Avengers Knauf & Knauf's Invincible Iron Man

[ourchair]

Okay, I just finished reading "Execute Program", the initial six-part arc of Daniel and Charlie Knauf's run on Invincible Iron Man.

I'm kind of half-half on it at the moment, though I imagine I'd appreciate it or hate it better once I've given it a second read. Anyway, I started picking up the series mainly because of my renewed interest in the Iron Man character prior to Civil War.

For me, the two Knaufs are far from being the shot in the arm that Waid was for Fantastic Four back in 2002, but with the recent post-Civil War status quo, I'm wondering if the two writers will pick up steam once I get around to purchasing #s 13 onwards.

Now, I'm wondering what everybody thinks of this run so far, from "Execute Program" and beyond.

(I've not read anything but the solicits that indicate that Tony is the new director of SHIELD, and the marketing suggestion that someone else is underneath the Iron Man armor)

 

[Gideon Stargrave]

Meh. The Iron Man character has never interested me...therefore this does not interest me. I'll stop posting in this thread now.

 

[ourchair]

Meh. The Iron Man character has never interested me...therefore this does not interest me. I'll stop posting in this thread now.

File that under "useless thread contributions".

 

[MoS]

So far it's been pretty standard superhero fare, without the extra spark I expected from having watched (the first season of) Carnivale.

It also seems to suffer badly from a syndrome I've recently decided to call Hudlin Syndrome - in his own book, Tony is kinder, gentler, meaner when he has to be, smarter, more handsome, wealthier, wiser, stronger, faster, etc etc etc than any other character and it gets... tedious how perfect and yet misunderstood Tony is. In his own book he has no faults, which does not AT ALL square with any other books.

It doesn't help that Knaufs started writing their stories before Civil War and even before Ellis/Granov's much-delayed "relaunch" of Iron Man. The title's only even remotely caught up with Civil War in the last two issues, and much-needed Stark perspective just wasn't there when it should have been. That's not Knaufs' fault, but it makes it a strange read. The death pf Happy Hogan, a "mercy killing" of the comatose man by Stark, hasn't had the major effect you'd think, having been pushed aside for Civil War.

For sheer Iron Man fun, I'm enjoying Warren's Iron Man: Hypervelocity. Totally out of continuity (even though I've seen Quesada and Brevoort say it IS in continuity, it's just NOT).

 

[Issued]

We've been talking about this serie on Invincible Iron Man thread.
Iron Man #13 and #14 are Civil War tie-ins, and they are probably the coolest Civil War tie-ins of the whole event, I would give both of them 5/5.

#13 is about how tony's inner circle is affected by the war, and tony's recent actions. There is a lot of good dialogue in this one and tony's confrontations with Sue Richards , "Pepper" and himself are pretty cool.

#14 is about a secret meeting between Cap and Tony (no not the one in the one-shot) going bad and a nice fight between some "secret avengers" and Tony, this one reveals a few more cool stuff about the "Iron Man after Extremis"

#15 is even cooler, if you haven't read it yet, you should.

 

[ourchair]

We've been talking about this serie on Invincible Iron Man thread.

I know.

I'm not starting a 'discussion/spoilers' thread here. Having not read past Execute Program, I'm not looking to venture into spoiler territory, or discuss the universe ramifications/character implications of current story developments.

I'm not asking about any of that.

I'm asking what people think of the current team's work --- what their strengths and weaknesses are --- and whether any of that would sustain my interest in continuing the book after my initially lukewarm impression from "Execute Program". Which is what MoS addressed, btw.

I know --- some of you really enjoy it and think its awesome, and that's great --- but if the first arc hasn't sold me on the Knaufs would there be anything about their current work that would convince me otherwise?

 

[Joe Kalicki]

Honestly, unless you're interested in reading about the fallout of Civil War and Tony's place in the new world order, then no, I wouldn't recommend it. I don't think they're particularly strong writers in the comic book medium (heard good things about Carnivale, though).

I haven't read Execute Program, so I can't speak on that, but nothing about the last three issues compels me to want to go back and pick it up.

And I didn't even like Extremis, so I'm not comparing it to that in any way.

 

[ourchair]

Honestly, unless you're interested in reading about the fallout of Civil War and Tony's place in the new world order, then no, I wouldn't recommend it.

I'm honestly interested in Tony's place in the New World Order. Unfortunately, I'm currently too prejudiced against the current state of writing at 616 Marvel to trust it to be any good... and was hoping to be proven wrong by someone who would argue in favor of this book.

I kind of wish that if they really wanted to reposition and revitalize the Iron Man character in the comics in time for the movie that they'd do it in some kind of capacity that doesn't involve a frenzy of inter-book politicking and making a him into a schizophrenic who can't decide whether he's a good-hearted fascist or an incompetent world-changer. But that's neither here nor there.

I don't think they're particularly strong writers in the comic book medium (heard good things about Carnivale, though).

I finished the first season of Carnivale of DVD. It's quite clever, but I didn't like it and think it's overrated for reasons that aren't really relevant to this thread.

 

[Issued]

@ourchair

sorry for the wrong impression I gave, I understood your intention, and I think there were some nice comments about the series on that topic, to give you a hint

to summarize, Execute Program isn't a must-have. It ain't a strong storyline, and it's nowhere close to the civil war tie-ins