International Iron Man #2

International Iron Man, Issue #2 begins in 1996, where that timeline left off in Issue #1.  Tony Stark has been shot, and he is recuperating in the palatial Spain mansion of the Gillespie family.  Tony's adopted father, Howard Stark, is a rival of the Gillespies, and Tony and Cassandra Gillespie are dating.  Howard Stark seems to put a stop to this, but you know... true love.  Superheroes, supervillains,  Weapons dealers.  H.Y.D.R.A.  The second half of the comic is a battle between Stark and Cassandra's forces, where Issue #1 left off.

I like the layout of the comic, with long, thin panels at the top of most of the two-page spreads.  It's a really nice action adventure on top of being a love story that might turn out to be a "honey pot."  Howard Stark suggests this, and the next issue is titled "Honey Pot."  This of course refers to the classic spy maneuver where a pretty girl tempts a high-value target.  The most famous example of this is Mordechai Vanunu, an employee at a nuclear facility in Israel.  He took a camera to work one day and leaked the photos to the British press in 1986.  The news was out: Israel has the Bomb.  Of course now we know that Israel developed its nuclear capabilities in the 1960s or earlier and greatly expanded them in the 1970s with the help of the Nixon Administration, Britain, and Norway, among other parties.  Vanunu was sequestered in England until he met a girl.  The girl turned out to be a Mossad agent, and she helped kidnap Vanunu and bring him back to Israel, where he served over 20 years in prison.

There is also the side story of Tony Stark trying to find out who his real father is.  I think that story will drive further issues, as a simple romance/honey pot mixed with a battle can't last forever.  Written by Brian Michael Bendis with art by Alex Maleev, this is just an all-around great title.  It really shows that Marvel has come a long way in the past five or 10 years, embracing more modern stories which have been featured in the likes of independent publishers, like Image, IDW, BOOM! Studios, and Dynamite.