Issue(s): Iron Man #10, Iron Man #11, Iron Man #12, Iron Man #13
Cover Date: Feb-May 69
Title: "Once more... the Mandarin!" / "Unmasked!" / "The coming of the Controller" / "Captives of the Controller!"
Credits:
Archie Goodwin - Writer
George Tuska - Penciler
Johnny T. Craig - Inker

Review/plot:
We saw last issue that the Mandarin has deduced that Iron Man is Tony Stark. These issues have to put that genie back in the bottle, and they do so using an LMD...

...and a rubber mask.

In the meantime, the Mandarin has created some realistic looking pictures of Stark chumming with Communists and released that to the press. Most of issues #10-11 have Stark in hiding until he can get his LMD scheme going. Poor bewildered Janice Cord doesn't know what to make of all of this.

Senator Byrd is one of the people shown to be concerned about Stark's Communist buddies, although he's been dying his hair recently and looks more like Foggy Nelson.

The Mandarin and his betrothed Mei-Ling have some fun with their pranks on Stark, as you can see here after they've just called up Stark Industries asking for I.P. Freely.

Nick Fury and Jasper Sitwell show up to try to help Iron Man, but instead of accepting their help, he runs, and winds up getting into a fight with them.

He says it's so they don't get hurt when he enters the Oriental Imports shop where his (at this point unknown) enemy is hiding.

After Iron Man's first fight with the Mandarin (and some cool animated statues)...

...the Mandarin heads off to attack the LMD Stark, who is about to give a press conference explaining the photographs, and that leaves Iron Man free to put some doubt into Mei-Ling's head. Mei-Ling is betrothed to Mandarin from an arranged marriage, and she's becoming less sure that he's capable of loving her. Later, after Iron Man breaks free and attacks the Mandarin at the press conference site...

...Mei-Ling jumps in front of a power ring blast meant for Janice Cord...

...and her death rattles the Mandarin enough let Iron Man escape the Mandarin's spaceship. Mandarin is seemingly killed in a crash, but Iron Man doesn't believe it.

Meanwhile, the LMD has worn down. Everyone assumes it's Stark's heart giving out, so they throw him in an ambulance and take him away.

Issue #11's cover improves on the logo introduced in issue #7, giving it more of a 3D effect. This becomes the definitive Iron Man logo for years to come.

Iron Man rushes back to his factory to remotely re-power the LMD. The LMD wakes up in the ambulance, tells everybody he's fine now, and they let him go home on his own. Stark then seals it in his sub-basement lab alongside his spare set of armor.

After that, Tony takes Janice Cord over to her lawyer's town so they can finally settle up on Stark's acquisition of her father's business. However, they find out that the whole town has been placed under some sort of trance, with weird discs on their heads. Just then, the Controller, a weird zombie looking guy in a power suit...

...breaks in and kidnaps Janice.

The Controller worked for Janice's father but was fired due to outbursts of rage. He was originally left paralyzed after an explosion but has found a way to become mobile by wearing an exo-skeleton that is powered by people's brains via a device called the Absorbatron.

His brother, Vincent Sandhurst, was Janice's lawyer, and the reason he's been rushing the Stark/Cord acquisition is because he needed money to help his brother. Unfortunately, his brother blamed him for the accident and once he's mobile he slaps a control disc on his forehead.

Tony changes into Iron Man and flies after the Controller. He winds up with a control disk on his forehead as well, but it turns out that it doesn't affect him.

That doesn't help him much, though, because the Controller stomps him pretty good. The Controller then loads up his equipment onto a train and heads for New York City, thinking if he can use the brains of all the New Yorkers he'll be really powerful.

With some help from SHIELD, Iron Man fights the Controller again.

While they're fighting, Jasper Sitwell cuts the trains from the engine, leaving the Controller too far from his machinery to power his suit.

After his victory, Stark considers breaking up with Janice Cord. He thinks it's because of his responsibilities as Iron Man, but really, he's been mooning after one girl for more than 10 issues. It's time he got a new chick.

There's also a scene where we see Jasper Sitwell and SHIELD sifting through the wreckage of Whitney Frost's aircraft. When i first read these issues, without having read a lot of the previous ones, i assumed the explosion happened on panel in a prior story. But that's not the case. We last saw Frost escaping after the Maggia's attack on Stark's factory in issue #8, and now there's apparently been a crash. Makes me wonder why Sitwell is so quick to take the apparent death of Frost at face value; wouldn't the possibility that she faked her death to get the law off her back be considered?

Another first for me was when i saw Stark peeling off his Iron Man helmet as if it were nothing more than a rubber mask. I knew that the arms and legs of the costume are actually supposed to be chain-mail, but i didn't realize that the face was flexible as well. I've now seen that happening as early as Iron Man #4, after the upgrade from transistors to integrated circuits. I still think it looks weird.

The artwork is pretty simple and flat. It seems like Tuska tries to make up for it with some non-standard panel layouts, but overall it feels like a pre-Kirby/Ditko super hero book.

I do like the Controller. A large part of that is probably due to his inclusion in Jim Starlin's Captain Marvel run, but he's a fairly unique villain. While there are other bad guys with the ability to control people, i like the "the more people he controls, the stronger he becomes" variation.

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 6 - first Controller

Chronological Placement Considerations: Stark and Janice are on a date at the beginning of issue #10, indicating that some time has passed since the end of issue #9. The Mandarin and Controller plots run into each other thanks to the issues with the LMD.

References:

• The real Hulk destroyed the Mandarin's castle in Hulk #108 and that's what gave the Mandarin the inspiration to use the robot version.
  
• Janice has her doubts about Tony because of the way he seemed to flee from the Maggia, leaving her behind, in Iron Man #7.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: Marvel Masterworks: The Invincible Iron Man vol. 3 (#11-12 are originals)

George Tuska's big problem is that too often he gives people rodent teeth. This is exceptionally noticeable on the Mandarin a few issues earlier.

I liked this one quite a bit. I loved that Jasper Sitwell played an important part in defeating the Controller. (discontecting the train)

At this point the Controller only absorbed people's strength. Despite his name, he didn't actually "control" anyone until Starlin started writing him.

At this point the Controller only absorbed people's strength. Despite his name, he didn't actually "control" anyone until Starlin started writing him.

I thought so, too, but a single panel on page 10 of issue #13 shows that the Controller ordering some of his victims to load stuff onto the train: "Faster, my mindless minions! Eight million fellow slaves are waiting to add to the might of the Controller!"

One of the more interesting touches in the Controller story is that Nick Fury and SHIELD are perfectly willing to destroy the train and everyone on it if Iron Man can't stop it before it reaches NYC.

It's interesting to see how much Goodwin gets out of issue #2's plot that Drexel Cord was brilliant but nuts. Here, Cord's genius gives Stark the unused equipment he needs to beat the Mandarin, but it also explains how a lunatic like Basil Sandhurst got resources: his brother, Cord's lawyer, wanted to take advantage of Cord's obsession with Stark by stealing his business out from under hum, and then later felt he had to embezzle to make up for permanently disabling and disfiguring his brother.

Is the LMD supposed to model someone else? In particular, I think it looks like Jasper.
Thanks!