Infamous Iron Man #11-12

Infamous Iron Man #11 (2017)
by Brian Michael Bendis & Alex Maleev

Will the series manage to stick to landing with its finale? Well it’s a Bendis book, so I’m not exactly confident.

We begin with Sharon Carter, the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. this week, summoning Doctor Strange to deal with something unusual: Doctor Doom has locked himself inside a super-secure vault.

Doom is just sitting there for some peace and quiet, apparently.

The artwork is really failing the story here. According to Doctor Strange (who must have dyed his hair), Doom is here because he’s scared of something… but he’s still drawn as the calmest person ever.

I usually find Bendis’s attempts at humor just the worst, but I did find Sharon’s comment here funny.
Assuming this IS Sharon Carter, because she didn’t look like this in the previous pages OR in the previous issues… why can’t ANYONE in this book have a consistent look???

In the meditation session, a bit of Doom’s old polemical streak gets through his new persona.

Little known fact, Doctor Strange’s doctorate is in psychology.

Doom has easily deduced that the “Reed Richards” he saw talking to his mother isn’t the real one.

Speaking of “Reed”, this is when he shows up.

He’s as obnoxious as you can be when you’re being written by Bendis.

You just suck at pretending to be someone else, you HAVE to know right?

Well yes, he knows, but that doesn’t make it any less stupid once we learn his identity.
Not that it’s particularly hard when he starts throwing fire around.

I can’t believe this issue is written by the same Bendis who wrote the very solid first half of the series, because here he proves he doesn’t understand Doctor Doom AT ALL.
If there’s ONE thing that’s always been consistent with him, it’s always been his total adoration of his mother to an unhealthy degree! He would NEVER call her crazy like this!!!

He even comes THIS close to threatening to murder his mother (!!!) until he has an epiphany.

We close with the revelation that “Reed” has actually been Mephisto all this time.
Which means that, according to Bendis, THE FREAKING DEVIL cannot lie decently.

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Infamous Iron Man #12 (2017)
by Brian Michael Bendis & Alex Maleev

We’ve had several great covers in a row, so a bad one was bound to show up for the final issue.

We could concentrate on an awesome magic battle between Doom, Strange and Mephisto…

But instead we get FOUR PAGES of Mephisto monologuing.
FOUR.
WHOLE.
PAGES.

Which is already bad on its own, but this rendition of Mephisto is just obnoxious.

It also doesn’t tell us much about Mephisto’s plan. He’s after Doom as revenge for defeating him in the past, but that’s not particularly new.

The one bit I like, out of that insufferable monologue, is Mephisto pointing out that nobody but Strange is showing up to help Doom because EVERYONE has had enough of Doom.

However, Mephisto’s plan ultimately sucks any level of potential complexity from the rest of the series. Not only Doom’s mother is just a magical construct, but Mephisto turned into “Reed” for BASICALLY NO REASON except embarrass Doom.

Doom, I can’t fault you for not reading those FOUR PAGES of an inane monologue, but I can’t believe YOU missed that it wasn’t your mother! Didn’t you figure it out last issue???

Unless Doom is asking what “Reed” has been doing to “his mother”, in which case…

…yeah the Devil should have known better than make crass jokes about Doom’s mother.

In another context, seeing Doom having to say goodbye to his mother one more time would have been a great moment. But having removed ANY level of emotional weight from the story makes this feel flat, despite the artwork for once helping the scene.

Was Strange really useful in figuring out Mephisto was behind it? Or in the fight, considering Doom seems to have dealt the final blow?

Sharon Carter has led S.H.I.E.L.D. several times, mostly doing a good job.
When she’s written by Bendis though, she lets Doctor Doom go free because he offered to fight Hydra. Something that S.H.I.E.L.D. does all the time.

Surely THE THING won’t stand for this, right?

Well he WOULD clobber Doom, but Victor teleports him to Amsterdam instead.

Just like he did with Maria Hill, Bendis also writes Sharon as so incompetent as not being aware of what Doctor Doom can do.

I did like this exchange, though. I’m sure Strange gets it all the time.

We get two brief epilogues. One when the supervillains Doom arrested vow revenge…

…and one where Doctor Perera finds out she’s pregnant.

Presumably with Doom’s child, but when exactly did they sleep together???

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Doom significance: 2/10
I don’t think that Mephisto’s plan really shakes Doom as much as this comic makes us believe. More baffingly, while the pregnancy plot will be addressed… it won’t amount to anything.

Silver Age-ness: 2/10
Doom being allowed to just leave.

Does it stand the test of time? 3/10
Ugh, this what I get for getting my hopes up in a Bendis series because he COMPLETELY fumbled the entire storyline about Doom’s mother.
A bunch of subplots were raised and forgotten… what about Doom’s vision of Sorcerer Supreme Stark, for one? Doom’s role as the new Iron Man isn’t even over, but we end this series to continue another? Then what was even the point of giving Doom this series?
As if that wasn’t bad enough already, these two issues in particular SUCK. The only redeeming quality is the banter between Doom and Strange, although this time Doom’s voice feels off when compared to the previous issues.
Mephisto is just atrocious here. It’s one thing for him to be incredibly petty, of course, but he’s just ridiculously incompetent. Not to mention unsufferable.
Doom will continue his redemption arc on another Iron Man series, where Bendis doesn’t even use him as well as he did in the first half of THIS series.