Marvel Heroes (UK Magazine) #3 (Story 2)

Background

Now we're into the second half of this magazine. There's four pages of posters, including a nice centerfold poster of Marvel Villains. Then it's Iron Man story time!

Story 'War with Monster Isle!'

Tony Stark and his posse are in Japan at the bequest of Professor Takiguchi. Stark's team are all driving Ferraris, which is good. But they are also bickering with each other, which is bad... because Japan is INVADED BY MONSTERS! All of the cars shift, fold and combine to make A GIANT IRON MAN TRANSFORMING ROBOT! The Iron Man Mecha fights the monsters... and SUPER TERROR ROBOT RED RONIN X!

Takiguchi's sidekick uses the OVERRIDE CONTROL to take control from Stark, then uses his ROBOT KUNG FU to defeat SUPER TERROR ROBOT RED RONIN X! Japan is SAVED FOREVER from the threat of GIANT MONSTER ATTACK! The heroes head out for an evening of SUSHI, SAKE and KAREOKE! All except for Stark's assistant Happy, who nobody likes. He has to stay and clean the cars.

General Comments

Seriously... WHAT THE FRUITCAKE?! Is this ironic? There is no context for this story scripted by Al Ewing. Is this supposed to be a piss-take, or is this for real. Are we supposed to laugh at the stupidity of this kind of story, and smirk at the formulaic pastiche and shallow Japanese stereotypes? Or are we supposed to actually enjoy it for what it is. Which isn't a lot.

Overall Rating

I just can't tell if this is a really, really stupid story... or if it's so clever and subtle that it just comes across as a really, really stupid story. In either case - it fails. One web.

Footnote

The rest of the magazine wraps up with a two-page data file on some Marvel Monster villains like Fin Fang Foom, Gigantus, Droom, etc. There's also a 2-page X-Men puzzle spread, a cut-out Thing mask ripped out of Spider-Man & Friends (UK Magazine), and a couple of pages of letters and fan art.