Comic Browser:

Iron Man #249

Nov 1989

David Michelinie, Bob Layton

Story Name:

The Doctor's Passion

Synopsis

Iron Man #249 synopsis by T Vernon

Rating:

A strange artifact suddenly appears before Doctor Doom in his palace in Latveria and he becomes obsessed with understanding this very powerful device....

In California, Iron Man is at the ceremony dedicating the new mall replacing the one that had been destroyed when an identical artifact appears before him. Passing it off a part of the show he takes it back to his lab for study (delegating all the hard work to his staff) while he is checked out by Dr Erica Sondheim and driven home by the faithful Rae Lacoste....

When Doom learns that Iron Man also has one of these artifacts, he is not amused and flies to America to confront Tony Stark. Doom offers to buy the artifact; Tony refuses; Doom leaves, with a threat on his iron lips.... So Tony has Stark Enterprises evacuated and has James Rhodes prepared to blow up the artifact should any baddies get close to it....

Doom sends an army of robots to battle Iron Man while he enters the vault; to Rhodey's surprise, the artifact nullifies the explosions and leaves the vault to go to Doom on its own. After the robots are vanquished, Shellhead takes off after Doom....

At his rented villa not far away, Doom joins the two objects together and they start emitting a black sentient light. Iron Man crashes through the wall and the two adversaries are swallowed up by the black light and vanish....

Review / Commentaries

Iron Man #249 Review by T Vernon (October 3, 2017)

Comments: Part one of two parts; sequel to the two-part Iron Man/Doctor Doom team-up in issues #149-150. The mall was destroyed by Shellhead and the Hulk in issue #247. Final appearance of Tony's housekeeper Mrs Fruitbagel, whose only previous appearances are in issues #236 and 244. Gag: a woman is wearing a t-shirt that reads “JRJR Fan Club;” John Romita Jr.?

Review: The formidable Doctor Doom always makes a comic more entertaining, and this time we have a mysterious artifact and Iron Man battling an army of robots—expendable robots, so if smashing metal is your thing, this is the issue for you. In fact, the only flaw in this issue is that's it's only an excuse to bring Shellhead and the Ol' Doomster together. The real story doesn't start till next ish! This speaks to the genius of David Michelinie's and Bob Layton's writing: a plot that could have been dealt with in two- to four-pages is stretched to fill an entire issue and it doesn't show! Weird.

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Main/1st Story Full Credits

David Michelinie

Bob Layton

Paul Becton

Bob Layton (Cover Penciler)
Bob Layton (Cover Inker)

Additional Credits

Letterer: Janice Chiang.
Editor: Howard Mackie.

All stories. Listed in alphabetical order.

Doctor Doom
(Victor Von Doom)

Iron Man
(Anthony Stark)

James Rhodes
(Rhodey)

Plus: Erica Sondheim, Mrs. Arbogast, Rae LaCoste.

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