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IRON MAN #73
http://www.comics.org/issue/28355/cover/4/


I notice that the corner box pic has been replaced. All this time, it had been a Jack Kirby pic, even though he hadn't draw the character since TALES OF SUSPENSE. hard to tell looking at the tiny online image who drew this new one.


I don't recall if I read the "death of Janice" story by the time this came out. Sometimes those coverless comics I'd pick up had been sitting around for YEARS before I'd get my hands on them. In retrospect, HELL YEAH, it makes no sense for the new Crimson Dynamo to be teamed up with Titanium Man. I always figured this "Titanic Three" (both here and in AVENGERS) somehow inspired the Paul McCartney song "Magneto And Titanium Man", which also featured The Crimson Dynamo, but it never made sense that Magneto was involved (other than the LYRICS sounded cool-- heh).


As far as I know, both Arvell Jones & Keith Pollard started out as Rich Buckler's assistants (as did George Perez-- I wonder how many others there were?). I'll have to take a look at these again sometime (it's been ages), but I don't recall any Steranko influence. Then again, I was shocked to see a powerful Steranko influence in early Craig Russell, as well, something I never noticed back then.

Arvell Jones, if memory serves, took over both IRON MAN and IRON FIST at the same time! (But, ironically, was long gone by the time those 2 "met"-- and, as usual, wasted half an issue fighting EACH OTHER.) Jones did MARVEL PREMIERE #20-22 (Jan'Jun'75), and IRON MAN #73-75 & 77 (Mar-Aug'75). Which means I'd probably already seen him on IRON FIST, and was shocked that such a new, "rough", "crude" guy was suddenly taking over one of Marvel's "big guns". But I guess that's a reflection of the period. The NEW books tended to get the most creative effort, the old soldiers from the 60's were just kept going, often without as much care as they deserved. (Jim Shooter is often cited for helping to restore the vitality of the 60's books, even as ALMOST ALL of the 70's books were eventually put to rest.)

Jones also worked on POWER MAN #30 (Apr'76) WITH both Buckler & Pollard. A rush-job fill-in in the middle of a 3-part story that had no less than 4 different pencilers-- that's gotta hurt, and was no way for Don McGregor to start off a run as writer.

Jones ended up at DC, where I saw his work on SUPER-TEAM FAMILY (a book best forgotten), but already I could see some improvement, although that could have been the inks. DC has a long track record of finding better inkers for a lot of pencillers whose stuff was murdered at Marvel. YEARS later, he turned up on ALL-STAR SQUADRON, and had finally become a decent penciller. But in the 70's, I ranked him with the likes of Frank Robbins, Bob Hall, and (briefly) George Perez. (Yes, I know... but Perez really WASN'T that good when he started. He just had a really astonomic climb!)


Keith Pollard was only listed on 2 of the 4 Jones issues of IRON MAN, first as co-penciller, then as assistant. He had his own climb, but while Perez put in tons of details, doing pencils so finished it may have seemed a waste to even ink them, Pollard did much looser layouts, so whoever did the inks ("finishes") often determind if his books looked GREAT (Joe Sinnott) or AWFUL (Pablo Marcos).

In between issues-- apparently-- the entire "KANG WAR II" (and III) and the beginning of the "We do seek out new Avengers" story took place. Oh yes-- George Tuska was doing THE AVENGERS (#135-140 / May-Oct'75).


You know... funny what occurs to you decades later... maybe Arvell Jones should have been drawing THE AVENGERS. I say this because, Steve Englehart's writing tends to be so good, NOBODY can "kill" it. But I think Mike Friedrich needed a lot more "help".


IRON MAN #74 / May'75
http://www.comics.org/issue/28569/cover/4/


"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."

Uh oh... what a bad time to do this, when they've got a new, untrained penciller doing TWO books at the same time. (No wonder #76 was a reprint-- and what should have been #78 came out not one but TWO issues late, with an entirely different penciller.)


IRON MAN #75 / Jun'75
http://www.comics.org/issue/28672/cover/4/


"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!"


The Yellow Claw had some interesting (if too-short) stories in the late 50's under Joe Maneely and then Jack Kirby (although it felt like two completely different characters when one replaced the other). Then Jim Steranko brought him back for what was probably his best story EVER... except, the ending (last 2 pages, really), in retrospect, almost destroyed the entire thing for me, and had both fans and pros argueing for yearts after as to if the "real" YC even appeared in that story at all, and if so, to what extent, or (briefly) if there even WAS a "real" YC at all.

Then a few years ago he came back again for a new story, which I found quite fascinating... UNTIL the last episode, which tried to undo DECADES of continuity with one of those "everything you THOUGHT you knew was a lie!" things. Is it any wonder these days I often just ignore decades of later comics and in some cases pretend they "never happened"?


"seeing it finished was more of a relief than an enjoyment"

WELL put! I think that sums up exactly how I felt at the time.

The Mandarin reprint was even worse as it was only one part of a multi-part story. With all those single-issue stories back then, this was the best they could come up with?

Len Wein probably had more "Dreaded Deadline Doom" reprints than any other editor. I recall when Marv Wolfman took over, he said his #1 goal was eliminating "deadline" reprints.


IRON MAN #77 / Aug'75
http://www.comics.org/issue/28898/cover/4/


"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."

You didn't mention that Chic Stone inked the last 2 issues!

IRON MAN #78 / Sep'75
http://www.comics.org/issue/29006/cover/4/


Great write-up on this. On my index, I've actually moved both #78 & 79 to before the "Super-Villain War", and if I ever get to re-reading them, that's probably where I'll do it-- especially since George Tuska pencilled both. As an aside, when George Tuska left POWER MAN, he apparently did at least 2 "inventory" stories like these, which sure enough, came in handy.

According to the GCD, this story "probably" takes place around TALES OF SUSPENSE #50. Say what???

Bill Mantlo is an often-under-rated writer, although a lot of his work isn't that great, but I do think his work on IRON MAN was some of his better stuff. It amazed me how he filled in, and filled in,m and KEPT filling in, until, apparently, it became obvious to SOMEBODY (Archie Goodwin?) that Mantlo was MORE DEPENDABLE than the guys he was filling in for. And so he took over the book, and did a solid, if unspectacular run. Ironically, it was only when George Tuska left for the FINAL time and some "flashier" artists replaced him that Mantlo seemed set to really explode... and THAT's when he was KICKED OFF the book, because a pair of ego-maniacs who'd just come over from DC REALLY WANTED the book.


Whenever I think about this, it bugs me. I know Michelinie & Layton were better than Mantlo-- that's not the point. Mantlo had done IRON MAN good, and he deserved better treatment. But then, the same thing happened on CAPTAIN MARVEL, when Archie Goodwin, Don Heck & Syd Shores were KICKED OFF the book, and before their single issue together even got to the printers. Just because GIL KANE actually wanted to do the damned thing... and as far as I'm concerned, he succeeded in SINKING it like nobody before him had.


Ah well. As to the Viet Nam story, it's a shame it didn't come out in between stories, instead of in the middle of one. It might have gotten a lot more notice, and respect. Pretty ironic when the FILL-IN is better than the regular storyline-- hmm?


IRON MAN #79 / Oct'75
http://www.comics.org/issue/29119/cover/4/


Oh my GOD, what a cover! Funny thing that just crossed my mind, with I.M. in the foreground, and the villain AND some girl in the background, this reminds me of a really bad redo of SUSPENSE #41...

http://www.samcci.nostromo.no/suspense/TOS%20041.jpg

I've probably said it before, but I CAN'T shake the feeling that this one-time baddie "Dr. Strange" really seems to me to have been INTENDED as The Yellow Claw... except (I'm guessing) Stan wanted to put the 50's behind him. (It's been suggested that YC only returned because Stan had nothing to do with it-- and then, at the end of that story, we find out it wasn't the YC after all... which makes me STRONGLY suspect those final 2 pages were STAN's fault-- interfering where it just wasn't called for.

Pardon my ramble.


"I bet this was banged out at the last minute"

I bet Mike & George did it when George decided to leave the book, BEFORE Arvell Jones took over, just in case Arvell blew a deadline. VINCE COLLETTA probably inked it over a weekend when it was needed!

Of course, one does wonder, HOW come either of these fill-ins wasn't used instead of that REPRINT in #76. So... hmm, maybe these were done late? Then again, if Mike, George & Vince could knock out an entire issue that fast, WHY woudln't they have done the "main storyline" instead? I saw this happen at least twice. ON BLACK PANTHER, right after Rich Buckler came back to take over, he BLEW the deadline for his 2nd issue. Decades later, I found out Buckler had actually PENCILLED the entire issue! But-- his art was not used at all-- instead, his assistant, Keith Pollard, RE-pencilled AND inked the entire issue, which came out a full 2 months later (following a reprint).

Meanwhile, Keith Giffen's last 2 issues of DEFENDERS apparently consisted of pages he drew for ONE episode, while at least HALF of the remaining pages were done by others. Keith apparently pencilled both issues-- pencil pages did turn up somewhere-- but weren't used. He was FIRED from Marvel as a result, and described in an interview how he wound up selling vacuum cleaners door-to-door. (THE HORROR!!!)


"This is like a bad rip-off of a Hammer horror film"

More like it one of the smaller studios or independant producers. (Al Adamson???)


"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."

I know that Stan & Jack did the SILVER SURFER graphic novel, but the whole thing seemed at total cross-purposes, and disappointed me at the time becuase it was NOT part of the regular M.U. (I suppose it was intended to help try and sell an SILVER SURFER movie. Decades later, the 2 F.F. movies seem to exist for no reason except to do The Silver Surfer in the 2nd film. Even Galactus got badly treated.)

I hadn't heard that Kirby did a story with Roy Thomas. I know that Jack DID NOT WANT to work with ANY other writers, UNLESS he was supplied with a full script, which of course, is not how things were done at Marvel back then. Even Roy Thomas, who was clearly more of a "writer" than Stan Lee could ever claim to be, apparently enjoyed working with artists who could take a rough plot and "flesh it out". But Jack wanted none of that. He wanted to WRITE his own stories, including dialogue (as far too many times his own stories had been completely twisted and distorted by others' dialogue-- almost always Stan's), and if not, he insisted that any other writer DO THE WORK they're gonna get credit and pay for. Sounds reasonable to me.

"Pretty ironic when the FILL-IN is better than the regular storyline-- hmm?"

No kidding! Thinking about it again for a moment...whew, I'm glad it's over! Getting the supver-villain war / Black Lama story had become a marathon with no end in sight.

You have a ton of interesting tidbits in your last few posts about deadlines, fill-ins and other titles at the time! The idea that Tuska and other 'ol reliable' types did inventory stories is very solid and is backed up by a later letters page in #83 where they tell a letter-writer that is indeed the case. Tuska deserves some sort of metal for bailing out Iron Man more times than I can count in the 70's.

I had no idea about the confusing Yellow Claw history. Yeesh!

I'm still in the phase where I honestly have no clue what is to come in the coming issues--story wise, creative team wise, anything! All I know is with Len Wein at the helm, you never know what to expect...it could be a really great story that does justice to great characters & continuity, or it could be a really out there story that totally ignores/writes off the bits he doesn't like.

I think Iron Man, being part of Marvel's modern trinity (I think Iron Man= Mind, Captain America= Body, Thor= Soul) is appropriate to put against groups of villains. Thor's Wrecking Crew is a decent example of this.

IRON MAN #80 / Nov'75
http://www.comics.org/issue/29227/cover/4/


JACK KIRBY had returned! I believe this may have been the very 1st new cover of his I saw. LOVED it then, still do. (Shame about the nose.) Too bad they have such a wretched scan of it at the GCD. I plan to eventually set up a gallery at the SA Marvel site for ALL of Kirby's 1970's covers.


IRON MAN #81 / Dec'75
http://www.comics.org/issue/29322/cover/4/


Ron Wilson & Joe Sinnott (it says here), not bad, but a come-down from the previous cover. They would eventually team to do a couple issues of FF during one of George Perez' increasingly-long stretches of blowing deadlines from taking on too many projects at the same time. A bad habit he picked up from Rich Buckler, and one he woudln't lose until HE got fired from Marvel, and wound up at DC, first on JLA, then, TITANS.


Chic Stone & Vince Colletta weren't bad. Not great, just not bad. Back during his one year at Marvel in the 60's, Stone wanted to do pencilling, but Stan wouldn't let him-- he only wanted him on inks. I haven't read if this was because Stan didn't like Stone's pencils, or (more likely) because Stone "only" wanted to pencil, not PLOT his own stories. This is what limited Jim Mooney & George Tuska's pencilling back then, until they could team up with writers who actually liked to-- you know-- WRITE.


"Does Len Wein ever follow-up on this?"

Do you really want an answer?


"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."

Mike published a fanzine called STAR REACH, and used that same name as a company name for publishing other things. My understanding is, he became an "agent", and perhaps his most famous involvement was with his old friend Jim Starlin, in helping to set up the contracts that saw MARVEL GRAPHIC NOVELS, EPIC ILLUSTRATED and EPIC COMICS. With the explosion of the "Direct Market" in the early 80's, many smaller publishers sprouted up, and quite a number of THEM were interested in working with known, established talent. To do so, they had to offer them BETTER deals than "the big two" had EVER given anybody in their entire MOB-run-inspired existences. As a result, Marvel & DC had to start offering better pages rates, and better deals in general, to attract talent who had become increasingly disenchanted working for what might be deemed "creative extortionists". (Maybe that's a bit harsh... but maybe not.)


I think it was right when Gerry Conway left Marvel to go to DC (Marvel refused to give him a contract as good as Roy Thomas) than Len Wein stepped in to take over the "top" books, F.F., HULK, THOR, SPIDER-MAN and IRON MAN, all as Writer AND Editor. (Which, presumably, he was already used to, only now, he was getting credit for it-- perhaps pay as well?) He stayed on Spidey for 3 whole years, effectively writing only one real story that he stretched out for 3 WHOLE years. During that time, the art team of Ross Andru & Mike Esposito sunk to unbelievable depths of awfulness. It's no wonder Frank Giacoia & others helped out so much.


THOR started out nice, as you say, he had a way of following up on others' plots. The "Odin comes to Earth" story had ended, but Len wrote a sequel whereby it was discovered he was kidnapped on his way back to Asgard-- and replaced by the Mangog. After that, about a YEAR-long "quest" story began to find the missing Odin. I loved the Buscema-Sinnott team, but when Tony DeZeuniga took over pencils & inks, I thought it was awful, and remained so until Walt Simonson replaced Buscema on the layouts. There was ONE issue in there finished by Joe Sinnott that was SO good, it made me wish the entire run had been Simonson & Sinnott. Len ended his run by bringing Thor back to Earth for some "back to basics" stories, before turning it over to Roy Thomas for another LONG run.

Len started out magnificently on HULK, picking up and finishing the plot-threads left by others going back more than a year before he got there. It was like walking in on the last half-hour of a movie. But once the whole mess with The Gremlin was settled, it became clear to me Len had NO IDEA what to do with the book... but he STUCK AROUND anyway. Trimpe reduced to layouts under Joe Staton, then was replaced by Sal Buscema. I view the Sal-Joe team as possibly the all-time low point of HULK art, but I've seen far, far worse since. Things got a lot better when Ernie Chan took over on finishes, and even Len's writing seemed a lot better by that point. But I was so glad when he finally left, replaced by Roger Stern.

F.F. started out with a blast, no doubt helped along by George Perez, but then they began a year-long "break-up" story and both Len AND George left only a couple episodes in! Marv Wolfman & Keith Polard took over, but Joe Sinnott was missing for quite a few months, and it didn't really get goo until they neared FF #200.

IRON MAN, like SPIDER-MAN, seemed to have so much hope & promise with Len's 1st issue. But it fell apart just as fast, and Len wound up only doing 4 issues-- the last 2 dialogued by Roger Slifer. I suppose he realized he was over-booked.


"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."

All too true of America IN GENERAL over the last 30+ years. When ACCOUNTANTS begin running the show, it's an inevitable slide downward to doom for everyone. the film EXECUTIVE SUITE pointed this out before I was even born, and I believe every single person in this country, especially anyone involved in business, should be REQUIRED to watch that movie. The best line in the film sums up the state of all that's wrong with business in general in this country. "You can't expect people to work JUST for money." Most people just accept things as "the way things are"-- and you can SEE where it's got us to.

Executive Suite is one of my all time favorite movies! TCM still occassionally shows it. It's William Holden's best perfomance ever IMO (better than even Bridge on the River Kwai, where he was also excellent) and you pretty much nail it as to why its so good, so I wont repeat. Agreed--everyone involved in business should be required to watch it (and as someone who works in big business in Manhattan, London, etc., I see first hand how true that is).

Sad to hear Len's run will be so brief. I'm scared for what's to come then with more creative chaos.

I've heard when Gerry left, his biggest supporter was actually Roy! Apparently by this time Roy had begun to get fed up with Marvel too but stuck around to do some more 'dream runs' of his, like on Thor, which he always wanted to. He pulled for Gerry to get a similar contract and was dissapointed when it didn't happen. Meanwhile, the best thing Gerry could have done was switch companies at this point--his creation of Firestorm (so obviously inspired by his Firelord character) remains one of the very best post-Silver Age comic book creations ever.

I read Len's Thor run last year in its entirety. It's really not bad at all but its not all that great. There are some nice bits and some annoying bits and he had an awful habit of dragging things out in Thor (moreso than even Spider-Man in my opinion).

The Walt / Sinnot issue is really that incredible. I was stunned when I realized I was reading a Walt Thor story before, you know, Walt did his big Thor run. His art was as incredible as ever--it took place entirely in space during what was basically a pretty mediocre story, and his depictions of aliens and machinery make the issue SO much better than it deserved to be.

My feelings regarding Len's Spider-Man are more positive than yours but I've always recognized that I hold most of Spider-Man's history in much higher regards than perhaps is justified. Len had a knack for doing stories that really didn't fit in anywhere, like the Spidey / Nightcrawler / Punisher story with the Hitman but actually were pretty good. He also had a knack for retelling old stories in a way that just didn't have the same gravitas as the original, like the Kingpin / Spidey battle, the third Mangog story and others.

EXECUTIVE SUITE is definitely my favorite William Holden movie by a mile. I've seen a number of his in the last decade, like STALAG 17, HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD, THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI and NETWORK, but EXECUTIVE SUITE, despite a slow start, just grabbed me in a way I couldn't quite fathom. And then, the climax, the board room scene... WOW. It actually brought TEARS to my eyes watching it.

An actor who I knew nothing about but became a fave of mine in the last decade was Ronald Colman (who apparently was one of the inspirations for Dr. Strange!). I put his film RANDOM HARVEST in the same category, although it's really only a small subplot within the entire film that concerns business. His family runs a factory, and he helps settle a strike, and stays to run the place. He does this becuase he believes his family has a RESPONSIBILITY to all their workers AND THEIR FAMILIES. This is the kind of sense of "community" that is just missing from "business" these days.

For this kind of thing to become more commonplace, it would take the effort of many people, but, I feel, ESPECIALLY, those on the side of management. Things have just broken down too much, and civilization itself may be at stake if it isn't corrected. (I often feel as if most people cannot see the "big picture" the way I try to.)


"Sad to hear Len's run will be so brief. I'm scared for what's to come then with more creative chaos."

Let me just say, BILL MANTLO was the one who ended the "chaos". Yes. MANTLO!


"I've heard when Gerry left, his biggest supporter was actually Roy! Apparently by this time Roy had begun to get fed up with Marvel too but stuck around to do some more 'dream runs' of his, like on Thor, which he always wanted to. He pulled for Gerry to get a similar contract and was dissapointed when it didn't happen. Meanwhile, the best thing Gerry could have done was switch companies at this point--his creation of Firestorm (so obviously inspired by his Firelord character) remains one of the very best post-Silver Age comic book creations ever."

My feeling about Conway's writing is, I think he was pretty BAD when he started, but got MUCH better by the time he left. His 1st time at DC, he worked on a number of projects, including the revival of ALL-STAR COMICS with the JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA (and the "SUPER-SQUAD"), and created one of my favorite female heroes, POWER GIRL! When I re-read the Thomas & Conway F.F. run, it struck me that while PG was intended as the "Earth-2" Supergirl (who herself was DC's answer to Mary Marvel), she almost came across as Gerry's answer to Roy's THUNDRA (between her name and red costume with lightning bolt, yet another of Roy's endless obsessions related to "Captain Thunder", the intended-but-never-used name of "Captain Marvel"). Twisted?

I really enjoyed FIRESTORM (with Al Milgrom) and STEEL (with Don Heck & Joe Giella), both from Gerry's much-longer 2nd DC period, after he came back to Marvel-- briefly-- screwed over everybody, then ran back to DC when it didn't work out. Roy denies there was any of this in there, more a case of Gerry becoming his own worst enemy at the time, but I always had the impression Gerry's entire brief run as Editor was a matter of "revenge". Or something. (Note, Roy & Gerry were both involved in the creation of MS. MARVEL-- Marvel's "answer" to POWER GIRL. Hah!!!)


"I read Len's Thor run last year in its entirety. It's really not bad at all but its not all that great. There are some nice bits and some annoying bits and he had an awful habit of dragging things out in Thor (moreso than even Spider-Man in my opinion)."

I did like the initial 4-part time-travel story, though the ending was one of those time-paradox things that NEVER makes any sense. The WARRIORS THREE one-shot was FUN, and I still have a zeroxed panel from that on my wall all these decades. ("Barkeep! A flagon of thy finest mead. My comrades and I are on a great and noble quest, and we seek refreshment." "WHOOPIE.")

The Mangog story seemed a bit long, but the Odinquest just went on FOREVER!


"The Walt / Sinnot issue is really that incredible. I was stunned when I realized I was reading a Walt Thor story before, you know, Walt did his big Thor run. His art was as incredible as ever--it took place entirely in space during what was basically a pretty mediocre story, and his depictions of aliens and machinery make the issue SO much better than it deserved to be."

I got the feeling John Buscema was bored out of his mind (I sometimes got that feeling EVEN on CONAN), so when Walt Simonsons took over, it was a HUGE improvement. I think Simonson was the one thing that made the "WALL AROUND THE WORLD" story more interesting than it deserved to be. I just wish someone other than Tony DeZuniga had been doing the finishes. Imagine if that entire storyline had been pencilled & inked (over Walt's layouts) by Sinnott.

When Roy came back, he brought John Buscema AND Tom Palmer with him (at first). It was the classic AVENGERS team reunited, for about half a year, anyway. ("The New Original Thor"-- shameless in-joke reference to Lynda Carter's WONDER WOMAN.)


I'm afraid it was the Len-Ross-Mike team that made me STOP buying SPIDER-MAN for the first time. I did eventually come back, a few months before they left, for the "3rd Green Goblin" story. Jim Mooney had taken over inks, and Len, of course, was FINALLY getting to what he'd spent 3 entire years building up to. Shortly after, I was told, some editor gave Mike Esposito HELL foir spending more time at the race track than at his drawing board, and for about the next year or two, he did the BEST work he'd done in abouta decade. It was great! Of course, the quality dropped off again eventually, which was sad, because clearly you could see the guy was capable of so much more than he was usually doing.

My biggest beef with Len was turning MJ into a "typical B**** girlfriend". At another board, I had someone argue this point with me, bringing up MJ's actions during the Green Goblin "drug" storyline. I had never read that at the time of Len's run. I lay the blame for that squarely on GIL KANE, who just seemed to turn every book he ever worked on into a high-tension nightmare.

A big and ever-growing problem I see with corporate-owned characters whose series just go on FOREVER is, anything that happens-- "HAPPENED". Writers change, different writers write characters WRONG. But instead of ignoring it when it happens, later writers are expected to incorporate anything that happens-- no matter how "WRONG" into characters permanent history. The more this goes on, the more twists and turns and back-flips later writers have to go thru to try and "explain" seeming inconsistencies. Hey, lok what Ron marz did to "explain" or "reconcile" the two COMPLETELY CONTRADICTORY versions of the Silver Surfer in the 60's-- and he did it in the late 80's!! That's just NUTS.

So, to bring it back to Spidey, Gil Kane shows MJ acting ROTTEN, so it's "okay" for Len Wein to do the same, even though we didn't see any of this in between (except for the "fake Vulture" story when her life was in danger). To me, the "real" MJ will always be the one JOHN ROMITA did in the mid-60's.


It never fails to amaze me how much I can get worked up about stuff like this!

I’ve had a piece of paper with scribbled notes on it for a week and a half in my briefcase and it will be good to get it all typed!

Iron Man #82-83 - The arrival of the new creative team of Len Wein & Herb Trimpe truly feels like a fresh start with #82 in a number of ways and given the recent inconsistency since way back when Archie Goodwin left several years earlier, and the very recent chaos of fill-ins and a never-ending plot (which was coming out bi-monthly for a long time), it actually really does feel like a new era. This is really more Len Wein than Herb Trimpe, which I'll get to in a minute.

Len Wein had been around for awhile but its right around now in 1976 that he really becomes profilic at Marvel. He takes the reins of Amazing Spider-Man, Thor and Iron Man all at the same time and really puts his mark on all three, whether good or bad. Of the three, none needed a new direction more than Iron Man. Len comes in and really kind of gets things back on track immediately with a few tricks.

One thing he did that wasn't really needed: he begins the story 15 minutes after the last year+ long saga ended! He should have said it was weeks or months or something since the last 15 issues took place in two days!

The artwork in #82 is clearly the work of Herb Trimpe and it has a very nice Silver Age feel to it--good enough in fact that I suddenly want to reread his Incredible Hulk run because I don't remember it being this good. #83, however, is clearly very little influenced by Trimpe--Marie Severin is the inker but is given the credit as 'artist' because she clearly does almost the entire issue! Trimpe may have done rough layouts or something but her very distinct style is scene throughout. And it's actually quite good! Her style has never really been used on Tony before (outside of a cover here or there) so its a welcome change of pace. It actually looks very '1990's' in a way.

Within the story, Len goes to great pains to re-establish the tone of the series before moving on to the two part plot. He first reintroduces Pepper and Happy after several issues missing and then adds a bit to them: first, Pepper is showcased as very much 'the business brains behind the operation' for the very first time--the person really running things. This over the decades has become very much a part of Iron Man lore and was the way she was portrayed in the movie. I always wondered when this began and #82 is very clearly the first time. I think this role works quite nicely for her and I like that her character has grown so strongly over the years.

Happy is also firmly reintroduced as Tony's close friend and confidant with a happy marriage to Pepper, which is a welcome bit. Within the story, Happy subs in as Iron Man so IM can be seen along side Tony at his party (more on that shortly) and its a role I like for him quite a bit, and a natural one after the original story where Happy found out Tony was Iron Man and subbed in for him back in Suspense. Naturally, Happy is pulled into a battle later, and being untrained, gets his rear end handed to him. Future covers tell me this is going to result in yet another Freak story (the fourth!)...making me wonder did they really need to back to the well one more time with that bit? But I haven't gotten there yet.

Wein also introduces Abe Klein, a new character, which is very welcome, as Iron Man could use a few new characters in a big way. He's Tony's old engineering professor, who Tony admires very much, and in need of a job, Tony hires him. I honestly know almost nothing about this character, or at least don't remember him, so I'm excited to see another addition to the cast.

Len then kicks off the issue with Tony having a party at his swanky bachelor pad for the Iron Man Foundation, which is a charity for inner city children. I can't remember if the IMF was introduced prior, but its a very good idea and very much in the comic book tradition of rich superheroes having numerous charities. The idea of a party itself as a way to kick off Len's run on a series is actually something he was doing at the exact same time in Spider-Man! The parrallel is enough where I actually sat back--and there would be many other similiarities between his two runs (concurrent runs that is) that were noticable. Just like in ASM, Len uses this to reintroduce all the characters and slowly ease the reader into his run, he hits all those beats here. It also shows Tony in a tuxedo with a white jacket, a very 1960's look that is very complimentary for Tony Stark--very well done by Herb and later Marie that adds a little something extra to the issue.

At the party, Roxie Gilbert, Tony's love interest is reintroduced after several issues of only being referenced and Len does something interesting: throughout their 'courtship', Roxie has continually talked about how Tony was a basically a war-monger and is surprised that he is 'changing'. It's actually become a bit annoying, especially since Tony believes her and that kind of invalidates his heroism from 1963-present. Here, Len has Tony give her a bit of a stern 'talking to', not exactly telling her off but kind of saying 'enough is enough--I've always cared about people' (shown by explaining the IMF has been around for years). It's a nice way of showing Tony not being pushed around anymore.

Len also introduces another new character, Michael O'Brien, who is Kevin O'Brien's brother. Even though the character is clearly added to cause Tony & cast all kinds of trouble, I like his inclusion because finally someone is referencing Kevin O'Brien! There was practically no mention of him since his death a few years earlier--this issue really serves as a way to tie the whole series back together after so many years of being lost (now if they only included Eddie March). Michael punches out Tony, blaming both Tony & Iron Man for his brother's death and the next issue we learn he is a cop. Yes, he'll definitely be a problem.

The party took up more than half the issue and the rest gets into the plot of the Super-Apes attacking Iron Man (Happy) and kidnapping Tony which leads to the obvious revelation of the Red Ghost being behind it (much like the obvious revelation of the Shocker being the bad guy who breaks up Spidey's party). He's stuck in ghost form after his most recent appearance in Defenders, which shows how throughout the first 20 years or so, he must have had at least one appearance a year *somewhere* in the MU. Having battled Iron Man previously, he's a natural fit here, and one of those Marvel villains with no true nemesis that works well in just about every title. Len actually would do a similar story where Hammerhead was stuck in ghost form (albeit, a real ghost) in Spidey in a few months...yet another crazy parrallel. The Red Ghost bit isn't anything extraordinarly original but at the same time, its very well done in showcasing a solid villain for Iron Man and a way for Tony Stark to show off his ingenuity and Iron Man to showcase his power--a good opening to Len's run by focusing on these two things.

Letter's Page
Possibly by mistake or possibly on purpose, the Letter's Page for #82 & #83 are duplicates. It contains two letters regarding the earlier Viet Nam story where Tony decides to become a man of peace instead of war (which I loved), each one with opposing sides. It really was a controversial topic during this era!

Bullpen Bulletins
I found it noteworthy that Marvel announced during this time two new series: Marvel Premiere and Marvel Chiller, and are quite forthright about their intentions to have the stars of those series respectively be the Guardians of the Galaxy (by Gerber, where he'll introduce Starhawk for the first time) and Tigra (recently transformed from her former role as the Cat). But in a weird twist, neither lead series will begin until issue three of each respective series--instead, the first two issues will be 'tryouts' for Ulysues Bloodstone and Mordred the Mystic! Say whaaat? Sure, Marvel, sure. This was obviously yet another editorial blunder / screw up where a title was launched way too soon and had to be filled up, showcasing yet again the normal chaos at the Marvel editorial offices during the 1970's. It makes no sense to do that, in a way putting all four new features at a disadvantage and no doubt someone, somewhere, screwed up.


Iron Man #83-84 – Following Happy’s recent injuries while Iron Man, he naturally becomes…the Freak! But really, this is the fourth Freak story (the third with Happy) and it kind of feels a bit unnecessary at this point. Len and other mid-70’s Marvel writers had a tendency to go back to the well one time too many for the wrong stories (as opposed to say, numerous other characters that deserved a follow-up but took years to get). There is some action & drama but it all feels a bit generic because we’ve read this story before…twice.

This marks the end of Len Wein and Herb Trimpe’s brief run, which had so much promise when it was announced. Roger Stilfer basically writes the story anyway, and Marie Severin’s inks obviously are doing most of the work for the bare bone pencils I expect Trimbe had put down. Following this there is some more creative chaos—but actually not in a bad way! This time, at least, some Iron Man creators with excellent track records shift the title around before it finally finds its way.

Within the story, Roxie Gilbert is again very bitchy and abrasive. I get the sense now that rather than Tony gaining equal ground with her, Len had intended to write her out of the series completely! I see a very strong similarity with her treatment here and Len’s treatment of Mary Jane in Spider-Man. I wonder with Len’s exit what will happen with her.

The story also serves as an excuse for Iron Man to ‘build new armor’, which basically amounts to losing the goofy nose on the face mask. Len took great pains to give an in-story reason, but I would have settled for one panel of Iron Man saying the nose was stupid. I’m just glad the ‘nose phase’ is over.

Hereafter there appears to be a tendency to have a series of 2-parters. Often times, these two-parters could have been sufficient as a one-parter but that was Marvel’s approach at the time.

Letter’s Page
Someone in the letter’s page asks what the status of Madame Masque (such an important part of the series a few years earlier), Spymaster (a great mystery with no follow-up) and Sitwell have been up to. Sitwell especially is jarring since he had to go the hospital in like issue #34 and never came home! Iron Man may be the king of dangling plotlines for the early 70’s Marvel.

Ads
The big ad of the day—perhaps the whole 1970’s—arrives: Spider-Man vs. Superman!!! This must have been so huge back when it appeared, as the very idea of it was so surprising. What it really shows is that at long last after Marvel’s incredible climb in the 60’s is there was truly now a ‘Big 2’ in the comic book industry rather than the ‘Big 1’ of the early 60’s after Dell’s gradual decline.

Marvel Checklist
The checklist returns here, which is something I like to see. They are even more ambitious than before, having the checklist be weekly. The next several issues show that sometimes they had their act together editorially and could fit it in, and sometimes they just were too pressed for time.

Iron man #85-86 – The Blizzard debuts, or rather, returns in what is actually a very solid story where everything just works! Writer Bill Mantlo comes on again and proves once again he really knows how to write one heck of an Iron Man story, just like a year earlier. And the ol’ reliable art team of Tuska and Colleta return for one round of final stories on Iron Man. The art is fantastic and the writing is great. The story just worked, much like this team’s last story, and felt like a classic Iron Man adventure from yesteryear.

The Blizzard is the former Jack Frost from way back in the early Tales of Suspense (the issue that introduced Pepper and Happy to be precise) and his return is very welcome. By having ‘the Blizzard’, it was a great callback to yesteryear while also providing a modern, serious enemy for Iron Man. The Blizzard here is smart, capable and very clever, as well as very powerful. Much like Whiplash, the Melter and other prior Iron Man foes, in his initial appearance, the Blizzard is a serious threat and definite A-lister. Like those other villains, however, lesser writers will have him beaten more easily over the years on a consistent basis until he starts to feel like a loser to readers. Stupid.

In a weird way, the way the Blizzard is drawn by Tuska and Colleta absolutely looks like the way Ron Frenz draws most of his heroes and villains (pose-wise), as well as a little 80’s Sal Buscema-ish. It’s so noticeable its noteworthy.

The story is very strong and takes place at Stark International, with security guards, plant workers, etc. It reminds me of how great this setting is and why it should be continually used as it was in the Silver Age, since no other series has it. There is some great potential to be utilized (though it shouldn’t be destroyed everytime some villain shows up).

George’s pencils get Pepper right for the first time in ages. I didn’t realize how wrong she was being drawn until George reminded me of the right way.

Iron man #87-88 – Following Bill Mantlo is perhaps the writer I wanted to see most of all back on the title, Archie Goodwin! Even better, Tuska and Colleta stay on for another story, so Goodwin & Tuska feel like old times—if only Johnny Craig could have inked the story. Still, Colleta does a good job inking, and the story is written and drawn very well throughout.

The story features the Blood Brothers, as Marvel was still riding high on Starlin’s Captain Marvel. As I said earlier, these characters bore me, but Goodwin makes the actual battle more interesting than the enemies Iron Man is battling. He also includes Daredevil (who also had a history with the Starlin Captain Marvel saga), and its cool to see Iron Man and Daredevil team-up once again, keeping alive the tradition of Iron Man and Daredevil being very linked together in the 1970’s. The story is a basic two-part battle but Archie & George utilize their talents to make it exciting, much the same way George Perez is able to do.

The story also exits Pepper and Happy from the series following Happy’s injuries—mirroring the first time they exited the series at Archie’s hands! I wonder if he purposely wanted to get rid of them from the series now that they were married? Being responsible twice just feels like it can’t be coincidence. Its too bad because it finally felt like they found their role in Tony’s life post-love triangle. The sequence is well done however, with a rainy background helping express the mood.

Over the last few issues the creators keep showing how Tony’s armor folds up now that its been upgraded. It actually feels kind of kooky in how effortless it is and I’d rather not see it. I’d prefer no explanation given than a kooky one that makes no sense.

Good to see Abe Klein again, as it felt like he was introduced and then quickly forgotten. Meanwhile, Roxie Gilbert goes on a date with Michael O’Brien only to tell him off when she realizes what he’s doing (trying to anger Tony). It’s a good scene for Roxie after Len had been pushing her towards being annoying beyond redemption.

I also notice George & Vince have a tendency to draw extremely attractive women in the backgrounds in a very elegant late 50’s/early 60’s manner. I wish women like that walked around me all day.

The story ends with a cliffhanger as one of Archie & George’s great additions to the Iron Man universe prepares to return next issue, the Collector. This will be the final Archie story for this brief return and it will also be George’s last story in his amazing run from the late 60’s throughout the 70’s (he probably turns back up again on the title I suspect but I don’t think for another ‘run’). It’s odd to think of Tuska leaving the title for good since he’s become such an important part of it; Iron Man the character owes him a debt that can never be repaid. I seriously think if not for Tuska, there would be no Iron Man comic anymore, and he’d have gone the route of the Sub-Mariner and Captain Marvel.

Bullpen Bulletins
Marvel welcomes to its ranks two new creators: Jim Shooter and Roger Stern, and the two will bring such a change to Marvel in the late 70’s and 80’s that its unimaginable to think of Marvel history without them. It’s also noteworthy that Shooter replaces Chris Claremont as editor so Claremont can focus on writing X-Men, Iron Fist, Black Goliath and other comics. Within a few short years Claremont would be arguably Marvel’s most prolific writer!

IRON MAN #82
http://www.comics.org/issue/29470/cover/4/

Another lousy Kane-Giacoia cover, with too much text and in inaccurate title blurb. Sheesh.

I really welcomed Len & Herb's arrival on the book. Tuska had been getting bad inks, Jones was a joke (and Pollard disappeared very quickly) and Stone... just didn't do it for me. Whenever I look back, I feel that Herb Trimpe's BEST art was during the last year or so on HULK, but before the arrival of Joe Staton when he cut back to only doing layouts. Herb's inks had gotten very polished (if a bit harsh & brutal), but the issues inked by Jack Abel were stunning to behold. See Trime-Abel on IRON MAN seemed a perfect fit. So... what the hell happened?

The "15 minutes after" is a really dumb thing, not just when starting a new story, but especially when trying to start a new ERA. It's that "soap-opera" thing. One of Stan Lee's biggest bonehead blunders was in an early SHIELD episode when his narration said "meanwhile" instead of something like "two weeks later" (in that case, it made Nick Fury appear to be in TWO places at ther SAME TIME).

I hadn't realized that about Pepper. In the Kurt Busiek run, she was made out to be much more than "just" a secretary from early on in the series, and it's interesting to find Len was the one who got the ball rolling. (Whereas I'm sure Stan saw her as nothing but a man-chasing comic relief.)

Repeatedly bringing back THE FREAK!!! must seem like small potatoes considering the number of times The Mad Thinker, etc. etc. etc. were brought back. No creativity? No new ideas?

Before Len became a "big deal", my best friend and I used to joke about his track-record in MARVEL TEAM-UP and elsewhere. His main claim to fame seemed to be his encyclopediac knowledge of trivia and old characters, and his habit of bringing back completely long-forgotten characters... and then, doing absolutely nothing interesting whatsoever with them.

I guess if you're a publisher with loads of characters Len's the guy to go to to help keep those trademarks active...

Interesting parallel on those two parties, I'd have to check to compare dates... In both cases, Len really seemed to start out with a bang, but then WAY too quickly fizzled. Lack of ideas?


For all the jokes I've made over the years at Len's expense, I should note that THIS issue actually inspired me to take a stab back then at writing my own IRON MAN story, and I did 13 pages worth (including art!) before I got interrupted, and never finished the thing off. Maybe just as well, YEARS later I found out the story I was writing, though I didn't know it at the time, had "been done" SEVERAL times before on the book. (It wasn't until later I managed to get ahold of the entire SUSPENSE run.)

It's a shame those "tryout" books didn't STAY "tryout" books. My understand is, once they decided to put not one, not two, but THREE of them out at the same time (typical Martin Goodman B.S.), the editorial staff (Roy) was so stretched it simply became expedient to leave whoever was on a book in there as long as possible until sales demanded a character get his own title, or until they got CANCELLED. Think how much better it might have been, quality-wise, and how much better and TIGHTER the writing might have been, if going in, everyone knew they had exactly 3 issues to make an impression. Please note, herb Trimpe jumped off ANT-MAN after just about 3 or 4 issues, I'm guessing that's all he planned on.

the most absurd example I can think of was IRON FIST, where the first 5 issues might have been a good place to stop, but instead, the story dragged on for 3 more episodes (making for an 8-part "origin") and the last 3 of these were by a COMPLETELY different creative team! Then, instead of stopping there, they had 3 MORE issues, the last 2 of which were the early episodes of another 8-part story. So IRON FIST #1 was part 3 of 8. (How stupid is that?)

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY in MARVEL PRESENTS was another sad case. Great potential somehow squqndered. A different inker every issue, and after one amazing 4-parter, somehow, Steve Gerber got himself KICKED off the book, apparently due to complaints about the subject matter! (I had no problem with it...) If dropping sales caused the cancellation of not just GUARDIANS but MARVEL PRESENTS, I put it down to the change in writers, and readers not likeing how things were going afterwards. (The replacement was Roger Stern-- but this eas years before he took over DR. STRANGE the 1st time, when he was just a complete unknown.)

IRON MAN #83
http://www.comics.org/issue/29557/cover/4/

Nobody at the GCD seems sure who did this one... Ron Wilson? Rich Buckler? inks by Frank Giacoia? John Romita?


You cannot imagine how severely disappointed I was when Trimpe-Abel was replaced by only the 2nd episode by Trimpe doing layouts and Marie Severin doing finishes. I like Marie's drawing style and have really enjoyed many of her covers, but it seems to me her inks (a bit too close to her brother John's here) were totally inappopriate for I.M.


IRON MAN #84
http://www.comics.org/issue/29652/cover/4/

And ANOTHER "bleh" Kane-Esposito cover.


This issue things continued to fall apart and pick up speed. Not only had Herb cut back to layouts, Len cut back to just plot (or co-plot, if Herb was contributiing on that end). Instead Roger Slifer wrote the dialogue, and John Tartaglione (one of the worst inkers in Silver Age Marvel history) took over.

The reference to Roxie becoming "bitchy and abbrasive" and the comparison with MJ at the same time really screams "bad writing" to me. It's the Tegan Jovanka syndrome. Some writers think an easy way to show "characterization" is to have conflict-- even if the conlfict is uncalled for, makes no sense, and runs counter to any or all previous depictions of a character.

It was nice to get rid of the stupid nose, but the continual focus on how they did it reminds me of the sort of "fanboy" thing Roy Thomas loved, and several writers during his time at Marvel tended to follow slavishly.


"Someone in the letter’s page asks what the status of Madame Masque"

Bill Mantlo would attend to this (eventually).


IRON MAN #85
http://www.comics.org/issue/29750/cover/4/

Nice, powerful Rich Buckler cover... but Klaus Janson's inks seem out-of-place, too dark & intense. Many years later, Steve Mitchell would bring the same sort of feel to almost the entire "Tony falls off the wagon" story that Denny O'Neil dragged on and on and ON for three whole God-forsaken years of the book.

Marie Severin returned this issue, but EVERYONE involved was gone by the next issue. As Len was no doubt acting as his own editor, it's no wonder this happened the moment he left. Was he over-extended, or did he just realize he had nothing more to say?

IRON MAN #86
http://www.comics.org/issue/29839/cover/4/

Future DC cover designer Ed Hannigan was starting to do a lot of work for Marvel around this time, notably on THE DEFENDERS where he eventually took over pencilling the interiors (and later, tragically, the writing).


IRON MAN #87
http://www.comics.org/issue/29924/cover/4/

The GCD lists Ron Wilson & Frank Giacoia, but it's hard to tell. It's nice, but some of these seem so "generic" it's hard for even me to tell who did 'em.


The "fill-in" guys do these 2 issues. Was this a direct result of Len leaving, or is it possible with all the chaos on this book these 2 issues were done in advance as "inventory" stories?

I was so bored at the time with seeing Tuska & Colletta together, and whatever work Bill Mantlo did seemed over-shadowed by my disappointment that the "new era" had gotten derailed so quickly, and completely!

I never read the Jack Frost story until a couple years after this, when I got ahold of the entire SUSPENSE run. They definitely were going for an "upgrade". What totally baffled me was when, some years later, "Jack Frost" reappeared in a HULK issue, with art by Steve Ditko. What was going on there??


IRON MAN #88
http://www.comics.org/issue/30020/cover/4/

IRON MAN #89
http://www.comics.org/issue/30118/cover/4/

A Gil Kane and a John Buscema, both inked by Frank Giacoia.

I'm suddenly reminded that right around here I got so fed up with things I stopped buying the book... but like CAP, I was able to continue reading my best friend's copies, as he had started buying both series regularly at that point. (I believe sometime later I went back and got the missing issues, possibly for less than cover price.)

I made no connection with Archie Goodwin & George Tuska having a reunion here... to me, it was just another couple of fill-ins. This may have been my first exposure to The Blood Brothers, as it seems to me their appearances relating to CAPTAIN MARVEL I didn't read until later on.

So they just brought back the focus on Happy & Pepper, and now Archie has them leave-- AGAIN? Isn't anybody "watching the store" here?


MORE chaos begins in the next issue!! (I just looked.)

Iron Man #89-91 – It took me over a month to read the three parter (reading the first part many weeks ago) but I’m finally back to catching up on Iron Man. This was a three part Controller story that directly follows the previous Blood Brothers stories. Like most Controller stories, it’s pretty good (not as excellent as his first two appearances by the classic Goodwin / Tuska / Craig team but definitely worth reading). What makes it stand out is that the creative team was different each issue!

The creative shuffle continues to plague Iron Man as it has for basically the entire 1970’s, as the title is on the cusp of entering 1977. It’s so ridiculous that it was funny before but is basically not funny at all anymore. The first part of the story is by Archie Goodwin with George Tuska, continuing their brief reunion on Iron Man (since they created the Controller, it’s a natural fit); Archie then leaves to become EiC of Marvel and Jim Shooter jumps in for an issue, likely loosely working off Archie & George’s previously decided story and just adding dialogue. And finally, “new writer” Gerry Conway completes the story with George (coming on for his second run on Iron Man), who is assisted by Bob Layton on inks, making his first appearance on Iron Man (at Marvel?). The Tuska / Layton combo is actually quite good! Layton leaves right after but he’ll be back in a big way.

What saved the story was Tuska’s continuity as the penciler throughout. This parallels George basically saving the series throughout the 70’s.

The story was disrupted by the creative changes but actually is pretty good. It reads more like a 2-parter with one additional part added at the end, with the Controller breaking free momentarily but then quickly being recaptured (with a bit of an ingenious twist, shades of the Silver Age Superman). That final part is more about Gerry moving the series in a new direction.

Gerry doing so is welcome but I know he doesn’t last long either, so I’m not buying it. This is after his brief first tenure at DC (about a year, which we talked about above) where he returns briefly but then goes back to DC soon after (is there a story there?). Still, he does give Abe Klein a good chance to shine, and reveals Abe’s father died in the Holocaust, establishing one of the earliest Jewish supporting characters in Marvel Comics (not long after, X-Men would have Kitty & Magneto both prominent Jewish characters).

Maybe Gerry’s return will finally follow back up on Spymaster, who fans have been clamoring for in the letter’s pages for years?

Gerry also introduces Krissy Longfellow, who is Tony’s new assistant and a welcome addition. The way George draws her in her initial appearance is very sexy! If she is who I think she is, the internet may have spoiled a major surprise about her in the future, but I’m not sure if she’s the right person. Still, any new cast member is welcome. Tony puts the moves on her right away which is a bit over the top.

I guess Roxie Gilbert has basically been written out of the series without showing the readers? A common occurrence in Iron Man (see: Jasper Stillwell).

Gerry also has Tony think to himself that “it’s my factory and I can do anything I want here,” meaning he can imprison the Controller there. Wow, that certainly wouldn’t fly in this day and age! I actually don’t think it would have in 1976 either.

Editorial at Marvel
The Bullpen Bulletins page explains the creative mix-up: Archie Goodwin is now the Editor-in-Chief of the Marvel color comics line in yet another creative shuffle. At some point in there, from Marv to Archie, I think Gerry Conway was EiC for about two seconds. Archie marks the last in a long line of editorial shuffles where the EiC was given the position but never the true power. It would only be his successor (who isn’t too far off), Jim Shooter, who consolidated the position into something with real teeth after almost a decade. Meanwhile, the B&W magazines get a new EiC, John Warner (after Archie moved over to the color comics) but by now, the b&w mags were beginning to decline in prominence. As for now, in 1976, Marvel was as mixed up as ever editorially.

Also notably is the comics prices are raised yet again to $0.30 from $0.25 as 70’s inflation continued.

Iron Man #92 – After a year’s worth of stories being about an issue too long, we get a welcome ‘done in one’ featuring longtime Iron Man villain the Melter. The Melter started as an excellent Iron Man villain but then for no reason was included as part of a trio to battle Iron Man and get dusted out in one issue, which totally knocked him down to B-grade status—in what I think was a pretty lame and stupid idea. Here he returns by himself again and while the story isn’t bad, it is a bit run of the mill. The Melter is one of those second tier great Iron Man enemies, but even though this story wasn’t bad, it certainly continued his decline in the eyes of fandom (as many other villains throughout Marvel’s history).

It had become obvious Tony’s new armor, which changed to plain clothes by “de-polarizing”, wasn’t going over with the fans, and so the creative team wanted to change it—and thus, the reason for the Melter returning. Whenever Tony changed armor, the Melter usually helped, all the way back to the Melter’s original appearance. And just like that one, the original Golden Armor makes a quick return to give fans a bit of nostalgia. I love that armor and am glad to see it, even though its return is basically the third time its been rehashed like that. Like every time it appears, it is destroyed in the end (but always manages to reappear just fine later).

The Michael O’Brien and Harry Key subplot drags on for another series of issues. It’s an interesting subplot but its been dragging out for almost a year now and needs to be resolved already.

Jack Abel comes on as inker as part of the new ‘stable’ creative team and his inks on Tuska are very good (a little stiff in some places but overall good). Abel was a longtime industry veteran by now, and I think at the end of his career. Of course the stability would again change as next issue, Herb Trimpe returned for a two-parter and then Tuska came back his final issues a penciler on Iron Man.

IRON MAN #90 (Sep'76)
http://www.comics.org/issue/30214/cover/4/

Nice Jack Kirby-Jack Abel teaming. Abel disappeared after only one issue with Herb Trimpe, which really disappointed me, but I was glad when he returned some months later, bringing a welcome "gleam" and "slickness" to a character too often inked in a rough fashion (by the likes of Esposito, Colletta, Tartaglione).

I'm wondering what went on with the editors. Len took over as editor when he was writing the book. When he left, Marv Wolfman took over as editor (I believe he was EIC at the time). Archie became EIC after Gerry Conway's run as EIC, so Archie must have been filling in for Marv here.

Jim Shooter likewise filled in as writer on an issue of SUPER-VILLAIN TEAM-UP sometime around here (totaly contradicting everything Tony Isabella set up in the previous part of the same story).


Gerry Conway, reportedly, had left Marvel when they refused to give him a contract as good as Roy Thomas'. Over at DC, Gerry was both writer & editor, creating several new series and new characters in the process. This included the revival of the JUSTICE SOCIETY in ALL-STAR COMICS and the creation of POWER GIRL, Earth-2's "militant feminist" version of SUPERGIRL. When he returned to Marvel, it was as EIC. I still see Conway's run as one of the most disruptive in all of the 70's.


In addition to "whatever" his regular duties as EIC would entail, Gerry also decided he wanted to WRITE freelance in the evenings to make more money. To facilitate this, he PUSHED several other writers OFF of books HE wanted to write, in my view derailing some long runs in the process. This included kicking Steve Gerber (and Sal Buscema) off of DEFENDERS, kicking Tony Isabella off of GHOST RIDER (although Jim Shooter had already derailed Tony's storyline in his capacity of UNBILLED assistant editor-- talk about arrogance), kicking Marv Wolfman off of DAREDEVIL (just as Marve was finally getting the sub-plots back on track), and most notoriously, kicking Steve Englehart off of AVENGERS. From what I've read, he harrassed Steve so much, he inspired Steve to QUIT, and in the process, Steve LEFT MARVEL, which derailed every book Steve was working on, not just the ones Gerry took over. He did take over CAPTAIN MARVEL, following a fill-in by Chris Claremont (which made no sense at all, if memory serves-- the story I mean).


Gerry also began the LOGAN'S RUN adaptation, and Marvel's own swipe on POWER GIRL, MS. MARVEL. (Have I forgotten any?)


IRON MAN #91 (Oct'76)
http://www.comics.org/issue/30321/cover/4/


A couple things I never noticed before-- George Tuska's cover was inked b Aubrey Bradford, my vote for the single WORST inker in all of 70's marvel. Meanwhile, the interiors were inked by Bob Layton-- several YEARS before he & David Michelinie came over from DC and took over IRON MAN from Bill Mantlo! I'd completely forgotten Layton had done work for Marvel this early. I'm gonna have to dig out this issue one of these days and see how it looks. Tuska-Layton has to be "interesting", at the very least!


As you said, following The Blood Brothers we got the return of The Controller, 2 villains (3?) I tend to associate with CAPTAIN MARVEL during Jim Starlin's run. Of course, at this time, CM had been in depe space for about a year thanks to Englehart, but this month he ABRUPTLY returned to Earth courtesy of Conway. It was a rather JARRING about-face.

Although some claim Conway only lasted as EIC about 2 weeks, 2 MONTHS I think is more like it. Hew wrote (and plotted) SO MANY COMICS in that brief time, I don't think it's possible for him to have been there any less. In the case of IRON MAN, he was actually involved with 7 consecutive issues, the last 3 just plots, but the 2 before that just dialogue. Makes me wonder what hgis ocffee intake must have been, working asll those late hours to get as many stories in the can as fast as possible before it hit the fan.


IRON MAN #92 (Nov'76)
http://www.comics.org/issue/30424/cover/4/

Another Kirby cover. I believe it was only a few months before this I'd actually taken a stab at writing an IRON MAN story to submit to Marvel, and funny enough, it involved an idea I didn't realize had been done 3 or 4 times before-- digging the old "gold" suit out of mothballs. Then, just a few months later, someone else did it again! (I doubt they were inspired by my submission, but you never know.)

It's funny, I don't think I'd read it yet at the time, but there was that earlier story with The Melter (in Colan's run) where the gold suit was reused as well. Can you say "retread"?


Bill Mantlo would tackle Michael O'Brien head on. Just wait!


Looks like #92-94 were Jack Abel's last 3 IRON MAN issues. I was glad he'd returned, and sorry to see him go. I think he was as good a fit on IRON MAN as he'd been on HULK. Speaking of whom, you can imagine my thrill to see Trimpe & Abel reunited for the following 2-parter-- which Trimpe got credited as plotting ENTIRELY on his own! (Maybe it was a planned fill-in?)


Did you forget IRON MAN ANNUAL #3?
http://www.comics.org/issue/73839/cover/4/

I believe this came out in between #87 (Mantlo) and #88 (Goodwin). It was by Steve Gerber (ANOTHER writer filling in!), Sal Buscema (DITTO on the art) and Jack Abel, with a cover by Buckeler & Giacoia. And as a matter of fact, yes, I WAS sick to death of seeing MAN-THING turn up in just about every single book Marvel was publishing in the 70's.

It’s amazing to have it all laid out before you like you just did, Prof on how much Gerry was trying to do while he was also EiC. It’s totally over the top and I can’t help but feel you’re right that he was trying to squeeze so much into a brief period of time because he knew the shit was going to hit the fan eventually. Gerry is certainly at fault, but so much of the blame lies in the culture of Marvel comics in the 1970’s in general. It seems that every since Marvel began producing a huge amount of comics, they never once took the time to build the infrastructure to handle them, and this led to all kinds of editorial shenanigans and just an outright sloppiness behind the scenes. Gerry’s brief tenure as EiC in 1977 is just a further extension of this.

It’s amazing that Marvel in the 70’s was able to produce some of the great stories it did during this era (Starlin Captain Marvel, Shang-Chi, etc.). It also goes to show you that the momentum generated by the 60’s Silver Age Marvels really helped keep Marvel moving along as well.

You know, it wasn’t until I was reading the letter’s pages last night in the next batch of issues that I realized I totally skipped over the Annual. I then realized I don’t have it with me, and its still at my Dad’s with the majority of the collection. For some reason, we’ve always kept the Annuals at the top of the pile rather than in the chronological order they came out. And it didn’t occur to me to grab it, since the first two annuals were just reprints of comics I’ve recently read. I’ve never read Iron Man Annual #3 and with Gerber & Buscema doing Shellhead, I certainly need to check it out!

Iron Man elsewhere in the Marvel U
Something else else equally noteworthy is that during this time period, Iron Man co-starred in what is probably the best Marvel Team-Up story throughout the title’s history, and certainly the most acclaimed, The Wraith Saga. It co-starred Spider-Man (naturally) and also involved Dr. Strange, running from #48-51, the last issue being a bit of an additional issue for the Trial of the Wraith. Its certainly the longest MTU story where two lead characters remain in focus as the leads the entire time. The story is quite excellent and is by Bill Mantlo, who was on the cusp of becoming writer of Iron Man and also would write some fantastic Spider-Man stories in the next few years, with art by Sal Buscema and Mike Esposito. It’s most famous for introducing Captain Jean DeWolfe.

In addition to being a fantastic story, it’s notable that Iron Man is the co-star, as it gives him a proper place among the most prominent heroes in the MU. This is important when one considers how close to the title had come to being cancelled a few years earlier. The MTU story certainly must have gotten some fans to check out Iron Man’s own title.

Another noteworthy thing is that during this time, the Avengers went through yet another major line-up overhaul coinciding with Steve Englehart’s exit (which Prof talks about above, making way for Gerry Conway to come on the title). Jack Kirby provides the covers while a young George Perez who had been on the title about a year starts becoming known as the Avengers guy; Jim Shooter also co-writes or just does the scripts, beginning his association with the title. What is noteworthy is that throughout Steve’s run, the big two founders on the team throughout are Iron Man and Thor, with Cap coming and going. In the next era, the big two founders on the team are Iron Man and Captain America, with Thor coming and going. So while Thor and Cap certainly maintain their iconic founder status, its notable that Shellhead is basically the quintessential Avenger throughout the entire 1970’s.

Iron Man #93-94 – Gerry Conway, now with Herb Trimpe and Jack Abel, present a two-parter in which random Marvel villain Captain Kraken (formerly of Sub-Mariner and the Cat) battles Iron Man. Jack Kirby provides two great covers for the issues.

Captain Kraken is one of Marvel’s cornier villains IMO, and the subsequent pirate dialogue certainly doesn’t help, but overall the story within is actually pretty good if you can get past Kraken himself. The creative team gives a solid sci-fi mystery type story (a natural fit for Gerry) and it works. Having Abe Klein and Krissy Longfellow play a prominent role helps, as does the crew of the ship that Iron Man is on when they are captured.

The story begins with Iron Man in space, then on a boat, then underwater and then in an underwater cavern. This series of changing locations adds a certain element of adventure that provides some added enjoyment to the series. Trimpe does a great job showcasing each setting, showing that like Tuska, he is a seriously underrated artist.

The Captain of the ship Iron Man ends up on actually sees him without his helmet but basically ignores it and doesn’t care. Its chalked up to partially his being an honorable man, and also him “being English”, which I found amusing.

Bullpen Bulletins
Two new titles kick off that basically signal to me the final part of Marvel in the 70’s has begun: the first, 2001: Space Odyssey kicks off Jack Kirby’s last great experimental phase at Marvel before he leaves (which coincides with many of the old guard leaving Marvel), and the second, Peter Parker: the Spectacular Spider-Man symbolizes the further growth of Spider-Man as the super-popular star of the company, much like Superman and Batman were, which is a consequence of Marvel being the #1 publisher in comics and wanting to capitalize on its top star. I personally love PP:TSS as a title in those early issues, so I enjoy that series. It definitely marks a continual shift for Marvel as a company and along with new comic Nova, shows a return to focusing on superheroes rather than horror, kung-fu, b&w magazines and other 70’s trends.



Iron Man #95-96 – Bill Mantlo comes in with a bang beginning with #95, as Tuska and he work off Conway’s plots, though the comic definitely doesn’t feel like a Conway story, so I suspect Gerry had limited involvement. There is definitely a feeling of taking a run of the mill Ultimo plot and rolling with it, making it something special.

Ultimo himself has been over-used by this point, and has become a bit boring. There was a time he to Iron Man what the Sleepers were to Cap and Mangog was to Thor, the big mega-bad that would come at huge moments (like anniversary issues). But unlike Mangog, who always maintained that aspect (even to this day), Ultimo became less and less threatening. Likely, because he isn’t a thinking creature, that furthered it.

Still, the story itself is excellent and Ultimo is more like a passive participant. Mantlo tackles all the subplots head on, making them all feel like they are moving somewhere. He addresses Tony’s possible heart problems returning (which has been hinted at), the espionage story begins coming together, and Mantlo uses all the different members of the cast well. Mantlo also has Tony dwell over his failed love life, considering the many loves he’s had over the years after talking with Krissy Longfellow (and we even see Marianne—will that subplot EVER get tied up?).

The best thing Tuska and Mantlo do in this story, however, is at long last reintroduce Jasper Stilwell to the comic. It’s about time!!! After dropping off the face of the Earth in #35 (YEARS earlier!), he shows up with a great save, helping Iron Man just like old times and basically re-establishing his old role in the series. He even explains a bit about where he’s been without dwelling on it, and Mantlo seems to totally understand Stilwell so you almost feel its Archie writing him again. It was definitely a cheer-worthy moment.

A new character, Senator Hawk, has been introduced and so far, he seems to be an excellent character. Quite different from Senator Byrd, he seems to be willing to give Tony the benefit of the doubt but knows he has a duty. And he also helps make the espionage subplot (as now Tony is being accused of selling Government secrets to our enemies) much more important and tension-filled. Also, its really amazing that the character, being a black man as a Senator, is able to join the series so nonchalantly without even any mention that he is black. Comics had certainly come a long way! Or at least, Marvel Comics had…after all, Joe Robertson had been around for 10 years by his point in Spider-Man.

Meanwhile, in the Marvel U
For awhile I was trying to keep track with a list of all of Marvel’s changes in the 70’s but it was just too difficult to maintain (and too time-consuming) so where I left off will have to be the finale. But its noteworthy to mention where Marvel was as it entered 1977. The major trend is that after years of focusing on horror comics, kung-fu comics and other trends, Marvel was re-focusing squarely on superheroes. New characters like Nova were squarely superheroes and the new wave of female characters were specifically female versions of male superheroes, like Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk and Spider-Woman. In fact, the reprint titles would begin to decline during this point, as were the black & white magazines. Marvel had pulled out of the romance comic business completely and very shortly all of the westerns (now all reprints anyway) would go away. Even “Jungle Action” became specifically “the Black Panther” as the jungle genre was on the decline. So by the 1980’s, even though they did other things still occasionally, Marvel would be almost entirely focused on superheroes.

Also noteworthy is the X-Men by now were rolling along nicely with Chris Claremont having replaced Len Wein some time earlier and Dave Cockrum providing his excellent work. They were still in the bi-monthly phase, but with Thunderbird dead and Jean Grey now Phoenix, things were moving. Within two years, X-Men mania, with Byrne & Austin on the title, would be in full force and the gradual rise to the very top of comic books would be underway.

Also of note is the Spider-Man newspaper strip kicked off in high gear during this time. Marvel’s sales had surpassed DC’s a few years earlier and now their top star would become as well known as Batman and Superman to the average person on the street.

In terms of creators, also noteworthy is a few more “new” ones enter the bullpen, including John Romita Jr., getting his shot at long last (and proving himself) and also Klaus Jansen, who like Terry Austin became one of the more celebrated inkers in the 80’s and 90’s.

PS - Iron Man #96 has a FANTASTIC Milgrom / Abel cover!

Iron Man #97 – At long last, Bill Mantlo addresses the Michael O’Brien subplot head-on, as Prof said earlier, and he takes a subplot that had been dragging on what feels like forever and actually gives it some needed depth and power. Just like Mantlo has proven in his earlier Iron Man stories, like the excellent Viet Nam one a few years earlier, he knows how to add a human element that really kind of elevates the story.

Here, as I geared up to watch Tony whup O’Brien, I was surprised to find myself having a little empathy for him. We can finally get to know his point of view and also see the tragedy in his actions; Tony mirrored my own feelings and felt all the more heroic for it. O’Brien assumes the Guardsman armor worn by his brother and a great battle ensues, with Tony victorious as the armor starts to drive O’Brien crazy like it did to his brother.

Krissy Longfellow shows she is no pushover at all, as Mantlo starts to take her character somewhere very cool.

Meanwhile, the subplots are being handles really well. Senator Hawk’s assistant seems to be in on the conspiracy involving the espionage at Stark International and Ultimo’s attack. I’m wondering if Harry Key, the private investigator O’Brien used is somehow also related?

The story ends with Tony taking charge of O’Brien and with the hope that the character can be redeemed. I definitely hope that’s the case, as mainly, I’m still bummed out about how Kevin was written out of the series so carelessly. Maybe the Iron Man comic itself can be redeemed for that earlier crime against its supporting cast?



Iron Man #98 – This is part 1 of a 3 part story and usually I would review them all at once but I only read the one part last night, and since it was so damn good and had so much to talk about, I’m going to throw a review up for it alone.

And that sentence should give a hint at my reaction: wow, this is pretty damn great! Mantlo and Tuska are absolutely just nailing it at this point. Don Perlin is on inks but I’m not sure if he’s adding much (which is maybe a good thing). Within the story, Mantlo has so many different subplots running, all of which seem to be tying together for the overarching plot leading to Iron Man #100, which also brings in a ton of other subplots I didn’t realize were related. It’s complex in the best way and I was loving how it all came together.

Like the days of old, there are many elements within that also work: Senatorial committee pressure; Tony upgrading his armor (now using computer lingo), Stilwell playing his great role once more reminding us how much he was missed, and even references to obscure characters like Professor Watanabe and his daughter Fujiko from IM #30, the Monster Master story—whoa, talk about obscure! Tony’s heart problems seem to be returning and frankly, they give the series some added depth but creating tragedy and an immense obstacle for Tony to overcome. Whenever they return, the series always seems to get *better*.

Within the story, Iron Man is trying to help Michael O’Brien when Sunfire attacks Stark International. Sunfire, who recently quit the X-Men right after the All-New, All-Different group was formed, was riding high on popularity and he previously had some really great stories with Iron Man, so he is very welcome here. Thus far, in this issue, he isn’t used too well, mainly because his motivation is very blurry (in terms of characterization, Mantlo has him dead-on). I’m willing to overlook that for now because the issue was so tightly packed, Mantlo might get to that in the next part. Sunfire likes Iron Man but dislikes Tony immensely, which makes for good drama.

Tony’s Iron Man armor is currently being fixed and all his other armors have been stolen (part of espionage subplot which is very good) so Tony dons the Guardsman armor to go battle him; however, his recent heart troubles have weakened him and he really needs his IM armor so he gets beat down by Sunfire. Michael O’Brien watches, realizing he’s been wrong about Tony, and dons the new Iron Man armor to go battle Sunfire. Part of the fun is Sunfire doesn’t recognize Tony, who he knows, in the Guardsman armor, while he thinks he knows Michael in the Iron Man armor. Tony leaves to get his old Iron Man armor (the original red & yellow one with the pointy face mask) but just as he’s about to return, O’Brien is teleported away! All in all, it’s awesome in its complexity and the emotional impact being show, with Tony risking everything knowing he’ll likely die, and O’Brien having a change of heart, only to be kidnapped. O’Brien then becomes the third person to wear the Iron Man armor besides Tony.

The epic-ness of it all is heightened by who has kidnapped O’Brien, which is none other than the Mandarin! The Mandarin’s return is very welcome since his death at the hands of Yellow Claw was something I didn’t like at all. 15 years into the Mandarin’s history and he’s basically only had great stories with Iron Man, with two real exceptions, so I hope that continues. Using the Mandarin for the 100th issue anniversary is a natural fit and will help reestablish him as the top villain for Iron Man. It also helps tie together all of the plots, especially Ultimo (and bringing in Sunfire from an editorial perspective), and I suspect the Mandarin is responsible for all of the sabotage and espionage (perhaps with Spymaster?). The Mandarin once pulled this before—kidnapping Happy Hogan when he was in the IM armor, but the reuse of the plot device is more welcome than not.

Jasper Stilwell and Krissy have some interesting interaction and now I know full well who she is, and also understand exactly why Jasper came back into the series. I had it spoiled for me a year or so earlier online but wasn’t sure if Krissy was the character (I’m about to spoil it so turn away): Krissy is actually Madame Masque, at long last returning to the series. This is an excellent twist and fans must have been thrilled since just about every single issue for the last 50 issues had someone in the letter’s page ask when she’d be back. There is a moment where a female in shadows helps Tony get his old armor, clearly her, and it also fits perfectly into her sense of mystery. Her being back, complete with love triangle with Jasper, is very welcome indeed and once more adds yet another awesome element to this issue and storyline.

So many pieces to this story, all of them well done, make this one of the best Iron Man issues in years. Mantlo & Tuska have combined numerous elements of Iron Man’s past while making it feel fresh and new. It feels like its both tying together Tony’s entire history while also looking forward the entire time. I can’t wait to read #99-100!

Also notable is Dave Cockrum inks Gil Kane’s cover and really makes it stand out among Kane’s work. Very good!

"Gerry is certainly at fault, but so much of the blame lies in the culture of Marvel comics in the 1970’s in general. It seems that every since Marvel began producing a huge amount of comics, they never once took the time to build the infrastructure to handle them, and this led to all kinds of editorial shenanigans and just an outright sloppiness behind the scenes. Gerry’s brief tenure as EiC in 1977 is just a further extension of this."


I suppose that's a good way to put it. Seems to me I read in an interview (either with Conway or someone else) that Conway felt some of his books had been tampered with during his earlier period, and he "became his own worst enemy" when he returned, stepping on so many people's toes in such a short period, with NOBODY liking his being there, and that led to his returning to DC after (approx) 2 months.

It's been completely denied, but somehow I had gotten the very strong impression that Gerry left Marvel earlier over the interference, NOT the failure for them to give him a contract equitable to Roy Thomas'. It' almost shocks me to read in recent WEEKS that Conway is now taking credit for Gwen's death (after John Romita has been doing that for the last 15 years), since AT THE TIME it happened, with so much hate-mail aimed squarely at the "writer", Gerry went to great lengths to DENY it was his idea at all! Back then, it was put down to "a group of editors" (NOBODY knew who "assistant editors" were back then). And 2 years after catching HELL over killing a character that wasn't his idea at all (I believe he took over plotting about the time ROSS ANDRU got on the book), he was then FORCED to "bring her back", the result being the Gwen CLONE story, which most readers just hated.


So when, about a year or so later, Gerry returned, the feeling I always got was "IT'S MY TURN THIS TIME!" And so for many years, I've joked that "REVENGE is no basis for an editorial regime."


But as I say, a number of people has utterly DENIED there's any truth in this at all.


"It’s amazing that Marvel in the 70’s was able to produce some of the great stories it did during this era (Starlin Captain Marvel, Shang-Chi, etc.)."

Yeah, but I'd say this all happened BEFORE Gerry's short run as EIC.

Gerry's kicking writers (and in some cases artists) off books, and then leaving, left a lot of gaps to be filled, which opened the door for a number of new writers. Some of the results were very good... but this doesn't completely excuse all that was lost.

Jim Shooter was one who benefitted from Conway's sudden exit. He took over 3 books Gerry was writing-- AVENGERS, DAREDEVIL and GHOST RIDER, and was much, much better on all 3 than Conway had been. When Shooter later became EIC, Roger McKenzie took over both DAREDEVIL and GHOST RIDER. I keep wondering what happened to him, because at some piint he was replaced by Frank Miller on DAREDEVIL, and Michael Fleischer (GAG!! WRETCH!!!) on GHOST RIDER.

David Kraft also benefitted from Conway's departure. He took over LOGAN'S RUN (which didn't last long past the movie adaptation), and THE DEFENDERS. I'm not sure what was going on with all the other writers who Kraft kept working with early on his run (Roger Slifer, Don McGregor, etc.), but imagne my surprise when Kraft's DEFENDERS run became my favorite in the entire run of the series. Kraft also had a lot of help from 2 artists in particular-- Keith Giffen (who has ALWAYS contributed heavily to plots of any books he worked on) and Ed Hannigan (who later went on to become DC's cover designer).

Chris Claremont took over MS. MARVEL from Gerry, and complained bitterly for a year-and-a-half that he couldn't figure out how to do her properly, from the set-up put in place by Thomas & Conway. I did enjoy the work of Jim Mooney on the book (MUCH more than John Buscema!), but you could really see the potential that had been laying dormant when Dave Cockrum took over. (For all of TWO issues... what the HELL happened there?)


I recall at the time of IRON MAN ANNUAL #3 I put it down as just one more "fill-in" in the wake of Len Wein, who didn't last nearly as long as it seemed he should have.


I'd forgotten Bill Mantlo had done a 4-part IRON MAN story in MARVEL TEAM-UP. Yes, most multi-parters had different heroes as the focus of each chapter. Somehow, that Wraith story is one of the few from that period I never read!


I oftyen think it's a shame George Perez kept doing so many books at the same time, and wound up blowing deadlines on all of them. In a more organized universe, he'd have stuck on AVENGERS the way, years later, he did on THE NEW TEEN TITANS. It took him getting fired from Marvel to finally straighten his act out.

IRON MAN #93 / Dec'76
http://www.comics.org/issue/30519/cover/4/

IRON MAN #94 / Jan'77
http://www.comics.org/issue/30672/cover/4/

IRON MAN #95 / Feb'77
http://www.comics.org/issue/30763/cover/4/


I LOVE these 3 Jack Kirby-Al Milgrom covers. I was so inspired by the one on #94 I did a tribute to it for one of my own comics.


IRON MAN #96 / Mar'77
http://www.comics.org/issue/30855/cover/4/

By the comparison, the Al Milgrom-Jack Abel cover is "EHH!"


IRON MAN #97 / Apr'77
http://www.comics.org/issue/30948/cover/4/

Nick Caputo believes this one was by Ed Hannigan & Don Perlin. With Conway actually gone already, Hannigan was beginning to contribute some STUNNING covers to THE DEFENDERS around this time.


IRON MAN #98 / May'77
http://www.comics.org/issue/31042/cover/4/

Dave Cockrum was one of the BEST inkers at Marvel in the 70's. It's a shame he was (in his own words) SO SLOW! Seeing a Gil Kane SUNFIRE cover reminds me of SUB-MARINER #52 (Aug'72), although Cockrum shows just how much better he makes Kane look than even JOE SINNOTT did!

http://www.comics.org/issue/25377/cover/4/

My "fantasy" version of the same cover...
http://www.webspawner.com/users/zodiaccomics/imageGallery/SM%2052_c_O%20700.jpg


I'm looking forward one of these days (YEARS?) to re-reading these IRON MAN issues. I suspect I'd have much more appreciation for them the 2nd time around, as before (when they first came out) I had NO IDEA who half these characters were, and even now have still not read most of the earlier stories (but at least now I've read ABOUT them).

With all your references to Krissy Longfellow, I had NO IDEA she was really Madame Masque. (It's been that long.) These issues were my FIRST exposure to her, so I probably had a hard time figuring out what was going on, not knowing anything about her past history with Jasper & Tony. They really could have used MASTERWORKS and ESSENTIAL books back in the 70's!


Senator Hawk? Senator Byrd? Is he kidding?

: )


Come to think of it, this MAY have been my first exposure to ULTIMO, as well. I'd have to check. I know it wasn't until at least 1977-78 that I got ahold of most of the SUSPENSE run.

Iron Man #99-100 – Following the incredible promise that was Iron Man #98, the follow-up issues in #99 and #100 did not disappoint. I thought it was an excellent follow through and an appropriately epic battle between Iron Man and the Mandarin, who is restored to being Iron Man’s #1 villain. Shellhead beats him pretty totally but despite that, the Mandarin is still the right amount of threatening and menacing. Enhancing the battle is Michael O’Brien coming to the realization that Tony & Iron Man are incredibly heroic (and he also learns Tony’s secret identity, something that seems to happen to him more than other heroes), as well as Tony having to overcome incredibly odds to beat the Mandarin. All in all, Mantlo & Tuska did a great job providing a Mandarin story worthy of its predecessors in the Silver Age, unlike the last several Mandarin stories; bringing the Mandarin back had to be done right and this accomplished that.

The next few issues letter’s pages would have some debate about changing the Mandarin’s costume, but I think it’s a bit beside the point. His new costume was pretty good; I don’t think it’s too big a deal for a villain like the Mandarin to change his costume, given his persona (as opposed to say, the Green Goblin). One thing they need to get rid of: the pointy ears. It’s a ‘yellow peril’ bit that makes no sense.

At first there is some implication that the Mandarin is behind Tony’s current corporate espionage troubles, but it eventually ends up feeling like he’s only involved in his Government-related problems; this means Tony has two sets of very similar problems going on at Stark International, making for some complicated reading. I don’t mind it at all, but I can see how some may find it distracting. What was a nice touch was at the end, Senator Hawk deceives his aid (working for the Mandarin) and reveals he and Tony have been working together all along to root him out. I thought that was a nice touch and flips the idea of Tony being at odds with the Government all the time on its head.

One minor problem is that Sunfire isn’t used all that well at all in #98-99, almost being purely a plot device with little motivation. Its mostly chalked up to his being “young” (per Prof. Watanabe) but its obvious there simply isn’t enough room for him in the story. I would like to see more Professor Watanabe but I suspect that isn’t forthcoming.



Iron Man #101-102 – Tony makes his way back from Red China and it isn’t easy; there’s no quick ride home. I like that touch of realism, and it reminds me of Tony’s travels back from China in the Silver Age. What I wasn’t thrilled about was the stop off in Yugoslavia to interact with the Monster of Frankenstein, which felt a bit out of place. Not exactly my favorite Iron Man setting & story idea, even if there is nothing inherently wrong with the story.

The Dreadnaught is introduced, and he helps improve the story, being an interesting twist of the original villainous Black Knight and with a little Dr. Doom. All in all he’s got an awesome visual and its nice to see a Black Knight-esque enemy come back; some of the Black Knight connections (like Dreadnaught somehow finding his horse) are just way too much coincidence though. The flashback origin is great, complete with brutal Dr. Doom nastiness which was a quick but great sequence.

Also noteworthy is the growing subplot in the backround of the story with Krissy Longfellow now working with Harry Key, the P.I. who was working with Michael O’Brien. Key obviously has been helping some other unseen enemy, and Krissy (now clearly Madame Masque even though it hasn’t been revealed—fans are guessing though) is interested in helping Tony, which was surprising but welcome (showing her previous romantic feelings to him have not subsided). To complicate things, Jasper follows. This is a plot I’m looking forward to!

I noticed Abe Klein hasn’t been seen in awhile, and neither has Michael O’Brien, but reading ahead a little, I know they come back shortly.

George Tuska provides his usual great pencils, but its noteworthy that here in his final issues on Iron Man, inker Mike Esposito is killing his work IMO. It feels very flat and unpolished, which is a shame. Its certainly a big change from Jack Abel a few issues ago.

George Perez does the cover for #102—fantastic!



Iron Man #103 - #103 kicks off a pretty long arc of six issues (the longest Iron Man story to date), but like #98, I found the first part good enough to want to do a “preview review” before reading the next five parts and posting about those. This is because, much like #98, the first part of this major storyline is really fantastic and is just jam-packed! You could really get the sense of how improved the Iron Man comic had gotten since Mantlo came on board; it really hadn’t been this good since way back during the Archie / Tuska / Craig days.

In #103 several subplots come together causing revelations and problems that will be dealt with over this storyline: Midas returns, revealed as the saboteur responsible for all of the corporate espionage, complete in all of his Sydney Greenstreet dialogued glory. Harry Key, really working for him all along, is revealed to have switched sides to Krissy and subsequently is killed by Midas in a ruthless murder (well done). Midas then goes on to claim he’s taken over Stark International—legally. This plot will be used to death in future years but here its only the second time its ever been done, so I’m curious how it plays out. Its not my favorite idea, but the set-up has been so well done that I have a feeling Mantlo can pull this one off.

In addition, Krissy Longfellow is at last revealed as Madame Masque though everyone realized it by now. You could feel the cheers going on in Iron Man fandom, as she had been requested in the letter’s pages for years. She’s in her fully glory too, and when Iron Man finally confronts Midas, she takes his side—making things very interesting going forward. Plus, her history with Midas makes for some great continuity.

The Jack of Hearts, who appears to be Mantlo’s “baby” appears in the issue and has his required misunderstanding with Iron Man. It looks like he’ll be in the story throughout the six issue arc, and from the letter’s page, its obvious Mantlo is pushing for him, even encouraging readers to write in and let Marvel know if they want Jack of Hearts to have his own series. I’ve always liked Jack but have never really spent much time caring about him—maybe that will change here?

Jasper Stillwell also appears to be having a big role in this story and I’m looking forward to it. His reappearance in the series, followed by Madame Masque brings back their subplot from years earlier like it had just ended. I’d forgotten how much I liked Jasper (after gradually warming to him).

The story also promises to have big parts for Abe Klein and Michael O’Brien, so basically everyone in the supporting cast is getting some needed screen time. I love it! Can’t wait for all of these characters to interact and have a chance to shine. And even more…imagine my surprise (Prof and anyone else who has been reading these reviews) when in the final panels of #103…we see at long last…Marianne Rodgers?!!! At last! It’s about time, and I can’t believe Mantlo is going to follow-up on that long time dangling plotline as well! I had basically given up on believing I’d ever see it addressed. I’m really looking forward to how she plays into the story.

Though #103 isn’t his final issue, at some point during this storyline, George Tuska will pencil his last Iron Man story. We’ve sung his praises so much over the course of this thread that there isn’t much more to say without repeating myself (again). Yet it has to be said: no series has ever owed a debt of gratitude to a creator like Iron Man does to George Tuska in the 1970’s. For basically 8 long years, Tuska remained the only consistent force on the title. His artwork maintained a level of quality that held the series up when editorial shenanigans and a rotating series of writers brought the series to the very brink of cancellation. I suspect if it was another artist, Iron Man would have been cancelled like the Sub-Mariner was and Iron Man today would be in the same boat the Silver Surfer, Sub-Mariner, Dr. Strange and SHIELD, constantly going from one cancelled series to another. Tuska always did a great job and always came through when the series needed him, taking mediocre stories and making them feel like solid, superhero stories in the Marvel way.

His artwork took me a little time to warm to but I eventually have come to love it. I also noticed that his art, when in the hands of a bad inker, suffered greatly, but when in the hands of a good inker, was amazing to behold. What a great, great run.

IRON MAN ANNUAL #4 / Aug'77
http://www.comics.org/issue/31333/cover/4/

According to the George Olshevsky IRON MAN Index, this story takes place in between IM #94-95 (probably due to there being no visible breaks later on). It's Bill Mantlo, George Tuska & Don Perlin, with a cover by Al Milgrom, as I.M. teals up with THE CHAMPIONS against Modok.

For whatever reason, there isn't another IM ANNUAL for another 5 years, not until 1982.


IRON MAN #99 / Jun'77
http://www.comics.org/issue/31127/cover/4/

So-so Sal Buscema-Al Milgrom cover. I'm wondering if Archie Goodwin taking over as editor with IM #95 had anything to do with Bill Mantlo finally getting the nod as regular writer, after so many fill-ins. One of the things Goodwin was known for was giving new talent a shot, and after so many better-established writers crashed & burned on this book, it was something to see Mantlo (who I don't recall getting much respect early-on) a chance to show what he could do. Judging by your reviews, pretty damn good.

It sounds to me like the Senator Hawk sub-plot was designed as a reference to Senator Byrd, but with a thankfully different twist.

I'm wondering if Sunfire has EVER been used decently, outside of the story Bill Everett wrote in SUB-MARINER. His recurring thig seems to be an exageratted sense of national pride coupled with hot-headedness and stupidity.


IRON MAN #100 / Jul'77
http://www.comics.org/issue/31233/cover/4/

Nice Jim Starlin cover.


IRON MAN #101 / Aug'77
http://www.comics.org/issue/31332/cover/4/

Strange but interesting cover by Val Mayerik & Dave Cockrum. Dave brings an amazing polish almost never seen on Mayerik's art.

I think I was reminded here of the MARVEL TEAM-UP 2-parter that featured Frankenstein's monster & Man-Wolf. Like Dracula, somehow these "classic" horror characters are a very awkward fit in the modern-day Marvel Universe, and work much better when they DON'T have to interact with super-heroes from New York City.


IRON MAN #102 / Sep'77
http://www.comics.org/issue/31440/cover/4/

Nice cover by George Perez & Pablo Marcos, who I believe had become the regular team on AVENGERS at this time (at least, when Perez wasn't repeatedly blowing deadlines & missing multiple issues).

Yeah, I seem to recall being disheartened that once again Mike Esposito was inking George Tuska, unlike Johnny Craig or Jack Abel it just wasn't cutting it. It may sound strange, but I believe at this point I was still hurting from Herb Trimpe's abupt departure, and even his return for that 2-parter just made me wish he'd stayed around longer. George Tuska may have been solid and dependable, and apparently his issues SOLD very well, but at the time, I kept wishing the book could get someone better. Or at least, someone different and dependable.


IRON MAN #103 / Oct'77
http://www.comics.org/issue/31545/cover/4/

Another George Perez cover, this one inked by Mike Esposito. George's art was so detailed, his pencils so TIGHT, he was one of the few artists back then whose art was almost "murder-proof" regaredless of who the inker was. There was a much more variety, and generally higher quality to Marvel's covers during this period. I could still remember when it seemed like Gil Kane was doing every single cover, and boy did I get tired of that. Of course, having guys like Perez or Cockrum doing covers could NOT have helped the deadlines on AVENGERS or X-MEN...


"Midas then goes on to claim he’s taken over Stark International—legally. This plot will be used to death in future years but here its only the second time its ever been done"

This was the first time I read a story like this, and to me, once was enough. So when Nick Fury attempted a take-over less than a year later, not only did it seem repetitious, but it also created a major black mark against Fury's character (one which just got worse and worse over the next decade).

As I said, I'd never seen Madame Masque or Midas before, this was all new to me at the time. I wonder if this storyline might have meant more to me if I'd actually read all those issues (so many of which I have STILL not read to this day)?


Jack Of Hearts was a character who debuted in SONS OF THE TIGER (in THE DEADLY HANDS OF KUNG FU), a series which, almost from its inception (not quite but almost) had been written by Bill Mantlo (I'm guessing NOBODY else wanted to do it, he saw his chance and ran with it-- sort of like Marv Wolfman on DRACULA). Most of the run had George Perez on the art, who's known for excessive detail, and that includes on costumes he's designed. However, I believe Keith Giffen was the one who actually designed Jack Of Hearts' costume, inspiring a lot of ire among any other pencillers who ever had to draw the thing. ("Too much detail"!!) I don't recall his ever really developing much as a character, but of the stories I read, it does seem to me his run in IRON MAN as a supporting character may have been his best.

My index shows the MIDAS story to be a 5-parter, with George Tuska doing the first 4 parts. As much as I may have been happy to see him FINALLY leave the series, I always prefer if they switch artists BETWEEN stories, not during. This reminds me of Dave Cockrum being replaced by John Byrne on X-MEN exactly ONE issue before the end of a storyline that had been building for 2 whole years. That just ain't right! (The difference being, Dave was SLOW-- I doubt George Tuska ever blew a deadline in his entire career!)


"I suspect if it was another artist, Iron Man would have been cancelled like the Sub-Mariner was and Iron Man today would be in the same boat the Silver Surfer, Sub-Mariner, Dr. Strange and SHIELD, constantly going from one cancelled series to another."

Some of these did manage some long runs, later on, especially DR. STRANGE whose then-current run was probably his longest-ever. But I see what you mean. IRON MAN has never really been cancelled, despite a few hiccups, he's consistently had his own book from 1963 to today.

There was a time or two when it looked like George Tuska was going to take over SUB-MARINER. Near the end of the book's run, he did 3 issues, the last 2 written by Marv Wolfman, and all 3 inked by Vince Colletta. 2 of them looked AWFUL, but the one in the middle, Marv's 1st, somehow really really "worked". In the middle of about an entire year's worth of sub-par issues, that one (SUB-MARINER #70) showed real promise for the book's abrupt "SAVAGE new direction", but apparently, too little to late.


Despite a lot of issues done by others, I suppose in my mind, I'll always think of George Tuska as "the" IRON MAN artist in the 70's, just like Herb Trimpe on THE HULK and Sal Buscema on CAPTAIN AMERICA. (I can see some guys in the Jack Kirby yahoo group having heart attacks right now... heehee.)

Iron Man #104-107 – Well after previewing part one, I’ve completed parts 2-5 (you were right Prof, it was a 5-parter) of the Midas / Madame Masque / Takeover & More storyline, and just as I was excited with the first part, I’ve got to say, this was quite excellent! It’s not flawless, and there are some awkward parts with the writing and art, but I think its one of the best Iron Man stories I’ve read thus far! Certainly, the best Iron Man story in many years, and the best multi-part story period. Great, great stuff.

Bill Mantlo is just knocking out of the park all the way through. George Tuska (who I just talked about in my last post so I won’t repeat) does a great job on pencils despite Esposito inks, and in the final issue, Keith Pollard comes on for what I think is a pretty awesome job. I really liked his work here, and thought the Fred Kida inks really enhanced it.

The story of Midas taking over Stark International is pretty good, but what really makes the entire story is the large cast of characters and how Mantlo gives everyone a complex motivation. Following his realization that Midas has taken over the company, Iron Man retreats from public life to figure things out—with Madame Masque. And in a bit uncharacteristic mode, he starts to wonder if it’s a blessing, all the while “playing house” with Madame Masque as the two admit their great love for one another at last. These scenes are interesting, not because of the romantic aspect, but because for the very first time in the series, we get some insight into Tony’s parts Howard & Maria Stark, something that hasn’t really been done before (even seeing them in dream sequences). We also see the house Tony grew up in and see the strong difference between his father the businessman, and Tony the scientist / engineer (and important difference to be made to fans in 1977-78).

Meanwhile, Jasper Sitwell follows them and realizes the woman he loves, Whitney, is shacking up with Iron Man. From here, he basically loses it completely and even attacks them. It’s a bit out of character but on the other hand, its good to see Jasper finally letting his emotions get the better of them. After a scuffle, he leaves and joins an assembling of Tony’s friends. He then returns again and showcases that same temper and emotions and gets read the riot act by Captain Jean DeWolfe and Eddie March, leading to him eventually coming in for a save towards the end of the story. I can see how someone might think Jasper was acting a bit out of character here. But another way to look at it is since Whitney’s introduction, Jasper has always had his inability get over her hanging over his head; here it feels like he’s made some progress at last and is now standing tall for the first time in a long time.

The assemblage of supporting characters is what really makes this entire arc. I literally had my jaw drop when I saw them: Jack of Hearts, Guardsman (Michael O’Brien), Eddie March (thrilled to see him as he’s become a favorite!), Sitwell & Nick Fury, and then in a big surprise, Captain Jean DeWolfe and the Wraith!! I was totally shocked they played a part in this story! I had no idea they ever appeared outside of Spider-Man’s stories. Each one has a chance to shine within, from the subtly of Eddie insisting Iron Man needs to get back into the fight if for no other reason than the Iron Man Foundation charity will be lost, to Michael O’Brien being a full-fledged hero here—I hope we get a resolution / conclusion shortly on Michael’s role in the series or as the Guardsman.

Jack of Hearts isn’t the main character but is important throughout. I liked his role here, its probably one of the better times I’ve seen him used.

Jean DeWolfe stole every seen she was in, specifically reading Jasper the riot act and driving the heroes into the warzone. I love the character from her Spider-Man days and reading a Captain DeWolfe story I never knew about was a real delightful surprise. It was also a thrill to see the Wraith in a story since besides his initial Marvel Team-Up saga and subsequent murder by Scourge I didn’t know he had further appearances. It’s a bit sad to think his next appearance is his quick death in a throwaway bit to enhance the Scourge subplot half a decade later.

An interesting tidbit is the Wraith learns Tony is Iron Man. This is like the 5th person in a row to learn it, almost like someone learns it every story-arc! Michael O’Brien, Captain Kraken, Madame Masque, Happy & Pepper, Marianne…it’s getting so everyone is starting to figure it out! Too many people.

Abe Klein plays a major role here, first as the employer standing up against Midas and then in a shocker—revealed to be the inside man traitor all along! I was shocked over that twist and the revelation that his original joining of SI 20 or so issues back was all part of Midas’ scheme. I felt a bit of betrayal too. Still, he had a heroic end and died helping Iron Man. I regret a bit that another big supporting character has died in the series (Janice, Kevin, etc.). Tony seems to have Peter Parker’s luck in keeping a supporting cast member alive (or maybe its just all of Marvel’s?). He had a good story-arc here, albeit tragic, and it’s a shame he died. I feel like once things are tied up in the next issue or so, Tony will again be left with almost no supporting cast.

Tony & Whitney are very lovey-dovey here and you know what…I’m not sure I like it all that much. For some reason Madame Masque and Tony being in love kind of detracts away from Madame Masque’s appeal. I know it won’t stick but for now, I’m really not feeling it at all. There was a lot of build-up but it went from one extreme (do I? Or don’t I?) to the other (I love you, let’s get married). It moved too quickly.

Midas himself is actually somewhat amusing mainly because of his dialogue, which Mantlo does a great job scripting just like Midas’ creator Archie Goodwin. The plot of having multiple Iron Man armors battle them was also very good. But my favorite part was the finale because at long last, Marianne Rodgers returns! Even if only for a few pages. It’s not exactly the tying up I would have preferred though I do appreciate Mantlo giving us some closure at long last. Marianne shows up totally insane and renders Midas mindless with her telepathy which causes her to go even crazier to the point where she no longer knows who she is or who Tony is. I think you can sense Mantlo was expecting readers to just accept she would no longer be part of the series. She was never my favorite character or subplot, but I found it amusing the loose end tangled for almost an entire decade. I can’t help but wonder if she’ll come back somehow (everyone in comics comes back) and in what awful way 80’s or 90’s writers will present her.

All in all, this was a pretty fantastic storyline. The title, since Mantlo’s entry, has really just taken off and gotten so much better than it had been in awhile. Great stuff!

Elsewhere in the Marvel Universe
It’s also interesting to note that as Marvel entered 1978, the company was once again changing. The process would really take about a year and a half throughout the entire end of the 70’s, but the Marvel that emerged in the 1980’s was a very different one from the 1970’s. This is largely due to Jim Shooter’s eventual rise to the top of Marvel but it’s really easy to see in terms of Marvel’s output as well.

By now Marvel was out of the romance business, and basically the western business too. Even their huge reprint line was on the decline. Their once massive horror comics line was just on the verge of totally being gone with the last title, Tomb of Dracula, being cancelled. Horror-related titles like Ghost Rider and the relaunch of Man-Thing would be more superhero oriented. The jungle comics and sword & sorcery comics also gradually became more and more non-existent, and never close to what they were in the early 70’s.

Several things were coming to a conclusion that exemplified the Marvel 1970’s: Jim Starlin wrapped up his massive Thanos Saga in Avengers and Marvel-Two-in-One annuals. Not long after, Captain Marvel would be cancelled in 1979 and that title seemed to be a very prolific 70’s Marvel title. On the opposite side, the late Marvel superhero title Nova, which kind of exemplified the second half of the decade, would also be cancelled. So would several other notable late 70’s titles: the Champions, Black Goliath and eventually all of the Jack Kirby comics and Steve Gerber comics, which stood on their own. Super Villain Team-Up ended, which was really an extension of Namor’s title, even though Namor wasn’t in the final issues—meaning Namor was homeless, something that plagues him to this day. Also of note is Captain America after a decade reverted to a solo title, as the Falcon left—this was just as dramatic a shift as the Falcon becoming Cap’s co-star, since he’d been partner with Cap on the title longer than Cap had been solo!

Meanwhile, superheroes were anything but on the decline. Marvel’s output was increasingly becoming entirely superheroes with some exceptions. John Byrne joined Chris Claremont on X-Men and took the fairly popular “All-New, All-Different” team to new heights of glory. Not soon after, Frank Miller would come on Daredevil and do the same with the other ‘always mid-level’ franchise. This coincides just as Bob Layton & David Michellenie are coming onto this title. Some lesser celebrated runs also were occurring at the same time as almost the entire company was shifting: Roy Thomas took over Thor from Len Wein; Marv Wolfman took over Amazing Spider-Man from Len as well; Power Man & Iron Fist became a team-up comic book, years after the team-up trend at Marvel had slowed. The Defenders gained Hellcat and shifted completely from a ‘non-team’ to really a team of the Hulk, Valkryie, Nighthawk & Hellcat for awhile. Even off-beat concepts like “What If?” were superhero oriented.

Marvel did continue to publish some licensed properties, notably a little property called Star Wars, plus the Hanna-Barbara cartoons. They would continue this for some time and for whatever reason, it always seemed like their licensed comics were really good properties like the later G.I. Joe and Transformers.

The change at Marvel represented a much larger change happening in comics as the 1970’s transitioned to the 1980’s. There was still quite a bit of grandeur to come.