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He's no Bob Layton, either.

I've been saying for years that Busiek is a pompous, arrogant jerk. Apparently his true colors are finally becoming all too obvious for others to ignore. It's about time.

WOW.


See, I KNOW what a "pompous, arrogant jerk" BOB LAYTON is!!! So that's a REAL put-down.


: )


(Actually, I don't know what Layton's like these days... I knew him from when he was doign his 1ST run on IRON MAN. My comics-shop guy at the time said, "Bob's changed. He didn't used to be like this!" Success went to his head. of course, that was a long time ago... so long it scares me to think how fast the years are flying by.)

But unlike Busiek, Layton had the talent to back up his arrogance.

YES. It didn't excuse the arrogance, but at least there was something there...


It's like how I like to refer to Jim Steranko as "one of the ONLY conceited people I've ever met who DESERVES to be." (The other is guitarist Dick Dale.)

Still doesn't make them any more likeable.

So once again, I’ve circled back around to my Iron Man rereading project to try to catch-up.

Iron man #55 – at last I’ve read one of the more famous Iron Man issues, which is the case because it is really an early part of Jim Starlin’s magnificent run of cosmic stories at Marvel in the 70’s, introducing characters and concepts that will be applied to both Captain Marvel and Warlock. What is noticeable right away is that the issue really reads like it should be from the Drax the Destroyer series, considering how much more play he gets than Iron Man. But really, that is okay, because quite simply, this issue is beautiful beyond belief to look at, with each page simply stunning.

Drax is a fully realized character here, with different layers and mysteries. Isaac and Titan are introduced (Starfax has an introductory cameo). And most of all, Thanos is introduced to the Marvel U in all his glory, and Starlin depicts him magnificently on the large panel he is shown, with Iron Man crouching below him. The grandiose nature of it all is akin to Kirby and perhaps the first post-Kirby Marvel artist to reach that level again. I also can’t help but notice that Thanos is introduced about 2 years after Darkseid and I wonder if there was an influence?

Really great issue. Any Starlin TPB should contain this story as the opener (I’d opt to skip the Madame McEvil story).

Iron man #56 – Steve Gerber, who had come on for scripting an issue earlier, joins Iron Man for a brief spot, as Starlin does one more issue (though it really looks like he only did some of the issue). Despite the talents of Gerber and Starlin, I found this issue, in which an old crazy person gains mystical abilities to bring to life a piece of art, to be really weak. It definitely is a ‘Gerber story’, but I really don’t think it works well with Iron Man. Once again, the mystical / magic / science-fantasy elements don’t work as well in Iron Man’s setting and it shows here. The artwork, however, is terrific.

Tony once again slips into his introspective, melodramatic self. Even though Marvel continually says they are restoring Tony to his Silver Age, confident self, the writers cannot help making him much more like Peter Parker, with self-doubt and melancholy. And with Tony, it really has become annoying. Add in the 1970’s style social drama which seems to be a never-ending part of Iron Man now, and the non-Iron Man scenes continue to become more depressing. This basically continues for several more issues, and I hope eventually stops.

Iron man #57-58 – George Tuska returns with #57 and it is a very welcome return indeed. He lends an incredible sense of stability to the title with the writers constantly changing, and while Starlin’s pencils were magnificent, George has a great handle on how Iron Man actually looks when in action. Mike Friedrich again returns, working with Steve Gerber on this story as the title is transitioned back to him.

The fact that Tony had basically no supporting cast for many issues now obviously caused a multitude of complaints as witnessed on the letter’s pages. Marvel tries to fix this immediately by having Pepper Hogan show back up, looking for a job and becoming Tony’s secretary again. This subplot is totally forced and doesn’t work well at all, but to be honest, the comic has been so dull cast-wise, that her reappearance is incredibly welcome. George Tuska draws a very striking Pepper with 1970’s haircut. Happy shows up an issue later but I’m suddenly very worried because two subplots have crept up: (A) Tony thinking he may still have feelings for her, which means a rehash of old plotlines and this time with a married couple and (B) Pepper and Happy argue over women’s lib. Oooooh boy. Not what I was hoping for.

The lack of supporting cast also got Friedrich to at long last address Marianne, who went crazy a few issues ago and no one seemed to notice or care, or even mention her since. She’s since wound up in a pysch ward, and Tony is informed (which causes him to once more get melancholy and introspective). The creative instability seems to have made Marvel forget her, but cranky readers wouldn’t let them (thank God for the readers in the 70’s it seems to address Marvel’s continuity). I want to see where the Marianne plotline goes—more cast is needed but honestly, Marianne is kind of an annoying character.

The story in general is a Mandarin story, which is usually a welcome thing—in fact, all the earliest Mandarin stories were so good, I’d classify them as Silver Age highlights. But here, the story begins with the Mandarin tricking the Stark Industries Union into striking against Tony for being a communist sympathizer. Whaaat? Ugh. Talk about a come down. That was disappointing—more social stories rather than the traditional grandiose nature of battles with the Mandarin. The plot eventually becomes a very good Mandarin vs. Iron Man battle, really because of Tuska’s artwork, but the opening bit with the unions and social issues is a big come down for the Mandarin.

The Unicorn comes into the battle as well, and readers of this thread know that the Unicorn is another villain that though he sounds silly, actually has a multitude of really excellent appearances prior to this. This story takes his tragic tale to the next phase: the deterioration of his mind and body have now reached its climax, and the Mandarin was able to preserve the body, but the mind is gone. I like the Unicorn, so I hate to see him be a presence in physical form only, but this is a natural growth of his story thus far. I’m curious where it will lead and if he’ll survive. His appearance certainly helped the story and the three way battle with Mandarin, Unicorn and Iron Man helped save an otherwise mediocre plot.

Iron Man #59 – Friedrich and Tuska return another excellent Iron Man villain, Firebrand, who has really emerged as one of the best ‘newer’ villains in the 70’s for Iron Man. The plot here is not as complex as previous ones, and more of a standard revenge plot, but that isn’t entirely unexpected given the last story, where Firebrand’s father died and he can hold Iron Man responsible with his own logic. Friedrich does a good job using Firebrand’s sister as a character that turns the usual hero vs. villain story into something deeper and I thought that worked well here.

The danger with this story is what happens next: if the next Firebrand story is another simple revenge hero vs. villain story than that spells the end of Firebrand as a great Iron Man villain. And that type of thing happened all the time with superhero villains in the 70’s. I hope the next story returns to the more complex Firebrand stories previously.

Something else else Tuska and Friedrich are doing is having Tony use the various weapons and gadgets from prior years and that is a huge plus for the series. It not only reiterates past continuity but plays back into Tony being a genius and constantly having an arsenal. Over the last three issues, he’s used at least one type of gadget per issue, all of them things from past years.

Once again, the instability of the title is the biggest problem. While some plots are good, many are just mediocre—they need to not just get back on track, but stay on track. Tuska’s artwork helps make the stories more enjoyable than they perhaps deserve to be. What is needed is a stable creative team, a growing supporting cast, strong plots and villains that are more grandiose. Here’s hoping…

I'm nearing the end of ESSENTIAL DAREDEVIL Vol.3, so the DD-IRON MAN-Zodiac crossover is next! Just from filipping thru the pages briefly, I was pleasantly surprised to see that Mike Esposito didn't murder the art (he often did in the 70's, especially if he was inking Don Heck), but Heck's layouts are not too inspired, when I compare them to his 60's work. But considering Gerry Conway's the writer... (need I say more?)

Forgive me if I've run this before (I looked back thru several pages but couldn't find it).


http://www.comics.org/issue/25939/cover/4/

IRON MAN #55 (Feb'73) -- "Beware-- Beware-- Beware The... Blood Brothers!" From a secret underground base somewhere in the Southwest, a being called Drax The Destroyer sends out a telepathic message of warning to Iron Man-- but too late! He's already under attack by a pair of big, bulky, hairy red uglies, who overpower him, then take him by flying saucer to the base. Earlier, Drax had contacted Tony Stark, and told him an incredible story about the advanced civilization located beneath the surface of Saturns' moon Titan-- of Isaac, a gigantic computer, of Mentor, their ruler, and his 2 sons-- Eros, and Thanos-- of how Thanos rebelled against their life of peace by creating weapons, was exiled, and how he returned with an armada comprised of the worst scum of the galaxy-- and how Mentor contacted the being known as Kronos, who used his immense power to create Drax, who existed for the sole purpose of destroying Thanos! The two battled on an isolated planetoid until its utter destruction-- at which point Thanos brought the unconscious Drax to Earth, which Thanos plans to conquer once he's done with Titan. But from distant Titan, Mentor & Isaac watch & wait, until Isaac sends a beam of energy to release Drax. Together, he & Iron Man defeat the Blood Brothers, then discover the "Thanos" they've been talking with was only a robot-- who explodes, destroying the underground base with it, the 2 heroes barely escaping in time. Iron Man wishes Drax well on his mission to defeat the evil Titan, knowing it may be a long road ahead.

WHOA. Freakin' WHOA. After bouncing around Marvel for some months, creating dazzling art on a growing number of books and covers, Detroit's Jim Starlin literally EXPLODES with a burst of "fanzine" creativity the likes of which Marvel has not seen since some time before the departure of Jack Kirby! So many of Marvel's series from the 60's have been treading water or doing retreads for years now, or wading through supposedly "relevant" or depressing stories. Here, a book that's suffered for some time became the jumping-on point for one of the biggest epics to hit Marvel in years.

I probably got this comic sometime in the late 70's-- before it was ever reprinted-- and I had no way of knowing back then (or for most of the time since), but the design of Drax The Destroyer owes a lot to that of DR. WEIRD, which Starlin did 2 issues of in 1970 & 1971 (both of which were reprinted in the DR. WEIRD SPECIAL #1 by Caliber / Feb'94). That character, created by Howard Keltner, had been around in fanzine comics since STAR-STUDDED COMICS #1 (Sep'63) but really dated all the way back to unpublished stories Keltner did in the early 40's, inspired by the character of Mr. Justice (who himself was inspired by The Spectre!). None of this is necessary to enjoy the story here, but it adds a lot to my appreciation of what Starlin's doing, and how far his art & writing has already come in a few short years.

And what art! the cover is inked by Joe Sinnott, and is absolutely stunning; the interiors are inked by Mike Esposito, and what a great match he is with Starlin. I've often thought that Esposito tends to just "trace" whatever a penciller puts on paper, but if that's so, it's clear Starlin is not hacking it out but pouring his heart & soul onto the paper here. WOW! This almost makes me forget all the 3rd-rate work I've seen from Esposito over the years.

Drax is, incidentally, at least the 3rd Marvel character called "The Destroyer", including the 1940's hero Stan Lee said was his "favorite" back then, and the indestructible robotic shell created by Odin in the THOR series.

This issue marks the DEBUT of Drax, The Blood Brothers, Titan, Isaac, Mentor, Eros, and Thanos-- who over the years essentially became Starlin's "trademark" character. It became obvious to me over time that Starlin was more interested in telling stories about Thanos than he was of any of the heroes whose books he happened to be writing at any given time (IRON MAN, CAPTAIN MARVEL, WARLOCK, SILVER SURFER). It ALL started here, and although Starlin wouild be back on pencils for next month's IM comic, the "big" story would continue in 2 months when he took over the perpetually-awful CAPTAIN MARVEL series and turned it into one of the highlights of all of 1970's Marvel! I love how the credits leave no question as to who did what when it read "Plot, pencils & character conceptions by: Jim Starlin / aided by Mike Friedrich, scripter". If only late-model Stan Lee comics' credits had been this honest.

No question-- this gets my vote for BEST Marvel of the month!!! (And to think-- I only paid a buck-fifty for it!)

"The section in D.D. that tells her origin is actually pencilled by Starlin, and was apparently INTENDED for an IRON MAN issue almost a year earlier. Makes me wonder what happened here."

I recently read that Jim Starlin said that, at the time, he worried that his career in comics might end any minute, and so when he did IRON MAN #55, he threw in the kitchen sink, not knowing if he'd ever get another chance afterwards.


Now, considering IRON MAN #55 was Feb'73, and CAPTAIN MARVEL #25 was Mar'73, my guess is that Gerry Conway, Marv Wolfman & Wayne Boring's DEPARTURE after 3 of the worst comics in the history of Marvel Comics, must have come SUDDENLY. They'd revived the book in the wake of the Kree-Skrull War, and the revival was ABOMINABLE. ("Yes, that's the word-- ABOMINABLE!" --Captain Haddock) So someone (editor Roy Thomas?) must have been on the lookout for someone-- ALMOST ANYONE-- to take over the book. And it probably didn't matter to him what they did, because after 3 issues THAT bad, how could anything possibly be worse? (They really are that bad-- I'm not saying this lightly. I've read them TWICE.)

So my guess is, "opportunity knocked", and Starlin & his Detroit buddy Friedrich JUMPED at it. The very next month, the "Thanos" epic continued in a book where it was actually a much-better fit ("Marvel's Space-Born Superhero"-- yeah, that sounds right). Perhaps the Moondragon origin was intended for IRON MAN #56, but shelved until DAREDEVIL #105 (Dec'73), which would make it 8 months "late".

http://www.comics.org/issue/26874/cover/4/


In the meantime, Starlin also worked on...

IRON MAN #56 (Mar'73)
http://www.comics.org/issue/26031/cover/4/

MARVEL PREMIERE #8 (May'73)
http://www.comics.org/issue/26219/cover/4/

THE CAT #4 (Jun'73)
http://www.samcci.nostromo.no/x-men/Cat%2004.jpg

DRACULA LIVES #2 (Jul'73)
http://www.comics.org/issue/26700/cover/4/

ASTONISHING TALES #19 (Aug'73)
http://www.comics.org/issue/26528/cover/4/

MARVEL FEATURE #11 (Sep'73)
http://www.comics.org/issue/26650/cover/4/

MARVEL FEATURE #12 (Nov'73)
http://www.comics.org/issue/26885/cover/4/


...all while working on the bi-monthly CAPTAIN MARVEL book. MARVEL FEATURE #12 once again featured Iron Man & The Blood Brothers, a "side" story in the Thanos epic. The book would then be replaced by MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE, the ongoing THING team-up book.

Meanwhile, MASTER OF KUNG FU would debut in SPECIAL MARVEL EDITION #15 (Dec'73)...
http://www.samcci.nostromo.no/sme/SME%2015.jpg

...but when MOKF proved so popular it not only went monthly but spawned TWO spin-off books (a bit much, really), Steve Englehart & Jim Starlin both jumped ship within a few issues of each other.

Iron Man #60-61 – Mike Friedrich and George Tuska present a two-parter in which the Masked Marauder resurfaces to battle Iron Man for the first time in what is actually a solid little story that is action-packed and full of adventure like the Iron Man tales of old. This is definitely a continued step in the right direction. The two seem to be working together nicely and while the story isn’t the best ever, its still quite good.

The Masked Marauder in my mind is a Daredevil villain, though over his long career he battled various different superheroes. I believe his last appearance was in Daredevil #27 which was years earlier, probably 7-8 years. The MM is done well here but what stands out is Friedrich and Tuska present the MM’s thugs as having very distinct personalities, something that is hardly done in comics. It really adds to the story, and one thug in particular named Steele actually shines in the story in his own mini-battle against Iron Man (which does a good job showcasing Iron Man’s raw power as he takes him out).

Friedrich refers to ‘dismal Detroit’ in this story…hahaha.

One of the subplots here is Stark Industries is developing a space ship that can also travel within the atmosphere as an airplane / jet. This is a really good science-related idea that invokes the Iron Man stories of old, and I appreciate the creators giving Stark Industries a stronger role in the stories. I’d like to see more of this.

Iron Man #62 – The two-parter is followed up by a very good one-off story featuring the return of Whiplash, who had an excellent debut at the close of Tales of Suspense. This done-in-one hits all the beats needed for a solid one issue story and is a classic example of how it works. I believe the next story is a 3-parter, so the mix of story lengths being used here is really a great way to keep things fresh (2-parter, 1-parter, 3-parter).

Craig Russell is guest artist for Tuska here with finishes by John Romita Sr. in places and the artwork is absolutely stunning to behold. It’s really well done and much more in the vein of the classic DC early Silver Age style, albeit with the dynamics traditionally seen at Marvel. The characters are also very attractive; I can’t tell if that is Russell or Romita’s influence.

Tony & Pepper are in Cincinnati here, another city not seen often enough in comics. I like seeing Tony go to other locations besides NY and this little ‘road trip’ he and Pepper are on is nice. I wish they’d do a little more with the cities, but just being there is good.

Whiplash is used very well here. He’s nowhere in the class of Iron Man’s most powerful foes but he’s emerged as one of the smartest. He’s not only a clever inventor and master strategist, he very cleverly bided his time for revenge on Iron Man by infiltrating Stark Industries as an employee and working his way up the corporate ladder to where he is the #2 guy for the Cincinnati branch. Very smart! He’s actually brilliant enough where he should just work for Stark and use his brilliance to get paid but I guess his need to be a costumed super-villain is his great downfall.

Vicki Snow is introduced as the first female plant manager at Stark Industries, which is very progressive. The story is unfortunately settled with a career woman vs. traditional woman’s role subplot (with Whiplash as the fiancé no less) which mirrors the current Pepper / Happy drama (the latest is he is officially leaving her). This is a pretty hot button topic of 1973 but I kind of find it distracting. For some reason, I hate these social commentary plots in Iron Man, as opposed to Spider-Man or somewhere else where I don’t mind them.

In the story they actually show Tony’s hands bleeding as he fights with no gloves—I wonder, is this the first time they’ve ever shown blood in an Iron Man comic? Ever at Marvel? Times they are a changin’.

The story also had a classic scene where Tony relies on Pepper to give him the inside scoop on someone seconds before he meets him. This is the first time it’s done in Iron Man (though used numerous times all over pop-culture for decades). Gwenneth Paltrow’s Pepper would do this to great effect in the recent Iron Man movies.

All in all, a really excellent one-off.

Bullpen Bulletins
Sad news was also in #62 as this is the month it was announced Bill Everett passed away—if ever there was an artist so linked to one company, it would be Everett & Marvel. In what I’ve always felt like a happy ending, Everett ended his career with his greatest creation, the Sub-Mariner.

House Ads
During 1973 Marvel began re-focusing on house ads for the most important things happening that month. There were usually 3-4 spread over the various titles. Two of them really stuck out for me:

(A) The Death of Gwen Stacy, or rather, the follow-up issue of Amazing Spider-Man #122 in which the cover shows her dead – this story was always tough for me as a kid because Gwen was the comic book love of my childhood. It’s such a major turning point.

(B) Savage Tales #2 – as one of the better known Marvel Magazines returns, proclaiming “the return of the magazine most ever requested!”. Its amazing #2 came out two years after #1. I wonder if this was really such a big deal at the time?

IRON MAN #56
http://www.comics.org/issue/26031/cover/4/


One wonders how fast this issue was thrown together, as apparently it was supposed to contain something else entirely (Jim Starlin's origin of Moondragon). Is THIS why Steve Gerber winds up filling in for several issues, so soon after Mike Friedrich came aboard as the new regular writer? It's a nice story, but not a great one. Gerber had not hit his stride yet, and Starlin's attention was suddenly elsewhere. (Would Starlin have stuck on IRON MAN longer if CAPTAIN MARVEL had not opened up?)


IRON MAN #57-58
http://www.comics.org/issue/26140/cover/4/
http://www.comics.org/issue/26215/cover/4/


Oddly enough, IRON MAN #58 was the 1st "new" issue I picked up at this time. I got #57 a bit later, then, much later, picked up #55 & 56. (and much, much later, #47.) It was a shock to see Mandarin out of his "traditional" Don Heck costume, and more so to hear about Tony Stark's heart having HEALED-- so when his power ran out-- he DIDN'T DIE.

I came onto the retelling of The Mandarin's story of his return to the space ship not that long after reading his actual origin story, without any of the stories in between. There's times when certain eras in Marvel feel like an entire era is a direct sequel to an earlier era, with all the in-between stuff not mattering somehow and being ignored. (The same thing happened during Kurt Busiek's runs on IRON MAN and AVENGERS, which at the time I appreciated, but which some here at LEGION WORLD have complained bitterly about.)


IRON MAN #59
http://www.comics.org/issue/26321/cover/4/

I've got this... I must have read it TWICE... and yet, I have no recollection of it at all!


IRON MAN #60-61
http://www.comics.org/issue/26439/cover/4/
http://www.comics.org/issue/26541/cover/4/

Cool Romita cover, followed by one by Buckler, that's 3 by Rich including #58 & 59.

I got these around the same time as #57. Solid story, nothing fancy, just fun action adventure. George Tuska has an unusually fluid way of depicting action that makes it seem things are moving at HIGH speed, even though it's drawings on paper. I'm thinking of the scene where Tony is in a resturant and suddenly switched to Iron Man and flies off into action. (I don't have this in front of me, and it's been at least 3 years since I've looked at it, but I can picture some of the panels in my head.)

I didn't read about The Masked Marauder until years later (in MARVEL ADVENTURE), and then again recently (in ESSENTIAL DAREDEVIL). It appears I never read his last appearance in DD until this past month. So my question is this... the guy was DEAD-- RIGHT??? So-- HOW did he come back in I.M.? Was there an explanation, some kind of reference, are we sure it's the same guy? I'd like to know.


IRON MAN #62
http://www.comics.org/issue/26646/cover/4/

Under what I feel is a rather ugly Gil Kane cover is one of the best-looking issues around this time. This may have been my first exposure to Craig Russell, and under no less than 3 inkers (Giacoia, Esposito & Romita), he's definitely in his early "superhero" mode, before he developed his more delicate sense of drawing & rendering. I'd have to look at it again, but in a couple of his early stories, his art had a definite JIM STERANKO influence. I was susprised at this, as it seems both he & Paul Gulacy began at the same starting point, but then their styles evolved in very different directions.

THIS was the 1st issue of IRON MAN I bought NEW at my drugstore, and was the beginning of a LONG,unbroken run of the book for me!! I imagine I probably read it multiple times back then (I used to do that before my collection started getting too big fort anyone's good).


IRON MAN #63
http://www.comics.org/issue/26772/cover/4/

I'm not a big Gil Kane fan... BUT, I really do like this cover! Apparently, so did my brother Ray. Witness...

http://www.webspawner.com/users/zodiaccomics/imageGallery/MM%2007_c_website.JPG


*******SPOILER WARNING!!!!!!!*******

Here's where I jump the gun on you... (heeheehee)


With I.M. #63, the "regular" team of Friedrich, Tuska & Esposito was back, and it was a solid if unspectacular package. This was actually my first exposure to Doctor Spectrum, and I had no clue about The Squadron Sinister (or the connection with Green Lantern, heh). The most memorable part of the issue was one that, even at the time, was cringe-inducing. Pepper, distraught over the state of her marriage, gets sympathy from Tony. Next thing you know, without either of them meaning for it to happen, they're in each other's arms-- and then, they're KISSING! So at that EXACT MOMENT, who walks into the room? HAPPY! "Oh my God! My wife-- is in love with my best friend!" "TO BE CONTINUED!" Shame, shame!!!!! Can you say, "BAD soap-opera"???


You know what makes it worse? Kurt Busiek pulled this EXACT SAME STUNT decades later!!! Holy RERUNS!!!

Even though it was years later, I still can see Tuska channeling Colan in places too; the way he draws the muscles in the back when Iron Man is lunging at some one; the way the Iron Man lifts things. Yet, it’s a style completely his own. Tuska definitely kept that fluid way of depicting action which was so great under Colan.

It actually does explain his death away—specifically that the Marauder cleverly faked his own death and it was actually a teleportation device that sent him out of harm’s way and he’d been quietly planning all these years. It’s a clever few panels to explain it away. On the letter’s page a few issues later someone calls them on it and they say in the DD issue in question, the MM never once refers to it as a disintegrator ray like everyone else. I wonder if that’s the case? The sequence certainly makes him look like a mastermind.


Looking forward to your thoughts every step of the way! Since you bought these when you were a kid, you have a really great perspective on them!

Iron Man #63-66 – Following some shorter stories, Iron Man #63-66 is a big 4-part story (not 3 as I originally thought) by the regular creative team. Like Prof says it’s a solid, very entertaining story that is definitely worth buying & reading. It’s kind of the quintessential 1970’s superhero story—not the best story ever but a really solid effort. What separates this big story is there are actually quite a lot of twists & turns from issue to issue that keeps the action going almost non-stop with a continued sense of drama and tension with the supporting cast. Those twists include a second villain appearing in the second part, Rokk, which is actually a bait & switch, as it is Dr. Spectrum once again; we then get the full origin of the prism Dr. Spectrum uses, including some far-out Skrull related beginnings (the Skrulls were still a hot-button motif following the Kree-Skrull War I surmise), and just when we think the final Iron Man vs. Dr. Spectrum battle is coming to a close, the prism leeches onto Iron Man, sending him into a fury, just in time for Thor to show up! It’s quite the big story, and I can see how any fans who grew up in this era would walk away very impressed by the character of Dr. Spectrum.

The African Dr. Obatu also plays a big role, specifically in Dr. Spectrum & the prism’s origin, adding another layer of complication.

I really like how suddenly the supporting cast is expanding again. Eddie March returns and he’s become a favorite of mine—I’m always glad to see him in the series. Roxie Gilbert is emerging as the romantic interest for Tony. She is Firebrand’s sister, which recalls Janice Cord to me, being a female introduced via an Iron Man adventure (even though her personality is totally different).

The Happy / Pepper drama goes from being completely over the top to suddenly on the verge of being fixed and I hope that stays the case. The drama was a bit ridiculous. Still, I don’t want them to exit the series so I hope there’s a way they can stick around without being in a love triangle with Tony or without having the tired ‘modern woman vs. traditional spouse role’ subplot.

This is actually the first full Thor guest appearance in Iron Man’s comic, even counting Tales of Suspense, which is surprising! I always see the two as being best friends, specifically because of the way they work together during Englehardt’s Avengers run and later they reveal their identities to each other. I’d prefer if they did more guest appearances with one another. Thor drawn by Tuska is actually quite a grand rendition of him! It’s very Kirbyesque. Big John Buscema was rocking Thor right now but I kind of wish now Tuska had done a brief Thor run.

Luke Cage also has a cameo, which ironically enough is more of a lead-in to Iron Man’s guest appearance in Cage’s comic! Since Tuska did both series (Tuska rotating in and out) it must have seemed like a natural fit.

What is a real doozy is the ending to the story which is really complicated but in a fun way. It turns out that (A) the second Iron Man that showed up is not Happy Hogan after all, but rather was Tony Stark, who apparently left the battle!; (B) the Iron Man we thought was the original was really Eddie March who jumped into an armor and headed into battle and (C) Tony left to repair his armor and actually was the one who called in Thor. Sometimes being overly complicated can be distracting but I actually liked it here. It also gave Eddie & Happy both a chance to be showcased in terms of the decisions they made affecting their personal lives.

This was a really solid story and at this point the title seems to be rolling again. There is drama, tension, action, Tony making a stand and all the elements needed for a good Iron Man story.

Bullpen Bulletins
The Bulletins page is back as a full page at last during this era after at least a year of being only a half page. The Marvel Checklist is also back “by fan request” but what’s telling is all of the issues with large summaries are horror magazines! Definitely a different Marvel during this era (I’ll do another “what was happening with Marvel” list shortly).

Another sad announcement came two months after Bill Everett’s passing, as Syd Shores also passed away. Yet another great whose work at Marvel was essential to his career had passed.

I never really connect Colan & Tuska, except for the fact that they both drew IRON MAN. Gene's stuff always seemed "larger than life" and dark and moody, while George was more "cartoony" and hard-hitting. Somewhere along the line I started jokingly calling him George "blunt instrument" Tuska, because his action gave me the impression of someone hurling a brick thru a plate glass window. Subtle, it wasn't. Even recently, I thumbed thru one of his AVENGERS episodes (with Englehart), and it made me wince, being reminded that it was nowhere near as good as I felt the book deserved at the time. Of course, if he'd had BETTER INKS, it might have made a big difference.


"It actually does explain his death away—specifically that the Marauder cleverly faked his own death and it was actually a teleportation device that sent him out of harm’s way and he’d been quietly planning all these years. It’s a clever few panels to explain it away. On the letter’s page a few issues later someone calls them on it and they say in the DD issue in question, the MM never once refers to it as a disintegrator ray like everyone else. I wonder if that’s the case? The sequence certainly makes him look like a mastermind."

I just flipped thru the ENTIRE issue in question...

http://www.samcci.nostromo.no/daredevil/DD%20027.jpg


The Marauder tells Stilt-Man his helicopter has a "FORCE FIELD". While Stilt-Man argues he doesn't need a partner, The Marauder suggests a demonstration, and says, if he's still not interested afterwards, so be it. Marauder tosses a box out of the copter. "It DISINTEGRATED!" "You noticed." For the rest of the issue, repeatedly, characters refer to the "FORCE FIELD". Nobody else ever uses the word "disintegrator". But suspense builda all thru the issue, as Marauder plans to toss Matt, Karen & Foggy out of the copter while the "FORCE FIELD" is turned out.


Now, according to Mike Friedrich, had the marauder had done this, NONE of them would have been killed-- just teleported elsewhere. OY.


Strangely enough, that particular storyline has always seemed to me to have been a perfect target for adaptation as a feature film. I'd LOVE to see a D.D. movie with a Wally Wood villain and a Gene Colan villain-- Stilt-Man & The Marauder.


"Looking forward to your thoughts every step of the way! Since you bought these when you were a kid, you have a really great perspective on them!"

I would have been about 14 when these came out, and in high school.

IRON MAN #64
http://www.comics.org/issue/26881/cover/4/
IRON MAN #65
http://www.comics.org/issue/26980/cover/4/
IRON MAN #66
http://www.comics.org/issue/27172/cover/4/

2 Romita-Esposito's and a Kane-Esposito


I recall "Rokk" and wondering, what's this got to do with the plot? And then at the end, Spectrum shows up, and, surprise, there WAS no "Rokk"! Just a power prism construct. (Gee, did Hal Jordan ever pull this stunt?)


I only recall Eddie March because you mention him. It's been so long since I read these, I completely forgot about him taking I.M.'s place, or that Tony called in Thor. I also remember Roxie Gilbert, but the details are hazy.


What stood out in my mind the most was, about HALF of Part 3 was a flashback showing how I.M. got in the predicament on the 1st page, "THE CUTTING EDGE OF DEATH". This giant scimitar is about to drop, slicing Shellhead in two, but FIRST, we have to spend half the book finding out how it came to be. Then, when we've caught up with story, SUDDENLY, we CUT-- to a SUBPLOT! (Probably the soap-opera involving Happy & Pepper. Or was it Eddie March? Roxie Gilbert? Don Blake?) I recall my brother making fun of this comic, for the way it took FOREVER for that DAMNED blade to finally DROP!


I admit I don't recall much about Part 4, except it seems to me at least a THIRD of the issue was one long flashback catching readers up on Parts 1, 2, & 3. You know what JUST occurs to me? Not only was this practice becoming epidemic, but... Mike Friedrich's from Detroit. So is his pal Jim Starlin. When Starlin was writing & drawing DREADSTAR, he regularly made a habit of using A MINIMUM of 4 pages EVERY SINGLE EPISODE to catch readers up to date. And unlike George Tuska, Starlin would PHOTOCOPY panels from previous episodes to assemble his flashbacks. It was just like tuning in HILL STREET BLUES every week and hearing "PREVIOUSLY on HILL STREET BLUES..."


Maybe it's just me, maybe it was the hectic work schedule (I understand Tuska, Esposito & Colletta were all very popular with any editors they worked for, because they were all FAST, and DEPENDABLE), but it seemed to me the quality of the art kept going down, down, DOWN, along with the writing. Freidrich, who started out so good, never REALLY got his act together. (Neither did Gary Friedrich... anybody know, were those 2 guys related or not?)

If I was having trouble with these books as a teenager, I'm not sure how I'd react to them now. It's a shame I got stalled on my "re-reading" project. I'd love to get back to it one of these months. When someone at the MASTERWORKS board decided to do a MASTER OF KUNG FU retrospective, I had to do ALL my comments from memory!! (Lots of fun... until I just got fed up with the way the guy kept bad-mouthing Jack Abel. SHEESH. If you've ever seen Jack Abel inking George Tuska... now THAT's some NICE-looking Tuska art!!


As an aside-- a mere 3 MONTHS after "BATTLE ROYAL", Dr. Spectrum turned up again in THE DEFENDERS #13-- "FOR SALE: ONE PLANET-- SLIGHTLY USED", where he was reunited with the Squadron Sinister, who somehow conned an alien of immense power into "buying" the Earth and destroying it as he saw fit. Nighthawk (Marvel's answer to Bruce Wayne), who didn't like the idea, went to The Defenders to warn them (and if memory serves, he did so because he figured The Avengers WOULDN'T believe him, since they knew him as one of the bad guys).

http://www.comics.org/issue/27393/cover/4/
http://www.comics.org/issue/27559/cover/4/


I think this 4-part IRON MAN story may be the only time Dr. Obatu was ever given an real character development.

"Blunt Instrument" is a great way to put it!

He really does have such a forceful, firm style and it really works IMO for Iron Man. Like Colan, it showcases the raw power Iron Man has.

You bring up a really good way that Tuska is different from Colan and I agree. Perhaps because I was reading Colan Iron Man and went right to Tuska Iron Man I was seeing similarities that weren't there.

I like the 'blunt instrument' moniker--it fits!

I know you touched on it before Prof but I hadn’t mentioned that in Iron Man #57 its confirmed once and for all that Tony’s heart transplant finally took and he didn’t the armor anymore to stay alive. I didn’t really think too much about it because I knew it was going that way ever since Tony had the surgery. Still, it’s a pretty big milestone. I laid out my thoughts on the subject a few posts back, but to reiterate, I think the series lost a little something when Tony’s heart didn’t need the armor anymore. It kind of took away from the tragedy of the character. Now he was a millionaire genius superhero with great looks and people who admired him—difficult to relate to and ultimately paving the way for anti-Iron Man fans to rise in future decades. It also would give writers the need to give him another tragic fault, which would lead to the famous alcoholism plot.

Iron Man #67 – Iron Man #67 serves as a good one off issue between two big arcs, as it also ties up some lose ends. The cover has the Freak on it and I always assumed it was Happy Hogan all these years, having never read the story. I was surprised (and glad to see the twist) that it was Eddie March who becomes the Freak here. I think though at this point, with the Enervator having turned multiple people into the Freak, there is no real reason Tony should keep it around—honestly, its time to destroy that sucker!

Eddie ends up in a wheelchair at the end of the issue (after Don Blake performs surgery) which was a surprise. I didn’t expect him to be disabled afterwards! The shadow of Iron Man hangs heavy over the supporting cast, much like Spider-Man’s does over his.

Something else else not followed up on here is that at the close of the last story, Happy Hogan revealed to Pepper that Tony is Iron Man! That’s a pretty huge revelation, especially to Pepper who has been such a major part of the series for years. Even more, Happy is revealing Tony’s secret without his consent. It’s too his wife, so there is some leeway (my father always told me that when someone tells you a secret, they can’t expect you to keep it from your spouse). I wonder if we’ll ever see Pepper and Tony talk about it?

Also I notice that in late 1973 to 1974, Iron Man once again goes on a bi-monthly schedule. All of those bumps in the road really took its toll on the title it seems, even though it had finally found its footing again and started to get good. Superheroes in general were not doing well even though Marvel’s comic book sales finally surpassed DC in 1973. Marvel seems to focused on their horror comics and horror magazines in the Bulletins page that I get the sense their superhero comics were getting the shaft.

Iron Man #68-71 – With only one issue as a break, Iron Man undergoes yet another big story, a four-parter entitled “Confrontation” and the story is jam-packed with characters and complex motivations, making it a pretty fun superhero romp. Each issue is loaded with action and it’s a thrill to see so many different characters. Again, its not the greatest story and not without some faults, but its still good.

The first thing I noticed are the amazing covers! Jim Starlin does #68 which has Iron Man looking completely different than he ever has before. Ron Wilson steps in for the next three and the covers to #69 and #71 are particularly good. Within, Tuska and Esposito do their usual excellent job (and in fact, the entire creative team is really clicking very well right now).

The story features Sunfire, the Mandarin, Unicorn, Yellow Claw, the Black Lama and even returns Ultimo—whew! That’s a lot going on. It opens with Iron Man and Sunfire confronting one another while the Mandarin is able to trick Sunfire into helping him restore himself to his body (out of the Unicorn’s body). In the background there a war brewing between the Mandarin and Yellow Claw (a pretty awesome idea) which is being encouraged by the Black Lama who returns finally. Yellow Claw has the upper hand so the Mandarin brings back Ultimo, who had he returned to his castle after his last appearance in Avengers. Again: whew!

In the background of all this is the subplot that got Tony to Asia in the first place, where Roxie Gilbert, inspired by Eddie March’s sacrifice, goes to Viet Nam in search of Eddie’s missing (perhaps POW) brother, Marty March! Tony follows, naturally, but gets caught up in other things. This subplot is actually quite a bit of commentary on Viet Nam. By now the Viet Nam war was over but still hung heavy of the US populace after so many years. Its really incredible to me to see that upon reading all these Iron Man comics because Viet Nam was such a big part of the series from the first issue.

Marty March is another good addition, and he’s shown with one arm missing, having been taken in the war (another big commentary on Viet Nam and the life of veterans post-War).

Roxie Gilbert is very Lois Lane-esque here. She’s both incredibly brave and very apt to get herself into some serious trouble. An American female going off into the jungles of Viet Nam in 1974 by herself is ludicrous in my mind but hey, it makes good fiction.

Sunfire is a welcome addition to this story. Previously he had appeared in X-Men, Captain America and Namor (the last by writer Mike Friedrich). A big deal is made out of American and Japanese working with one another. I wonder if the 1970’s was when this first began to happen after WWII? It’s something I don’t know much about actually, only knowing by the late 80’s we were firm allies.

The Mandarin vs. Yellow Claw bit is pretty good but I don’t like that the Mandarin was beaten. In my mind, he’s a much better villain than Yellow Claw and should have won. It takes a little bit away that he didn’t. It ends with him supposedly dead and his rings in the possession of one of YC’s top henchmen but I don’t see that sticking long.

I’m curious as to what happens with the Unicorn. Once the Mandarin switches back, its implied the Unicorn will shortly die and then when the Mandarin’s undersea base is flooded, the Unicorn is left inside. I hope that’s not the end for him! I can’t see that happening because there was no proper death sequence. I’ve mentioned numerous times I like the Unicorn as a villain so I’m looking forward to his return.

Ultimo returns again but by now he’s kind of losing his luster. Like Captain America’s “Sleepers” and Thor’s Mangog, he kind of had that ‘ultimate big bad’ quality where he’d show up every dozen issues for an anniversary or something. But here he seems to be losing his place among those other ultimate big bads.

The Black Lama at last returns in a very mysterious role, where he’s supposedly encouraging the top villains of the MU to battle one another for supremacy. Friedrich and the editors make it sound like its going to be a HUGE story across all of Marvel’s titles, but I don’t remember ever hearing about it before. In the letter’s pages, fans begin writing in saying they can’t wait to see how it effects Daredevil, Luke Cage, etc., and I get the sense from the editors response that they really oversold this thing and over-promised in scope. They say it’s a lot to coordinate and to be patient but I bet it only ends up being an Iron Man story.

The Mandarin’s castle blows up—again. Didn’t this already happen years ago? Did he lose another castle?

Price
Also at this time Marvel raised its prices up to $0.25 from $0.20 officially, with a big bulletin on the letter’s page explaining why economically. At least back then they felt they had to justify it to fans.

Letter’s Page
One letter during this story arc to come in was from none other than Jerry Ordway! He praises Tuska a lot and also is the only person to guess the identity of Iron Man in the previous story, Eddie March. Cool!

Ralph Macchio also has a letter printed but he has one printed in Iron Man every few issues or so.

One letter that was interesting had a fan asking for Sunfire to get his own series. The reply was they were working behind the scenes to but together a new X-Men title where Sunfire would be part of the expanded cast. They don’t say ‘x-men’ but rather ‘*-m*n’, saying it hasn’t been approved yet by management so they can’t come out and say it. Very interesting! So here is when the X-Men relaunch was first being discussed (just as Wolverine was debuting BTW). I wonder if Sunfire was originally supposed to play a much bigger part in the series, since he was the one character getting the biggest push before the relaunch?

"You bring up a really good way that Tuska is different from Colan and I agree. Perhaps because I was reading Colan Iron Man and went right to Tuska Iron Man I was seeing similarities that weren't there."

About 10 years back (before any of them had been reprinted yet), I picked up some early Tuska IRON MANs (about $20 a pop-- overpriced, in my opinion, but MUCH cheaper than the $80 apiece or more I'd seen at some convention). The letters pages actually had fans complaining about how "cartoony" Tuska's art was. in some ways, although it's slicker that Heck's art, it's also more "cartoony" than Heck! But with the right inker, it can really work. 2 of the BEST inkers for Tuska back then were Johnny Craig (what a revelation!), and, Tuska.


I'm pretty sure the one thing Tuska didn't like doing was plotting on his own. It's very noticeable that the ONLY time he ever worked with Stan Lee was when Jack Kirby was doing the "layouts". Tuska didn't get a regular assignment at Stan's Marvel until SOMEONE ELSE was writing the book-- in this case, Archie Goodwin.


"I like the 'blunt instrument' moniker--it fits!"

Over the years, I've come up with a lot of nicknames for comics pros-- sometimes a lot of sarcasm is involved, but sometimes it's with a bit of humor. I've read countless comics drawn by George Tuska, and maybe half of them I wasn't crazy about. But when he's good-- WOW. I still always think of LUKE CAGE, HERO FOR HIRE as "Tuska's" book, as much as Billy Graham's (or Goodwin or Englehart). I wish that could have lasted a lot longer.


"I think the series lost a little something when Tony’s heart didn’t need the armor anymore. It kind of took away from the tragedy of the character. Now he was a millionaire genius superhero with great looks and people who admired him—difficult to relate to and ultimately paving the way for anti-Iron Man fans to rise in future decades. It also would give writers the need to give him another tragic fault, which would lead to the famous alcoholism plot."

I never saw this as a problem that "needed" addressing. I guess because my 1st superhero was BATMAN, and (apart from his parents having been murdered) he didn't really HAVE any "tragic fault" that would allow readers to "relate" to him. I think this is just an outgrowth of Stan Lee's obsession with "HEROES WITH PROBLEMS!!!" taken to absurd lengths. First it's the heart problem, then, it's alcoholism, then, MUCH MUCH MORE alcoholism (Denny O'Neil should forever hold his head in shame for the way he almost single-handedly destroyed both IRON MAN, and later, BATMAN-- what is that man doing writing or editing super-heroes for ANYWAY?), then, he was shot in the back and crippled... and it went ON like that. By the 2nd or 3rd such "problem", Tony should have just quit or blown his brains out (which is probably what O'Neil was thinking when he had Tony just LET his entire life fall apart for three whole years-- the BASTARD).

IRON MAN #67
http://www.comics.org/issue/27322/cover/4/

Another Gil Kane cover. I don't believe there was actually anybody IN the car when this scene happened in the story...

Another example of how this run of IRON MAN inspired my brother back then...

http://www.webspawner.com/users/zodiaccomics/imageGallery/MM%2006_p05_website.JPG

http://www.webspawner.com/users/zodiaccomics/imageGallery/MM%2006_p06_website.JPG


"The Ape" was apparently inspired by pro wrestler George "The Animal" Steele, though he also looks a bit like The Kingpin (from the '68 SPIDER-MAN cartoons).


"The cover has the Freak on it and I always assumed it was Happy Hogan all these years, having never read the story. I was surprised (and glad to see the twist) that it was Eddie March who becomes the Freak here. I think though at this point, with the Enervator having turned multiple people into the Freak, there is no real reason Tony should keep it around—honestly, its time to destroy that sucker!"

Lots of dumb behavior from various characters over the years, isn't there? This was my FIRST "Freak" story. I missed the reprint of the earlier one, and wound up getting that in the original comics (at conventions), but I believe I saw the NEXT Freak story before that. You sometimes wonder, "How many times are they gonna PULL this stunt?" Like Norman Osborn getting his memory back.


IRON MAN #68-71
http://www.comics.org/issue/27479/cover/4/
http://www.comics.org/issue/27646/cover/4/
http://www.comics.org/issue/27745/cover/4/
http://www.comics.org/issue/27935/cover/4/

I'd read a mention of ULTIMO (in the reprint for the 3-part Subby fight), but this was the 1st story he/it was in that I read. I think this was also my 1st SUNFIRE story.


The NOSE-- really BAD idea!!!

This seems a good place to point out the inter-book continuity (as figured out way back when by George Olshevsky)...

IM 67 -- Return of the Freak

AV 120 -- Death-Stars of the Zodiac
AV 121 -- Houses Divided Cannot Stand
AV 122 -- Trapped In Outer Space
AV 123 -- Vengeance In Viet Nam -or- An Origin For Mantis
AV 124 -- Beware The Star-Stalker

IM 68 -- Night of the Rising Sun
IM 69 -- Confrontation
IM 70 -- Who Shall Stop... Ultimo?
IM 71 -- Battle: Tooth And Yellow Claw

CM 27 -- Trapped On Titan
CM 28 -- When Titans Collide
CM 29 -- Metamorphosis
CM 30 -- ...To Be Freed From Control
CM 31 -- The Beginning of the End
CM 32 -- Thanos The Insane God
AV 125 -- The Power of Babel
CM 33 -- The God Himself

IM 72 -- Convention Of Fear

TEAM-UP 29 -- Beware The Coming Of Infinitus

THOR 232 -- Lo, The Raging Battle *
THOR 233 -- O, Bitter Victory *
* (not really sure where these fit in, not listed in the index)

AV G1 -- Nuklo The Invader That Time Forgot
AV 126 -- All The Sounds And Sights Of Death
AV 127 -- Bride And Doom
FF 150 -- Ultron-7: He'll Rule The World
AV 128 -- Bewitched, Bothered, And Dead
AV 129 -- Bid Tomorrowe Goodbye
AV G2 -- A Blast From The Past
AV 130 -- The Reality Problem

IM 73 -- Turnabout: A Most Foul Play

AV 131 -- A Quiet Half-Hour In Saigon
AV 132 -- Kang War II
AV G3 -- ...What Time Hath Put Asunder
AV 133 -- Yesterday And Beyond
AV 134 -- The Times That Bind
AV 135 -- The Torch Is Passed
AV G4 -- Let All Me Bring Together

AV 137 -- We Do Seek Out New Avengers
AV 145 -- The Taking Of The Avengers
AV 146 -- The Assassin Never Fails
AV 138 -- Stranger In A Strange Man
AV 139 -- Prescription: Violence
AV 140 -- A Journey To The Center Of The Ant

IM 78 -- Long Time Gone **
IM 79 -- Midnight On Murder Mountain **
** (inventory stories)

IF 1 -- A Duel Of Iron

IM 74 -- The Modok Machine
IM 75 -- Slave To The Power Imperious
IM 77 -- I Cry: Revenge!
IM 80 -- Mission Into Madness
IM 81 -- War Of The Mind-Dragons


THIS is what happens when you have characters appearing in 2-- OR MORE-- books at the same time, with long-running stories going unbroken for long stretches in either.


You might note that IM was in Viet Nam in both his own book and THE AVENGERS. Sometimes I just wish they'd do shorter stories, or have less "continuity" of trying to tie things together. This would be easier if they focused more on the "stories" and less on "subplots" and "character developments" (in other words, SOAP-OPERA). But then, soap-opera is easier to write...


The above list brings you right up to the END of Mike Friedrich's long but uneven run on the book. Near as I can tell, Steve Englehart's "SERPENT CROWN" epic in AVENGERS takes place in between the end of Friedrich's IM run and the beginning of Len Wein's.


More after you've read more...

And now, just to further show how Marvel was changing during these stories, here are a few more things that happened that continued the evolution of the late Silver Age Marvel to what it would be when it emerged from the 70’s. Marvel’s focus on team-up related comics and the horror genre continued to dominate their output. From 1973 – 1974:

1973
Marvel launched its first full humor comic since Not Brand Ecch with ‘Crazy’. It would eventually become one of their magazines as that publishing line became more of a focus.

Still focusing on reprints as an easy way to make money, Marvel releases Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD for the second time, only this time using reprints of his earlier adventures. Much like X-Men, new Fury adventures would largely be seen in other titles while his own was reprints of old stories.

Valkyrie at last fully comes into her own in Defenders #4 after some overly complicated starts and establishes herself as a major presence in 1970’s Marvel.

Marvel releases yet another horror title (still averaging one new one a month) with Vault of Evil. After this the onslaught of new horror titles begins to cease as Marvel turns to black & white magazines.

With horror comics being their big focus, Marvel launches a whole new line: black & white magazines mainly focused on horror. These would contain original stories by Marvel’s top creators (in B&W), be for mature readers and be $0.75 for 72 pages. The first is Dracula Lives, capitalizing on the Dracula craze of their own Tomb of Dracula as well as the Hammer Horror movies which started it.

Perhaps the most popular new character of the 1970’s is introduced in Conan: Red Sonja! Her popularity would explode immediately and she would eventually get her own title.

Jim Starlin (with Mike Friedrich) begin one of the greatest runs of the Bronze Age, taking the always mediocre Captain Marvel and bringing it to all new heights. Here they bring over many of the characters they introduced in Iron Man (Thanos, Starfox, Moodragon, Drax) and explode in creativity and world-building.

After Conan and King Kull’s big sales, Marvel brought in yet another similar lead character, Thongorr, Warrior of Lost Lemuria in Creatures on the Loose.

While Sunfire appears in both Namor and Iron Man, the X-Men stay fresh on Marveldom’s mind, appearing in Avengers with Magneto (sans Beast of course).

In an effort to bring more attention to their new line of female comics, Marvel has the Cat team-up with Spider-Man in Marvel Team-Up but it won’t be much help. Very shortly afterwards all three titles (Beware the Cat, Shanna the She-Devil and Night Nurse) would be cancelled, never finding an audience.

In a cool bit of continuity, Hawkeye exits Avengers during this time and resurfaces in Daredevil, returning to his original costume, to try to hook back up with the Black Widow. Since she & DD are now an item, he decides to move on again and resurfaces in Defenders. This ultimately leads to the Avengers / Defenders crossover, one of most fondly remembered superhero stories of the 70’s.

Steve Englehardt meanwhile was introducing one of the most offbeat (and most controversial) heroines of all time in Avengers: Mantis, who was accompanied by the once villainous Swordsman. The Celestial Madonna Saga remains one of the greatest Avengers stories ever and would be prominent throughout 1973, 1974 and some of 1975.

Worlds Unknown is released—not a horror title but a science fiction title in the horror anthology vein, as Marvel tries to give its writers a platform to do sci-fi stories. Within are all new stories unlike most of the horror titles which did reprints.

The Beast is bumped from Amazing Adventures for perhaps being too superhero and not enough horror, as Gerry Conway and Neal Adam’s “War of the Worlds” takes it place, introducing Killraven. Some bits sci-fi, some horror and some even Conan-esque, Killraven is the quintessential Bronze Age comic book feature.

Jennifer Cale first shows up in Man-Thing and young boys from all over lose their minds for her.

SHOCK!!! Spider-Man is never the same as a character of series as Gwen Stacy is killed by the Green Goblin! The following issue, the Green Goblin himself dies! A genuinely true turning point in the life of a series.

At long last, the Black Panther gets his own solo series with Jungle Action, beginning in #5. Only in the non-superhero oriented early 70’s would T’Challa have a chance to flourish as jungle adventures featuring him were similar enough to Ka-Zar, Conan and other sword & sorcery characters. The Panther’s nemesis in this series would be Killmonger, a very different enemy than those he fought previously.

With Dracula Lives being a big success, Marvel wastes no time launching more black & white magazines and this will soon become a major focus of the company. Up next to capitalize on the zombie craze of the 70’s is another horror magazine, Tales of the Zombie, introducing Simon Garth, the Zombie.

Also that month are two other black & white magazines: Monsters Unleashed (introducing Solomon Kane to comic books) and Vampire Tales, which uses Spider-Man foe Morbius as a lead star since he is also a vampire.

Marvel releases a Thor reprint comic, Marvel Spectacular but begins it at the start of the Silver Age run where Hercules was a guest-star for 7-8 issues, thus giving it the sense that it is a Thor / Hercules team-up comic. It would be surprisingly successful and lead to Hercules being a temporary co-star in Thor’s actual comic book.

Meanwhile, Thor’s comic remained a sci-fi team-up comic with Thor & his companions having been in space throughout the majority of 1973.

Monsters on the Prowl reprints the 50’s Jack Kirby stories featuring It, the Living Colossus. The comic sells well enough where Marvel considers relaunching the monster character.

John Jameson, long time member of Spider-Man’s supporting cast, is transformed into the Man-Wolf, a werewolf with alien origins, creating yet another horror hero/villain.

Perhaps too much like a classic western, Red Wolf comes to an end after 9 issues. When viewed in conjunction with the failed launch of the three female titles, cracks in Marvel’s armor begin to be seen as they are clearly launching too many titles.

Ghost Rider spins out of Marvel Spotlight for his first solo series and establishes himself as a mainstay Marvel character throughout the next two decades (until he finally achieves superstar status, albeit a fleeting one).

My Love #25 has the cover showing a female having to decide between her man or the woman’s liberation movement. Romance comics ain’t what they used to be!

Ant-Man is bumped out of Marvel Feature and instead Marvel copies its own Marvel Team-Up with Spider-Man approach, trying to see what it looks like for its second most popular character, the Thing. Thus, a Thing team-up is born, first with the Hulk (always popular Thing vs. Hulk battle) and then Iron Man. After that, Marvel Feature is cancelled with #12 and the Thing team-up series is relaunched as Marvel Two-In-One, becoming a mainstay title throughout the 1970’s, like Marvel Team-Up. The ‘team-up’ focus of Marvel’s superhero titles continues in a major way with the addition of this title.

Years after it turned into Dr. Strange’s solo title, Strange Tales returns with its original numbering, this time introducing a brand new lead, Brother Voodoo! By Len Wein & Gene Colan, the voodoo aspect clearly capitalizes on the horror craze of the era, though the brothers aspect has clear superhero inspiration (Captain Triumph).

After numerous years without them, Marvel’s Annuals return with Conan Annual #1, so Barry Windsor Smith could return to the character with Roy Thomas. This would lead to a different approach than traditional annuals, however, as Giant-Sized Comics became part of Marvel’s mid-70’s vocabulary, rather than Annuals.

In a story some wanted to forget until Peter David was able to make fun of it, Betty Ross becomes the Harpy in Hulk #168.

With the b&w magazines a success, Marvel brings back its very first with Savage Tales #2, producing even more Conan material with two stories inside, plus an additional story featuring King Kull. In house ads all over, they proclaim “the return of the most requested comic book magazine of them all!”.

The Avengers / Defenders crossover erupts in the Fall of 1973! Fandom goes crazy as more superheroes than you can shake a stick at appear for 6 issues over three months.

Seeing Crazy was unsuccessful as a comic, Marvel relaunches it as a b&w magazine, spoofing politicians and other facets of pop culture such as the Kung-Fu craze and spaghetti westerns.

Marvel truly pushes the boundaries of horror in comic books as Marvel Spotlight’s new feature (now that Ghost Rider spun out like Red Wolf and Werewolf by Night before him) is Damien Hellstrom, the Son of Satan by Gary Friedrich and Herb Trimpe! With huge letters proclaiming “Son of Satan” I’m shocked parents didn’t go ape-shit. But hey, it was the 70’s.

That same month in the b&w magazine Vampire Tales #2, Hellstrom’s sister Satana is introduced, in an even more horrific story with provocative painted cover. Things had certainly changed since the early 60’s!

One of Steve Gerber’s quintessential characters, Wundar, appears in Fear #17 (battling Man-Thing).

Moondragon’s second appearance is in Daredevil & and the Black Widow #105 which Starlin did not have a hand in writing or drawing.

Steve Englehardt continues to make Marvel history jive with the 1950’s Marvel comics by working Yellow Claw (from the Jack Kirby series in the 50’s) into Captain America and the Falcon.

The Sub-Mariner, after really not knowing where to go following creator Bill Everett’s death, tried a new direction beginning in #67 (Nov 1973) by Steve Gerber, Don Heck and Bolle. Retitled “the Savage Sub-Mariner”, Namor is given a new costume for the first time in his history, the full pants and open shirt costume many fans know today. Despite a new direction and guest-stars such as the FF and Inhumans, it wouldn’t be enough to save the title, which was already bi-monthly like Iron Man. Within a year (6 issues), the Sub-Mariner would be cancelled, the only Silver Age title that survived the 1969 purge (including hiatus comics) that would go on to eventually be cancelled in the Bronze Age. Namor, of course, would appear in multiple places thereafter, including Super-Villain Team-Up (which I’ve always whether it was launched as a way to make Namor work in the team-up setting like so many others, meaning that is why his comic was cancelled in the first place).

Team-ups continue to be the big focus and now extend beyond the superhero genre to the western genre to try to see if that is what is needed to make it work, as Western Team-Up is released. The first issue stars the Rawhide Kid and the Dakota Kid. It only lasts one issue, however, so someone in editorial must have pulled the plug before the series could really move. This may be the beginning of the end for westerns (well, it had been ending for 10 years already but the beginning of the real end).

Man-Thing’s surprising rise in popularity continues as he becomes the new lead feature in the b&w magazine Monsters Unleashed, complete with gorgeous Neal Adams cover.

Marvel gets back on the new title launch track, releasing Weird Wonder Tales, another sci-fi anthology with new stories, as well as reprints.

Dead of Night is yet another Marvel horror anthology featuring reprint stories.

Captain America & Falcon battle the Phoenix who surprisingly ends up being the son of Baron Zemo. The Phoenix has his face scarred in this debut, leaving things open for him to naturally become the second Zemo.

Marvel Special Edition, until now a SGT Fury reprint comic book, changes paths with #15 and releases a new story / concept, the Master of Kung Fu by Jim Starlin, Steve Englehardt and Al Milgrom. The hook is it features the son of Fu Manchu, the legendary pop-culture villain (who Marvel must have retained the rights to), who is known as Shang Chi. This is during the full on Kung Fu craze of Bruce Lee and Kung Fu, where kung-fu films were everywhere (and often bad quality). The book immediately takes off. With #17, the series is renamed Master of Kung Fu, with the cover proclaiming: “the hands of Shang Chi, Master of Kung Fu!”. Both Starlin & Englehardt would move on quickly but Shang Chi became a major Marvel character of the 1970’s.

Ka-Zar spins out of Astonishing Tales for his second comic—this one actual new stories—featuring Ka-Zar’s adventures with Zabu in the Savage Land. Instead of Bobbi Morse, agent of SHIELD, his new love interest is none other than Shanna the She-Devil!

Meanwhile, Astonishing Tales switches its lead to It, the Living Colossus, a 50’s monster that might be able to catch on with the monster craze.

As Sue Storm finally starts moving back towards being a member of the FF again (instead of Medusa), Franklin Richard’s powers becomes the major storyline, and will become something continually repeated over decades.

Yet another horror anthology debuts with Uncanny Tales #1. It’s all reprints.

Iron Man elsewhere in the MU
Iron Man continues to have his almost annual appearance in Marvel-Team-Up, as well as be an intricate part of the 1970’s Avengers.

Iron Man is also the second person to team-up with the Thing in Marvel Feature (before it becomes Marvel Two-in-One), showing his easy to spot armor & look are a good way to attract readers attention. The Two-in-One story is actually a sequel to Starlin’s Iron Man story featuring the Blood Brothers and something Starlin fans should be aware of!

Cool Cover Alert!
Werewolf by Night #12 (Dec 1973)

1974 to come shortly…this brings us up to the end of the Dr. Spectrum storyline…

Really as a way for me to keep track of where Iron Man is in relation to what is going on Marvel-wide (and kind of industry-wide), I’m going to do another timeline for Marvel in 1974, hitting on the big changes, events and titles. Since Iron Man was bi-monthly in 1974, this will showcase how while Iron Man did a 4 part story in Viet Nam that took 4 months, that was actually 8 months of big changes at Marvel.

By 1974, Marvel was outselling DC Comics with their superheroes (Spider-Man, Fantastic Four and the Hulk especially) but comic book sales in general were on the decline. Marvel was truly an editorial mess and would only get worse throughout the 1970’s until Jim Shooter stepped in as EiC. The trends of horror comics and ‘team-up’ comics continued in a big way, as did the prominence of reprint comics—all of these at both Marvel, DC and other smaller companies. The Kung-Fu craze also had just hit and would explode throughout Marvel.

Marvel’s focus also seemed to be on the black & white magazines which were $0.75 and soon to be $1.00; perhaps so much so that they lost sight of many of their regular publications.

January 1974 – May 1974
Doc Savage ends with #8, ending Marvel’s brief association with the classic pulp character. In the 1970’s, as much as Roy Thomas and others wanted them to succeed, the pulp characters of old just didn’t hold much water with fans.

Jim Starlin’s Captain Marvel had become such an immediate sensation that Captain Marvel begins appearing everywhere: Daredevil & Black Widow, Marvel Team-Up, Avengers, etc.

The rise of Man-Thing as a popular star of the 70’s continues as he spins out of Adventures into Fear and gets his own title by Steve Gerber & company. That same month, the recently re-packaged Marvel 2-in-1 featuring the Thing has him team-up with none other than the Man-Thing. In addition to the play on words, Marvel was smart to realize the Man-Thing was popular (plus it was also written by Gerber).

In a crossover almost everyone knew had to happen, Dracula meets up with Frankenstein for the first time, in what is actually a prequel to Tomb of Dracula since this still takes place at the time of Frankenstein’s creation 100+ years earlier.

One of Marvel’s most important post-Silver Age characters debuts in the pages of Spider-Man, as the Punisher appears in ASM #129 (Feb 1974) for the first time. As a gun-toting vigilante he is one of the quintessential anti-heroes of the 1970’s, both villain & hero in the pages of Spider-Man. He proves so popular he’s back in the title in less than a year and subsequently appears in Spider-Man at least once every 10-12 issues. This goes on for almost another 10 years before the Punisher explodes into numerous titles in the 80’s.

The Punisher’s first appearance also overshadows the first appearance of the Jackal, beginning a 2-year long saga of the Spidey / Jackal War that would culminate in the first Clone Saga.

With Man-Thing spinning into his own title, Adventures into Fear gains a new star, namely Morbius, the Living Vampire, who began not long ago as a Spider-Man villain. After headlining Vampire Tales, black & white magazine, Marvel felt he could handle an ongoing regular color comic as well.

Luke Cage gains a superhero moniker at last as Marvel tries to make its black protagonist more superhero and less mercenary, as he becomes Power Man (also changing the title). This also marks Len Wein’s run on the comic, as Len Wein, who had been doing Marvel stories here and there since 1970, becomes a full-time Marvel writer doing a plethora of titles.

The Human Torch subs in for Spider-Man in MTU #18, teaming up (re: fighting) with the Hulk, starting the trend of every so often (about once a year) of the Torch subbing in as the star of MTU.

Beginning in Thor #221, Hercules guest-stars and sticks around for almost an entire year, essentially turning Thor into a team-up comic the same as Captain America & the Falcon, and Daredevil & the Black Widow. Writer Gerry Conway actually just about puts the entire cast on the backburner (the Warriors Three and Balder included), and even kicks off a subplot where Jane Foster is phased in and Sif is phased out—a subplot of great confusion that would go on for several years, with no one ever really clearing it up!

In a crossover that had to happen (and one of the earliest, following the recent Avengers / Defenders crossover and the Silver Age Iron Man / Sub-Mariner crossover), Werewolf by Night and Tomb of Dracula crossover in March 1974 as Dracula battles the Wolfman!

Another quintessential Steve Gerber creation debuts in Man-Thing #3, the Foolkiller.

Just as Sunfire makes the rounds throughout 1974 and Wolverine debuts, former X-Men foe the Banshee returns in Captain America & the Falcon as another mutant for readers to keep on their minds, as Marvel continues planting seeds for an X-Men revival.

By his third appearance, Shang-Chi takes over Marvel Special Edition completely and the title is renamed Master of Kung Fu.

Proving no monster was left unturned by Marvel in the 1970’s, Werewolf by Night battles the Hunchback of Notre Dame.

As the kung fu craze was literally exploding in pop-culture, Marvel wasted no time using Shang Chi to full advantage, putting out the black & white magazine specifically dedicated to kung fu with Master of Kung Fu as its star feature, called “The Deadly Hands of Kung Fu”. Its another instant success (just as Master of Kung Fu was about to go from bi-monthly to monthly quicker than just about any other Marvel title ever). The back-up to Deadly Hands of Kung Fu is the Sons of the Tiger, featuring three brothers at arms with magical amulets—which would eventually lead to the creation of the White Tiger.

Perhaps Steve Englehardt’s most famous Captain America story gets underway featuring Cap and the Falcon’s battle with the Secret Empire, which ultimately ends with the death of the President, who is revealed to be a member of the Secret Empire. The story is a direct indictment of Richard Nixon and the recent Watergate scandal, which was still rocking the country. Afterwards, Cap actually quits being Captain America to become Nomad, setting aside the flag-costume in a move that was obviously inspired by sentiment of 1975 in the US. Englehardt masterfully has Cap go through the Nomad phase while a new Captain America appears, only to be overwhelmed, calling back the original. During this time period, Cap quits the Avengers. The X-Men, still being kept on readers minds, guest star in this story.

In Defenders, the Squadron Sinister resurfaces in a story that will see Nighthawk leave the team and switch sides with the Defenders, becoming a mainstay member. This really kicks off the more longterm process of the ‘non-team’ becoming a team with an occasional hero stopping by for 2-3 issues; the core is Dr. Strange, the Hulk, Valkryie and Nighthawk as the Sub-Mariner exits shortly thereafter on a permanent basis (Hellcat is still a few years away).

Dr. Strange spins out of Marvel Premiere to have his own title once again, with the team that made him popular again, Steve Englehardt and Frank Brunner, after a stop in at Marvel Team-Up where the two Ditko creations battled Xandu, which they always do when they meet.

Taking the good doctor’s place in Marvel Premiere is another star born of the kung fu craze, Iron Fist, who debuts with a smash by Roy Thomas, Gil Kane and Dick Giordano. Unlike Shang-Chi, Iron Fist is a clear mash-up of kung fu meets superhero, with one of the best costumes ever.

May of 1974 is the advent of the “Giant-Sized” annuals, which will be a commonly recalled marker of the mid-70’s for Marvel and a temporary replacement for the Annuals of the Silver Age. The first is ‘Giant-Sized Superstars’ starring the Fantastic Four and the Hulk; the Bullpen Bulletins page makes it seem as if this will be the protocol: team-ups in giant-size with new titles; within a few months that is changed and individual series will get their own giant-sized comics, though often with the team-up mentality.

Brother Voodoo, not being as popular as Marvel hoped, gets additional time in the black & white Tales of the Zombie. I’ve always wanted to see these stories, to see if they are more adult oriented, as I can’t picture the 70’s Brother Voodoo in that type of story.

Yet another black & white magazine is released, another horror series called “The Haunt of Horror” (a combination of EC’s old Haunt of Fear and Vault of Horror). By issue #2 it will introduce a new protagonist, Gabriel the Devil Hunter, an exorcist, obviously capitalizing on the success of the movie.

Iron Man elsewhere in the MU
Despite being bi-monthly, Iron Man was still seen as a quintessential Marvel superhero, which is exemplified by his appearing in Luke Cage #17, when the title is revamped as Power Man (a subplot initially started in the pages of Iron Man).

Awesome Cover Alert!
Dead of Night #3 by John Severin (April 1974) – creepy!

I’ll at least continue 1974 as I think it puts the MU in perspective in relation to Iron Man’s series, which was only bi-monthly at the time and doing 4 part stories.

...I'll get back to the timeline when I get some time...

Iron Man #72 – After a solid story where Iron Man was embroiled in the Mandarin v. Yellow Claw War, #72 is a clear fill-in issue that comes as a big disappointment, especially because in #73 Tony heads back to Viet Nam to find Roxie, so his leaving for an issue and then returning makes little sense even though its at least addressed within the story. They also will tie-in Iron Man’s appearance with the Man-Thing in Giant-Sized Man-Thing #2 (perhaps the greatest title ever), so I’m almost suspecting that was the reason for the issue, since Roy Thomas was such a slave to continuity, he often forgot that just because something comes out in the same month, it doesn’t mean it happens at the same time.



The story was actually suggested by a fan and it shows—here, Tony visits the San Diego Comic Con of 1974 or 1975, and there are several in-jokes to fans and creators. On the one hand, its fun and even a little charming; but on the other hand, it’s a bit self-indulgent even more this knowledgeable comic book fans. It certainly disrupts the flow of the past several issues.



The real irritating part though is that Iron Man battles three big foes: the Melter, Whiplash and Man-Bull, the latter being more of a Daredevil foe (yet another Daredevil / Iron Man connection, as the 70’s seem rife with these). All of these have been taken seriously thus far in the stories and deservedly so; stories like this in which Iron Man takes out all three in a matter of pages lesson the villains in the fans eyes and take them down a notch. That should always be a big no-no. I hate when it happens and I definitely hated it here.



The Black Lama shows up as the mastermind, and I think he was kind of forced into the plot to make it flow with recent issues.



Vince Colleta returns for an issue to ink Tuska but unlike their past works, which were beautiful, this one didn’t seem to capture that feeling. I almost think this could have been an infamous Colleta rush-job. After this issue George Tuska again takes a very brief hiatus only to return for a third run (I can’t even really keep track of how many runs he’s had, only that he keeps Iron Man afloat for years and years).



All in all, I found the issue pretty annoying, though the fan saving the day at the end was charming (but obvious since a fan suggested the story).



----------



Iron Man #73 - At last Iron Man returns to Viet Nam (as stated above, it makes no sense he left for a week in the first place, but a fill-in issue was forced in the middle of a story, beginning a trend that will become increasingly annoying throughout 1975-1976 in Iron Man) to wrap up the Marty March / "Secret City in Viet Nam" subplot.



The plot itself is only okay, though its improved by the appearance of the Crimson Dynamo at long last. Where we left off in Archie Goodwin's run years earlier, Alex Niven had become the new Crimson Dynamo, and he was a fully developed character who now had a stong desire for revenge against Iron Man for the death of Janice Cord. Yet it took years to finally get around to a follow-up and now when they finally bring him back, its part of the "Titanic Three" in Avengers, with Titanium Man and Radioactive Man, which makes no sense at all, since Titanium Man actually is the one who killed Janice! Here, that concept is brushed over again, though it's at least mentioned (which actually makes it even more non-sensical as Niven fully realizes he's working with his beloved's killer). The Dynamo is used pretty well here as an enemy of Iron Man though he doesn't really add all that much to the story character-wise; in other words, just about any Iron Man enemy would have done the job.



Also, the Titanium Man should not be a part of this team--he was a big time A-list enemy of Iron Man's during Tales of Suspense. His inclusion here begins the long trend of his being increasingly more B-list.



The Avengers mention (and there will be another next issue) shows that Marvel was trying to make its various titles feel very tightly coordinated during this time. This would be the case with Avengers, Defenders, Cap, Iron Man, Captain Marvel, etc., though a few (like Thor & Spidey) seemed above this.



At long last Pepper mentions her not being able to get over Tony being Iron Man, many issues after she learned the identity. The bi-monthly schedule had taken its tole on Friedrich I bet. Still, at least that bit of continuity is touched up on, even if briely.



What is a more important new development is a new art team takes over from Tuska this issue and breaks up Tuska's long run once again: Arvil Jones and a young Keith Pollard, who apparently was his assistant. It's clear Jones is the artist but Pollard is doing a lot of the work, which explains his credit on the pages. I actually like the artist Pollard becomes by the end of the 1970's (on Thor, Spidey and elsewhere) but here is work is very rough--he's obviously got a long way to go. Meanwhile, Jones is only 'okay'; Jones will eventually be the only artist sporadically (without Pollard) during the chaotic next year+ of stories. His art goes from a clear Steranko influence (sometimes outright copying him) to aping Ditko to aping Kirby. Very shortly, the Letter's Pages would not be kind to him.



A few notable editorial developments:



Cover Logo

The top right of the cover, with an Iron Man logo, changes for the first time since the title began, going from the classic Steve Ditko pose from Tales of Suspense to the Iron Man busting out of chains pose that will last for a few yeasr.



Editorial at Marvel

March 1975 also marks the beginning of quite a number of changes at Marvel internally that will be just about non-stop from 1975-1978, marking a time of great turbulence and chaos at Marvel that will lead to all kinds of mismangement of titles. Roy Thomas steps down (forced out?) as EiC and made "Editor Emerritus" which is just a fancy title with no real meat to it, and focuses squarely on writing again; taking his place, but not given the full EiC title is Len Wein as "Executive Editor" of the colored comics books, as well as Marv Wolfman, who also gets the "Executive Editor" designation for the black & white magazines. From here it wil only get more mixed up (can't wait for your thoughts on this, Prof). Marvel was putting out so many titles by now that the editors were way over-stretched, which was compiled by the fact that they were all writers anyway and not really editors to begin with. Also noteworthy is around this time Chris Claremont begins doing more work for Marvel, beginning his ascendence as one of Marvel's more prolific writers.

Iron Man #74-75 - Friedrich finally gets to the big "Super-Villain War" story that has been hinted at for the last year beginning with #74, and it should have been a solid story running over the next few issues; ultimately it would not be, because of a series of fill-in issues right in the middle of the story, and the Black Lama plotline going totally into left field. However, for these first two issues, the story is actually pretty well done.

The story opens with Iron Man leaving his Avengers camrades right after the Celestial Madonna Saga came to a close in Giant-Sized Avengers #4 in a real nice bit of continuity, with Iron Man reflecting on the really epic scope of that storyline. This occurs just in time for Iron Man's solo series to go monthly again after a year+ of being on a bi-monthly schedule so it adds a little gravity to Iron Man focusing on his own problems again.

The story gets right into the Black Lama / Super Villain War with the Black Lama setting up a battle between Modok and the Mad Thinker, which plays out incredibly well over the next two issues. There are great battles, several twists and a few bait & switches that really make the story 'pop'. First, the Mad Thinker, with Firebrand, escape from prison together; this is a great reference to the prior Firebrand story but subtly hints that Firebrand will play an important part of this story by the time it's done. Meanwhile, the Black Lama arranges for Modok to battle the Thinker, and so the Thinker uses his intelligence to take control of the Iron Man armor to use as his pawn--and so, we're off. Iron Man battles Modok on behalf of the Thinker, only for the Modok to trace the signal back to the Thinker. He does so, battles the Thinkers second set of Androids (which are basically never seen anymore, the ones from FF #74), and eventually KILLS THE THINKER!

Now victorious, Modok now enters the 'finals' of the Lama's tournament and goes off to battle Yellow Claw, who had beaten the Mandarin. He uses too uses Iron Man as a pawn. Yellow Claw seems to get the upper-hand, but its revealed that the Iron Man is really an android. Thus, double-crossed, its revealed the Thinker who died was actually an android, leading to Modok's death! This nice bit of continuity explains how the Modok full body armor used previously in Hulk is destroyed. Yellow Claw, now knowing the Thinker is responsible, goes to battle him, where Iron Man is held captive. Iron Man breaks free (with help--see below) and beats first the Thinker, and then Yellow Claw, as the Black Lama basically then makes it so Iron Man is the victor--just in time for Firebrand to show back up after wandering around the last two issues to battle Iron Man. Whew! Talk about a complicated plot!

A few things:

- First, I like Modok quite a bit. He's one of those quintessential Jack Kirby off the wall creations and he's done well here. He's not quite on the level of the Mandarin or Red Skull, but just below, on the second tier of great Marvel villains.

- Second, I thought the Mad Thinker was used very well here, perhaps one of his best stories ever. Incredibly clever, and not just the double-cross. He had a secret HQ built just outside the prison, realizing he'd probably be caught one day eventually so when he escaped he'd have quick access to his machines. Brillaint! Seeing the Thinker battle Modok is also really cool given recent Hulk stories where the two were major players (and partners).

- Third, I realize I really don't like Yellow Claw at all as a villain. Cowardly, relying on machines & monsters, a rip-off of Fu Manchu...I find him highly annoying!

- Last, it was interesting to see flashbacks to Dr. Doom, Red Skull and Fu Manchu all telling the Black Lama that they had no desire to be in his tournament. Evidently, Marvel's cream of the crop were above this storyline, which reiterates that Marvel really over-promised on this storyline. Doom is still totally Marvel's #1 bad guy by his portrayal here. I also found it interesting Fu Manchu was included, which shows how popular Shang Chi had become at Marvel. Modok also mentions that he thinks recent reports of a "Dracula" were based on hysterical masses and he doesn't believe them, which was a cool referential bit.

Iron Man also mentions hearing about Iron Fist, and considers the similarity of their names. This shows (A) Marvel was indeed changing as Iron Fist became a more important character and (B) this was when Marvel still cared about stuff like similar names, as evidenced here and in the Thing v. Man-Thing battle in Marvel 2-1 #1.

The Black Lama subplot begins its approach to the endgame as we start to learn the Black Lama is more than just a mysterious mastermind but a being in serious trouble / pain who needs a champion to help him, which is his true motive for the tournament. The Black Lama is actually had become a pretty interesting character by now (though the ultimate reveal does not do it for me at all, but I'll review that when I get there).

There's a sequence where Iron Man is helped by a blond figure communicating with him via ESP. I thought this *had* to be Marianne and suddenly, I got really excited when I read it! Could they at long last follow-up on the Marianne dangling plotline after several years? It seemed to make total sense to me that the Black Lama and she would be connected and my first big thought was the Black Lama *IS* Marianne! (Not the case).

The art by Jones & Pollard transitions into just art by Jones here and its in these issues that he goes from aping Steranko to aping Kirby. In #74, the inking is by Dick Ayers, however, and Ayers really does a great job making the art much more enjoyable than it deserves to be.

Ads / Bullpen Bulletins
Marvel, now having become the #1 comic book company sales-wise, changes their old motto, which was "We may not be #1 but we try harder" (which they stole from Charleton anyway) to the new motto: "We are #1 and we still try harder!" Stan, who never missed a trick, must have been involved.

Iron Man #76 - And then, right in the middle of the Super-Villain War story, arrives a 'true fill-in' issue, and a reprint one at that! WTF?!! This begins a very distressing trend of multiple fill-in issues that will interrupt the final installments of the Super-Villain War / Black Lama Saga for months on end, drawing it out to the point where seeing it finished was more of a relief than an enjoyment.

This fill-in is the worst of them all as its a complete reprint of an earlier story, and quite a random one at that, the Hulk robot / Mandarin story by Archie Goodwin, George Tuska and Johnny Craig years earlier. Why? For the Hulk cover? Having the Mandarin, now dead, probably made no sense to readers picking it off the stands and it even ends on a cliffhanger! Ayaiyai.

Ads
The highlight of this issue actually was in the back of the comic--in the form of the Hostess Fruit Pie Ad! The first of the Hostess Fruit Pie Ads, a mainstay part of Marvel Comics for years in the late 70's (early 80's too?) begins in 1975. The first is with Captain Marvel, perhaps highlighting how popular Starlin had made him.

Marvel output
Marvel also kicks off their Treasury Editions during this time, publishing collected reprints of various characters. Perhaps the first true precursor to the TPB's which now dominate the market.

Iron Man #77 - We get back to the story once again, as it appears we're getting ever close (heh, not quite). Firebrand emerges as the unlikely victor of the Super Villain tournament after he shows up to see Iron Man beat the Thinker and then Yellow Claw, and then takes out a very de-energized and exhausted Iron Man. This twist, considering how great Firebrand has been, is all in all a pretty fun twist, although it really shows how the 'Super-Villain War' was nowhere near as epic as Marvel originally hinted at.

The story ends on a cliffhanger once again, with the Black Lama taking Firebrand to his 'dimension' with Iron Man rushing after them. By now the Black Lama has evolved from mastermind to semi-helpless individual in need of a champion which is a bit of a comedown (it will get worse). It's clear the Lama is not Marianne, which was dissapointing, and even more so because Marianne is not even mentioned by name despite being seen two issues ago and seems to be written out of the plot. I have to guess if this was Friedrich's intentions or if the editorial chaos and deadline doom caused him to change paths mid-story? Once again, the saga continues...

This is Arvil Jones last issue for his brief run as penciler and the mediocre art within underscores his run. Here he apes Kirby's style more than anything.

Editorial at Marvel
Editorial chaos at Marvel continues: Archie Goodwin returns to Marvel and replaces Marv Wolfman as Executive Editor of the b&w magazines, except for Crazy, which is edited by Steve Gerber (who was showing off his skills to do so with Howard the Duck around this time).

Iron Man #78 - Just as you think things are back on track to finish the Black Lama saga, yet another fill-in issue arrives! Its amazing the title survived at all during this time considering the inconsistency of it throughout most of the 1970's thus far! Today it would be cancelled without a second thought.

Yet...the story within is actually quite magnificent! An untold tale showcasing Tony's return to Viet Nam in the final years of the war, it is an absolutely superb story where Tony questions his role as a munitions maker--almost 'war monger'--and reaches the point where he decides from here on, he will not be a purveyer of death but instead will focus his energy, intelligence and company on peace. This is the quintessential story to showcase Tony's change of heart and his new philosophy, something that has become a powerful part of the Iron Man mythos ever since, and indeed, an important part of the recent Iron Man movies. It had been awkardly a part of the series for about 3-4 years, but here, it is at last clearly laid out.

The story is written by Bill Mantlo, who makes his first entry to Iron Man, and masterly so. Mantlo was a soild writer and this may be the best story by him I've ever read. Art is by the team of Tuska and Colleta who always were excellent together, and they just make the story even better. It really exceeds on every level: art, dialogue, plot, emotion. Excellent.

It ends with: "Dedicated to Peace". Tony even has a great monologue at the end: "...war is the condition that devolves all of mankind's gains...". What made the story work, and made it so powerful, was that is wasn't wishy-washy like before, and didn't have a 'bleeding heart' softness to it--it was unflinching and strong, forceful even.

Marvel Checklist
A checklist within shows that at this time Marvel had 67 color comics and 14 black & white magazines. No wonder there was so much chaos! Talk about being really over-stretched! Marvel was totally out of control in the 70's, having so many titles run amok.

Bullpen Bulletins
This issue, in August 1975, announced the death of longtime Marvel letterer and bullpen mainstay, Archie Simek. Whenever I read comics during this month, this announcement always makes me a little sad. Here is a story about Artie (and me). My father subscribed to the Comics Buyers Guide when I was a kid (and indeed, I now do and give it to him when I'm done). When I was 12-13, seeing that CBG had its annual awards with a full nomination voting ballot included with one of the issues, he allowed me to be the one to cast our votes for the 'Best __' in the industry. This was all the typical things you'd expect: writer, editor, penciler, inker, letterer, etc. I cast my votes on all my favorites though at that age, I honestly didn't have the knowledge to fill them all in (original graphic novel, etc.). When I got to Best Letterer, I only really knew of one letterer off the top of my head: Artie Simek, a name I'd seen hundreds of times in my youth when all I read over and over again were Silver Age Marvels.

This was 1992. I voted Artie Simek best letterer for the CBG awards, not realizing he died in 1975-76, which was 6 years before I was born. Hopefully he found it amusing where he is.

Iron Man #79 - in what is now bordering on the ridiculous, Iron Man #79 has yet another fill-in issue--the third so far in this story line. Honestly, this is outrageous. If it happened today, I think there would likely be a lynching.

The fill-in is a true 'fill-in' as I see them: a total rush job with a mediocre story mired in cliches. It's by the classic team of Friedrich, Tuska and Colleta, and knowing George & Vince had reputations for being really fast when they needed to, I bet this was banged out at the last minute. And actually despite a rush-job, the artwork is rather good!

The story, however, is pretty rubbish. Friedrich isn't always spectacular but he's rarely this bad so I really suspect a rush-job. It's a typical b-movie horror plot from the early 70's with tons and tons of cliches, including mad scientist and oofish goon, scary mansion on a rainy night and many other things. Even a stray cat saves the day. This is like a bad rip-off of a Hammer horror film. It's a big downer and one of the worst in awhile.

Bullpen Bulletins
The best part of the issue is that on the Bulletins page in big letters a major announcement is made: "THE KING IS BACK!!!" After close to a 7 year absence, Jack Kirby at last returns to Marvel for the final time in his career. Though his work during this period is relatively unknown when compared to so much of his output, it still was major news at the time considering Jack engineered such a large part of the then-popular Marvel U and famously left for DC (only to be mistreated there as well). For the most part, beyond his original Marvel creation, Captain America, Kirby's run at Marvel this time would continue to be focused on creating things and trying new things rather than same old, same old as so many 'new' creators were doing: 2001 Space Odyssey / Machine Man, Black Panther in a jungle adventure action series, The Invaders, The Eternals, even Devil Dinosaur. Kirby's mind remained expansive even this late in his career.

Stan's soapbox is all about Kirby, hiding the fact that the two were not on speaking terms at the time. Stan flat out admits Kirby co-created most of Marvel's creations though in later years Marvel would try to deny that for a time. Stan even hints that the two might try to work together (on the Silver Surfer no less, a bone of contention between them) but it never materialized--the animosity was too much to overcome. Part of that was Jack did a story with Roy Thomas on Fantastic Four in which Roy used a ton of Jack's FF and Thor creations and Jack did the story begrudginly--following it to a 'T' but doing no more than he was instructed to do. Roy would later say he never got to work with the 'real Kirby' of the 60's but only the '70's Marvel Kirby' who had felt cheated; what he meant was Kirby didn't want to work on his old creations because he frankly felt betrayed and they only reminded him of that betrayal; he only did was Roy was asked and no more. In a way it shows how different it was from when he was basically plotting everything.

The announcement came at the 1976 'Marvel Con' (I wonder if that is now a different Con?) when Stan made the announcement to a totally shocked and surprised crowd at a panel. Evidently the crowd went crazy and suddenly Kirby was walking up the aisle and sat next to Stan--the people there went ballistic! (This was still the height of 'Marvel Zombie-dom'. Man, that must have been crazy!

The Bullpen Bulletins page also mentions Howard the Duck for the first time. It's a bit ironic because the contention of Howard and Kirby's role (Destroyer Duck) in it would ultimately be the final straw in the permanent break-up of Kirby and Marvel in a few years.

Iron Man #80-81 - Finally, at long last after something like two full years (and actually quite a bit earlier in terms of the Black Lama himself), the Super-Villain War / Black Lama Saga comes to a conclusion! Honestly, after all the delays, my whole demeanor was about getting it done at last more than enjoying it. Such is what happens after so many fill-ins. I'm ready to just move on!

Kirby's return kicks off with several covers to let fans know he was back. Thus, he provides an Iron Man cover for the first time in a decade--and it's quite powerful with Iron Man flying through space (a la between dimensions as in the issue). Its very beautiful and it shows how much his style changed from just a few years earlier.

The story itself I found to be a big let down. All this time the mystery of the Black Lama has been highly intriguing. The ultimate reveal is that this is a bit of a typical 'other dimension' story in which Iron Man and Firebrand are pulled into the politics of another dimension (that I care nothing about) and the Black Lama is really not all that bad, having been driven crazy by dimension hopping, which kind of lets him off the hook with no real confrontation. Biiiig letdown!

Firebrand, whom I've liked, makes it a little better but even he seems to be written all wrong. The big 'out' is that both he and Tony are going crazy while in the other dimension so his being out of character fits in that way but that just makes it more annoying than anything. Same goes for Tony's internal monologue which Friedrich shows as "Madstark". Honestly, I just wanted it to be over.

The art is by a fill-in team, highlighting once again the creative chaos, of Chic Stone (usually an inker) with inks by ___. It's actually a very beautifully drawn story! The team seems to work well together and Stone has a very 1950's style that is very beautiful.

The story ends with Iron Man realizing it was indeed Marianne a few issues earlier who helped him, and the Lama was able to tap into her ESP to make her a part of it all. He swears he'll tie up the one last 'dangling plotline'. I'll believe it when I see it! I've been waiting for that dangling plotline to get tied up for awhile! I suspect Friedrich had intended to show Marianne wasn't crazy but it was the Lama and his connection through the ESP that was driving her crazy (since he was insane by being in the other dimension) but ran out of room to show it. I actually think the idea that the Black Lama could have been Marianne would have been a much better revelation and story! Does Len Wein ever follow-up on this? We'll see.

The issue ends with an announcement: Mike Friedrich is leaving and Len Wein is coming on as new writer, with a new penciler, Herb Trimpe (inker is unannounced and we'll see shortly that is an ever-changing job). Friedrich had been on for over 30 issues and since it was bi-monthly for a lot of the time, its something like 4 years or more. He actually did quite a few good things, though many times he did things I didn't think were so good. Still, so much of it was him having to work with what he had available and so much of the blame lies in Marvel's creative chaos. He did his best, but it was certainly a time for a new era--one with some consistency. (We'll see if that's the case). I wonder whatever happened to Mike Friedrich? For the life of me, I can't recall what he did next and if he stayed at Marvel any longer.

Len Wein coming on coincides with more editorial chaos at Marvel: Len stepped down as Executive Editor (essentially EiC without the title) as Marv Wolfman replaces him, (having just been replaced himself as Exec Ed of the b&w magazine line by Archie Goodwin). The chaos continues (and would keep right on). Len hereafter becomes very prolific at Marvel: he takes over Amazing Spider-Man from Gerry Conway, Thor from Gerry Conway (after Roy Thomas was going to do a run but pulled out after one issue--I've always wondered why?) and now Iron Man as well. He was also doing Hulk at this time with Herb Trimpe--Herb had been doing Hulk for years and years and was looking for something new to stimulate him I think.

Len had a knack for following up on other people's plots in Thor and ASM so maybe he'll address the Marianne subplot? Sometimes though, Len's execution of those follow-ups wasn't exactly as I'd prefer (Jane/Sif and various in ASM), so maybe I don't want him to? He also tended to drag those subplots out for years and years.

Something else else that happened during the end of Friedrich's run I forgot to mention was that 'Stark Industries' became officially 'Stark International', perhaps changing with the times as that was what more businesses were going with and being international had a certain cache. It's a subtle change but it kind of makes Tony feel like less of an engineer / manufacturer and more of a businessman...which is not always the best transition. The hard-working engineer (embodying the American spirit) was an important part of the Silver Age Iron Man series. The businessman notion, especially with what's to come in the Regan 80's is something that is quite different.

IRON MAN #72
http://www.comics.org/issue/28157/cover/4/

"The Death Squad" (it says here): Melter, Whiplash, Man-Bull. When you put something like this to fight a team of heroes, okay. Against ONE hero? Overkill. And, it has the bad side-effect of making them ALL look like 3rd-rate losers when they... lose. A real come-down for both Melter & Whiplash, who initally were shows to be very dangerous. I don't even know what Man-Bull's doing here.


"They also will tie-in Iron Man’s appearance with the Man-Thing in Giant-Sized Man-Thing #2 (perhaps the greatest title ever), so I’m almost suspecting that was the reason for the issue, since Roy Thomas was such a slave to continuity, he often forgot that just because something comes out in the same month, it doesn’t mean it happens at the same time."

Man-Thing is a title I've tried to avoid as best I can, as I got fed up with him or IT turning up in EVERY SINGLE FREAKIN' book Marvel put out at the time (even MASTER OF KUNG FU, for cryin' out loud!).

As for continuity, well, if someone was right, the "Zodiac" story fit before I.M. went to Viet Nam, and the entire THANOS story fit in between that and THIS one. Sheesh.

I'm reminded of Roy Thomas' 2nd run on FANTASTIC FOUR (which was a lot better than his 1st, perhaps due to the presence of Rich Buckler & George Perez). Roy had Ben "cured" of being The Thing, and using an "exo-suit" for when he needed to go into action. But NOBODY ELSE at Marvel was reflecting this, especially not in any issues of MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE, Ben's "solo" book. So Roy eventually threw up his hands and had Ben turned back into The Thing. Both F.F. and 2-In-1 had long-running plot-lines going AT THE SAME TIME, with no breaks in sight, making it cirtually impossible for 2 books coming out at the same time to TAKE PLACE at the same time.

In fact, carrying it to ridiculous extremes, about 25 different comics (or so) were figured out to fit IN BETWEEN 2 PANELS in the middle of one issue of F.F.-- the one with the Impossible Man. The F.F. return from a 5-part story in space, then with The Impossible Man, have a series of adventures involving The Frightful Four, Thundra, and others. And there was NO VISIBLE BREAK. Anywhere. But, because of the exo-suit, and because the F.F. wound up BREAKING UP at the end of the story (leading to a year-long story where they got back together at the end of it), 2 panels in the middle of that one issue was the ONLY place anyone could find to fit ALL those other comics in. Sheesh.

Just shows the problems with never-ending "soap-opera" format writing, especially when characters appear in more than one book at the same time.


"Vince Colleta returns for an issue to ink Tuska but unlike their past works, which were beautiful, this one didn’t seem to capture that feeling."

Yes, I have to admit, there have been some really nice Tuska-Colletta jobs over the years. But back then, when they were happening, MOST of them just irritated me. Tuska deserved better, heck, Colletta was capable of better. And sometimes, Tuska wasn't as good as HE should have been. But he definitely should have gotten better inks, at the least.


"After this issue George Tuska again takes a very brief hiatus"

Is THAT what it was? I don't think so!! At the time, it was a big SHOCK and virtual slap-in-the-face to readers. "Bad enough" (or maybe not) to have Tuska, but now, Tuska LEFT for other projects, and they were touting this NEW guy as the "NEW REGULAR" artist. Arvell Jones went down in 70's Marvel history as one of the WORST pencillers EVER, and generally, the inks were as bad OR WORSE than the pencils.

Interesting: LEN WEIN took over as Editor with IM #73, and suddenly, Tuska is replaced by Jones. The SAME month (I haven't looked it up, I'm just figuring), on CAPTAIN AMERICA, Sal Buscema (the most regular, dependable guy you could think of, who was probably doing the BEST work of his career) was replaced by FRANK ROBBINS (gasp!!!). Put those 2 together, you wanna scream, "WHAT WAS LEN THINKING?????"

These days I'm aware that back then, writers tended to be their own editors, responsible for the artists line-ups as well as the writing. But it's also VERY nboticeable in my own index charts that when a new guy takes over the "EDITOR" slot, wholesale changes tend to accompany it across the entire line. (This was never more obvious-- or WORSE-- than when Gerry Conway took over as Editor. Such a short stint, SO MUCH DAMAGE!!!)