Obsessively putting our comics in chronological order since 1985.
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Tales Of Suspense #63 (Iron Man)
Issue(s): Tales Of Suspense #63 (Iron Man story only)
Cover Date: Mar 65
Title: "Somewhere lurks the Phantom!"
Credits:
Stan Lee - Writer
Don Heck - Penciler
Dick Ayers - Inker
Review/plot:
Iron Man stops a saboteur at Stark Industries that turns out to be a disgruntled employee (who first appeared in this episode).
Stark, presumed dead, shows up with little explanation ("oh, i was on vacation"), giving Pepper the vapors.
He has modified the Iron Man armor so that he again only needs to wear the chest plate in order to stay alive.
Stark realizes that Happy loves Pepper and decides that he'll stay out of the way since a man in his condition shouldn't be making time with the ladies.
This aspect of the book can get pretty sappy.
I understand that the government would want to be sure that saboteurs don't interfere with their weapons contractors, but you'd think A) they'd provide some security as opposed to just threatening the manufacturer, and B) they would realize that threatening to award the business to a competitor if Stark can't stop the saboteur would just encourage Stark's competitors to attempt to sabotage him.
At one point the head of the worker's union at Stark's factory starts getting pretty angry about the failure to stop the sabotages. I would love to see more on the subject of worker politics in this book, but i guess the Invincible Industrialist wouldn't have interested most readers in 1965.
Quality Rating: D+
Historical Significance Rating: 3 - developments in Happy Hogan and Pepper Potts' love life. Stark doesn't have to wear the entire suit of armor in order to stay alive anymore.
Chronological Placement Considerations: This issue shows Iron Man and Tony Stark's return after having been missing for a while. Iron Man was missing during Avengers #11 and is back in Avengers #12 (and Classic Avengers #11 prior to that), so this issue needs to take place in between.
References:
- Tony Stark was presumed killed in Tales Of Suspense #61.
Crossover: N/A
Continuity Insert? N
My Reprint: Marvel Collector's Item Classics #22
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Comments
You know, Tony Stark's romantic situation should have been another of the great marvel conundrums. Kind of a mirror image of the Spider-man situation. Whereas Spidey had to maintain a puny Parker persona to hide his identity (and not get the girls. Remember, Liz Allen was in love with Spider-man).
Tony, on the other hand, had a great tragic situation. He had to prject the image of a playboy as was expected of him by society, but in reality he couldn't love any girls due to his heart condition. This made Tony Stark about as sympathetic a character as he'd ever be.
Later, when he became the actual playboy due to his heart operation, he became very unlikable.
I think it is the Marvel Appendix that put forth the Phantom as a possible candidate to be the Ghost later. Similar m.o.s and unmasked looks. I'd be fine with that.
That's not too likely as the Phantom was killed off in Iron Age Omega while the Ghost was given a different origin in Thunderbolts.
Ugh, modern comics reference. Where's my wooden stake?
Stark claims that he was on vacation elsewhere when his home was destroyed, but why doesn't anyone question this as the last anyone saw of Stark, in TOS #61, he was very poorly in his bed and then whammo, the Mandarin's death ray blew up the house, with Stark supposedly in it !
