Iron Man (1968 series) #32

Review: I’m always a sucker for a comic story that relegates the hero to a supporting role while focusing on the human drama of the incidental characters. I’m also fond of stories with an unusual structure. This one clicks on both counts though one is more successful than the other. The introduction of the four main characters (Iron Man, Mechanoid, Belinda, crooks) are separate and the threads of the story slowly tie up to bring them all together in the fateful climax and the effect is quite impressive. On the other hand, the page count doesn’t leave much space for the story, and the Belinda/Mike romance comes off a bit rushed and implausible (really, she falls for a guy she met only 15 minutes ago?). Yet stretching the story to two issues would have diffused the tension quite a bit, so it would have been awkward either way. The most notable aspect of the issue, especially for 1970? The fact that both Belinda and “Mike” are African-American. It was rare then (and not so common now) for race to be completely irrelevant to the story or the character. Nothing in the issue required them to be of any particular race, civil rights do not enter into the story at any point, they don’t speak in the jive patois favored by middle-aged white writers when supplying dialogue for supposedly hip black characters (check out the early issue of Luke Cage for some absurd examples. Sweet Christmas!). They are people first and other factors are unimportant—so I didn’t mention it until now. Cool move on Marvel’s part.

The starship really does look like a star ship—and its technology is compatible with Tony’s; maybe INDEPENDENCE DAY wasn’t so silly after all. The big unanswered question is: what happened to the starship after the Mechanoid was destroyed? We can only assume that it was recalled to its homeworld by remote control.