception. I love Nat and Tony is my son. Seeing them team up was a dream come true for me. Really made me sad the films didn't try to bring this relationship to life.

Totally recommend this!
Profile Image for Devero.
5,025 reviews
March 4, 2017
Dopo Heroes Return parte col botto la serie dedicata ad Iron-Man, con una run di Busiek davvero eccellente. La storia mi prese parecchio all'epoca la trovo invecchiata molto bene dopo quasi un ventennio, con il Tony Stark che piace a me, cinico ma non troppo, attento ai suoi interessi ma soprattutto a quelli più grandi.
Unica pecca i disegni di Sean Chen, buoni. Potevano essere eccellenti anche questi.
Profile Image for Matty Dub.
665 reviews8 followers
January 7, 2022
I have a hard time bringing myself to care about Iron Man to start with so getting these overly generic stories with lame throwaway villains a la silver age means it’s impossible for me to enjoy this book, good art though.
Profile Image for Xavier Guillaume.
318 reviews56 followers
May 11, 2016
Iron Man: Deadly Solutions (Collecting Iron Man #1-7) is the first Iron Man I have ever read, and I'm pretty impressed. What I especially love about Iron Man's character is that he is incredibly intelligent on the battlefield. Iron Man, aka Tony Stark, is an engineer, and he uses his intellect whenever he is fighting his enemies. Stark is always calculating several steps ahead and anticipating his opponents much like a chess game. In fact, Stark reminds me a lot of Sherlock Holmes. They both use their incredible smarts to figure out what is going on and how best they can overcome an obstacle.

I also like the fact that even though Iron Man is indestructible, he is still just a regular man behind the suit. If Tony were to die, Iron Man would die. The problem with some comics is that you never get the sense of the superhero's mortality. Here we do, especially during the more action-intense moments.

Another key note I thought was interesting is Stark really loves women, he's a billionaire, but he's alone. Maybe Stark is just so busy running a multi-billion-dollar company and saving the world every other weekend, that he doesn't have time to settle down. That would make sense, but each moment that we catch Stark by himself, you can really tell he wants to be with someone.

The best part of this novel is Deadly Solutions is the perfect gateway to reading Iron Man while still being able to skip past the classics. 1) The comic catches you up on Iron Man's origin story. 2) The book isn't shy in filling you in on ancillary characters. 3) There are footnotes aplenty that reference specific issues if you want to read more about certain events.

One thing I forgot to mention is Stark reminds me a lot about Bruce Wayne, but Stark is not a detective, he is a consultant. What ends up happening is the two characters feel very similar, but they are different enough that you don't feel like you are reading the same comic.

All in all, I recommend Deadly Solutions for its action, characters, and story-arc. This being my first Iron Man novel, I wasn't sure what to expect. However, I can safely say I thoroughly enjoyed the novel, and I look forward to reading more. Iron Man: Deadly Solutions may not be the best novel, it certainly is not going to change your life, but it definitely entertains, and what more can you ask for?
Profile Image for The_Mad_Swede.
1,429 reviews
May 23, 2016
I have been a fan of Kurt Busiek for quite a while now, from Marvel with Alex Ross to Astro City with Ross and Brent Anderson, and much in-between; including his fine run on The Avengers. During that very same period, he also had a run on Iron Man (the third incarnation of the title) and this volume collects the first seven issues of that series.

Much like his Avengers work, Busiek shows his insight in to Marvel characters and a great respect for the superhero genre, which delivers quality stories. The only downside to this volume is that it ends without resolving the continued build-up of a major subplot, and so far Marvel has not seen fit to realise a second volume of this run; a flaw that will hopefully be remedied down the line (come on, already!).

Warmly recommended for fans of superheroes, Iron Man or Busiek.
Profile Image for Johanna.
19 reviews5 followers
September 7, 2012
I thought I'd like Iron Man, but I guess I don't. Despite the length of this volume and the amazing artwork (I love Sean Chen's work), the story lacked depth and I had to give up once Iron Man survived hot lava. I'm sorry, but no matter how advanced your cooling technology, lava trumps it. It's lava. Molten rock. You die just from being close to it. As affected by super hot attacks/explosions as Iron Man was throughout the earlier parts of this book, he should have been done in by the lava. The most interesting part of the story was Pepper and Happy's side story which was smartly mixed in with the action to help engage the reader on multiple levels. Kudos to Busiek also, for allowing the hero to realize the destructive and lasting consequences of the big battle scenes he was a part of.
Profile Image for Shannon Appelcline.
Author 30 books168 followers
August 13, 2016
Heroes Reborn (1-6). A nice new start for Iron Man. I like the creation of Stark Solutions (though Stark forming a new company seems to have become obligatory in years since). I also appreciate the inclusion of Pepper in the supporting cast. Finally, the stories are exciting: I was impressed that Busiek even made a two-issue slugfest with Firebrand exciting [7/10].

Live Kree or Die (7). This arc starts off strongly in Iron Man, primarily because of the great interactions between Tony and Carol [7/10]. (The rest of the arc isn't as good, but isn't reprinted in this volume either.)
Profile Image for Ashley.
593 reviews41 followers
August 26, 2012
This was slightly better than the BW compilation I picked up, I think because it contained more issues and a more complete storyline, but it still ended unresolved, with the storyline continuing into some Captain America issues. (Although at least there was a "what happened next" summary page at the end. Saved me the trouble of going to Wikipedia.) It seems to me, though, that if you're going to collect a number of comics into one hardbound book, you'd put together all of the ones necessary for a complete storyline.
Profile Image for Fugo Feedback.
5,088 reviews172 followers
June 30, 2012
Lo arranqué a leer en revistitas de Forum y me gustaba, pero lo terminé colgando, y recién lo terminé cuando salió el tomote de
De Bolsillo pude leerme todos los números que componen este tomo y más. Mi reseña, en el link ese del bolsillo de ahí arriba.
Profile Image for Angela.
2,595 reviews71 followers
November 8, 2015
Iron Man is back from the dead and has to change with the times. Stark's company has been sold while he was dead, and he has to decide which way his life should go. This is a good series of short stories, with Stark going up against various bad guys and teaming up with Black Widow. I like the idea of him having a consulting company. A good read.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews

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