A Friend In Need, Indeed: Reviewing ‘Astonishing Iceman’ #3

Orchis’ plans have turned mutant against mutant as the hounds are loose and two amazing friends stand in their way. That’s right, get the web shooters ready because the astonishing and the friendly neighborhood meet once more.

It’s a Marvel team-up in Astonishing Iceman #4 as Steve Orlando, Vincenzo Carratù, Javier Tartaglia, Chris Sotomayor, and Travis Lanham bring the series one step closer to its conclusion.

Where to even begin?

One of the things that has stood out about this title is the number of guest stars and deep cuts. Now, I’m a fan of connectivity in the shared universe, as far too often the ‘shared’ part seems to get forgotten. Unfortunately, there is a such thing as too much. With a few exceptions, Orlando’s work for Marvel since he joined the publisher has been heavily filled with the aforementioned cameos, guest stars, and deep-cut characters and concepts.

Part of the problem here, and with many of the Fall Of X titles, is trying to run in twenty directions at once. These minis are only five issues long and they are all trying to do their own thing, while also trying (some better than others) to tie into the overall plotline. Orchis managed to outsmart the entire Krakoan society and decimate them, yet the overall threat feels pretty minimal in the books. They feel as routine as any other villain group that got the one up on the hero, sure to crumble soon.

One would be hard-pressed to feel that an attempted genocide is in progress with all the swashbuckling, heroics, horniness, and more across the line right now. Charles Xavier is depressed and an outcast on Krakoa, Arakko is besieged by civil war and thousands are trapped/lost in the White Room. But hey, at least Iceman and others are getting to be heroic and engage in their love lives.

I do appreciate the use of the hounds here to tie things to Uncanny Spider-Man’s latest issue. Not much is stated here to really give any information on them (it’s just assumed one is reading both books), but it is a nice, shared thread.

To be fair, by the end, one of the legitimate threats does hit close to home for Bobby. It feels a bit too late in some respects, but it was also building to this. I get the idea of this being a heroic Bobby book but most of the issues are just easy empty-calorie heroics, as the more dire threat to everyone feels sort of low-key background.

Almost every single one of the Fall Of X minis has had to call in entirely new artists to get things moving by the third or fourth issue. Many of these artists have done monthly issues lately so it begs the question, how rushed were things behind the scenes that backup had to be called in. This series happens to be one of the few where that isn’t the case, outside of Sotomayor chipping in to color three pages.

All those cameos and heroic sequences are fun to look at, because of how Carratù approaches things. Plenty of depth and detail work with a style that has a natural energy befitting the heavy action of this issue. Things move so smoothly, living in that space where they are grounded but also whimsical/fantastical feeling at the same time. This works since there is essentially not a single quiet still moment in this issue outside of like two pages of Spidey/Iceman chatting. Just non-stop action beats that are framed to maximize their movement.

All the colors are very natural feeling. By that I mean most of the tones are very realistic in their levels, creating spaces that feel genuine. Having the background and other elements hitting those beats allows the more vibrant colors of the superheroes, villains, etc to pop even more. There are very little differences in the palettes that Tartaglia and Sotomayor are using, keeping a unified feeling between the two sets of pages.

Speaking of something natural, Lanham does such a good job of creating a natural voice for the series. Using sentence case is something I’m quite a fan of because it easily creates that normal tone of voice. Throwing in other elements that change the font (size, type, etc.) then easily allows the reader to know when volume/tone changes. Lettering is just such a fun bit of art to consider because of what it can do to really make stories work at the end of the day.

Just giving us dialogue and captions is one thing, but it must go beyond that. Letting characters voices take over and surge through those letters makes the whole reading experience better. Those exclamations, SFX, deep character discussions and more.

Astonishing Iceman #4 is now available from Marvel Comics.