This is a huge volume including five nightmares and most wanted which I have already read. ( )

I honestly feel like screaming because I don't have volume two already on hand and this big ol' book ends on such a great cliffhanger, it is killing me. God, I can see why so many people have this arc as their favorite for the series. Fraction writes Tony Stark perfectly. Volume two, I'm coming for you! ( )

Now that is an Omnibus. The Invincible Iron Man story. The Omnibus starts with a kid who has a grudge because he thinks Iron Man killed his father. Then it's Norman Osborn who's taken over S.H.I.E.L.D. (with TPTB's permission) and wants to destroy Stark and his company while also getting a hold of all the info in Stark's brain, and he even makes Stark a fugitive.

It's an exciting bunch of issues and extra awesome for one specific reason, there's a lot of Pepper Potts and that's never bad (and one of my favorite parts of the Iron Man comics).

The art is okay. Larocca isn't my favorite artist, but in this title his stuff isn't bad either, so... ( )

Excellent art and an interesting look at what happens when a hero loses everything.

I've never been a big fan of the character Iron Man/Tony Stark, but when I had the opportunity to buy this book for $15, I decided to give this a whirl. Altogether, I was impressed, although I'm still not a big fan of the character.

After the Iron Man movie was such a big hit, Marvel launched a new series that was more "movie-friendly." Pepper Potts plays a much larger role here than she usually does in the comics, and she is also apparently a love interest (although Tony sleeps with Maria Hill in this collection too, so I don't think he's converted to monogamy just yet). Jarvis is once again a program instead of an actual butler. And there are fewer guest stars and more focus on Tony Stark himself.

There are two story arcs collected here: the first being Five Nightmares, with Ezekiel Stane (in retaliation for his father's death, which occurred in both the comics and the movie) resorting to terrorism to try to devastate Stark. Then there's the bulk of the omnibus, the year-long Most Wanted storyline, which takes place during the Dark Reign event. Norman Osborn, the former "Green Goblin" and nemesis of Spider-Man, saves the world from the Skrull invasion (during Secret Invasion) that S.H.I.E.L.D. (with Tony Stark as the director) failed to thwart. Osborn is promoted, Stark is demoted, and now, in effect, the "bad guys" are running the country. Stark, knowing that Osborn will want to access the information that he's stored in his brain, decides to give himself, in effect, a lobotomy. Meanwhile, H.A.M.M.E.R. (the organization that takes S.H.I.E.L.D.'s place) is after Tony, Maria Hill, and Pepper Potts.

I'd read Fraction's Utopia trade before reading this, and I really wasn't impressed with it at all. But the writing here is solid, missing the silly captions that had littered the Utopia trade's pages and poor attempts at humor. The Most Wanted storyline tends to drag a little bit, but I'm impressed that he wrote an arc for a year and managed to keep it interesting, which is a real rarity for comics these days. The art is great - I love Larroca's work - although the coloring is a little weird, especially in the first arc. I'm not sure if they switched colorists somewhere in-between (there are two colorists listed), but by the time the omnibus is through, the weird air-brushed look has calmed down quite a bit.

The omnibus also leaves on a nice cliffhanger, although the information is more for the comic book geek (or at least someone familiar with the old-school Avengers) than the casual reader (Doctor Donald Blake, mentioned in the end, is Thor's alter ego). But, still, this is a very good book selling at a decent price, and I'd recommend it to anyone who is an Iron Man fan - or even someone who isn't. ( )