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Iron Man #79

Oct 1975
Mike Friedrich, George Tuska

Iron Man #79 cover

Story Name:

Midnite On Murder Mountain!

Synopsis

Iron Man #79 synopsis by Rob Johnson
Rating: 2.5 stars
On a dark and stormy night, Iron Man is jetting back to New York from a meeting in Cleveland when in Western Pennsylvania a bolt of lightning strikes a tree. The tree falls across the road and a van crashes into it. The hero swoops to the rescue and finds the passengers Carrie and Keith—with a stray cat they just found called Zero—unharmed. He flies to the nearest town and, as Tony Stark, rents a car and drives back to pick up the stranded travelers. The only lodging they can find that late is a spooky old mansion call Murder Mountain Lodge. The place is run by an imperious old lady and her hulking attendant who shows them to their rooms. In the middle of the night Tony is awakened by a scream; the doors and windows are covered with steel plates. Donning his armor, Tony smashes through and heads to the basement where he finds the young couple prisoners in a mad scientist lab. The old lady, Dr. Kurarkill, orders her henchman Quasar to attack Iron Man. After a violent battle Shellhead is knocked out (!). He awakens in a chamber where he and Keith and Carrie are held immobile by an electrical charge. The couple fills him in on the backstory: Dr Kurarkill is a genetics expert who has been turning people into apes to provide the energy to turn an ape into a human—Quasar. Her assistant who objected was turned into something else (foreshadowing). And now she is going to make monkeys out of them. The cat Zero rubs against Quasar’s legs to build up a static electricity charge then shorts out the cabinet, freeing Iron Man. He beats the crap out of Quasar and destroys the lab, hoping Stark Industries can do something to help the mad doctor’s victims. Dr. Kurarkill releases the wild apes to kill them but the cat has chewed through the wires so that the animals enter the control room instead and tear their tormentor to pieces. Surprise ending: a subtle hint that the cat is Kurarkill’s former assistant.

 

Review / Commentaries

Iron Man #79 Review by (March 4, 2014)
Review: Two consecutive fill-in issues? Must be some big problems at Marvel at this time. Unlike the previous issue’s attempt to do something serious, this is a simple inventory tale tossed in here to fill a gap in the schedule. Mad scientist? Spooky mansion? Thunder and lightning? Iron Man goes from Vietnam to an old monster movie. Turning people into apes in order to turn apes into people? Even Bela Lugosi would have laughed at that script. A goofy diversion but not particularly memorable.

Comments: Yes, the title is misspelled on the first page. Only appearance of Dr Kurarkill (pronounced “Cure or kill”) and Quasar (who is not related to the later cosmic hero).

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Elektra
Iron Man #79 cover

Excelsioring your collection:
Marvel Iron Man MARK7 Statue ARTFX 1/6 Statue
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(The Boy Wonder)

Main/1st Story Full Credits

George Tuska
Vince Colletta
Al Wenzel
Gil Kane (Cover Penciler)
Frank Giacoia (Cover Inker)
Additional Credits
Letterer: Dave Hunt.
Editor: Len Wein.

Characters

All stories. Listed in alphabetical order.

Iron Man
Iron Man
(Anthony Stark)


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