Issue(s): Tales Of Suspense #72 (Iron Man story only)
Cover Date: Dec 65
Title: "Hoorah for the conquering hero!"
Credits:
Stan Lee - Writer
Don Heck - Penciler
Mike Esposito - Inker

Review/plot:
We met Tony Stark's former girlfriend Countess Stephanie De La Spirosa in the previous arc, and she was a bit of a troublemaker, but she moves into a full blown menace in this issue as she hires the Mad Thinker to discover Iron Man's secret identity as a way to get Tony to pay attention to her.

I'll never turn down an Iron Man/ Awesome Android fight (or an anyone / Awesome Android fight)...

...especially when the Android uses his often forgotten mimicry power to become a super-deformed Iron Man...

....but i figure that if the Thinker is even half of what he bills himself as, he ought to be able to figure out Iron Man's secret identity pretty quickly. I'm going to assume that he's got his own motivation for going after Stark and just doesn't feel like he needs to tell Spirosa.

The Thinker is put in jail and Spirosa is forced to take a long walk home, which she (and apparently Iron Man) feels is a fate worse than prison.

On the home front, Stark is reduced to semi-naked weeping over the fact that Pepper is mad at him.

This marks the end of Don Heck's run as an artist, which goes back all the way to the introduction of the character, with very few interruptions.

Quality Rating: D+

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: This issue starts with Iron Man having returned from his battle with the Titanium Man in Alberia and facing his adoring fans. I'm allowing some time for rest and travel before the start of this issue. This takes place during Avengers #22 per a scene in that issue. This issue ends with Pepper Potts having heard that "something happened" at the hospital where Happy is being kept, but they won't tell her what. Iron Man gets ready to leave for the hospital in the last panel.

References:

• Iron Man is aware of the Mad Thinker and remembers that the Awesome Android was created from notes stolen from Reed Richards, as shown in Fantastic Four #15.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: Marvel Masterworks: The Invincible Iron Man vol. 3

There was something I liked about the countess, not sure exactly what. In some ways similar to the early Black Widow, not a physical challenge but causing trouble with her plotting. The supervillain "moll" was underutilized at marvel, IMO.

I think what could work for the likes of this villainess (or even "first appearance Black Widow") is the idea that they can manipulate both as chessmasters or using something they have themselves (physical attraction) to control a hero. If we had a female that worked along the lines of Obediah Stane back then, it would have been amazing. (but it probably would end more like Mr. Kline sadly)

I agree that the Countess has been under used. If not for Busiek's remembering every obscure character in the world, she would never have reappeared.

It occurs to me that Whitney Frost is sort of a fusion of the Countess's "rich princess" archetype and the early Black Widow femme fatale archetype. Iron Man actually had a number of female antagonists in the Silver Age, more than nearly any other Marvel hero.

Thor was opposed by the Enchantress and Karnilla, the Scarlet Witch started out as a quasi-villain in X-men, the FF had Medusa in her Frightful Four days, and Ditko created Princess Python, and Ant-Man/Giant-Man had a couple of obscure one-offs in Madam Macabre and Comrade X.

Im just gonna write what we all were thinking. She deserved the long walk home!