Invincible Iron Man #68: Review

Jun 1974

Mike Friedrich, George Tuska

Story Name:

Night of the Rising Sun!

Review & Comments

Rating:

Invincible Iron Man #68 Review by T Vernon (December 18, 2013)

Review: Fast-paced and exciting tale full of twists and turns. Yeah, Tony broods about his involvement in the Vietnam War as a sop to his more politically-active readers while the Viet Cong commander is still a total villain. And Sunfire is a stereotypical Japanese, always motivated by honor—with his dedication to fighting Iron Man for the VC looking like a bribe so his country will be awarded the reconstruction contract. Nevertheless, even with two conscious baddies Shellhead still fights a tiger and a torpedo! And Tony adds a nose to the helmet to make it more fearsome—not the last time he would get the opposite effect than was intended!

Comments: Part one of four parts. Iron Man adds a nose to his helmet which will remain until issue #85. The Unicorn is unconscious for his entire appearance (most of which is in Mandarin’s body).

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Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Invincible Iron Man #68 Synopsis by T Vernon

Iron Man joins Roxie Gilbert in Vietnam to search for Eddie March’s missing brother Marty. Accompanied by Viet Cong soldiers and some truce observers, he blazes a trail trough the jungles. On the way the VC officer spouts propaganda while Tony Stark grieves over his support of the war. They come to a burning village where some refugees direct them down the road where they have seen a dark-skinned American. Against the VC advice, Roxie dashes off and Iron Man has to stop the enemy soldiers from shooting her down—then he jets after her….
Japanese mutant Sunfire is attempting to regain honor in his country by aiding the Viet Cong; the officer requests that he eliminate Iron Man….
In his underwater lair, the Mandarin needs a power source to effect the transfer of his and the Unicorn’s minds back into their rightful bodies (see issue #58). Then he can take back his home base from the usurping Yellow Claw. He then detects a power source in Vietnam….
Iron Man arrives in the nick of time to rescue Roxie from a tiger—then they are attacked by Sunfire. While the two superguys fight, Roxie discovers a deserted village (more on this later). Just as the battle heats up, Sunfire is teleported away to Mandarin’s lair where the villain tricks him into loosing a burst of energy to successfully power the mind transfer. Iron Man follows the energy trail and is blasted by a torpedo. His eye-and-mouth shields are damaged so the hero beats a hasty retreat to the Stark lab in the Philippines to repair his armor and return underwater for round two….