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.