Featuring: Iron Man
Release: November 10, 1964
Cover: February 1965
12 cents
Brashly written by: Stan Lee
Boldly drawn by: Don Heck
Brazenly inked by: Dick Ayers
Bashfully lettered by: S. Rosen
12 pages
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|---|---|---|
| Tales of Suspense #61, Story B | Reading order | Tales of Suspense #62, Story B |
| Tales of Suspense #61, Story B | Tales of Suspense | Tales of Suspense #62, Story B |
Now that the issue is dual-featured, with each feature of similar importance, they need to think of different ways to highlight two pictures on the cover. We’ve seen the Iron Man picture embedded in the Captain America picture, while consuming a large chunk of the real estate, forming the main art of the Cap picture into an ‘L’. We’ve seen 2 separate pictures placed onto the mat at odd angles like postcards dropped on a canvas. The most conventional format will be a split-screen, either horizontal or vertical. This one is basically a horizontal split, but with a slanted line. It feels like the Iron Man portion wastes the portion of the image where it has the space. The Cap portion has extra space on the left and puts Cap himself there. Iron Man is squeezed into the small space on the left, and the extra space on the right is devoted to landscape.
Apparently Marvel had received more than 500 requests for the origin of the Mandarin.
If you look to the Best we’ve read page, it will become obvious the origin stories tend to be my favorite comics. At present, I see a full quarter of the list are origin stories, including the top 3 entries. Conversely, almost every major origin we’ve read is represented. (Sorry to Ant-Man, Thor, and Watcher.) Therefore I’m excited whenever we get a new origin story… unless it’s Mandarin’s story.
Recall where we left off last issue. Tony Stark has been killed by the Mandarin and Iron Man is his prisoner. (Only Iron Man himself sees the logical flaw in that statement.) Mandarin is about to kill Iron Man, but first wants to reveal his origin.
Mandarin’s father was a descendent of Genghis Khan. So are 16 million other people, but Mandarin believed that made him special. Mandarin felt his father married beneath him, by marrying an English woman.
Yes, at no point in the origin do we get a real name for the guy, so I have to keep calling him Mandarin.
The story involves a lot of events that are taken as omens or signs. For example, when a falling statue killed his parents, Mandarin took that to be the gods’ punishment for their marriage.
His aunt had considered disposing of him as a child so she would inherit her brother’s wealth, but then she got a sign from the gods that he was protected. Instead, she raised him and taught him to be evil.
We’ve seen consistently that Mandarin has no loyalty to Red China, that he pretends to serve them while really serving his own ends. We start to see why. When the Communists seized power, they seized his land and wealth, leading to his aunt’s death.
We then learn of the dignity he conducted himself with. Poor and hungry, he still refused to beg or to work, and walked proud. I like the sense of dignity in villains like Namor and Dr. Doom, but am indifferent to it here.
That’s the character background. Now about those rings. In the Valley of the Spirits, Mandarin encounters the remains of a dragon who turns out to be an alien, Axonn-Karr of Maklu-4.
This alien turned out to be the origin of the dragon legends in China, just as another alien was the origin of the Medusa legends.
The ship was powered by 10 gems from which Mandarin fashioned his rings. Each ring has a different power. We see 7 of those rings in action this issue with the following powers: flame, poison gas, blinding light, disintegration, gas solidifier, black light, and a jet ring which can make any object fly; Mandarin uses the jet ring to turn a rock into an escape vehicle.
We’ve seen the black light ring before, as well as an explosive ring, a paralysis ring, and ring which emits a high-frequency wave. That’s 10 rings accounted for. With no more mystery rings to reveal, there is nothing interesting left about the Mandarin.
I will note they have improved in their depictions of Chinese people, generally. The colorist gives them a better skin tone than in the 1950s. Heck, often better with faces than his contemporaries, makes many characters, for example Mandarin’s aunt, look like people, rather than racial caricatures. The Mandarin himself is still the main issue. He at least needs a better name.
Rating: ★★½, 49/100
Significance: ★★★☆☆
Scans are taken from a reprint in Marvel Collector’s Item Classics #21 (1969).
You can find this story in the Iron Man Epic Collection vol. 1 or Marvel Masterworks: The Invincible Iron Man vol. 2. Or on Kindle.
Characters:
- Iron Man/Tony Stark
- Mandarin
- Mandarin’s aunt
- Axonn-Karr
Minor characters:
- Bill (military pilot)
- Dave (military pilot)
Story notes:
- Mandarin’s father a direct descendent of Genghis Khan.
- Mandarin’s father married a highborn englishwoman.
- Mandarin’s parents died soon after his birth. His father was killed by a falling idol.
- Mandarin’s paternal aunt hated him for being set to inherit his father’s wealth over her. She considers getting rid of him, but believes the gods protect him. So instead she raises him to be evil and hateful.
- Communists seized his land and his aunt died.
- Mandarin would rather starve than work.
- Mandarin travels into the Valley of the Spirits, where he discovers the skeletal remains of a dragon–really Axonn-Karr of Maklu-4–and a space ship.
- Mandarin dons a helmet which is a mental impulse log.
- Ship powered by 10 gems from which Mandarin fashioned his rings.
- Mandarin studied and mastered alien (Makluvian?) science.
- Mandarin secretly plans to launch a missile at Formosa (Taiwan) and start World War III.
- Mandarin is manipulating Red Chinese, pretending to be loyal to Mao Tse Tung.
- Iron Man saves Formosa from missile.
- Each ring has a separate power: flame ring; poison gas ring; blinding light ring; disintegrator ring; black light ring; jet ring.
| Previous | #289 | Next |
|---|---|---|
| Tales of Suspense #61, Story B | Reading order | Tales of Suspense #62, Story B |
| Tales of Suspense #61, Story B | Tales of Suspense | Tales of Suspense #62, Story B |
