Invincible Iron Man #98: Review

May 1977

Bill Mantlo, George Tuska

Story Name:

Sunfire Strikes Again!

Review & Comments

Rating:

Invincible Iron Man #98 Review by T Vernon (July 29, 2014)

Review: Nice installment of the ongoing drama—if you can keep track of who’s wearing what armor at any given time. And the mystery plot thickens—who stole all the Iron Man armors, and why did she give one back? Dum dum DUMMM! Oh yeah and Bill Mantlo has revived the Mandarin; he wasn’t dead for long, was he? Some cool 70s fun.

Comments: Part four of six parts. Sunfire most recently appeared in issues #68-70. First (brief) appearance of the revived Mandarin. The old armor Tony wears is the one introduced in TALES OF SUSPENSE #48 (I think).

From Our Blog:

Gwen Stacy, beauty queen of Standard High School, was Peter Parker's (alias Spider-Man) first great love.

Gwen Stacy: Classic Beauty

Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Invincible Iron Man #98 Synopsis by T Vernon

Tony Stark, his heart again failing him, works feverishly to complete his new armor. He also has a sedated Michael O’Brien restrained, hoping to cure the vengeance-mad cop of his trauma. He is contacted by his secretary Krissy Longfellow reminding about the subpoena summoning him before Senator Hawk’s committee. Jasper Sitwell stops by the office to introduce himself, and finds Krissy strangely familiar. Before he can figure it out, she nervously excuses herself to tend to a pair of foreign visitors, Professor Watanabe and his daughter Fujiko (previously seen in issue #30). In the lab, O’Brien wakes up to again accuse Tony of murdering his brother Kevin; Tony tries to tell the real story, that he and Kevin were friends until the latter cracked up and became paranoid. They are interrupted by the news that the factory is under attack by the Japanese mutant Sunfire seeking revenge for American interference in Japan. Tony discovers that his suits of armor have been stolen behind his back and, with the new armor incomplete, dons the dangerous Guardsman suit, which was not designed to protect his heart. Tony takes on his deadly opponent and a strain is put on his heart. O’Brien, watching Stark’s heroism and aware of his defective heart, realizes he has misjudged his enemy. Michael puts on the new armor and heads to the aid of the beleaguered Tony. As the new Iron Man takes on the villain, a weakened Tony drags himself back into the lab where a mystery woman presents him with one of his missing armors. As O’Iron Man battles Sunfire a beringed hand presses a button and the hero is teleported away. Sunfire is confused as he now faces another Iron Man, the original….