Iron Man (1968 series) #258

Comments: Armor Wars II: Part I of IX. First appearance of Kearson DeWitt, despite Wikipedia claiming it is in ANNUAL #13. That unusual title is not a quotation from another source; kudos to John Byrne—it's a clue to the identity of the real villain: the title's initials spell out LASER.

Review: Man, that cover as a cheat, wasn't it? Anyway. I've never been a big fan of John Romita Jr.'s style—too many thin lines—and especially not when he did Captain America in the 20-teens but here it suits the story, lending Iron Man a fragility that emphasizes the destruction around him. And now he is at the mercy of a baddie he thought he had killed (and actually had killed according to the dead man himself). Thrilling script with a number of nice effects makes for a good, if not great, story. And I wish John Byrne were drawing this instead of merely writing it. Sigh.


The next part is by Rob Johnson.

John Byrne builds this plotline around the chip that Tony had installed to enable him to walk again in the Michelinie&Layton-plotted #248. This builds on the back problems Stark mentioned when Bob Layton returned for #256.

Layton also wrote #254 which resurrected another MicheLayton subplot concerning the new Madame Masque. Byrne ignores that as will other writers until #320, and we won't get the official explanation for multiple MM's until Avengers (1998) #31-34.

But in 2013 M&L produced IM#258.1-258.4 which told the story it seems they had intended to write as a follow up to their run. It was presented as the start of an alternative timeline running in parallel to #258 and onwards.

Here the chip malfunctions and creates a digital Tony who becomes the main villain. Meanwhile the new Madame Masque turns out to be Rae Lacoste working for M&L's signature villain Justin Hammer.

This is like a What If story, but it's really "What If Michelinie and Layton hadn't left Iron Man". It isn't a timeline that branches from the beginning of #258 because it requires the past to be different. Rae would have been MM in some earlier apps, which the official explanation says isn't true. (Not that some actual What If stories don't suffer from the same problem.)