Captured by the Mandarin (last issue), the powerless Iron Man finds himself chained to a massive wheel, with the villain preparing to reveal the tale of his origin. His father was a direct descendant of Genghis Khan but he married an Englishwoman; the gods were offended so his father was killed by a falling idol the day his son was born and his mother died soon afterward. His aunt plotted to abandon the baby in another village but another omen forced her to raise the child instead—but training him to hate the world. His inheritance was spent on learning science and villainy (a dual major), and when his aunt died, he was left on his own—an impoverished nobleman too proud to work. Instead he made a journey to the remote Valley of Spirits to unlock its secrets. There he found a massive dragon skeleton which startled him into falling into the valley where he discovered a hidden alien spaceship. Exploring the craft he learned via a mental teaching machine that it was flown to Earth by an alien explorer who, because of his resemblance to a dragon, was fatally wounded by the panicked populace and died where the Mandarin found him. The villain also discovers the source of the ship’s power: ten mystical rings which he then learned to use and employed to establish his power base, where Iron Man is now imprisoned.
Concluding his tale, the Mandarin starts the wheel rotating, growing faster and faster until his enemy is dead. He then explains his next perfidious plan and leaves the hero to his fate. His scheme: he has given the Red Chinese a missile to test but the weapon is programmed to destroy Formosa (now Taiwan), starting World War 3, from which the Mandarin hopes to emerge the dominant power. The bound Iron Man manages to sever a titanium cord with a blade in his glove and connect it to his wrist power pack so that the spinning wheel recharges his batteries and he is able to break free. He uses his solar-scanner beam to track the villain to the Red Chinese missile base just as the missile is fired; Iron Man attaches himself to the rocket and reprograms it to return to its point of origin. He then intercepts the Mandarin as he heads back to his castle and the two duel with their respective weapons in a desolate valley. The battle is at a stalemate when the Red Army, searching for the Mandarin whom they assume to be a traitor, arrives. The villain beats a hasty retreat back to his lair and the hero hitches a ride back to the USA aboard a military jet. When we last see them, the weary Iron Man is napping and the Mandarin is scheming of revenge….
Story #2Break-Out in Cell Block 10!
Writer: Stan Lee. Penciler: Jack Kirby. Inker: Chic Stone. Colorist: ?.
Synopsis / Summary / Plot
As the story opens
Captain America is in the office of a prison warden, fighting a gang of convicts, wondering why he was invited to demonstrate how he would defend himself during an escape. Quickly subduing the cons, who seemed to be firing live ammo, Cap asks the warden for an explanation. In response, Cap is shown to
Cell Block 10, where the most dangerous convicts are kept in maximum security. The prisoners and the guards quickly surround our hero and seize his shield. The "warden," actually a crook named
Deacon, reveals that the prisoners have taken control of the jail and this scheme was cooked up to get hold of Cap’s shield. Deacon and the cons try to use the magnetic controls in the shield to open the main prison door but it doesn’t work. Cap suddenly appears and throws himself into the gang, recovering his shield, which he reveals no longer uses Iron Man’s magnetic gimmicks. Cap easily mops up the gang and he tells Deacon how he was able to escape from his cell so easily: he simply slipped a gum wrapper into the lock. As the real warden shows Cap out, he explains to the Avenger that the magnetic door opens only to the sound of a password. That password? "Captain America."