Today’s Comic> Iron Man & His Awesome Friends [Free Comic Book Day]

I can’t wait for the Disney Junior take on War Machine. I’m not getting that, am I?

Free Comic Book Day 2025: Iron Man & His Awesome Friends/Spidey & His Amazing Friends

Marvel Worldwide, Inc (June, 2025)

ASSISTANT EDITOR: Farah Javen

EDITORS: Lauren Bisom, Nick Lowe, & Tom Groneman

Iron Man & His Awesome Friends: “Enter The Iron Pup”

WRITER: James EAson-Garcia

ARTIST: Alberto Alburquerque

CO-INKERS: Roberto Poggi & Craig Yeung

COLORIST: Rachelle Rosenberg

LETTERER: Travis Lanham

Spidey & His Amazing Friends: “Looking For Clues!” & “Popcorn Problem”

WRITER: Steve Behling

LAYOUTS: Giovanni Rigano & Antonello Dalena

INKERS: Cristina Giorgilli & Cristina Stella

COLORISTS: Dario Calabria & Lucio De Giuseppe

A preview for the upcoming Disney Junior take on Iron Man and the current take on Spider-Man. On the Iron side of things, a puppy gets into the Iron Friends Iron Quarters (or IQ for short–get it?). As Tony Stark, Riri Williams, and Amadeus Cho try to track her down, Ultron steaks into the base to steal their Arc Reactor Battery. Iron Man, Ironheart, and Iron Hulk need some back-up so Tony turns his prototype robot security robot into armor for their new puppy friend, naming her Gamma, and the four defeat Ultron and retrieve the battery.

What they got right: A version of Riri that might be likable? Or at least you don’t want to shove into the core of an arc reactor. This is a version of Iron Man for elementary school kids at most, and on that level it seems okay. Tony is smart, Riri is listed as the heart of the team (so we’re not even trying to get her character right–for once a GOOD thing), and I do like the armor designs they went with. I’m guess this Tony doesn’t have a bad heart kept going by a pacemaker. Ultron wanting to take over the city tracks. The comic also doesn’t insult the younger readers because it’s a full and solid story, making it a good comic for the target age group rather and doesn’t feel like it’s insulting the kids in the telling.

What they got wrong: I see Rhodey is not being mistreated by every part of the Marvel Entertainment network. They killed him in the comics after turning him into a cyborg, make him a Skrull the whole time and retconned even his good Marvel Cinematic Universe moment, and here he’s replaced with Amadeus Cho wearing an armor version of his “Totally Awesome Hulk” form. I guess that’s for the racial diversity since Riri hits the “black” quota. My biggest disappointment is that this isn’t a spin-off of Spidey & His Amazing Friends, more like a replication. Tony on Spidey’s show was an adult, maybe in his twenties. This Tony is a kid like Riri and Amadeus and the de-aged spider kids and everyone else who isn’t Aunt May. That means it’s not the same Tony Stark, meaning the chance for crossovers is limited to probably not going to happen. I would have rather seen Tony and his proteges rather than just redoing the Spidey show, which is already a ripoff of PJ Masks without the need to license the characters.

As for the Spidey side of the comic, which continues to be insulting to the young readers by treating them as unable to follow a decent story (the comic even started with an instruction guide on how to read comics–did you think Fredrick Wertham was going to read this?), we get two short adventures. In the first, Ghost Spider leads Spidey and Spin (what they call Miles Morales’s hero identity because calling them both “Spider-Man” would confuse the kids) on a hunt for clues that leads them to the beach where Ms. Marvel is helping her set up a beach day for Team Spidey. It shouldn’t have to tell you what a “clue” is since they never try to define it in the show. The second story Ant Man and Wasp visit Webquarters for movie night, but someone forgot to get more popcorn, leaving one kernel. Since they only have two pages, it’s easily solved by Ant Man enlarging the kernel so there’s enough popcorn for everyone.

The show thinks the kids are smart and uses contractions, which the comic does neither. The stories are short and feature no crimefighting, unlike the show where bad guys steal, cause chaos, or other bad deeds. The Iron Friends got to fight a bad guy. Team Spidey goofed around a bit. Weak!

What I think overall: Yes, I know I’m not the target age group, but the Spidey stories are weak compared to the show it’s based on, while it would have been nice for the Iron Man show to be a proper spin-off, confusing kids seeing one Iron Man on Spidey and a totally different take on Tony on Iron Man, or seeing a different Tony between the last season and this one if they alter him. It’s basically the same show with two different trios having the same formula rather than having the two shows stand out and crossover, using all the Disney Junior-ised Marvel characters. This could have been better and the show is better than the Spidey comics at least, but the Iron Man one was written by someone who knows how to make comics for the age group. For me it’s a mixed bag of what could have been, but maybe kids will deal with it easier than I am. I just see the wasted potential. At least this Riri doesn’t suck. Yet.