Invincible Iron Man #269: Review

Jun 1991

John Byrne, Paul Ryan

Story Name:

The Hollow Man

Review & Comments

Rating:

Invincible Iron Man #269 Review by T Vernon (March 27, 2018)

Comments: Issues #269-271 are a lead-in to “The Dragon Seed Saga” in issues #272-275. The Mandarin's scenes quote extensively from The Wind and the Stone: The Book of War by General Huang Chan Yin (which is not a real book or author).

Review: Okay. Tony is still agonizing over the implant in his nervous system and we're impatient to see what the Mandarin is planning with Fin Fang Foom. So what do we get? Another new subplot, this one involving Black Widow. The Mandarin section is a knockout, making up for the cranky Tony bits and the drawn out Natasha part (really, four pages for her to remember the date?) Not to worry, there's more to come....

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Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Invincible Iron Man #269 Synopsis by T Vernon

The Mandarin trains by musing on military philosophy while battling four martial artists as Chen Hsu holds his rings. Mandy defeats them all handily, killing the one who cheated by taking up a sword. And now he knows he is ready....

The crippled Tony Stark is undergoing more medical scans by James Rhodes (Rhodey) while wondering about the Marrs' nasty scheme and still not knowing who that final bad guy was (Kearson DeWitt in issue #266) who seemed to have a personal grudge against him. Tony is wearing an exo-sheath neuro-net under fake skin to enable him to move and now he must attend an important meeting....

At her Park Avenue apartment, Black Widow Natasha Romanova awakens, showers, and goes through her training regimen. And then she hears the date and realizes: “Oktober” has been activated....

Tony attends a meeting of his various division managers. They are concerned that Tony is spending too much time and effort to fight Desmond and Phoebe Marrs and the various segments of the company are in trouble and they want to know what Tony intends to do. Tony has a sudden attack and Rhodey cuts the meeting short and rushes him to the lab. Another scan shows that 60% of the circuitry has burned out; Tony must wear the Iron Man armor again until the neuro-net can be repaired. He is bitterly frustrated and then he receives a message: The Chinese government will allow him to consult with neurosurgeon Su Yin in exchange for certain services. This is a last desperate hope for Tony....