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Iron Man Annual (1976 series) #15

Jan 1994
Len Kaminski | Gene Colan

Iron Man Annual (1976 series) #15 cover

Story Name:

Minds In Collision

Synopsis

Iron Man Annual (1976 series) #15 synopsis by T Vernon
Rating: 4 stars
The Controller tests his new systems, looking through the eyes of various slaves, recalling his childhood as an invalid and determining to be in control one day, followed by a battle among his berserkers, finally having Stark employee Bob Peterson snap and threaten Mrs. Arbogast with a gun in a plot to assassinate Tony Stark. But then Iron Man bursts in and subdues the would-be killer who, when questioned, responds with the Controller's voice....

Erica Sondheim examines Peterson and finds no trace of any type of controlling device; here Controller reveals that he has devised a new method of mind control, one without any mechanical aid, namely channeling through a latent psionic named Sarah Jessup. Tony tells Bethany Cabe he will have to face the Controller as Iron Man, using an image inducer to disguise himself as one of the villain's berserkers. But with his new powers he easily detects the interloper and has his berserkers capture Iron Man. Controller pours his energy into the hero's brain, planning to crush him once and for all but something goes wrong: the sudden increase of power kills Sarah Jessup and spawns a monster called Mindstorm which lashes out against the two antagonists. Her psionic violence threatens to tear their minds apart, forcing their memories together so that they experience all of each other's hurts and pains pushing them toward madness. But while the Controller is overwhelmed, Tony Stark acts, using the bad guy's knowledge of the system to shut it down, depriving Mindstorm of her energy and so she consumes herself and vanishes....

Iron Man discovers that Controller has suffered a stroke and he is hospitalized and assumed to be in a persistent vegetative state and they consider pulling the plug, unaware that the Controller is aware and able to hear them....




Characters
Good (or All)
IRONMAN
Plus: Bethany Cabe (Bethany Camilla Cabe von Tilburg), Erica Sondheim, Mrs. Arbogast.

Enemies
CONTROLLER

Story #2

Black and White

Writer: Frank Tieri. Penciler/Inker: .

Synopsis

By T Vernon
Rating: 4 stars
In #40, the end of Tony Stark's conflict with media mogul Tiberius Stone, Ty trapped Tony in DreamVision, his new virtual reality system, for a mental battle which Stark won. But now Stone has sent him a note claiming that they're still *in* VR.

Tony goes to see Ty who insists this isn't a joke. He reminds Stark of an unexplained energy surge after Tony 'defeated' him, and now claims that was the program restarting. He points out how implausible the events of the subsequent issues have been. Tony gave up his fortune and his company and spent #42-45 as Hogan Potts working for a small company which Iron Man also used to develop his new SKIN armour. Then Trevor Donahue died and left Stark his fortune and company so Tony is back in business again. Tony counters with *his* theory that Stone's DreamVision planted a subliminal message that *caused* him to give everything away.

The argument is halted when Rumiko Fujikawa rushes in a exposes the truth - that it is Ty who is permanently attached to his DreamVision system, addicted to it (as we saw in #41), and that his current scheme is to trick Tony into helping him break free. Ty then confesses that a part of his mind is trapped in DreamVision and without it he'll die. He wasn't going to *ask* his rival for help, but if he convinced Tony that he was trapped too then Stark would find a way to get them both out. Tony says if Ty *had* asked he would probably have helped his childhood friend. But now he'll leave him to stew.

Ru catches up with Tony as he leaves. Even after all Ty's done she just can't leave him like that, and begs Tony to help him. But Tony can't get past the fact that she left his bed for Ty's, and he walks away from her. She then turns to Ty and tells him she only went with him to hurt Tony because he didn't treat her as the most important thing in his life. Ty says he knew that, and *he* was only using *her* to get at Tony too. Ru slaps his face and she too leaves. Ty gets revenge by releasing compromising photos of her on the Internet and then having it reported on his news programs.

Characters
Good (or All)
IRONMAN
Plus: Rumiko Fujikawa.

Enemies
Tiberius Stone.

Story #3

The Media Takes On Tony Stark

Writer: . Penciler/Inker: Kevin Hopgood. Colorist: Unknown.

Synopsis

By T Vernon
Rating: 4 stars
A selection of periodical articles about Tony Stark from news and financial magazines and gossip columns, giving insight into our protagonist's character.

Characters
Good (or All)
TONYSTARK


Story #4

(No Title Given)

Writer/Penciler/Inker/Letterer: . Colorist: Unknown.

Synopsis

By None
Rating: 3 stars


> Iron Man Annual (1976 series) comic book info and issue index


Iron Man Annual (1976 series) #15 cover

Excelsioring your collection:
statue
Holy smokes, Batman!
(The Boy Wonder)

Main/1st Story Full Credits

Gene Colan
Al Williamson
George Roussos
M. D. Bright (Cover Penciler)
Andy Lanning (Cover Inker)
Additional Credits
Letterer: Phil Felix.
Editor: Nel Yomtov. Editor-in-chief: Tom DeFalco.



Review / Commentaries

Iron Man Annual (1976 series) #15 Review by (January 8, 2019)
Comments: Main story falls between issues #306 and 307/FORCE WORKS #3 and 4. The Controller last appeared in issue #293 and will return (after a few appearances with the Avengers and Heroes for Hire) in Volume 3, issues #12-13. Second story leads in to issue #307. Full writing credits for third story: Conceived by Len Kaminski. Design and layout by Scott Benson. Text by Benson & Kaminski. Issue includes a collage of covers.

Review: Iron Man has a furrowed brow on the cover and that shouldn't be possible but it's a comic book, anything can happen. The first tale showcases the great Gene Colan's later, more impressionistic style, befitting an adventure that takes place largely in the mind. True, it's a bit hard to follow but the eerie visuals carry us through. The second story has a lot of promise with all the villains but it quickly settles down once we realize it's all a training simulation—but then we learn the simulation is out of control and it ramps the action back up. The third tale is rather offbeat but offers much characterization, assuming anybody actually read the whole thing. I did but that was as a favor to my old pal writer Scott Benson. If you're reading this, hi Scott!

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