Iron Man (1968 series) #42

Now back to Iron Man: There is no nice way to put this: with that leggy jumpsuit and big medallion, Mikas looks like a dancer at a 70s gay disco. He is the least intimidating-looking baddie of this era and putting him near the reptilian demon Marianne doesn’t help. Plus he calls himself Soulfather, which sounds more like a nickname for James Brown than a skinny white guy given to pretentious displays of power and ego. And the plot still doesn’t make sense: last issue Kline employed Slasher and Demetrius in an elaborate scheme to destroy Tony Stark’s reputation; now the mission is worded as simply, “Destroy Stark.” That could have been accomplished much easier at any point in the prior proceedings. And what was the point of replacing the Senator with a robot double between pages 5 and 9 when the fake does exactly what the real one would do under the circumstances.… Oh why don’t I just sit back and enjoy this silly but fun tale?

Review/Commentary: Between the last issue and this one, Mister Kline appeared in DAREDEVIL #80-81. There he hired DD enemy the Owl to kidnap the hero. Owl and his men went on a rampage in downtown New York to lure DD to them (not clear why they assumed Spidey and the Avengers wouldn’t show up). Owl, double-crossing Kline, trapped the hero in a helicopter and sent it plunging into the Hudson River. Black Widow, who was nearby, leapt in an rescued DD. Kline fired Owl for disobeying orders and the baddie went after Daredevil again and lost. Kline, meanwhile, reported via radio to a mysterious superior that he has set up a potential romantic entanglement between DD and Natasha and that the blackmail scheme against Foggy Nelson is proceeding well; object: to make Foggy Governor and have him in their power. Kline was then revealed to be a robot called MK-9 who will now go by the code name Assassin. Kline ends the issue by deciding to employ the “Silent Ones…” Biggest unanswered question: Why would a robot smoke cigarettes?