Invincible Iron Man #9: The White Queen and Iron King

Whenever a character unrelated to an ongoing comics’ event gets swept up into the shenanigans of a crossover, there’s a fear that their title will lose a bit of its own voice. In the case of The Invincible Iron Man and its ever-deepening ties to the Fall of X, Gerry Duggan and Juan Frigeri have walked a tightrope of balance with the expertise of a master trapeze artist. As this issue fully cements Tony Stark’s own fall as a critical part of the X-Men’s latest genocide event, it’s a pleasure to see just how well the team continues to keep Tony’s story his without making his inclusion in Krakoa’s desertion superfluous.

This issue picks up right where the last left off and pushes the plot needle forward intensely. After the last issue’s climactic battle with Feilong, this one sees a lot of small-scale development that eventually kick-starts the book’s next major arc, that being the establishment of Tony Stark as the Black King of Hellfire. At a plot level, this issue is more story progression, but with a focus on giving a good reason as to why Tony and Emma would be more than just allies in the political sense, but in a personal one as well. With every passing issue, they become a more charming pair of characters. Whether or not their relationship will become a friendship or one of romantic intent, they are incredibly compelling when written together.

The best of their dynamic shines in this issue, mostly because both of them are there to support one another as they attempt to build themselves back up. With Rhodey’s situation only worsening, Tony’s rock-bottom similarly parallels Emma’s, who herself has a well-written moment of vulnerability in this issue. All of this character-driven goodness in their growing arc together is only elevated more by the moments of visual pacing Frigeri utilizes that help to show, and not just tell the audience everything they should know about these two.

Duggan is putting in the work to keep this book Tony’s, but is simultaneously driving forward the Fall of X with a character-driven focus in such a natural way it’s absolutely mind-boggling. There’s some expert-level comics’ writing occurring at a technical level in this book that I cannot gush about more. Frigeri’s art is as great as ever, but he really brings out the necessary elements of both atmosphere and emotion needed to elevate this intricately plotted story into something completely engrossing.