Tales of Suspense 44

Iron Man comic book reviews continued

Tales of Suspense #44

Appearances: Cleopatra; King Hatap

Summary:Tony Stark is called to an excavation site in Egypt to find the tomb of King Hatap. Explaining that Iron Man is a friend, Stark tells his archeologist associate that the super hero would be more qualified to help. Iron Man easily locates and digs to the tomb of King Hatap. The archeologist reveals that Hatap was called "The Mad Pharoah." Returning to the dig site as Stark, Tony learns that the mummy of Hatap has been stolen. Leaving to look for the stolen mummy, Paul the archeologist leaves Stark to watch the camp site. Suddenly, King Hatap reveals himself to Stark, alive and well. He explains that he had taken a serum in his own time that put him into a state of suspended animation, allowing him to survive to the present day. Threatening the men of the camp with a plague, Hatap tells Stark he must go back in time with him to defeat Cleopatra. Stark agrees, but quickly escapes the mad king after they travel back in time. After escaping, Stark changes into Iron Man. Thinking Iron Man a monster, Hatap flees.

Iron Man travels shortly in the desert and encounters a Roman army attacking an Egyptian palace. Iron Man sides with the Egyptians, who appear to be losing. Quickly dispatching the Romans with his 20th Century technology, Iron Man gains new allies in the form of the Egyptians. One of the soldiers explains that Cleopatra has just left and is in danger, too. Iron Man races to Cleopatra's aid, and for a second time, defeats the Romans. Iron Man is immediately taken by Cleopatra's beauty. The queen and Iron Man unite against King Hatap, who Iron Man informs her is quite alive and well. Iron Man confronts Hatap and retrieves the charm the madman uses to travel through time, even as he tries to use it escape. As Iron Man is disappearing to the future, Cleopatra confesses her love for him, and he reveals he will never forget her. Back in the present day, an image resembling Iron Man is seen among the hieroglyphics near the tombs. 

Review: Iron Man is becoming quite the lady killer, after Kala last issue and now Cleopatra. The "golden armored figure" in the hieroglyphics is a nice little touch. On another note, Hatap's explanation of his resurrection doesn't really work. Even if he were in "suspended animation," don't they remove organs in the mummification process? I suppose if servants loyal to Hatap were the ones to mummify him they could have gotten past that. Also, Stark will eventually have to explain his relationship with Iron Man, as they have now been linked on a few separate occasions. Also, it might have been interesting to see Tony Stark without the armor interacting with Cleopatra.

Story: 6 out of 10. Art: 7 out of 10.

Tales of Suspense 43

Continuing Iron Man comic book reviews:

Tales of Suspense #43

Appearances: Kala, Queen of the Underworld; Baxu

Summary: After Iron Man had saved some Stark employees from a malfunctioning wind tunnel (foreshadowing years of Iron Man working for Stark), Tony Stark reappears before his grateful employees. Seconds later, a scientist and security guard working for Stark vanish. Stark himself is kidnapped in a transparent diamond-shaped energy-form that sinks into the ground before the already startled employees' eyes. Stark descends until he finds himself in an underground city populated by an intelligent race of people led by the beautiful Kala. There he finds the other two missing employees who had disappeared. Kala explains that the Netherworlders are descendants of the people of Atlantis. They have decided that now is the right time to invade the surface-world and they need Stark's help. If he does not help them, Kala will kill the two Stark employees. Stark agrees to help, but uses the lab provided him to build another Iron Man suit to battle the Netherworlders. Explaining that Stark had escaped to the surface, Iron Man battles against the Netherworlders until he has a chance to capture Kala. Iron Man takes the queen to the surface where she immediately ages into an old woman. Iron Man explains the people of Netherworld would grow old and weak if they came to the surface as well. Kala and Iron Man return to Netherworld and Kala agrees to release her prisoners. After propositioning Iron Man to stay and rule beside her, Iron Man recommends that Kala marry Baxu, the faithful general of the Netherworld army, instead. Baxu reveals he had long thought an invasion of the surface world was a bad idea.

Review: This is a nice little story, reminiscent of the sci-fi elements of the Gargantus story. The explanation that Atlantis became the underground city of this story doesn't seem to jibe with the Atlantis of the Sub-Mariner's people. The source of Kala's youth is later explained to come from a fountain of youth below the surface of the Earth. Iron Man's explanation of Stark burrowing to the surface would become standard fare explaining why the two were not in the same place at the same time.

Story: 6 out of 10. Art: 8 out of 10.

Tales of Suspense 41, 42

Continuing consecutive reviews of Iron man comics:

Tales of Suspense #41

Appearances/notes: 1st Dr. Strange (villain); This is a completely different character than the hero of the same name.

Summary: Iron Man's adventures continue and Anthony Stark remains a successful munitions dealer/scientist. Stark is limited in that he must recharge his armor lest the shrapnel in his chest reach his heart.

Enter Dr. Strange. Imprisoned for an unnamed crime, Strange gained super powers after being struck by lightning during a government raid on his laboratory. The lightning bolt "increased the electrical energy of [his] mind." Seeing Iron Man on television visiting a children's hospital, Strange puts his plan into motion. Controlled by the evil scientist's electric device, Iron Man frees the convict. Freed from prison, Strange retreats to his island stronghold and explodes a megaton bomb in outer space that evening. Contacting the world's leader, he threatens to blow up the entire world unless the nations of the world surrender to him. Iron Man races to combat the evil doctor, bypassing the shields of his island by going underwater and attacking from beneath. Iron Man destroys the mad scientist devices but runs out of energy himself until Strange's own daughter throws a flashlight to Iron Man, giving him enough energy to revive himself, though Strange escapes.

Review: Dr. Strange didn't last as a villain and the hero Dr. Strange became much more popular with the name. Strange's powers are not exactly clear. Are they electrical powers or is he just a really smart guy who invents devices? Or both? Based on the story, Strange was up to shenanigans even before he got his powers. The daughter's betrayal is somewhat predictable, and Iron Man being saved by a flashlight is a little disappointing.

Nikita Krushchev and John F. Kennedy appear in the scene in which Strange is threatening the world leaders. Iron Man's first comics largely involved the Cold War and these two would appear or be mentioned again.

Story: 2 out of 10. Art: 6 out of 10.

Tales of Suspense #42

Appearances/notes: 1st appearance Red Barbarian; 1st appearance The Actor; Death of The Actor

Summary: Iron Man foils a Russian spy ring and searches for the elusive Red Barbarian. Meanwhile, the Barbarian plans to steal plans for a new super weapon from Anthony Stark. During his plotting, the Barbarian is approached by a man who looks exactly like Krushchev (told ya we'd see him again). He then changes himself to look like the Barbarian himself and introduces himself as the Actor. The Actor proceeds to infiltrate Anthony Stark's plant to steal the weapon plans, learning in the process that Stark is Iron Man. The real Iron Man learns of his deception and catches up to the actor in Russia before he reaches the Barbarian with the plans. Iron Man imprisons the Actor and appears before the Barbarian claiming to be his ally in disguise. Telling the Barbarian that the briefcase with the plans is on a four hour lock, Iron Man leaves with the case and promises to return to open it. Iron Man then frees the Actor to return to his partner. When the Actor claims he lost the plans, the barbarian becomes enraged and has the Actor killed before he can reveal Iron Man's true identity. The secret of Iron Man dies with the Actor.

Review: The story is typical of early Iron Man adventures in that it involves fighting communism. Iron Man first uses a phrase that would become overused: "Does Kennedy tell Krushchev?" The communists are cardboard characters and don't have the depth of later Iron Man villains. The Actor learning Iron Man's identity is interesting and Iron Man's playing the Actor is a nice twist, but the story is pedestrian overall.

Story: 4 out of 10. Art: 5 out of 10.

Reviews of Tales of Suspense #39, 40

This is the start of reviews of Iron Man comics since Tales of Suspense #39.

Tales of Suspense #39

First appearances/notes: 1st appearance Iron Man/Tony Stark (Anthony Stark); 1st appearance Wong-Chu; 1st appearance Professor Yinsen

Summary: Anthony Stark travels to Viet Nam in order to help the American military effort with his miniature transistors. Stark trips a mine wire and is captured by warlord Wong-Chu. During the explosion, shrapnel gets in his chest, an injury that will slowly kill him. Stark and another captured scientist Professor Yinsen are told to build a weapon for Wong-Chu. Yinsen and Stark instead design a suit that will save Stark's life and allow them to strike back at their captors. The duo succeeds, but Yinsen sacrifices his life to keep the villains away from Stark long enough to power up the suit. The new Iron Man reveals himself and defeats Wong-Chu, apparently killing him.

Review: The art is nice and Stark resembles Clark Gable in his first appearance more than Robert Downey Jr. The dialog is typical for these 60's Marvel comic books. Iron Man utters the line, "No drawer filled with rocks can hold back iron limbs powered by electronic transistors." Pretty cheesy, but fun. The dialog of Wong-Chu and the other Vietnamese is just terrible and offensive. They all speak bad broken English. Later, Marvel would switch to a much better format in which characters speaking in foreign languages would be written in clear and concise English with the explanation that the dialog was translated. Other than that, the story is fairly logical and has stood the test of time. The origin has been reworked to fit more with modern times, but the basic story has remained the same and was even used in the movie. Story:7 out of 10. Art: 8 out of 10.

 

Tales of Suspense #40

First appearances/notes: 1st appearance of Gargantus, though I think the only one, too. 1st golden armor

Summary: Iron Man is established as an active adventurer in flashbacks, foiling gangsters and stopping a random mad scientist. Stark also continues to help the military by making transistor powered skates for them, a trick he will eventually use in his own armor. Later, while on a date at the circus, Stark turns into Iron Man and rounds up some runaway animals. Afterwards, Tony's date suggests Iron Man is too scary with his gray armor and should switch to gold. Stark takes her suggestion and paints the armor gold, a color used by Iron Man for nearly his entire history.

Stark later learns of the city of Granville, which has been surrounded by a mysterious wall that lets no one in or out. He investigates as Iron Man and soon learns the people of Granville are under the sway of a giant named Gargantus (very original). Iron Man finds out Gargantus has hypnotized the townspeople. During their battle, Gargantus is revealed as nothing more than a robot and aliens from another world are revealed as the schemers behind Gargantus, though Iron Man only sees their ship. The aliens patterned Gargantus on early humans from "80,000 years ago." Believing Iron Man to be one of many Iron Men, the aliens abandon their plans and leave Earth.

Review: For a techno-hero, a lot of Iron Man's villains and characters are aliens and this is but the first example. Another cheesy line from this story: "Little does Jeanne, or any other person know that Tony Stark has left the gay party for a most unusual date with...an electric cord!" (I'm not making this up.) I like little science-fiction-inspired stories like this and it has Jack Kirby art. A foreshadowing of good things to come for this character. Story: 8 out of 10. Art: 10 out of 10.