professor vanko – Coke & Comics

Tales of Suspense #56

The Uncanny Unicorn!

Featuring: Iron Man
Release: May 12, 1964
Cover: August 1964
12 cents
Written with consummate skill by: Stan Lee
Illustrated with blazing drama by: Don Heck
Lettered with bloodshot eyes by: S. Rosen
18 pages

The time of the science fiction short stories has ended, allowing this comic to devote a full 18 pages to telling Iron Man’s story. I’m sure that making it longer was the missing ingredient in making it good.

This issue, Iron Man battles the Unicorn. I’m undecided if that name conjures a powerful Soviet menace. It doesn’t sound like something a tough bad guy would call themself, but then I wouldn’t want to have to fight a unicorn.

The character arc of the issue is that Tony Stark decides to give up being Iron Man and live a normal life. He then feels guilty when Happy is injured by the Unicorn because he had neglected his responsibilities.

Tales of Suspense #52

The Crimson Dynamo Strikes Again!

Featuring: Iron Man
Release: January 10, 1964
Cover: April 1964
12 cents
Plot by: Stan Lee
Story by: N. Korok
Art by: Don Heck
Lettering by: S. Rosen
13 pages

N. Korok is an alias for Don Rico. Stan credits Rico with the story and himself with the plot. I would love to know what Stan thinks the difference between “plot” and “story” is. Rico had been working with comics, and Marvel Comics in particular, since 1939, as artist or writer or editor. By this time, he had mostly left comics behind and become a successful novelist– likely why he’s not using his real name on this comic work. Any comics work by Rico from this point forward will be quite uncommon.

Khrushchev decides it’s time to deal with the traitorous Crimson Dynamo. He sends for Russia’s best agents, Boris and Natasha.

No, not those two.

Tales of Suspense #46

Iron Man Faces the Crimson Dynamo!

Featuring: Iron Man
Release: July 9, 1963
Cover: October 1963
12 cents
Story plot: Stan Lee
Script: R. Berns
Art: Don Heck
13 pages

The cover bears a resemblance to the Ant-Man cover we just examined. The hero and villain are not actually in the same picture, with one confined to a separate panel.

Professor Vanko is Russia’s top scientist. He has built a suit that makes him master of electricity, the Crimson Dynamo. By the end, Tony Stark tricks him into defecting to the West.