Featuring: Iron Man
Release: July 9, 1964
Cover: October 1964
12 cents
Every word you are about to read was written by ol’ faithful Stan Lee, one of the world’s most prolific script writers!
Every drawing you are about to marvel at, was created by Don Heck, one of America’s most promising illustrators!
Every bit of inking you are about to savor was done by Dick Ayers, one of the industry’s most painstaking artists!
Every sentence you are about to scan was hand-printed by Sam Rosen, one of Marvel’s most perspicuous letterers!
18 pages
The story begins with Iron Man battling a shark. That’s cool.
This story will guest star Captain America. Remember in Strange Tales #123 when Thing was a guest star, and then he was sharing title billing by issue 124? Or how Hulk was a guest star in Tales to Astonish #59, and then had his own regular feature in Tales to Astonish #60? I don’t know why I’m bringing those up.
Kraven and Chameleon return to America after their most recent deportations. Iron Man catches Kraven sneaking ashore, but Chameleon gets away.
I really appreciate the battle between Iron Man and Kraven. So often in superhero comics, they exaggerate the threat the villain poses against the hero. This has been a particularly pernicious problem with heroes as powerful as Thor and Iron Man, who tend to outclass their villains. It is thus rather refreshing to see the battle between Iron Man and Kraven resolved within 3 panels, as it should be.
Kraven and Chameleon were both introduced in the pages of Amazing Spider-Man. I had been counting all the super-villain crossovers, when one hero meets a villain introduced in another book. But I think they’re becoming ubiquitous enough now that we can stop. This is a super-villain crossover cameo, where the villain shows up only briefly. We’ve perhaps had one of those before, when Paste-Pot Peter showed up in Avengers to help them develop an anti-adhesive.
Happy gets a garish new jacket.
Chameleon disguises himself as Captain America and tricks Iron Man into thinking the real Captain America is the Chameleon in disguise. So they fight, as heroes tend to.
A security guard remarks: “Iron Man… and Captain America… acting like enemies!! It doesn’t seem possible!!”
You just wait. This won’t be their last battle. Their conflicts will even escalate over the years.
To me, this issue is one giant plot hole I can’t quite get past. Iron Man is so quick to believe the fake Captain America is real and the real one is fake, despite all the evidence of the real one having such unique skills. If he sees there are two Captain Americas, why not at least acknowledge for a moment you’re not sure which is real. Why make an assumption and just stick with it?
As Captain America points out, it’s not very flattering to be mistaken for the Chameleon.
At least Iron Man takes a moment at the end to reflect on what an idiot he’s been.
Don Heck does do a particular good job this issue illustrating the battle between Cap and Iron Man. He’s using a lot of larger panels to properly depict the action.
Rating: ★★★☆☆, 52/100
Significance: ★★★☆☆
I read this story in The Invincible Iron Man Omnibus vol. 1. You can find it in the Iron Man Epic Collection vol. 1 or Marvel Masterworks: The Invincible Iron Man vol. 2.
Characters:
- Iron Man
- Kraven the Hunter
- Chameleon
- Happy Hogan
- Pepper Potts
- Captain America
- Giant-Man
- Wasp
Story notes:
- Iron Man’s nickname: “Golden Avenger”.
- Kraven and Chameleon had both been deported, and now sneak back into America. Kraven had been deported, but then returned to America and got arrested. He was presumably then deported a second time. Chameleon has been deported twice before now.
- Happy never smiles.
- Chameleon claims to have thought-transference machine.
- Pepper has special radio frequency for contacting Iron Man in an emergency. When he doesn’t answer, she decides to look for him at Stark’s house.
- Pepper and Happy find tracer in Stark’s car that leads them to Iron Man.
#248 story in reading order
Next: Tales of Suspense #58, Story B
Previous: Strange Tales #125, Story B
