Invincible Iron Man #22: Review

Feb 1970

Archie Goodwin, George Tuska

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Story Name:

From This Conflict, Death

Review & Comments

Rating:

Invincible Iron Man #22 Review by T Vernon (January 15, 2013)

Review: The title promises death. The story features a hero with a blood clot in his brain who is being beaten up by a baddie in powered armor. And someone dies. But it wasn’t the death we were expecting. Instead, Eddie March survives and Iron Man heads jubilantly into battle—only to have Janice Cord killed. In a classic case of misdirection, Archie Goodwin pulls the rug out from under our expectations. There was no foreshadowing of Janice’s demise—it was Eddie we were supposed to be afraid for. Note that Janice’s passing predates that of Gwen Stacy by a few years and be amazed that they got away with it. This wasn’t the only girlfriend death before Gwen’s—there was also Subby’s Dorma and Mar-Vell’s Una—but Janice seemed by far the most innocent of the group. The reason it has been forgotten? Janice wasn’t all that important to the series—she was introduced only twenty issues ago, and was never particularly interesting—Tony seemed to be attracted to her only because she was the sole young woman in the series. But her final tale, one of misguided loyalty—Tony abandoned his heroic responsibilities to Eddie who wasn’t able to uphold them, and completely misjudged Alex Nevsky’s motives and actions—was a nice send off to a character no one ever cared about.

Comments: Conclusion of a two-part story. For reasons that are unclear, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev is drawn with dark hair and a goatee in the flashback sequences. Inker Mike Esposito is credited as Joe Gaudioso. Fun Fact: this is the seventh cover in the series where we see only the back of Iron Man’s head.

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Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Invincible Iron Man #22 Synopsis by T Vernon

Tony Stark as Iron Man rushes to the waterfront to save the life of his replacement, Eddie March (see last issue). At the pier, the new hero is taking a savage beating from the new, improved Crimson Dynamo. When Tony arrives he finds the gravely injured Eddie alone and rushes him to a hospital for emergency surgery. Tony realizes that being Iron Man is his responsibility and vows to avenge Eddie even if it causes his synthetic heart to fail….
Meanwhile, at the bottom of the river, the huge crate that fell overboard during the armored battle breaks over and from it emerges…Titanium Man!
At Cord Industries, Janice Cord discovers Alex Niven repairing the Crimson Dynamo armor and is shocked that her trusted scientist is a villain. Niven has a different spin however—his real name is Alex Nevsky and he was assistant to the original Crimson Dynamo, Professor Vanko. He watched as his mentor was dispatched to the United States to kill Iron Man, and how Vanko was convinced to defect by the American hero. But Nevsky believes that Iron Man tricked Vanko with a faked recording of Russia’s plan to betray him, so when Vanko was killed sometime later, Nevsky vowed vengeance against Iron Man and Tony Stark. Janice realizes that his romantic gestures toward her were merely part of the plot against Stark and she lashes out at him. Nevsky protests that his feelings for her are genuine but they are interrupted by Titanium Man crashing through the wall. He has been ordered to capture Nevsky and return him to Moscow to serve the State. Elsewhere, Iron Man receives the news that Eddie March will recover from his injures. Elated, the hero heads off on Titanium Man’s trail. At the Cord factory, Nevsky, his armor still damaged from the battle with the new Iron Man, tries to carry Janice to safety. Iron Man, arriving on the scene, leaps to the conclusion that Crimson Dynamo and Titanium Man are working together; he attacks the Dynamo who is attempting to take Janice to safety. The weakened Nevsky drops Janice and Shellhead must rescue her. Ignoring Janice’s pleas that it isn’t what he thinks, Iron Man fights the Dynamo—then suddenly Titanium Man surprises them with the shock of an electric beam. The critically injured Janice dies in Tony’s arms, never realizing that the hero was her beloved. The Golden Avenger strikes back against the giant armored enemy, while Alex Nevsky vows vengeance against Iron Man and steals off into the dark. Iron Man savagely beats Titanium Man, destroying his weapons one by one. In trouble, the Soviet killer magnetizes his armor to drag his foe down to the bottom of the river with him. Under the surface, though, the Russian’s armor shorts out, freeing Iron Man who mourns as he carries the lifeless form of Janice Cord to an ambulance….

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