Issue(s): Iron Man #101, Iron Man #102
Cover Date: Aug-Sep 77
Title: "Then came the Monster!" / "Dreadknight and the daughter of creation!"
Credits:
Bill Mantlo - Writer
George Tuska - Penciler
Mike Esposito - Inker

Review/plot:
At one point i became unduly curious about the fate of the Black Knights' various flying horses (i have odd interests), and that's what led me to these issues, which show what happened to the first Silver Age Black Knight's black pegasus. The horse wound up in the possession of a Latverian scientist named Bram Velsing (i guess a merging of Bram Stoker and Van Helsing), who was punished by Dr. Doom for mocking his face...

...and therefore bound into a mask of his own. Far too coincidentally developing the same set of weapons as the original Black Knight, he becomes Dreadknight.

The horse has further mutated, and is finally given a name: Hellhorse. Ok, not the most original name, but at least we have something to put in the Characters Appearing section.

Similar to the Hobgoblin, Dreadknight was a cool way to bring back a classic villain type without resurrecting the original, but Dreadknight has had surprisingly few appearances over the years (they did, however, make a toy of him as part of the 1990s Iron Man cartoon series. No Hellhorse, though).

Also in this storyline is Frankenstein's Monster.

Those little creatures, and Hellhorse's mutation, are the responsibility of Baroness Victoria Von Frankenstein, great-grandaughter of the mad scientist who created the Monster. Dreadknight wants his notes.

When we last saw the Frankenstein Monster, the little creatures had killed his robot friend. And the Baroness hated him for killing her great grandfather. With these issues the Baroness is accepting of the Monster, and he doesn't seem to bear any ill will towards her, either.

Mantlo has Dr. Doom reveal his face to Velsing in the flashback, something that seems a bit casual and unlike Doom. It is left ambiguous as to whether there's actually anything wrong with Doom's face (Velsing is cut off before he can describe it).

All of the above should make for some cool stuff, but Bill Mantlo doesn't really do that much with it. Iron Man is out of energy due to a previous battle with the Mandarin, so he spends much of the story in a dungeon listening to various people's origins...

...and then wipes the floor with Dreadknight when he gets his power back. Typical sort of plot.

There's also a sub-plot where Madame Masque, still disguised as Krissy Longfellow, has stolen a replica of something from Stark Industries. It's implied that she actually has good intentions, but she's pursued by Jasper Sitwell, and there's still dramatic love stuff going on between the two of them. In fact, it's the hinted relationship between Krissy and Jasper that gives us the clue that she is really Madame Masque. Jack of Hearts notices the car chase but instead of following the flying car he oddly decides he'll go check out Stark Industries instead, on the grounds that it was where the cars came from. Whatever. As the narration box says, "So much for sub-plots--".

Quality Rating: C-

Historical Significance Rating: 2 - first Dreadknight. The long awaited and very important fate of the Black Knight's horse.

Chronological Placement Considerations: The MCP places this after Avengers #166 and the Super-Villain Team-Up/Champions crossover.

References:

• This arc starts with Iron Man in China, having concluded a fight with the Mandarin. He steals a Chinese jet to get home, something he did once before, in Tales of Suspense #78. The Chinese army let him go this time since they're happy he took care of the Mandarin.
  
• The Black Knight's horse was last seen in Tales of Suspense #73.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

I don't think all of the Frankenstein Monster's dangling plotlines were addressed here(even though Mantlo wrote his last issue), and the monster's subsequent appearances were extremely scarce for a few decades.

The Bounty Hunter's mount from Ghost Rider #31-32 was also called Hell Horse(at least, by Johnny Blaze).

Honestly, I do not understand the low grades on such wonderful comic writing.

After a great start with Gary Friedrich and Mike Ploog's faithful rendering of Mary Shelly's original story in the early issues of "The Monster of Frankenstein", the Monster sure got short shrift in most of his subsequent appearances once he was integrated into the Marvel Universe proper. The character was all but wasted here.