One night at an East Coast dock, a band
of Commie spies are loading a crate aboard their ship—a crate that
contains America’s latest atom bomb which they have stolen and plan
to deliver to their boss, the Red Barbarian. They open the crate to
have another look at their prize—and Iron Man bursts out and
subdues them by increasing the power of a magnetic crane. It picks
them up by their guns and holds them at a perilous height; Iron Man
is not affected because of the special alloy in his armor. He turns
the captives over to the FBI and heads off to recharge his armor.
Later as Tony Stark, he demonstrates to US military officials his new
pocket-size disintegrator which fits into an ordinary flashlight
case. The officials are impressed by the device and warn him that the
Reds would love to get their hands on it….
Meanwhile, behind the Iron Curtain, the
Red Barbarian is informed of Stark’s new invention; when the
messengers tell him that the device would be difficult to steal he
has them punished. He is interrupted by a startling visitor: Soviet
Premier Nikita Khrushchev—who unmasks to reveal himself to be the
Actor, a spy and master of disguise. Changing his face to become the
exact image of Tony Stark, the Actor offers to steal the
disintegrator—for a hefty fee.
Using a variety of guises to enter the
USA unnoticed, the Actor decoys Tony to Washington for a phony
meeting and arrives at Stark’s laboratory disguised as the
millionaire inventor, accompanied by henchmen impersonating top
Pentagon officials. While searching the office, the Actor discovers
not only the plans for the disintegrator but evidence that Tony Stark
is really Iron Man! He heads back to the Red Barbarian while his
aides wait behind to assassinate the real Tony. When our hero arrives
at the lab, the enemy agents shoot him but the bullets are deflected
by his metal chest plate. This gives Tony enough time to douse the
lights and change into Iron Man under cover of darkness. He subdues
the baddies and forces them to reveal what has happened. Iron Man
takes a military rocket behind the Iron Curtain and intercepts the
Actor on the road. Iron Man seals the spy inside his car and suspends
it from a tree and heads to his rendezvous with the Red Barbarian.
Iron Man walks into the villain’s lair with the Actor’s briefcase
(containing the plans) and claims to be the Actor disguised as the
American hero. He spins a yarn for RB that the attaché case
containing the plans for the disintegrator but is protected by a time
lock using a miniature A-bomb (!). Iron Man takes the case and heads
back to free the Actor, then jets to the nearest western country. The
Actor rushes straight to the Red Barbarian with news of Iron Man’s
secret identity but the fact that he no longer has the attaché case
and denies having been there earlier leads the brutish RB to assume
his agent is plotting against him and orders the Actor executed on
the spot.
“Discovery”
Writer: Unknown.
Artist: Joe Maneely.
Synopsis: A yokel
is given a magic candy bar to give him super strength and it works! Then he
discovers he ate the wrong bar so where did his strength come from?
“I Speak of the
Haunted House!”
Writer: Stan Lee. Art:
Steve Ditko. Colors: ? Letters: Artie Simek.
Synopsis: A fellow
takes a bet to spend the night in a haunted house and the next morning the
house is gone—it was the ghost!
“Escape into Space”
Writer: Larry
Lieber. Plot: Stan Lee. Pencils: Larry Lieber. Inks: Matt Fox. Colors: ? Letters:
Artie Simek.
Synopsis: A
convict being transported to a prison planet escapes during an emergency
stopover—unaware that this is the prison planet and it is considered humane to
let the prisoner think he’s free!