I think I have been too easy on the artwork in this book, and I guess I can attribute that to the fact that I enjoy reading it so much I don’t stop to look for things that might bother me. Another part of it is that last issue many of the pages featured Tony in uniform, and these scenes are usually drawn and colored wonderfully. The same can not be said about this issue which has barely any panels of Iron-Man in action. Like many, I have problems with some of the faces Larroca draws, but I feel like that situation has progressed over these first four issues. In fact, his pencils on this issue are really solid although still not entirely consistent. My only complaint is with how young he made Reed Richards look; if Reed looks that young Johnny Storm must look like a toddler. Well then what is the problem that I’ve been glancing over? The coloring. To bring up just one example, why do characters particularly Tony sometimes seem to look like Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer? I suppose it is an attempt at hyper-realism but it just doesn’t work in these panels and many others. As I said the pencil work is getting better, but for the artwork as a whole to really shine the coloring needs to find its groove.

On to the story. Not too much to stay here, Fraction moves the story along nicely although slowly while staying true to the themes about Tony’s fears that he has built up. Not bad by any stretch although easily the weakest of the four issues so far, but to be fair there is usually at least one slower one in six issue arcs.