Iron Man Run Part 6

We pick up again with Tales of Suspense #84. Tony Stark is set to tell all to a Senate committee, when we are suddenly reminded of what makes him different from other heroes; that he's secretly an invalid. After he collapses during his opening remarks:



Note again the layered characterization of Senator Byrd. He may at times be an antagonist in the plot, but he's not a villain. Overall I find him a much more nuanced and sophisticated version of J. Jonah Jameson.

Anyway, they open Stark's shirt and discover his metal chestplate (although, conveniently for the plot it's not the distinctive yellow and red armor of Iron Man). Still some reporters make the obvious connection and in the hospital later, Tony denies that he's Iron Man. He was all set to admit it, but after his heart attack he's changed his mind.

Pepper once again is all lovey-dovey:



Happy, having recovered from his amnesia, now remembers that Tony Stark is secretly Iron Man. When he learns that the media are reporting the rumors to that effect, he tries on one of Tony's Iron Man costumes to quell the talk. Although he performs somewhat ineptly, he is successful enough to fool the Mandarin, who transports him to China.

Tony must go after him, but after checking himself out of the hospital, we see him creating stronger armor. And we see that he appreciates Senator Byrd's trust in him:



I like the characterization there a lot. Iron Man then rides a rocket to China, and interrupts the Mandarin just as he is about to execute Happy. Iron Man and the Mandarin battle it out, and in the end, a missile that the latter had sent towards the USA is diverted by Iron Man to return to the Mandarin's castle, destroying it and with it the villain as well. Fortunately Happy has already been saved.

In Tales of Suspense #87, Iron Man faces one of Marvel's more ubiquitous villains of the 1960s, the Mole Man. Stark is working on a new earth-boring machine, but when several buildings disappear into the ground spontaneously, the public begins to mutter that perhaps he is behind it. But when his factory is sucked hundreds of fathoms underground, Iron Man discovers who's really responsible. Unfortunately Pepper was in the factory as well, which means that she's ready for hostage duty.

The Mole Man plans to use the earth-borer to launch the invasion of the surface world he's long planned (since FF #1, actually). But he doesn't realize that the machine has not yet been fully tested, and it explodes as Iron Man jets with Pepper out of the subterranean area.

Comments: A good set of stories with strong characterization; what's not to like? Well, for starters, the battle with the Mandarin only lasts a few pages. And there's still the annoyance of realizing that Pepper's returned affection for Tony Stark was never explained. But aside from those problems, this is another solid run of stories.

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Mails of Suspense

Just for the heck of it, I thought I'd take a quick look at the letters columns in Tales of Suspense #s 70-79 to see if there are any interesting patterns I can discern. There were 47 letters in all, so that's a little under five per issue.

1. Only one writer had more than one letter published in TOS in those issues: Kenny Chance of Brooklyn who had letters in TOS #75 and #76.

2. Maybe it should be called Males of Suspense? Only one of the letters was written by a female. Linda Crowe of Greenwood, Indiana, wrote in to complain about the apparent death of Happy Hogan in TOS #70.

3. The letters were all terse; I don't recall any of them being longer than about 5-6 sentences and never two paragraphs. Partly this may have been because TOS only had a one-page letter column, but also Stan obviously had his hands full with so many scripts to pop out in a month and around this time was begging his fans to keep their letters to under a page in length. A little while afterward he even tried publishing the letters without any editorial reply, although this proved so unpopular that he returned to commenting a few months later.

4. The states that had the most letter writers were New York (9), Illinois (6) and New Jersey (4). Five letters were mailed from outside the USA; three from Canada and one each from Puerto Rico and Trinidad. Actually I guess Puerto Rico is still part of the US, but it's not a state.

5. The first names were very much "white bread": Lots of Joes and Bobs and Dons and Williams. The ethnic flavor was more in the last names: Khan, Della Fiore, Zimmerman, Iacopelli, Ahokas, Martinez, etc. It was an era where people tried to blend in, rather than emphasize their heritage, and I actually disliked my name of Patrick back them because it was so uncommon. (According to Social Security, fewer than one boy out of every 200 born in the US in 1955 was given that name).

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Iron Man Run Part 4

I'll pick back up with Tales of Suspense #72, which is a one-off story featuring the Mad Thinker (a whiz at predicting the future) and his giant android. Senator Byrd is demanding that Stark reveal Shellhead's true identity, because Iron Man's armor is valuable to the government as a weapon.

This gives the Countess, whose advances Stark spurned, an idea of how to get back at him. She approaches the Mad Thinker, who agrees to solve the riddle of Iron Man's true identity. His android kidnaps Stark, who only gets away because the Thinker mistakenly opens Tony's briefcase:



Thus allowing Tony to switch into Iron Man's uniform and defeat the android.

The next issue returns to the subplot of Happy's near-death at the hands of the Crimson Dynamo in #71. Happy's been kidnapped from the hospital, and the only clue is a hoofprint on the windowsill (three stories up). Iron Man naturally comes to the conclusion that the Black Knight must be to blame (especially since he kidnapped Happy in an earlier story as well). He tracks the BK down and defeats him. BTW, here's a classic Stan Lee cliche`:



I only intended for you to die, not me! Incidentally, this issue introduces a longtime artist on the feature, Adam Austin. Say what? Adam Austin? I assume that Gene Colan was using a pseudonym for some reason because you can see this is his work:



I'll see if there's an explanation in the Bullpen Bulletins in the next few months, but it's so obviously Colan's style that I don't have any hesitation making the call. Update: Here is the announcement from the Bullpen Bulletin for TOS #78:



After calling for an ambulance for Happy, Iron Man collapses. He manages to contact Pepper, who drives to the Black Knight's castle and recharges him from the car battery. We see that at this point Pepper's in love with Iron Man (and despises Tony Stark). Poor Happy, he's always the backup!

Speaking of Happy, he's doomed if he doesn't undergo experimental treatment with Stark's Enervator Ray. Unfortunately, it's experimental:



When Iron Man gets to the hospital, he learns that Happy has indeed been changed into a freak, a mindless but powerful opponent. And unfortunately, IM didn't fully charge, so he's weak. He tries to lure the Freak back to Stark's plant, but runs out of power at the gate. The Freak continues on, searching for Pepper, who's in a meeting with Senator Byrd. Although the Senator has been portrayed as something of a weasel in the past, he shows courage here:



The Freak carries Pepper to the window, where he appears ready to jump. The police reason that if they shoot him, he might fall backward into the building, but he doesn't; instead he drops Pepper. Fortunately Iron Man has just enough charge left to save her with his repulser ray. He manages to convert Happy back into a normal human being, but his buddy has suffered the convenient memory loss that afflicted almost anybody in the Silver Age who learned the secret identity of a hero.

Senator Byrd demands that Stark come back to Washington with him immediately. But as they are being driven towards the capital, the Mandarin teleports Stark into his castle. This infuriates the senator who orders Stark's plants shut down. Meanwhile, the Mandarin is showing Stark his latest evil genius creation, a giant android called Ultimo who shoots laser beams from his eyes. But Stark angers the Mandarin, who blasts him from his sight, assuming he has killed Tony. Due to his chest plate, he survives and is able to recover his briefcase and change into Iron Man. He manages to defeat Ultimo by conning the android into shooting at a critical place, unleashing the force of a volcano.

But when he returns to the US, Tony's got nowhere to turn to with his factories closed and a warrant out for his arrest. Which seems like a good breaking point.

Comments: By this point, Iron Man was hitting on all cylinders. Lots of subplots, lots of interesting characterization, excellent villains and oh, that Colan artwork! If the series has a significant negative, it's that Stan falls back a little too often on the "undercharged transistors" excuse. This is very similar to the "Odin reduces Thor's powers as punishment" theme that was common in Journey into Mystery at the time. Having created these incredibly powered superheroes, Stan found it tough to put them into serious danger.

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