Invincible Iron Man #85: Review

Apr 1976

Roger Slifer, Herb Trimpe

Story Name:

...And the Freak Shall Inherit the Earth!

Review & Comments

Rating:

Invincible Iron Man #85 Review by T Vernon (April 14, 2014)

Review: Exciting tale because of the thrilling knock-down drag-out fight between Iron Man and the Freak with an explosion waiting to occur. Plus the opening sequence with all the Marvel personnel was cute though it seemed to be fighting the actual story for attention. The big question, though: how long was Tony in the lab—or did he really completely design and construct an all-new armor in only a couple of hours?

Comments: Part two of a two part story. The title is a parody of Matthew 5:5 from the Bible (“Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the Earth”). A new microthin armor is introduced, losing the nose that has been on the helmet since issue #68. A newspaper headline reads “Daredevil wanted for murder” but in his comic this month he is having his first battle with Bullseye (DAREDEVIL #131-132). The first three pages feature various Marvel staffers as the crowd, including Len Wein, Marie Severin, Herb Trimpe, John Verpoorten, Roy Thomas, and, of course, Stan Lee.

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Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Invincible Iron Man #85 Synopsis by T Vernon

A concerned crowd gathers around Iron Man as he lies injured on a bridge after being beaten by the Freak (last issue). He borrows a transistor radio from a citizen to jumps start his reserve generators. Then, his jet boots ruined, he employs his rocket-powered roller skates to head home—to the amazement of the on-lookers. Returning to his office, Tony Stark locks himself away in his lab and designs a whole new armor. He is interrupted by Roxie Gilbert who demands an explanation as to why he left her so suddenly in issue #83. When he can’t give a coherent excuse, she storms out of the building—and into a meeting with fellow Stark-hater Michael O’Brien. Tony then perfects his new armor: a microthin underlayer of metal which can pop into place and polarize into hardness in microseconds. He heads out, tracking the Freak by the cobalt-emissions he is giving off. He locates his quarry at a train yard. Iron Man is batted around quite a bit by his enervated enemy until he can assemble a miniature version of the Intensifier which cures Happy Hogan of the increasing radiation but leaves a supercharged train car ready to explode. Shellhead tosses it into a lake where it detonates harmlessly and rushes Happy back to the hospital.