Issue(s): Iron Man #134, Iron Man #135
Cover Date: May-Jun 80
Title: "The challenge" / "Return of the hero"
Credits:
David Michelinie & Bob Layton - Plot
David Michelinie - Script
Jerry Bingham - Penciler
Bob Layton - Inker

Review/plot:
Cameo by Rodney Dangerfield, who is a substitute for Iron Man at a Lion's Club dinner that gets attacked by Titanium Man.

Iron Man was the key speaker at the dinner for five years, but they dis-invited him this year because of the Carnelian Ambassador incident. He's improved and tested his armor to prevent another takeover...

...but the incident has still damaged IM's reputation. Tony gets kind of down...

...and he goes out on the town (to the Playboy Club!) with Bethany Cabe to cheer himself up.

And even though he's not drinking, he's still clearly a ladies man, flirting with Ling McPherson while waiting to pick up Bethany..

Unfortunately the Titanium Man is also in town to smash up the city and defeat Iron Man.

Titanium Man is confident in his victory because he used the Unicorn to analyze Iron Man's defenses. But Iron Man has improved his armor since then (due to the Carnelian Ambassador incident). Thanks to that and some martial arts pointers given to him by Captain America, Iron Man is able to win the fight.

Titanium Man is depicted as being absolutely massive, which i think is pretty cool.

Quality Rating: B

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References:

• Stark has improved his armor since Justin Hammer took control of it to kill the Carnelian Ambassador in Iron Man #124.
  
• Titanium Man first appeared in Tales Of Suspense #69, wanting to prove that the resources of the USSR were better than the US's by defeating Iron Man. Then in Avengers #130 he was shown to have joined the Titanic Three, a group of former communist villains who wanted to carve out a third way. But eventually TM decided that he wanted to return home to his family, and he knew that in order to do that he'd have to win back his government's favor by defeating Iron Man. He started by employing the Unicorn to analyze Iron Man's defenses in Iron Man #113.
  
• Captain America taught Tony Stark some martial arts moves in Iron Man #125.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

Judging from panels showing that the Titanium man's head completely fills out the helmet, it would appear that the guy inside is incredibly gigantic. I never could figure out if he was mutated or a freak of nature or what.

Wow, John Byrne is right: Bob Layton does overpower everything he inks. Still, Layton's "everything looks like shiny aluminum" approach works really well for IRON MAN, and The Titanium Man looks great in a nighttime setting. This is a solid, if simple, action story, and it might be the first issue of IRON MAN I ever read. Good stuff. An eight-year-old could read it, get a good old fashioned superhero fight, and still get just enough faux sophistication and DALLAS- style touches to make him think he's reading something "adult". This, I think, is something to shoot for.

Regarding Titanium Man's size, he was taller than Tony when they first met, but not freakishly so. When he returned in TALES OF SUSPENSE #81-#83 he was much bigger and said he'd been given hormone pills to enlarge his body.

Ooo, two of my very first back issues of Iron Man, and they didn't disappoint! There's suspense, a palpable sense of setting, very pretty women, and crunchy action!

Titanium Man's really massive in the 1970 appearances as well- which adds deliciously to his apparerent formidability and helps distinguish him from Iron Man. It also makes him a sly metaphor for the bloated military budget that felled the Soviet Union, though that's happenstance. Would that their lesson could be absorbed by our President.