Issue(s): Iron Man #109, Iron Man #110, Iron Man #111, Iron Man #112
Cover Date: May-Jul 78
Title: "Moonrise!" / "Sojourners through space!" / "The man, the metal, and the mayhem!" / "Moon wars!"
Credits:
Bill Mantlo - Writer
Carmine Infantino / Keith Pollard - Penciler
Bob Wiacek / Fred Kida / Alfredo P. Alcala - Inker

Review/plot:
Infantino draws issue #109 only.

In the aftermath of the fight with the Growing Man (see Chronological Placement Considerations below), Iron Man responds to questions about the whereabouts of Tony Stark by deploying an LMD.

The "twin brother" line makes me think of Mike Murdock.

Also during this opening sequence, Eddie March casually mentions the fact that the reason he can walk again is thanks to an electro-therapy developed by Stark, and Iron Man agrees to take on Jack of Hearts as an apprentice.

Some time later (again, see the Considerations), Jack of Hearts works with some SHIELD scientists, using his computer-like brain and his zero-fluid powers to analyze the Growing Man, and they discover that it came from the moon.

Iron Man and Jack of Hearts head to the moon to investigate (leaving behind Madame Masque, who vows to herself that it's the last time she'll be sidelined).

Their Quinjet is attacked upon approach, and they crash land. Also having crash-landed are three Soviet super-people: Darkstar, a new Crimson Dynamo, and Vanguard, also a new character.

Jack and Iron Man initially assume that the Soviets are responsible for their crash, and, worse, Iron Man assumes that this Crimson Dynamo is the one that killed Janice Cord, so a fight breaks out even though Iron Man had worked with Darkstar when she was with the Champions.

After their fight, which helps to introduce Vanguard and prove he's not just a "second-rate Thor"...

...Iron Man and Jack of Hearts move forward to investigate the actual cause of their crash. And it turns out to be a rogue group of Rigellian Colonizers.

The Soviets soon join in.

The good guys also make an alliance with the High Evolutionary's Knights of Wundagore (this is the original batch that left Earth after their encounter with Thor, not the group on Counter-Earth).

In addition to their usual advanced technology, the Rigellians have also re-purposed Galactus' Punisher robot.

Iron Man defeats the robot the way only he can: with roller-skates.

In the end the Recorder shows up to strip the renegade Rigellians of their ranks.

Back on Earth, Madame Masque is running Stark Industries through a Tony Stark LMD (this isn't a sinister plot; Tony and Whitney are dating and he gave her the LMD to keep her company while he was away).

Jasper is still mooning after Madam Masque.

Mantlo has fun plotting as you can tell by all the disparate pieces of the Marvel Universe he brings together, but he's not a great writer and he's a bad scripter. Having the neophyte hero Jack of Hearts, who just met Iron Man, casually calling him "Shellhead" is just bad writing. The art isn't great but you really can't go wrong with big headed weirdos in space.

I should also note that i'm probably underplaying the significance of the US and Soviet heroes accepting each other and working together for this story. There's a fair amount of drama around that and while Mantlo's scripting makes me roll my eyes at it, it probably was a step forward for the time.

Under the pretext of the Rigellian's performing a scan, issue #110 provides a nicely detailed blueprint of Iron Man's current armor technology. It's come a long way from the early days.

In set-up for future stories, we see that someone has infiltrated Stark Industries. There's also a brief look in on Happy & Pepper at their ranch house, enjoying a life away from Stark.

In the lettercol for issue #109, there's a blurb saying they received a "beautifully rendered, but, alas, non-reproduceable" comic strip letter from Fred Hembeck. In issue #112, a Hembeck strip is included instead of a lettercol.

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 4 - first Vanguard, new Crimson Dynamo. Effectively the first appearance of the Soviet Super-Soldiers, although they aren't called that.

Chronological Placement Considerations: The first 8 pages of issue #109 take place directly after #108, but i had to split it up because the rest of this story takes place much later (issue #108 ties back to a story that began in #103 and has dependencies with various other books, and the main story from #109 continues in #110-113 and has dependencies with different books). So i'm treating the first 8 pages of #109 as flashback (which means characters only appearing there aren't listed as Characters Appearing). The MCP places these issues during the Korvac saga; i've placed it afterward and before Iron Man's appearance in Thor #270-271. Takes place concurrently with Fantastic Four #193-194.

References:

• Iron Man and Madame Masque remark on the fact that a previous Tony Stark LMD fooled Masque in Iron Man #17-18.
  
• Iron Man wonders how the Growing Man came from the moon, since it was created by Kang, as shown in Thor #140.
  
• A different Crimson Dynamo killed Janice Cord in Iron Man #22 (i should really say "was involved in the death of Janice" since it was Titanium Man who actually killed her.
  
• Iron Man and Darkstar fought together as allies in Iron Man annual #4.
  
• This Crimson Dynamo got the armor after the last one (who also wasn't involved in Janice Cord's death) tried to use it on a personal vendetta in Champions #9.
  
• Thor stopped the Colonizers from attacking Earth in Thor #131-133.
  
• The Punisher Robot was first seen in Fantastic Four #49.
  
• The Colonizers got control of the Punisher Robot after Galactus' "death" in Fantastic Four #175.
  
• They also found a ship abandoned by Kang after Avengers #69 that gave them access to the Growing Man.
  
• Jack of Hearts' origin was given in Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #23.
  
• Rigel was destroyed in Thor #218.
  
• Stark Industries is being reconstructed after the attempted takeover by Midas in Iron Man #103-107.
  
• The Knights of Wundagore went a little crazy and drove away the High Evolutionary in Tales To Astonish #94-96.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

Issue #112 is an obvious reference to "Star Wars".

Herb Trimpe and Keith Giffen were the announced artists for the next two issues, but i don't know if that actually happened.

According to the marvelwikia, Trimpe and Pollard were the pencilers for issue 113 and Giffen was the penciler for issue 114.

Hembeck's page actually kicked off his long-running fanzine cartoonist career.

I've always thought of Darkstar, Vanguard and Ursa Major as a solid team, so it's strange to see that all three of them were introduced separately. Do they even mention the relationship between Darkstar and Vanguard in these issues?

Darkstar and Vanguard don't learn that they are brother and sister until Hulk #258-259, the same story that introduces Ursa Major.

youd think tony would be a bit tentative about using an lmd after the trouble he had with the last one.

Marvel Team-Up #55's last panel suddenly introduces a "silver egg" that someone believes to be seen in #109. Not sure about it.

Luis, I can't imagine that it's not intended to be the same silver egg, especially since Mantlo wrote both stories. MTU #55 ends by noting that “unnoticed, a gleaming silver egg lies undisturbed” in the Blue Area, and in IM #109, they find a silver egg (in reality a transporter) the Colonizers left in the Blue Area.