Issue(s): Iron Man #137
Cover Date: Aug 80
Title: "Facades!"
Credits:
David Michelinie & Bob Layton - Writer
Bob Layton - Penciler
Bob Layton - Inker

Review/plot:
Iron Man helps out at Stark Industries during a case of sabotage...

...but the saboteur gets away. The real story, though, is that Bethany Cabe's partner and friend, Ling McPherson, fills in on a job for Bethany...

...and gets ambushed by goons and beaten nearly to death.

I like this book because of the cast of corporate employees, which is unusual for a super-hero book, and well written.

I love Rhodey disco-dancing with Yvette Avril, executive from SI's Paris branch.

But it was upsetting seeing Ling, basically a pleasant background character until now, getting beaten up so badly. Still, that was the intended effect, and it was effective.

Quality Rating: B+

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: Tony says he just arrived back in America from visiting England in Iron Man #136 this morning.

References:

• The guy in the opening panel is really wearing the Hulk's pants, which he got in Iron Man #133 when Tony had Banner switch clothes with a Stark employee so he could slip away from the police.
  
• We're introduced to Mrs. Arbogast's sister, Uranus Bliss, but we've actually met her before without knowing the relation. Tony Stark pulled her out of the bathroom on the plane in Iron Man #120 and knocked her over in Atlantic City in Iron Man #123. He knocks her into the punchbowl this issue.
  

• Iron Man increased the heat resistant properties of his refractory coating in Iron Man #135.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

Fnord, Yvette Arvil actually first appeared in Iron Man #119.

Thanks, AF. Added some scans of her there.