Issue(s): Iron Man #15, Iron Man #16
Cover Date: Jul-Aug 69
Title: "Said the Unicorn to the Ghost---!" / "Of beasts and men!"
Credits:
Archie Goodwin - Writer
George Tuska - Penciler
Johnny T. Craig - Inker

Review/plot:
It's kind of an insult to make Iron Man fight the Unicorn. Iron Man has all sorts of really powerful weapons and a full suit of body armor. And he can fly. The Unicorn has one gun. Mounted on his head like a doofus.

He's also getting kind of nutty. But on the plus side, he's got the Red Ghost on his side this issue.

Tying together these two Commie villains is a cool idea, but of course we have to go with the "And after I'm done with you I will destroy you" trope.

The Red Ghost is looking particularly... i'll say awesome in these issues. Love the medallion.

The Ghost is after a Cosmic Ray invention that Tony Stark has created. The Ghost has actually lost his powers. He's also lost his super-apes, which were "liquidated" when he abandoned them.

The Red Ghost destroys the building that Iron Man and the Unicorn are fighting in, and they have to pool their resources and form an uneasy truce to escape and go after the Ghost.

Stark's cosmic ray device restores the Red Ghost's powers in a slightly different way, allowing him to turn into a red mist. Since the Ghost says he's given up Communism to be a free agent, the red mist must be a way to allow him to keep his name, by letting him literally be a red ghost.

In addition to exposing himself to the mist, he exposes two new apes, Alpha and Beta. However, the new apes decide that they don't want to work for the Red Ghost and they turn on him.

SHIELD is involved in this plot too, but really, guys, it's the Red Ghost and the Unicorn. Let's not clutter it up any more than it needs to be.

The Unicorn flies off with the unconscious Ghost at the end of the issue, with Iron Man too weak to stop him.

Issue #15 also introduces Alex Niven, who will soon turn out to be the third Crimson Dynamo.

As you can see from my truncated scans, Tuska was getting pretty crazy with the panel shapes in these issues. He tones it down again in subsequent issues.

Quality Rating: C-

Historical Significance Rating: 2

Chronological Placement Considerations: Since Nick Fury appears with SHIELD in this, it should take place before Avengers #66-68 when Fury is said to be on the run.

References:

• The Unicorn last battled Iron Man in Iron Man #4. His power belt was destroyed in that issue, but the Red Ghost repairs it here.
  
• The Red Ghost first appeared in Fantastic Four #13.
  
• He thinks his exposure to the Watcher's intra-galactic matter-transmitter in Fantastic Four #29 is what caused his powers to gradually fade away.
  
• Iron Man only fought the Red Ghost once before, in Avengers #12, and the Ghost didn't have his super-apes with him at that time. "To ally himself with the Mole Man", according to the footnote. Because the Mole Man can't have filthy apes flinging their poo all around his pristine caverns. Despite that being Iron Man's only encounter with the Red Ghost, he's still able to correctly guess that it's the Ghost he's up against when he encounters the new apes.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

The Red Ghost seems to have swiped his costume from Sly Stone. Alex Niven looks like he walked out of a Scooby-Doo cartoon.

I love the Unicorn. he is so over the top boisterous for having such a one-trick pony power.

Whatever happened to Alpha and Beta?

Those were the best names the non-Communist Red Ghost could whip up at the time?

Geez...no wonder the wall came down.

Seeing the title and the fact it's Iron Man, for a moment I thought it was "The Ghost", but he didn't come until the 80s. But still, late-60s groovy Red Ghost makes up for it.

Iron Man #15's cover really pops the action of the fight scene and uniform colors. I also have always enjoyed how the Tuska drawn Iron Man has a face that can articulate emotion with just slits for the mouth and eyes.