Issue(s): Iron Man annual #4 (Midnight story only)
Cover Date: Aug 77
Title: "Death lair!"
Credits:
Roger Stern - Writer
Jeff Aclin - Penciler
Don Newton - Inker

Review/plot:
This is a back-up story by Roger Stern and Jeff Aclin that has very little to do with Iron Man. It features the one-time Iron Man villain Half-Face being approached by Fu Manchu's lacky Midnight.

Half-Face declines being recruited by Fu Manchu, causing Midnight to doubt his own loyalty to his master. It's a weird scene and i'm not sure why it was included in an Iron Man annual (or why it was written at all, for that matter).

It's worth pointing out that Midnight has had more printed appearances after his death than before.

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: This back-up obviously occurs before Midnight is killed in Special Marvel Edition #16. It is said to take place in 1971, but i've put it just slightly before Midnight's first published appearance.

References: N/A

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? Y

My Reprint: N/A

Maybe it was fashionable in 1974 to think of Iron Man issues as the natural place for stories about repentant Yellow Peril Chinese Commies?

Just a guess, but it makes sense to me that at some point Iron Man must have been perceived as a poster boy of All_American enlightened individualism. He was fighting Sunfire, Mandarin and Yellow Claw fairly often around these times, wasn't he?

Just a guess, but maybe Iron Man stories were at some point seen as a natural place to feature the disfunctional antics of pawns of the yellow peril. What with Tony Stark being a stereotypical self-made man and all.

It could really be as simple as Half-Face being solely used as an Iron Man villain, so the story using Half-Face was put here as a backup.
I guess it would all matter as to the background of why the story was written.
Midnight wasn't used again until Silver Surfer.