Featuring: Iron Man
Release: October 12, 1965
Cover: January 1966
12 cents
Stan Lee, Roy Thomas, Adam Austin, Gary Michaels, Sol Brodsky, Flo Steinberg, and Merrie Ol’ Marie Severin!
12 pages
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| Tales of Suspense #72, Story B | Tales of Suspense | Tales of Suspense #73, Story B |
Now look, Avenger– No one takes the law into his own hands– not even you!
Stan seems to be crediting an unusual amount of people, but it’s really people who are always involved. Lee always credits himself, this time presumably in an editing role. Roy Thomas is the scripter, Adam Austin (aka Gene Colan) the penciller, Gary Michaels (aka Jack Abel) the inker. The other names show up less commonly in credits. Sol Brodsky is the production manager, and usually is, though uncredited. Marie Severin is the colorist, and frequently is, though uncredited. (Unfortunately we won’t see any of Severin’s coloring in my images, as I’ve only found the digital version online, which is entirely recolored, and that’s likely Stan Goldberg coloring the cover above.) What’s interesting here is Flo Steinberg, who’s been behind the scenes since the beginning, handling the office work for Marvel. She gets her name here apparently because she assisted Roy with the plot.
Weirdly, for all that crediting, they forgot to mention the letterer. Apparently this time normal letter Artie Simek is joined by Ben Oda.
Speaking of Roy Thomas, that’s the new guy we first met on Modeling with Millie, which was released one week earlier. This is his first superhero work. Wonder if he’ll do any more.
Jack Abel is also new to us in our modern reading, though we read an old Captain America story he’d likely contributed to. He’d worked for Marvel back in the 1950s, often inking Bill Benulis or Bob Forgione, but lately has been focused on DC’s war comics. It’s probably why he uses a pseudonym here, so DC won’t know he’s doing side-work. He’ll eventually move on to DC’s superhero line and become the main inker on Superman stories. Here’s a sampling of his artwork.
- Journey Into Mystery #20, Marvel, 1954
- Our Fighting Forces #50, DC, 1959
- Sea-Devils #14, DC, 1963
And a sampling of his finishing work.
- Western Outlaws and Sheriffs #72, Marvel, 1952, pencils by Warren Broderick
- Adventures into Terror #11, Marvel, 1952, pencils by Bill Benulis
- Combat Casey #11, Marvel, 1953, pencils by Bill Benulis
- All-American Men of War #25, DC, 1955, pencils by Bob Forgione
- Wyatt Earp #1, Marvel, 1955, pencils by Bob Forgione
- Turok, Son of Stone #3, Dell, 1956, pencils by Bob Correa
As a complete aside, the plot of that Adventures into Terror story amused me to no end. Lots of these stories about somebody murdering a partner for ambition. But in this case, they were a two-man horse act, and the guy who played the end of the horse wanted to play the horse’s head. Talk about ambition!
This is a somewhat standalone issue, but lots of ongoing threads wind through it. Notably, Happy remains injured from the Titanium Man battle in issue 71, and Senator Byrd is continuing his crusade to make Tony Stark testify before Congress with Iron Man’s secrets.
Black Knight captures Happy and lures Iron Man to a castle to do battle.
As we have seen in these stories, there are a lot of ancient castles in America, almost all owned/rented to/squatted in by super-villains. This is the third or so time they’ve attempted to explain it was moved here from Europe.
His motive seems to be revenge. For what does he want revenge? Because he teamed up with the Masters of Evil to repeatedly attack the Avengers and was defeated. Revenge against Iron Man for losing a fight he started.
Black Knight falls apparently to his death. Iron Man doesn’t see the body and wonders if he might have survived the fall. Iron Man himself survived the fall. We’ve seen a lot of villains fall to their death, and I have a general rule that if we don’t see a body, they’ll be back.
Even if we do see a body, they seem to come back. Puppet Master fell out a window and landed on a Manhattan sidewalk. An old man, pronounced dead by medical professionals. And he’s doing fine. Nobody stays dead.
However, Black Knight will not be returning. He’s dead. Actually dead. One of the only Marvel characters to ever die and stay dead.
This issue has some pretty solid art. It’s a big step up from what Colan has been doing with Namor. A few explanations for this. One is that he’s just getting better. But it’s likely Jack Abel’s inking is helping here. This is a good splash page. It’s moody and atmospheric, steeped in shadow, and is a precursor to the type of work Colan will eventually do on Tomb of Dracula.
It’s possible Colan doesn’t agree with my assessment. From an interview on the inks of Jack Abel, he wrote:
He did a lot of Iron Man with me. He had a very slick line, which was okay on Iron Man, of course. Iron Man was made of iron, so you want it to look like metal. But when it came to stone and dark corners and garbage , he wasn’t the man for that.
Gene Colan
I think the stone and dark corners look pretty good here.
Rating: ★★★☆☆, 55/100
Significance: ★★★★☆
We’ll give it some credit for being Roy Thomas’ first superhero work. That’s significant. Pretty close to his first comic, released just one week after the Millie issue.
The death of Black Knight is also significant, for being a uniquely enduring death.
I read this story in Iron Man Epic Collection vol. 2: By Force of Arms.
Characters:
- Iron Man/Anthony Stark
- Black Knight
- Senator Byrd
- Pepper Potts
- Happy Hogan
Story notes:
- Iron Man rushing to Happy’s hospital.
- Reporter notes Iron Man in the news thanks to Byrd’s insistence on learning his secret identity.
- Happy missing from hospital bed.
- Police warn Iron Man not to interfere but he refuses.
- Hoofprint on window sill is clue pointing to Black Knight’s flying horse; next clue is a glove; then a castle 30 miles from Washington.
- An English baron had castle moved to America stone by stone, then died before moving in.
- Black Knight employs illusions.
- Black Knight’s ray caused Iron Man’s transistors to malfunction.
- Pepper thinks Stark is at a night-club with some Hollywood starlet.
- Byrd will hold Stark in contempt of Congress if he doesn’t come forward and reveal Iron Man’s secrets.
- Happy rescued.
- Ends with Iron Man unable to move.
| Previous | #451 | Next |
|---|---|---|
| Tales of Suspense #72, Story B | Reading order | Tales of Suspense #73, Story B |
| Tales of Suspense #72, Story B | Tales of Suspense | Tales of Suspense #73, Story B |
