Invincible Iron Man #144: Review

Mar 1981

David Michelinie, John Romita Jr.

Story Name:

Sunfall

Review & Comments

Rating:

Invincible Iron Man #144 Review by T Vernon (July 22, 2015)

Comments: Story 1 is part three of three parts. Sunturion is resurrected in IRON MAN ANNUAL #9. And there’s a brief appearance by Chauncey and Edgar, recurring characters from THE BULLWINKLE SHOW. Story 2 takes place between TALES OF SUSPENSE #39 and 40 and serves as a prologue to next issue’s tale; the title is a play on the film APOCALYPSE NOW, and features the same typography on the title page as was used for the movie. Tony also refers to the movie THE GREAT WALDO PEPPER.

Review: The wrap-up to the previous story is handled well, featuring a great act of self-sacrifice that is all the more moving for not being played as overly sentimental. The second story is a bit odd in that it adds previously unmentioned information to a very familiar adventure; as I read the tale something did not feel right like a sequel to CASABLANCA or something. It’s still an entertaining exploit and retcons Rhodey into being an existing (if invisible until #118) part of the saga all along.

Invincible Iron Man #144 Review by Rob Johnson (July 22, 2015)

The 2nd story was pencilled by Joe Brozowski aka J J Birch.

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Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Invincible Iron Man #144 Synopsis by T Vernon

Iron Man and Sunturion watch helplessly as the core of the Roxxon space station Star Well begins its fall toward Earth. Sunturion, the station’s creator Arthur Dearborn, is aghast at the failure of his dream but agrees to destroy it. Sunturion materializes aboard the station but he cannot force it out of its course. Iron Man calculates that the machine will hit Sarasota, Florida but his deflector beam is too weak to divert the Star Well. The two armored scientists discover that combining their powers boosts Iron Man’s beam so that a blast diverts the falling debris into the Gulf of Mexico. Shellhead looks around and discovers that Sunturion is gone—it was his own life essence that he channeled through Iron Man’s beam.
Epilogue: Tony Stark is invited by Roxxon to take part in a charity golf match to benefits the victims of an “anthrax epidemic” in Allenburg, Iowa. Tony declines, bitterly.

2nd story Apocalypse Then:-

Taking off from Star Airport, Tony Stark’s plane nearly hits another aircraft; only the superb flying skills of James “Rhodey” Rhodes, his pilot saves their lives. Tony thinks back to how he first met Rhodey, in Vietnam….
Having been critically injured by a mine, Tony was captured and with the aid of Professor Yinsen, he built a suit of armor and defeated his captors. That’s the familiar part; after this he encountered Rhodey, sitting by his damaged chopper in a clearing. Iron Man desperately needed a recharge and Rhodey was suspicious of this metal man suddenly appearing in a war zone. After Iron Man uses magnets to defeat a Viet Cong patrol the two become friends and Rhodey allows his armored ally to recharge. Iron Man has to carry the wounded Rhodey through the jungles toward the American lines, with Shellhead stopping a sniper on the way. They arrive at an abandoned village which turns out to be a disguised military camp. Iron Man holds off the enemy troops while Rhodey hijacks a copter to fly them back to friendly territory. Later, Tony visits Rhodey in the hospital and offers him a job after the war. The rest, they say, is history….

Story #2