Invincible Iron Man #80: Review

Nov 1975

Mike Friedrich, Chic Stone

Story Name:

Mission Into Madness!

Review & Comments

Rating:

Invincible Iron Man #80 Review by T Vernon (March 12, 2014)

Review: And this is what the War of the Super-Villains was building up to: a complicated sci-fi epic pulled out of thin air. It is to the writers’ credit that they succeed in setting up this two-issue adventure, conveying a massive amount of back-story in as few pages as they did—and had room to include a two-page summary of the Super-Villain War. And Chic Stone, usually an inker, contributes some nice pencils and Vince Colletta is at the top of his somewhat inconsistent game. Better than it looks at first.

Comments: Part one of a two part story. The alternate universe has been designated Earth-7511. King Jerald of the Kingdom of Grand Rapids is clearly based on Gerald R. Ford, 38th President of the United States (and occupant of the White House when this tale was written), who was born in Grand Rapids Michigan, had a daughter Susan, and took office after the resignation of his predecessor Richard Nixon; the character is not drawn to resemble Ford, though.

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Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Invincible Iron Man #80 Synopsis by T Vernon

Iron Man pursues Black Lama and Firebrand through the dimensional portal into the mad space between worlds. The two baddies emerge into an alternate USA where the states never united; instead there are dozens of European–style monarchies. Here is the Kingdom of Grand Rapids where Princess Susan sits on the throne while her father King Jerald is absent. Recognizing the Lama as the returning King, scheming advisor Baron Rockler orders the guards to kill the newcomers. Iron Man emerges from the portal at this point and he joins his foe against the soldiers, using non-lethal force, unlike Firebrand. The Princess helps them escape through a secret door. The Black Lama reveals himself to be King Jerald and tells his tale: he gained the throne when his corrupt predecessor was forced to abdicate and found he was not up to the responsibilities. He fled to our world to find peace as a guru but the imbalance between the worlds was slowly driving him mad. He tried unsuccessfully to train Raga Son of Fire (issues #52-53) to take the throne but eventually settled on a War of Super-Villains. Firebrand decides to join the rebels and dashes off. Meanwhile, the equally treacherous Baroness Rockler has her chief scientist sic a quartet of robots on Iron Man. Shellhead reduces them to junk in seconds and he decides to help the King recover his throne—but Jerald declines to inform Iron Man that the madness should be striking him and Firebrand very soon….