This month’s issue of The Invincible Iron Man is the second installment of Marvel’s new Legacy imprint and a continuation of The Search For Tony Stark. The issue picks up right where the last issue left us as Riri Williams, Tony Stark’s mother Amanda Armstrong, and Mary Jane Watson have just discovered Tony Stark is missing. Once again the comic follows the same format of a split story, one following Riri and one following Victor von Doom.

*WARNING SPOILERS AHEAD*

The issue starts of with Riri sending Doom the message that they need his help to find Tony. And from here is where the issue seems to lose itself in the various plots. Just after discovering Tony is gone Riri is told by the mutant Hijack, he has been contracted by the Stark Industries board of directors to confiscate her suit and escort her and her compatriots off the premises. Naturally this doesn’t go over well and Ironheart jumps in to stop Hijack.

The scene then jumps to Doom, where we find he is still working on tracking down the escaped prisoners from Ryker’s Island. It seems he has found one of the escaped super villains, Chemistro, when it’s revealed that it was a trap and Doom finds himself ambushed by all of the escaped criminals who have joined together to get revenge on their captor.

Shortly after, we jump back to find Riri is taking heavy damage from Hijack until she is able to get out of range from his attacks. From here Amanda and Mary Jane handle Hijack on the ground so that they can finally get back to finding Tony.

Yet again we jump back to Doom who is getting beaten back and forth by the villains, who may have finished him off were he not able to escape with some quick thinking and a unibeam blast. The group of criminals then decide that they aren’t done with Doom yet and agree that their next course of action is to find him, destroy him, and steal his fortune.

Lastly we cut to Amanda and Mary Jane walking in on a board meeting which was in the process of voting on Tony Stark’s replacement. None to happy to see these people steal Tony’s company out from under him Amanda takes it upon herself to break it up the only way she knows how, by attacking the leading board member with an electric guitar. Acting as she put it, “a still-kind-of-famous old lady rock star who used to be an Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.” After she chases the board out of the room Amanda breaks down over the thought of her son out there in danger. Where we cut to the missing Tony Stark lying in his suit of armor, exactly where he was at the end of last month’s issue.

Ultimately, I feel this issue of The Invincible Iron Man was much weaker than the previous. In terms of story it didn’t feel like there was any progression as we jumped back and forth between Riri and Doom too often. The comic is seemingly confirming my fears that it will be unable to fully work through the three plots of Riri facing the board, Doom tracking down his escaped criminals, and most importantly The Search For Tony Stark. The one element of this issue I did find enjoyable was once again the combination of Caselli and Maleev’s differing art styles between each scene jump. Hopefully, next month’s issue is able to progress the story a little more because sadly this one did not.

Rating: 6.5 Latverian dictators out of 10

–  Jacob Campbell