Featuring: Avengers
Release: June 9, 1964
Cover: August 1964
12 cents
Magnificently written by: Stan Lee
Majestically illustrated by: Jack Kirby
Masterfully inked by: Chic Stone
Meticulously lettered by: Art Simek
22 pages
In Tales of Suspense #56, Tony Stark very briefly flirted with giving up his Iron Man identity. He now faces a board of inquiry for his failure to answer an Avengers call. At that very moment, Odin is rendering judgment on Enchantress and Executioner for their part in the events of Journey Into Mystery #103. These events show the ever-tightening interconnectedness of the series.
Recall that Thor’s title went over a dozen issues without referencing or being referenced by any other series. There was no evidence it was set in the same world as that of the other heroes. Now, they are rather intertwined.
But continuity brings continuity errors, even when a single writer is nominally writing every title. The inquiry is tricky to reconcile with the details of Tales of Suspense #56 in a few ways. Thor charges Iron Man with ignoring a call. However, the Avengers didn’t really know how to contact him and never reached him. They talked to Mr. Stark’s secretary. She was able to talk to Mr. Stark, but never (as far as anyone knows) Iron Man. It would be like somebody who doesn’t know my phone number charging me with not answering my phone they didn’t call.
Secondly, they were trying to contact Iron Man to ask him to look into the Unicorn. Within a couple hours of that failed call, Iron Man did indeed find, battle, and defeat the Unicorn. So they attempted to contact Iron Man, didn’t know how to, never reached him, and thus it was, say, 2 hours between their attempt at contact and his completing the mission they sought to assign him. That hardly seems worth an inquiry.
There was no mention of this coming inquiry in the Iron Man comic. In fact, at the time, the Avengers all seemed to agree that Iron Man was in his rights to live his own life.
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