Invincible Iron Man #83: Review

Feb 1976

Len Wein, Marie Severin

Story Name:

The Rage of the Red Ghost!

Review & Comments

Rating:

Invincible Iron Man #83 Review by T Vernon (April 3, 2014)

Review: The Red Ghost was always a goofy villain: he could walk through walls and he hung around with super-apes, all while spouting bizarre mad scientist dialogue. He could only have been a creation of Lee and Kirby (he was, in FANTASTIC FOUR #13). The amazing thing is how long they kept him around. He is a nice reminder of when comics didn’t take themselves so seriously. Herein we have a lot of sci-fi nonsense with plenty of tongue-in-cheek action. The art by Marie Severin looks a lot like her brother John’s (him of CRACKED satire fame) and is ideal. Coolest part: the baboon transforms into a flying buzzsaw and launches itself at Shellhead—which moment is depicted on the cover.

Comments: Part two of a two part story. The Red Ghost rematerializes in FANTASTIC FOUR #187 and has shown up as recently as WINTER SOLDIER #1-5.

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Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Invincible Iron Man #83 Synopsis by T Vernon

Happy Hogan in the Iron Man armor has been knocked from the penthouse roof and crashed to the pavement below. His wife Pepper has him taken inside where she can see to his wounds. They are interrupted by Michael O’Brien who is seeking revenge for his brother Kevin’s death (as the Guardsman in issue #46) and is here revealed to be a police detective. As Iron Man, Happy sends him off but the then collapses from his injuries.
Meanwhile, Tony Stark is a prisoner of the Red Ghost in his underwater lair. Seems the baddie’s latest attempt to increase his powers has left him in a permanently intangible state; he had sent his gang to steal Stark’s Cosmitronic Cannon (last ish) but they were defeated by Iron Man. Now he wants Tony to devise a cure. Tony insists that the cannon is the only hope so they all repair to Stark Industries where they break in and head for the lab. The Cannon does indeed cure the Red Ghost but Tony also detonates a smoke bomb so that he can change into Iron Man under cover. Shellhead duels with the super-apes (strong gorilla, shapeshifting baboon, orangutan with magnetic powers) and defeats them. Red Ghost shifts to his immaterial form to do battle but finds himself fading into nothingness as a side effect of the treatment (Tony tried to warn him).
Epilogue: Tony meets with Pepper and Happy. The big guy insists he’s all right but then collapses….