Issue(s): Tales of Suspense #73, Tales of Suspense #74 (Iron Man stories only)
Published Date: Jan-Feb 66
Title: "My life for yours!" / "If this guilt be mine--!"
Credits:
Stan Lee & Roy Thomas - Writer
Gene Colan - Penciler
Gary Michaels & Sol Brodsky - Inker
Stan Lee - Editor

Review/plot:
Issue #73 must have had some deadline pressures because the full credits are "This oughta set some kind of record. All these Bullpen buddies had a hand in this one: Stan Lee, Roy Thomas, Adam Austin, Gary Michaels, Sol Brodsky, Flo Steinberg, and merrie ol' Marie Severin! (*Whew*)." Adam Austin is really a pseudonym for Gene Colan, and the art style definitely looks like it, despite what was apparently a rush "all hands on deck" situation.

Colan's style is a major shift from Don Heck's. It looks realistic and has a lot of depth and atmosphere. It is very nice.

Iron Man rushes to the hospital after his fight with Titanium Man to visit Happy, who was wounded in the fight. However, Happy has been kidnapped. Iron Man realizes that it was probably the Black Knight who kidnapped him, but he doesn't tell the police who are demanding that he work with them. Instead he follow's the Knight's trail to a castle near Washington and enters even though he realizes it is probably a trap.

Eventually he faces the Black Knight.

He takes a lot of damage in the fight but in the end knocks the Black Knight off his pegasus. We will learn in Avengers #47 that the Knight was killed in the fall. Iron Man manages to summon an ambulance for Happy, but he himself remains wounded and dying.

He makes an emergency call to his lab and luckily Pepper is around to hear it.

You can see a major difference in the art based on how non-superpowered people are depicted. Compared to earlier issues, it's a major advancement.

She drags him home and plugs him into a power source, realizing that she is in love with Iron Man now that she sees what a playboy Tony Stark is.

This is a little hard to reconcile with Busiek's Iron Age story where Pepper learns to see past Stark's playboy persona, but people's opinions and feelings do change. However, falling in love with Iron Man seems a bit much.

Soon Iron Man learns that the hospital is using one of Stark's experimental gadgets to keep Happy alive while they operate on him. He knows it's not safe to use on humans yet so he rushes to the hospital on half-power (another really nice, semi-abstract shot set of panels here, something we'd never see with Heck)...

...just as Happy turns into some sort of Frankenstein monster.

Meanwhile, Senator Byrd is determined to learn Iron Man's secret identity.

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 2

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References: N/A

Cross-over: N/A

Continuity Implant? N

Reprinted In: Marvel Super Heroes #28