Synopsis
Iron Man (1968 series) #254 synopsis by
T Vernon
Rating:
Christmas Eve: Searching for the killer of his beloved Whitney Frost, Iron Man invades a secret Maggia warehouse, taking on all of the baddies within. They call out a giant robot called the Persuader and Shellhead turns it to junk with a single repulsor blast. He captures a thug but the guy won't reveal where Madame Masque is....
At Taskmaster's school, one of five candidates for an important position is killed when he fails a test; turns out that one of his competitors had sabotaged his gun. Later, the sole female candidate is killed by a bomb blast in her room. Then the remaining three men are equipped with blinders and have to fight to the death barehanded. The ruthless one who has already caused the deaths of two candidates, easily bests the last two. As his reward he becomes the new Spymaster for Justin Hammer...but there is one more test: retrieve a certain object from Stark Enterprises' annual Christmas charity party....
All is going well at the party when a kid notices that Santa Claus is packing a gun. Santa unmasks as the Spymaster and holds a kid hostage. Tony dons the armor and Iron Man crashes up through the floor and carries the baddie into the sky. Spymaster claps a de-stabilizer to Iron Man's armor, forcing him to lose control. As the spy heads for his objective (on skis yet) Rhodey opens fire on him yet Spymaster still overcomes Rhodey. He attacks Shellhead with electrified nunchuks knocking him into the ski jump which starts to collapse on the children. Iron Man manages to hold it up long enough for the kids to get to safety and he confronts his foe. Spymaster reveals that all he has come for is the angel ornament from the top of the Christmas tree. Puzzled, Iron Man hands it over (in the spirit of the season) and the villain leaves.
CharactersGood (or All)Plus: Maggia, Marcy Pearson, Mrs. Arbogast, Rae LaCoste, Spymaster (
Nathan Lemon).