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Iron Man #1

May 1968
Archie Goodwin, Gene Colan

Iron Man #1 cover

Story Name:

Alone Against AIM

Synopsis

Iron Man #1 synopsis by T Vernon
Rating: 4 stars
Image from Iron Man #1
This story continues from IRON MAN & SUB-MARINER #1.

The A.I.M. Vortex-Suction Beam pulls Iron Man through the hull of the Maggia gambling ship and aboard the A.I.M. vessel where he is trapped in a sealed chamber and gassed. Once he is unconscious, the A.I.M. agents prepare to take him to their leader Mordius….
SHIELD Agent Jasper Sitwell is aboard the sinking ship and tries to quell a panic; he encounters the mystery woman he was attracted to outside the Stark plant in TALES OF SUSPENSE #98 and carries her overboard. Meanwhile, Whiplash and other Maggia goons are trapped by the villain’s steel whip jamming the escape hatch. SHIELD craft arrive for the rescue mission and Jasper is taken aboard with his lovely lady, who introduces herself as socialite Whitney Frost. She thanks Jasper with a passionate kiss…but later in private she is revealed to be the Big M, hoping to attract Tony Stark’s attention in order to steal his weapons for the Maggia. She now realizes that romancing Jasper Sitwell would serve the same purpose….
On A.I.M.’s island stronghold, the unconscious Iron Man is delivered to the lab of Mordius, master scientist who aspires to rule the organization. The hero is placed inside the x-ray photo-chamber and his armor is scanned with the Vario-Mold matrix creating three exact duplicates of the Golden Avenger’s armor. Suddenly, Iron Man, who was faking unconsciousness, bursts out of the x-ray chamber and faces three villains wearing his identical armor. But a further surprise awaits Mordius: his armored henchmen are unable to control the weapons and flying jets; Stark’s refractory coating in his armor distorted the readings on the scanner, resulting in inferior copies. But the baddies reason that three armored men against one is still good odds—until Iron Man reveals that skill and experience count for something too, as he proceeds to punch their shellheaded lights out. The enraged Mordius unleashes his rocket cannon at the hero, killing his own men but leaving Iron Man unharmed as he had suspected something like this and taken cover. The Armored Avenger takes cover in the enemy’s generator room and slips out unseen as the A.I.M. forces storm the room. Mordius orders the generators set to full power to offset the sabotage by Iron Man but the joke’s on him: Iron Man did nothing to the generators. The sudden power surge quickly reaches critical overload and the villains’ base explodes as Iron Man heads home.


Story #2

The Origin of Iron Man

Writer: Archie Goodwin. Penciler: Gene Colan. Inker: Johnny Craig. Colorist: Unknown. Letterer: Art Simek.

Synopsis

By T Vernon
Rating: 3 stars
In Vietnam to demonstrate his latest weapons to the US military, scientist/playboy Tony Stark steps on a booby trap and is critically injured. He awakens a prisoner of the guerilla leader Wong Chu who forces him to build a weapon for the terrorist cause. Working with another captive, Professor Yinsen, Tony constructs a suit of armor which also keeps his damaged heart beating. Yinsen sacrifices his life to give Tony the time to charge the battle suit and take vengeance against the enemy. Thus, Iron Man was born!

Quotes

Interesting passages found in this comic book.

"Why does every would-be tyrant think himself infallible?"
~ IRON MAN

 

Review / Commentaries

Iron Man #1 Review by (August 21, 2012)
Review: The main story stars off nicely, continuing in the vein of the previous installments though the big reveal (Whitney Frost is the Big M!) is tossed off in a panel in the middle of a page. In the second half the story turns into a standard mad scientist plot, with Mordius being especially easy to fool. Again, Colan’s dynamic art keeps us from recognizing the plot deficiencies. Sadly, this is the end of Colan’s run on Iron Man and there are no equals in sight (but more on that next issue). The origin gives us a nice recap in three pages, but the pacing is seriously off: the story is half over before Tony steps on the mine! And all of the action is confined to the final panel, sharing space with the concluding narration.

Comments: Conclusion of the five-part story that began in TALES OF SUSPENSE #97-99, then continued in the one-shot IRON MAN AND SUB-MARINER #1. Last regular Iron Man story drawn by Gene Colan. Whitney Frost is named and revealed to be the Big M in this story. Sole appearance of Mordius, who is not connected to the minor Jack Kirby character of the same name that appeared in the SECRET CITY SAGA and KIRBY: GENESIS. The shoulder brace broken by Whiplash in TOS #98, which was consistently drawn broken in the next two issues, is miraculously intact for this episode.


> Iron Man comic book info and issue index

Elektra

This comic is in the following collection:
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Collecting IRON MAN (1968) #1-25, and material from TALES OF SUSPENSE (1959) #84-99 and IRON MAN AND THE SUB-MARINER #1.

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Main/1st Story Full Credits

Gene Colan
Johnny Craig
Unknown
Gene Colan (Cover Penciler)
Mike Esposito (Cover Inker)
Additional Credits
Letterer: Art Simek.
Editor: Stan Lee.

Characters

All stories. Listed in alphabetical order.

Dum Dum Dugan
Dum Dum Dugan
(Timothy Aloysius Dugan)
Iron Man
Iron Man
(Anthony Stark)
Jasper Sitwell
Jasper Sitwell
Nick Fury
Nick Fury
(Nicholas Fury)
S.H.I.E.L.D.
S.H.I.E.L.D.
A.I.M.
A.I.M.
Whiplash
Whiplash
Plus: Gabe Jones (Gabriel Jones), Professor Yinsen, Maggia, Whitney Frost, Wong-Chu.

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