This March, peel back the layers of Colonel James Rhodes in IRON PATRIOT #1 – the all-new series from critically acclaimed writer Ales Kot and fan-favorite artist Garry Brown! Who is the man in the armor? What drives him? James Rhodes may have quit the Secret Avengers, but that’s not going to stop him from bringing the fight to the bad guys from inside the Iron Patriot armor! But his heroism will come with a steep price…
The Good
Family– I enjoyed the moments between James, his father and his niece.
Black Hero– James Rhodes is back in the saddle but this time as the Iron Patriot.
New Mission– James is no longer on kill missions but is now a symbol of American peace. That’s cool I guess.
Opening- The best part of the entire issue was the foreshadowing that James Rhodes will have a close to death situation involving an enemy in a power suit. It set a dark and somber mood in the first few pages.
The Bad
Cover- Not feeling it on any level, if my supplier hadn’t suggested I try this book the cover alone would have sent me to the hills and away from this issue.
Art- Biggest problem has to be how young James Rhodes appeared throughout the issue. I don’t get this recent trend at marvel. First it was New Warriors 2014 and now Iron Patriot.
Boring– While the opening was great everything else was just plain dull and lifeless on every possible level.
The Ugly
I was eager to read this issue since its release had received no fan fare whatsoever and I was curious why. Having read the entire thing I must say it’s terribly dull on every possible level. Will I stick around? Hard to tell at this point, if things don’t pick up in the next four or five issues and in a major way I won’t be sticking around. This issue gets 2/5 stars
The cover was cool and original–until I saw the motif used again on a recent issue of Batwing (by motif, I mean the layering of superhero outfit with “the man”). But yes, the WHOLE issue lack coherency and development. NOT a good start for a hero that is a part of The Avengers movie franchise. This could have been a fantastic start, but wasn’t!