Invincible Iron Man #102: Review

Sep 1977

Bill Mantlo, George Tuska

Story Name:

Dreadnight and the Daughter of Creation!

Review & Comments

Rating:

Invincible Iron Man #102 Review by T Vernon (August 26, 2014)

Review: Nice thrilling wrap-up to “Iron Man Meets Frankenstein” which boasts a cool flashback to Doctor Doom and the usual theme of trying to humanize the Frankenstein Monster. The Monster is oddly proportioned in a couple of panels but otherwise everything works

Comments: Part two of a two-part story. First full appearance and origin of Dreadknight. Victoria von Frankenstein’s first name is never mentioned in this issue. The mutated Hellhorse started out as the winged horse of the original Black Knight, lost in TALES OF SUSPENSE #73.

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Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Invincible Iron Man #102 Synopsis by T Vernon

Dreadknight—an armored warrior with a skull-shaped helm riding a black winged horse—blasts the Frankenstein Monster with his deadly lance. The weakened Iron Man lacks the power to fight back and he is subdued by the villain’s gas spray and the Monster also falls. Dreadknight orders the dwarves to take the two to the dungeons….
Back in New York, Jasper Sitwell is pursuing Harry Key and Krissy Longfellow who have stolen something from Stark. Key spots Jasper and makes a U-turn on the busy highway; Jasper takes his auto to the air to follow. And another driver, Jack Hart, sees this action and decides to join in….
Awakening in the dungeon Iron Man meets the earlier prisoner, Baroness Victoria von Frankenstein, who is protector to the Monster and the dwarves. She relates the story of Dreadknight: he was an inventor, Bram Velsing, a lackey of Doctor Doom. Doom overheard him bragging to his gypsy girlfriend how superior he is to Doom, so the dictator made them more equal—by fusing a skull-shaped helmet to Velsing’s face. Fleeing into the forest, he was discovered by the dwarves and brought to Castle Frankenstein; there, the Baroness tried to help but the wretch stole the mutated Hellhorse and built the deadly lance and imprisoned his benefactor, hoping to obtain the Frankenstein family secrets. Dreadknight returns to torture the Baroness but the sight of this causes the monster to burst his bonds and clout the baddie. His lance falls on Iron Man giving him a charge so he can break free too. Dreadknight takes to the air on his Hellhorse and Iron Man pursues for a battle in the sky. The villain is thrown from his horse to land on a parapet where the Monster kicks him off. The critically injured D-Knight becomes another ward for the Baroness who assures the misshapen Monster of his nobility and pleads with him to stay. Iron Man heads home….