Issue(s): Iron Man #108
Cover Date: Mar 78
Title: "Growing pains!"
Credits:
Bill Mantlo - Writer
Carmine Infantino - Penciler
Bob Wiacek - Inker

Review/plot:
Henry Pym has been called in to help the people that got turned into gold by Midas...

...but first he and Iron Man have to get into a Bill Mantlo fight. I can't even tell what they are arguing about. They are just yelling at each other.

And oh my god Iron Man will not stop talking.

Shut up shut up shut up!

Meanwhile, Stark's workers, who are rebuilding the factory grounds after the destruction from last arc, want to know where the hell Tony Stark is. Iron Man doesn't have a good response, but this is actually a set-up for a surprise next issue. In the meantime, Iron Man runs through the laundry list of people who know his secret ID.

The reconstruction unearths a cylinder that contains the Growing Man.

I had a convoluted theory here about how the Growing Man might have wound up at Stark's factory, but as Michael notes in the comments, it's explained in the next arc (which i had already referenced, dammit! Hazards of reading these issues out of order!).

Anyway, since Jack of Hearts is a newbie super-hero (and will soon become Iron Man's trainee), i thought the idea would be that Jack recklessly attacks the Growing Man and the older and wiser Iron Man would caution him to never just leap into battle without knowing your enemy, because the Growing Man grows every time you hit him.

Nope.

Now granted, Stark was in surgery the only time the Avengers fought the Growing Man, but isn't he supposed to be studying up on the case files like all the other Avengers? Is he too good for that?

(Jack is actually busy powering the device that Pym is using to cure the gold people, anyway.)

Iron Man comes up with the cockamamie, completely implausible idea that Kang would have to build a failsafe shutdown device in the Growing Man's head, and somehow it turns out to be true.

Meanwhile, Pym's cure works!

Of Marianne Rodgers (spelled Rogers here), it's said that she "is forever cured of her madness" and that's the last we'll hear of her for a long while.

Quality Rating: D+

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: Takes place very soon after the end of the previous arc. Long enough for Henry Pym to get contacted and the gold people transferred, but none of the characters should appear elsewhere in between (especially the ones that were turned to gold!).

References:

• As part of their weird argument, Iron Man tells Pym that Pym is gambling with the lives of the gold people the way he gambled with the life of the Wasp in Avengers #162.
  
• The cure for the gold people involves Tony Stark's enervator, which turned Happy into a Freak four times. The footnote says "thrice" but probably forgets Iron Man #26. The other times were Tales of Suspense #74, Iron Man #3, and Iron Man #84. And they do include Eddie March's Freak Out in Iron Man #67. I have to admit that no one turns into a Freak this issue.
  
• Pym brings up the fact that he helped the Vision in Avengers #93. But Whitney Frost isn't an android, people!
  
• The Growing Man was first seen in Thor #140 and last seen in Avengers #69. Those were his only appearances to date.
  
• The Growing Man feels no response to his calls to Kang because Kang "ceased to exist" in Avengers #143.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

Isn't it explained in issue 110 that the Rigellians were the ones that sent the Growing Man?

Thanks Michael. Yeah, i even have references to this issue from the #110-111 entry. I'll revise when i add #109 to that entry today.

Some absolutely lovely work by Charming Carmine Infantino here; I find most of his Marvel work below his classic Flash at D.C., but this is gorgeous. I've never been a huge Bob Wiacek fan, but I'm guessing he had a lot to do with the result.

I just figure that Tony spent the time between issues waiting for Hank to show up and killed off at least one bottle of scotch to pass the time. He's a melancholy drunk, for sure. Funny that the Beast is grilling himself to learn about the Avengers' files while Tony apparently never bothered to read up on the Growing Man. But of course, HE's Tony Stark, he OWNS the Avengers, they should all just be grateful he doesn't kick them out of the mansion...yeah, not surprised by this at all.