Invincible Iron Man #162: Review

Sep 1982

Dennis O'Neil, Mike Vosburg

Story Name:

The Menace Within

Review & Comments

Rating:

Invincible Iron Man #162 Review by T Vernon (November 23, 2015)

Comments: Prologue to the next story arc where the mystery villain will be revealed as Obadiah Stane (his first appearance). Sole appearance of Tattoo—who doesn’t seem to have any tattoos. Sign of the Times: the advanced headphones are huge compared to later iterations the Walkman and the iPod. A note on the letters page announces the upcoming IRON MAN ANNUAL #1; it would actually be numbered #5 as noted in issue #164.

Review: Another halfway decent issue—-an action-packed whodunit this time--though the solution to the mystery is obvious to everyone but Tony (and he berates himself for not having seen it sooner). The art is uninspired as well, with the faces looking funny, especially Tony’s on page 10. Since this is only an intro to things to come, we won’t worry about it much until next time.

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Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Invincible Iron Man #162 Synopsis by T Vernon

One fine day, Stark International is suddenly attacked by World War 2 fighter planes. Tony Stark changes into Iron Man and helps the threatened staff. Once they are safe he pursues the planes and discovers that they are being controlled remotely. He attempts to trace their signal but the planes explode, knocking him out of the sky. As Tony supervises the repairs to the huge metal arch outside the labs, he is approached by Dr. Bart Ainslee whose face is bandaged after injuries sustained in the attack. Ainslee asks permission from Tony to distribute his new radio/cassette player headphones to the staff to do some consumer testing; Tony okays it. [Meanwhile, Mrs. Arbogast receives a present in the mail; opening it she finds a pistol…].
On his way home, Tony sees one of his employees run his car off the road into a tree. As Iron Man, he pulls the man from the wreckage and rushes him to the Stark infirmary; unfortunately the man dies. Needing to unwind, Tony attends a party in Manhattan. While contemplating a glass of liquor, he resolves to solve the mystery of his employee’s death. Returning to the office, he studies the autopsy report only to be interrupted by someone shooting at him. He thumps the assailant on the head, only to discover it was Mrs Arbogast. Tony learns from Vic Martinelli that there have been several violent or surprising incidents that day. Later on the company monorail, Tony is attacked by several workers who are out to kill him while in a trance. He is able to use his chestplate to break out and don his full armor, he then returns to subdue that maniacal mob. Examining the new headphones, he hears a broadcast to someone named “Tattoo” to implement “Plan Ultra.” He heads straight for the lab of Bart Ainslee, and unmasks him as an enemy agent who staged the plane attack in order to impersonate Stark’s scientist. The headphones are a mind control device and Plan Ultra will broadcast the command to start killing one another, turning Stark International into a ruin. Iron Man clobbers his foe and deduces that the central transmitter is concealed inside the decorative arch which was damaged in the attack. Wrecking it, he saves the plant but Tattoo dies from a poison given him by his mysterious employer.