Comic Browser:

Iron Man #273

Oct 1991

John Byrne, Paul Ryan

Story Name:

Here There Be Dragons

Synopsis

Iron Man #273 synopsis by T Vernon

Rating:

In Hong Kong, respected businessman Wu Pong suddenly transforms into a dragon and flies off, shocking his secretary. Chen Hsu calmly awaits his arrival, along with the others he has summoned. And the skies over China are filled with dragons, terrifying the people....

Meanwhile, Iron Man is locked in battle with Fin Fang Foom—but not the real Iron Man. Instead it is an empty armor controlled mentally by Tony Stark from his hotel room. But the remote-controlled version is just a nanosecond too slow and ends up being clouted into the distance by the terrible dragon. James Rhodes in the other Iron Man armor despairs at this seeming death blow as the Mandarin gloats. “Iron Man” makes a comeback, startling Mandy but he knows whoever may be in the suit, Iron Man shall die today. Tony activates his suit's redoubler, pumping about forty times more power into the suit than it was built to sustain and fires his repulsors at full blast against his scaly foe, knocking FFF to the ground. The Mandarin then steps forward to face Iron Man himself; he uses the power in one ring to bring a mountain to life as a deadly giant. In his room, Tony is distracted by Li Wang knocking at the door; Tony shouts for him to go away but it was long enough for the empty armor to crash to the ground—and for the mountain to leap upon it. It takes “Shellhead” twenty minutes to dig its way out—and find the Mandarin and a revived Fin Fang Foom facing “him.”

At Avengers Mansion, Captain America and She-Hulk are testing themselves in a battle simulation when they are interrupted by Black Widow looking for an ally; she offers to take them to lunch but has already decided they are not who she needs....

Tony directs his efforts toward defeating his two foes but soon realizes he cannot win so he orders the armor to retreat. Rhodey sees this and feels deserted as Mandy prepares to destroy the Iron Man who didn't run away...but then the summoned dragons arrive, astonishing even the Mandarin....

Review / Commentaries

Iron Man #273 Review by T Vernon (April 24, 2018)

Comments: “The Dragon Seed Saga.” Part two of four. Issue includes a pin-up of Iron Man by Tom Morgan.

Review: An exciting all-battle issue begins with a bang—the staid businessman transforming into a dragon in front of his frightened secretary—and ends with a prospect of Armageddon with the arrival of all the dragons. In-between we're treated to Tony trying to conduct a monster fight via remote control and it has its drawbacks. All while Rhodey lies battered and mopey on the ground. And, while appearances of Cap and Shulkie are always welcome, why are they in this issue if Natasha has decided they can't help her?

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Main/1st Story Full Credits

John Byrne

Paul Ryan

Bob Wiacek

Paul Becton

Paul Ryan (Cover Penciler)
Bob Wiacek (Cover Inker)

Additional Credits

Letterer: Phil Felix.
Editor: Nel Yomtov. Editor-in-chief: Tom DeFalco.

All stories. Listed in alphabetical order.

Black Widow
(Natasha Romanoff)

Captain America
(Steven Rogers)

Fin Fang Foom

Iron Man
(Anthony Stark)

Mandarin

She-Hulk
(Jennifer Walters)

Plus: Chen Hsu, Iron Man (James Rhodes).

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