Featuring: Iron Man
Release: May 9, 1963
Cover: August 1963
12 cents
Plot: Stan Lee
Script: R. Berns
Art: Don Heck
13 pages
I read this story in The Invincible Iron Man Omnibus vol. 1.
In June 1963, a Cleopatra film starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton debuted.
One month earlier, perhaps in an attempt to ride a marketing tail, Iron Man meets Cleopatra!
The comic does end with Iron Man attending the Cleopatra film premiere, to make this a very specific nod.
Now, Anthony Stark is already famously a ladies’ man. And a reporter earlier in the issue asks him about how he’d fare if he met her. It turns out very well. She is smitten with him despite never seeing his face. He wears bulky Iron Man armor the entire time.
We have met Cleopatra before. She was one of Venus’ handmaidens in Venus #1. It’s not clear how she got from Egypt to Venus, or if they’re even meant to be the same character. The CMRO notes she was in one previous Marvel comic, a 1948 romance comic, Ideal #1. I have not read this.
Stark is helping his archaeologist friend, but tells him Iron Man would be more useful. Why have a secret identity if you’re going to act like Iron Man is your friend who follows you around? Didn’t we learn anything from Superman? He had a secret identity to protect those around him, but all of Clark’s friends were also Superman’s friends, so they were all targets anyway. And why send for Iron Man if he’s just going to use random pieces of tech that seem like the type of stuff Stark develops anyway?
Stark could have just brought his own fluoroscope.
The comic also borrows from “The Mummy”. Stark and Iron Man help an archaeologist uncover a tomb with a mummy, and then the mummy comes back to life.
Turns out, an ancient sorcerer king had faked his death in battle with Cleopatra and was revived 2000 years later with the intention to use his sorcery to travel back in time and carry on the battle. A needlessly convoluted plan, especially if one has time travel at their disposal. He does take famed 20th century inventor Anthony Stark with him, but no technology from this era except for whatever happens to be in Stark’s briefcase.
Villains should really stop kidnapping Stark so that he can build weapons for them. It never goes well.
Once in the past, we see Iron Man immediately decides to side with the Egyptians against the Romans in battle. Way to interfere with history, Iron Man.
In the end, we see that Iron Man’s adventures in ancient Egypt lead to Egyptian wall art depicting Iron Man. I’ve seen this motif in many stories, some nod to adventures in the past showing up in the present. This very specific one I happen to recall from one of the oldest Batman comics I own, from July 1961 (just a single month before we began our Marvel reading), in which Batman and Robin travel back to ancient Egypt to battle aliens.
Since the first issue, this series has been largely worthless. Forgotten stories and villains. The one near-worthwhile thing is these scenes of helplessness. He’s wealthy and a superhero, but needs to get to a power outlet or his heart will stop. However, there is a sameness to these scenes. They are not doing anything new with the concept, just repeating a motif.
Rating: ★★½, 42/100
Significance: ★☆☆☆☆
Characters:
- Cleopatra
- Anthony Stark/Iron Man
- King Hatap/Mad Pharaoh
Minor characters:
- Paul (Tony’s archealogist friend)
Story notes:
- Cleopatra previously appeared in Ideal #1 and Venus #1.
- Paul searching for King Hatap’s tomb.
- Iron Man uses tiny fluoroscope energized by powerful transistors.
- Iron Man has diamond drills.
- King Hatap nicknamed “Mad Pharaoh”.
- Hatap wears sacred asp ring.
- Hatap faked death in battle against Cleopatra and went to sleep for 2000 years.
- Hatap notes current year is 1963. These references to the year will almost always reference the current year.
- Cleopatra falls in love with Iron Man.
- Movie poster text: “The Loves of Cleopatra”
#86 story in reading order
Next: Journey Into Mystery #95
Previous: Fantastic Four #17
So nobody talks about the fact that Stark is able to communicate with the ancient Romans and Egyptians even though the English language didn’t exist yet? So either Tony is fluent in ancient Latin and whatever the hell language the ancient Egyptians spoke (Coptic?) Or Hatap’s sorcery granted everybody the ability to communicate across language barriers. And did they rebury Hatap after he fell on the sword so now his actual dead body is in another tomb? 🤔 And don’t the other archaeologists wonder what happened to the body or did they just forget? And if the actual dead body was placed in the tomb wouldn’t there be two bodies in the present? The sleeping one and the actual dead one. Also, it sure was convenient that Hatap revived on the exact day his tomb was discovered. As you can tell, I’ve really over analyzed this. 😂 I’m so glad I found this review since I just read it on comixology.com and was dying to read someone else’s take on it. 🤣
These are all very good questions.
On a positive note, I enjoy Don Heck’s art when he inks himself. He has an undeservedly bad rep IMHO.