What Is Techno Again?

That’s right, I said ridonkulous.

I just received another free book from LibraryThing.com’s Early Reviewer’s program, and this one’s courtesy of Random House.

The Age of Conglomerates: A Novel of the Future by Thomas Nevins (by the way, that’s not what my cover looks like, since it’s just an advanced copy and I guess that’s the way RH does it for their books—or it’s just too early yet) comes out August 19 of this year, so yay for me! That’s much earlier than The Crystal Skull, which by the time I received it had already been released in stores.

Anyway, it’s $11.20 on Amazon.com. Here’s the synopsis …

Now that they are in power, there are no more checks and balances. The Conglomerates, and their mysterious party chairman, have taken over everything and everyone. There is no one left to stop them.

Forty years in the future, in a world where Big Brother runs amok, a powerful political party known as the Conglomerates has emerged, vowing to enforce economic martial law at any cost. Dr. Christine Salter, director of genetic development at a New York medical center, is in charge of “genetic contouring,” the much-in-demand science of producing the ideal child. But Christine is increasingly troubled by odd events, including the strange disappearance of Gabriel Cruz, a co-worker for whom she has a developing affection, and the fact that her latest assignment–making the Conglomerate chairman more youthful through genetic engineering–is an especially dangerous task.

As mandated by the Family Relief Act, Christine’s grandparents are relocated to a government-designed community in the American Southwest, along with other Coots (the official term given to the elderly), who are considered an economic and social burden to family and society. But even in this cold, cruel age, the Conglomerates can only control so much.

In his enthralling debut, Thomas Nevins thrillingly chronicles a brave new world where one family struggles to survive by keeping alive feelings of mercy, loyalty, and love.

Jeez, I better start reading with all these books piling up.

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All right, I’ve never actually reviewed a comic book before. On Free Comic Book Day this year I picked up a newer comic, Iron Man: Legacy of Doom #1, and it occurred to me, hey, why not give a review a shot? After all, I do movies and books … so why not add a comic book to the mix for fun? Well, here we go.

COVER BY: RON LIM
WRITER: DAVID MICHELINIE
PENCILS: RON LIM
INKS: BOB LAYTON
COLORED BY: WILLIAM BAUMANN
LETTERED BY: DAVE LANPHEAR

SUMMARY:
“‘A Knight in Hell’ Dr. Doom returns to menace Iron Man in the chilling and long-awaited conclusion of The Camelot Trilogy! Mephisto has apparently found a way to bring about The End Of Days and Tony Stark and Victor Von Doom must form an uneasy alliance to try and stop him. But all may not be as it seems. And it takes a journey to Hell itself before the shocking truth is revealed! Iron Man legends David Michelinie and Bob Layton are joined by penciler supreme Ron Lim to bring you the first part of an epic literally decades in the making!”

This issue hit stores on April 16 and is the first installment in a four-part series so far featuring Iron Man, Victor Von Doom, and Mephisto. Anyway, let’s start with the art (by penciler Ron Lim and inker Bob Layton)—which is gorgeous, as you can see from the awesome cover by Ron Lim. The coloring by William Baumann works very nicely, clashing Tony Stark’s red and yellow suit with Dr. Doom’s green and silver one; there are other color elements that mesh well in this comic, like the dazzling dark blue of outer space and the orange and yellow fires of hell.

The first page of the comic, which shows Tony melting down an old suit, gives a nice foreshadowing for the later panels in Mephisto’s underworld-ish dimension. There are a lot of flashbacks in this comic, which kind of slows down the plot a bit. It begins when Tony catches something on a data chip, a record for all of his activities in the Iron Man armor, that triggers something suppressed in his memory: a confrontation with Victor Von Doom he apparently had when he thought he was on vacation (meaning sans the superhero action). The initial flashback however, which leads into Tony’s memory with Doom that takes over the comic, did a nice job of setting up the old Camelot story, so even if you haven’t read it you can get enough of the bare essentials to understand the current storyline.

Simply, it was fun just seeing these two characters together, but there were some minor (and yes, they’re minor) issues I had with a few things. A hologram of Doom, “the most dangerous man on earth,” appears before Iron Man in space, where he’s repairing a faulty satellite for Stark International, and tells him to meet him at his castle in Latveria, as “millions of lives hang in the balance.” Of course Tony recognizes that this is probably a trap (which it is), and that he can’t take the risk, but you’d think he would be a little more careful about charging in. To Iron Man’s annoyance he finds out a “war” is going on, which is, as Doom explains, merely an attempt to try to prevent him from a “return to power.” The plot is set back while Iron Man gets them out of the way so that Doom doesn’t radiate their asses; he and Doom move on with business.

Okay, so Tony does take some precautions after Doom tells him they must travel to Mephisto’s realm, but he doesn’t even ask any questions like, “Hey, what exactly is going on with those millions of lives, again?” In fact, that’s not even addressed when the two meet up besides Doom mentioning something about “the End of Days.” Could that be any more obscure? If I were Iron Man, I would have asked for a little more information than that, but instead, he just takes it on faith. After all, can’t roll the dice on those millions of lives.

Anyway, Iron Man and Victor Von Doom transport themselves to Mephisto’s realm, which resembles “Dante’s Inferno envisioned by M.C. Escher, an industrialized madness of heat and liquid steel.” In the end, Doom bails and Iron Man is, well, doomed to spend eternity in hell under Mephisto’s wrath.

The storyline is promising, not to mention Iron Man being stuck in hell and needing to find a way out is one shitty predicament that might be interesting to explore. All in all, it’s a decent comic, and those minor plot holes and issues … you can let them slide. They’re more minor annoyances than anything blatantly significant, and the story is still enjoyable. It’s nothing jaw-dropping or magnificent, but then again this is only part one of four. Things could really heat up (pun intended). It’ll be neat to see where this goes, and if you’re an old fan who’s craving that Iron Man/Dr. Doom nostalgia, I recommend picking up a copy if you haven’t already.

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