There’s a Yo La Tengo song called Some Kinda Fatigue. These are some of the lyrics (cut and pasted from some site):

I know it’s out there
One good reason
But I haven’t found it yet
I’m stepping away, stepping away from you
Some weird kinda fatigue
Someday I’ll find it,
One good reason
But I haven’t found it yet

I think that a number of people will be stepping away, stepping away from Iron Man: Director of Shield in the coming months. The book is not bad. Rather, it seems superfluous. Others have remarked on the hyper-centrality of Tony Stark in today’s Marvel Universe, and without a doubt, this is true. But with another Iron Man book that is only subtly different than this title, short Iron Man series, and incessant Marvel crossovers, how much Iron Man can we take?

Issue #32 is the culmination of a decent story arc involving a madman with nuclear weapons intertwined with a giant cybernetic weapon that sets off other weapons. There is nothing glaringly wrong with this issue, but, more importantly, there is nothing remotely exceptional. We have heard this stuff before, and we’ll hear it again. Yawn.

Perhaps this kinda fatigue isn’t so weird. It’s just fatigue. If this book is going to survive, something big is going to have to happen. The best thing might be for Tony to lose (or relinquish) the directorship of SHIELD, maybe to Nick Fury. I’d hate to see Tony turn drunk again, but is it possible for him to carry over his techno-injuries from Secret Invasion? This is crappy brainstorming, but it leads me to the conclusion that this book has lost its raison d’etre. And maybe that’s okay.