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Iron Man #315

Apr 1995

Len Kaminski, Tom Morgan

Story Name:

Old Soldiers

Synopsis

Iron Man #315 synopsis by T Vernon

Rating:

Responding to an emergency call from his old mentor Dr Theodore Slaght, Iron Man rushes to Slaght's lab where an impending core breach threatens to spread a molten parasilicate alloy for miles. As he tries the manual cutoff, Shellhead is engulfed in mutating slag. He escapes and shuts down the operation with five seconds to spare. Checking the logs to find out how this happened, he gets a surprise....

Shellhead asks the staff who entered the incorrect parameters into the machine; Slaght admits that he did. Tony talks at length to Slaght later and when his mentor seems unaware of the accident earlier that day, Tony is certain Slaght has Alzheimer's Disease. Tony informs a meeting of the company's board of directors about Slaght's condition, regretfully recommending they remove him from authority. Slaght overhears this and accuses Tony of betraying him....

Happy Hogan drives Tony to the airport, while Tony tries in vain to get in touch with Ted Slaght. On arrival, Bethany Cabe introduces Tony to his new pilot, Joan “Ace” Sheppard, a beautiful woman (naturally). Tony's traveling companion/Russian translator, Natasha Romanoff, the Black Widow, arrives and they take off for Russia, flirting on the way....

Titanium Man breaks into Lenin's tomb and delivers a eulogy for the Soviet Union which he loved, mourning its fall into chaos and Western decadence. He vows to stop the humiliation of the once-great nation by striking against its most hated enemy: Tony Stark. The Russian brass decides he must be reined in and they send for Valentin Shatalov a/k/a the Crimson Dynamo....

The next day, Tony and Natasha arrive at the new Stark facility, greeting guests including President Boris Yeltsin and Milkail and Raisa Gorbachev. As the dedication ceremonies begin, Titanium Man crashes in, denouncing as traitors the security guards who are now trying to stop him. Tony changes quickly into Iron Man and confronts the rogue Russian. While T-Man spouts Commie rhetoric from the 1950s, I-Man reminds him that their two countries are no longer enemies but T-Man isn't listening. Shellhead inadvertently blasts his foe into the building, leading the hero to hurry the crowd away from a collapsing wall but taking it on the head himself. Titanium Man is able to seize the stunned and groggy Iron Man and hoist him in the air, preparing to tear him to pieces....

Review / Commentaries

Iron Man #315 Review by T Vernon (April 16, 2019)

Comments: Part one of five parts. Title comes from the quote by General Douglas MacArthur (borrowed from a British military song), “Old soldiers never die, they just fade away.” We're told Ted Slaght and Richard Feynman were the consultants who discovered the flaw in the o-rings that led to the Challenger disaster (January 28, 1986); neat trick as only one of the two is a real person. Sole appearance of Joan “Ace” Sheppard, Tony's new pilot.

Review: One of the oddities of the early Marvel history was that it wasn't Captain America who was leading the charge against Communism but Iron Man (Cap was mostly in stories set during WWII so he battled Nazis). So when the Soviet Union finally went belly-up, Iron Man had to deal with the fallout. And here we see Titanium Man, a hard-line True Believer, unable to get with the times and admit that the great experiment had failed. And it's up to Iron Man to pound the truth into his head. Political debates seem easier to follow when conducted by two dudes in armor whomping on each other and that's where a lot of the excitement comes from. Tom Morgan has found his specialty and it's armor. The metal-clad characters take on a great solidity and luster and give the comic a bright and powerful look.

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Main/1st Story Full Credits

Len Kaminski

Tom Morgan

Ariane Lenshoek

Tom Morgan (Cover Penciler)
Tom Morgan (Cover Inker)

Additional Credits

Letterer: Phil Felix.
Editor: Nel Yomtov. Editor-in-chief: Mark Gruenwald.

All stories. Listed in alphabetical order.

Black Widow
(Natasha Romanoff)

Happy Hogan

Iron Man
(Anthony Stark)

Plus: Bethany Cabe, Crimson Dynamo (Valentin Shatalov), Slag (Theodore Slaght), Titanium Man (Boris Bullski).

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