Issue(s): Iron Man #9
Cover Date: Jan 69
Title: "...There lives a green goliath"
Credits:
Archie Goodwin - Writer
George Tuska - Penciler
Johnny T. Craig - Inker

Review/plot:
The Mandarin has a Hulk robot shipped in from China.

He uses it to attack Iron Man, who, as Tony Stark, is working to buy the business that Janice Cord inherited from her father. Cord's lawyer Vincent Sandhurst is a sleazy bastard giving her bad advice; it makes more sense for her to hold on to the business and continue to receive revenue from it, but Sandhurst suspiciously needs the transaction fee now, for reasons we'll learn in a few issues.

Stark is in looooove with Cord, but she's conflicted. He acted like a wimp during the situation with the Gladiator, but she somehow knows that Goodwin still wants her to be in love with Tony.

When the Hulk attacks, Iron Man vaguely suspects that something is wrong, since he is nastier than usual...

...but doesn't figure out that it's really a robot until he destroys it.

'So big, so fast' alert: Hulk robot: "Just 'cause Hulk is big and bulky... doesn't mean he isn't fast!

The Mandarin, in disguise (from the readers; Mei-Ling knows who he is, and no one else is around to see him!) until the end of this issue, is working with an antique saleswoman named Mei-Ling. When the Hulk robot loses, Mandarin, ever the optimist, says that's ok, "For I've once again tested your fighting strength... once again learned the limits of your endurance." One day the Mandarin is gonna stop all this testing and start actually doing something, and then watch out!

Update: Ah, this is interesting. The reprint from Iron Man #76 has the ending re-scripted as i quoted above, giving the Mandarin a fairly generic motivation for attacking Iron Man with a Hulk robot. However, in the original issue, the Mandarin actually says the goal is "The task of confirming that when dangers threaten those close to Tony Stark... he vanishes so that Iron Man may conveniently step in! Thanks to my Hulk android luring you out what was but a suspicion is now confirmed... Iron Man and Tony Stark are one in the same!". Holy crap that's quite a difference.

Now, in issue #11 Tony Stark will fool Mandarin with a face mask into believing that he was wrong about the secret identity, but still, it seems somewhat wrong to re-write the dialogue in the reprint so dramatically.

This issue was reprinted in Iron Man #76 with the following overly wordy note:

"Beware the dreaded doom!" Such are the words of Stan (The Man) Lee. But when the triple "D" does catch up, there's nothing better to do than represent a latterday classic, such as this one by able Archie Goodwin, who has since returned to the fold!

Quality Rating: D+

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: The Mandarin storyline continues in issues #10-11 but a little time passes between #9 and #10.

References:

• Seeing the robot Hulk's rampage in New York, the people on the street remember the last time the Hulk rampaged through their town in Hulk #106. That issue just so happened to also be written by Archie Goodwin.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: Iron Man #76

Oooh, I had the reprint, in very tattered form, and just loved it when I was 15. I did quite like Tuska's art.