Captain America/Iron Man #5 Review
Captain America/Iron Man #5 concludes the min-series with a desperate battle to stop Overseer AND stop the Paladins from killing Fifty-One to cover up their mistakes. It’s going to be a wild ride!
Was It Good?
Ok, maybe not that wild but definitely odd.
Captain America/Iron Man #5 marks the end of this experimental run from Derek Landy, and as per usual, we’ll take a look a the issue and the run as a whole now that it’s finished.
The issue is… fine for what it is and for the story Landy is telling. In it we see Iron Man save Fifty-One from being killed by the Paladins, the Paladins beaten and arrested for their crimes, and Overseer defeated (more on this point later). It all wraps up with a neat little bow.
The action is very good. Unzueta choreographed fun, energetic action in this issue as Cap and Tony both take on an endless supply of Myrmidon robots under Overseer’s control. The action sequence where Tony saves Fifty-One is a nail-biter. And, Rosenberg’s colors are darn near superb. This is a visually excellent issue.
The pacing is a bit up and down. First Cap and Veronica are in a non-stop battle to fight wave after wave of robots, but then Cap takes a considerable amount of time to lecture Veronica about the value of personal responsibility. Tony and Cap race to stop Overseer but express little urgency when Overseer turns into something else and seemingly gets away. It feels like a rush of fits and starts.
The conclusion for the series and the issue works well enough but it is a bit anti-climactic. Fifty-One merges and takes Overseer to stop its plan for world domination, evolving into something new. The Paladins are apprehended without much effort or sense of satisfaction considering all the harm they’ve done. And, Veronica is arrested but escapes (again). In short, the main conflict is resolved but there are enough open threads for future stories.
Looking at the series as a whole, it’s a mixed bag.
For the positives, the action is great. The art is excellent. The character banter between Cap and Tony was consistently and surprisingly amusing. If you’re looking for a comic just to have Cap and Tony smash things, you got your money’s worth here.
For the negatives, the plan involving the Paladins, the Senator, the Overseer, and Veronica Eden was a convoluted and unnecessarily complicated mess. There’s a fine line between a complex plan and a convoluted plan, and this series crossed that line on issue #2.
The second, possibly the most serious, negative is the character of Veronica Eden. Despite her comments and explanations, her motivations and goals were never quite clear, or at least clear enough to form an opinion about.
She wants to kill all heroes so that average people can step up to be heroes. Heroes can’t be trusted with superpowers or advanced tech so she uses high-tech armor and super-advanced AI to further her agenda. She’s in a fight for her life and could be killed or arrested at any moment and she constantly makes sarcastic glib comments to sound cute.
Veronica Eden is a walking contradiction, and it’s exceedingly difficult to relate to what she’s all about (would-be hero, anti-hero, villain) when her comments, personality, and motivations are constantly contradicting each other. Again, there’s a fine line between a complex character and a confusing character, and Landy crossed that line way back in issue #1.
Bits and Pieces
Captain America/Iron Man #5 ends the mini-series somewhat neatly with great art, great action, and a complete ending that leaves the door open for more. That said, the great art and action are put up against a convoluted plan and confusing characters for a generally mixed arc.
"
