See the NEW Iron Man! This one you dare not miss! Featuring: A truly different super-villain! None can challenge the great MISTER DOLL!
Welcome to December of 1963! We're finishing of the year with a big doozy! This one promises to be a classic in the years to come, even with a bulleted list of why it's so great! It has EVERYTHING!
- A powerful, seemingly unbeatable villain!
- A super-hero who reaches new heights of greatness, as you shall see!
- Produced by a combo of comicdom's brightest stars!
And by these brightest stars, we mean that Stan Lee actually wrote the script this time, and the art is credited to "Steve Ditko and Dick Ayers." I have no idea what that is supposed to mean. I'm assuming that Ditko did the main artwork and Ayers did the inking, or maybe they like... took turns? I don't know. The inking has this style of really think outlining that we haven't seen so far. Looks kinda cool.
And we're going to get to see the NEW Iron Man! He's finally starting to look like the "normal" Iron Man look, complete with Iron Underwear that he wears on the outside of his suit. And no, that's not Guts Man. Nor Quail Man. Just Iron Man.
We start off this month with Pepper receiving a call from Charleton Carter, a steel tycoon and apparently Tony's supplier, telling Stark's office that he's calling off their trade deal. Tony, of course, is shocked and worried, as Carter's never done such a thing before, and, well, he needs that steel.
As happened last episode, he goes off to visit Carter to see what's up with the suspicious behavior, telling Happy he doesn't need a ride after all, but not explaining why. Of course, we know why -- he's going to turn into Iron Man and like... fly there or whatever. Actually he just drives his own car. In the Iron Man suit. I don't know why...
When Iron Man arrives at Carter's cliffside manor, he seems some creep wandering around the grounds in a strange costume, immediately identifying him as a super-villain. You know, villains could probably get away with a lot more schemes if they just wore normal clothes, I'd bet. Well, it didn't really help The Actor, I guess. He got vine-bonded into a car pretty easily.
Anyway, the creeper goes back into the house, and Iron Man hears a cry for help from a tower window. He leaps up and enters through the window, which is conveniently open so he can hear things inside and enter without having to bust it down. If I was a villain hurting someone who was screaming out, I'd probably close the window. But that's just me. Maybe it was stuffy in there?
Upon arrival, Iron Man finds Carter being tortured by the guy in the crazy getup, who happens to have a pretty fantastic-looking low-handing handlebar mustache. The guy is carrying some weird little clay doll thing with Charleton's face on it, but upon seeing Iron Man, he quickly fashions it to look like him instead. Tony starts freaking out that his bones are pulsating or something like that. Now, if the doll controls or hurts someone based on the face it's wearing, why is it affecting Tony? Because he's wearing the Iron Man suit? So does the doll also haave to wear hats and masks and stuff to affect someone? If Tony took his helmet off, would the doll suddenly stop working? Could he like draw a mustache on Iron Man's mask and make it stop working until Mister Doll drew a mustache on his doll? It just... doesn't make sense to me... And I have a feeling it's not going to be explained any further. We'll see, I guess.
Oh, and Mister Doll was talking in third-person and half explaining his ploy aloud to Carter, so that's how we (and Iron Man) learned his name and about his doll. Though I have to say Mister Doll is... not exactly the most intimidating name for a villain.
Encumbered by the power of the doll, Iron Man ends up falling off the balcony and into the water below, sinking fast, unable to control his own body. With Iron Man out of the way, Mister Doll changes his doll's face back to Charleton's to continue threatening him, but that gives Iron Man just enough time to swim to the surface and survive.
But now there's a big problem -- all of that exertion has drained Tony's batteries dry, and he's starting to pass out. He races home in his car and just barely makes it to the outlet to plug himself in back at his lab. I wonder how far away it was? Was there not somewhere else he could have charged up that was closer? I mean, he put on a jacket and scarf which concealed that he was wearing his Iron Man suit to everyone at his lab and office, so he could have done something similar elsewhere.
Anyway, he tumbles to the floor and the narration wonders if maybe he plugged in just a bit too late. Yup. That's it. Series is over, and this episode was only a couple pages long. Bye! It was fun doing the Iron Man readthrough with you all. Sorry it didn't last longer. Guess I'll move on to Avengers or something?
Of course not. We haven't even seen the new Iron Man we were promised on the cover!
Not having heard from Stark, Pepper and Happy are worried when he doesn't show up in the morning. A disturbingly-deformed Pepper calls the lab and Stark barely wakes up in time to answer the call, telling her that he fell asleep in the lab from working too hard and not to let him have any disturbances whatsoever for a few hours. He realizes that his battery is a huge weakness (only just now?!) and worries about how it's seeming to have to be recharged more and more frequently anymore. I wonder if it's a lithium ion battery. Anyway, he decides to make some major changes to his armor to compensate for this weakness.
And he makes a lot of changes. In fact, he pretty much just scraps the whole thing and makes a new suit. The only thing remaining from the old one is the chestplate that he can't get rid of anyway because it keeps him alive, and his little golden underwear part that exists solely because they didn't want to draw him in regular underwear or show him naked.
Both of those parts get covered up anyway by a new red part. The new chestplate opens up in the front and has transistor batteries (??) inside some panels that he can reach easily. I guess these are new batteries to replace the old one? I don't really know. It doesn't explain it. But the next part is pretty cool -- he has arm and leg cuffs that act as backup generators! If the main battery is to die, the backups can kick in and help him stay alive for longer. And I'm assuming they'll alert him that the battery is low, giving him time to escape to an outlet while he's still conscious and in good condition, instead of just suddenly being on the verge of collapse every time the battery starts to run out.
The cuffs also contain the golden sleeves and pant legs of the armor. After he clasps the cuffs on, magnets in the shoulders of the chestplate and in the red undies part suck up the rest of the armor without him having to put it on himself.
Wait.
Crotchplate. I'm going to call it a crotchplate.
Similarly, he also has new shoes that are kinda like little slippers, He just steps into them and clicks his heels together and magnets suit up the rest of his boot. They also have jets in them that are "less than an inch thick" but that seems like they would burn his feet when he powered them on. But probably some transistors keep his feet cool or something lol.
He also has a new ultra-thin hood with a hinged mask that he can flip up and down. Seems kinda like a bad idea -- an enemy could just flip the mask up and see his secret identity? Maybe it sticks on with magnets or transistors though. He also says that the mask allows people to see his expression, which can give him a psychological advantage against his enemies. Now, I don't understand how that part is any different than his old mask. It just has holes for the eyes and mouth. Just like the old one... Except this one has thin slots for the mouth, while the old one was just a big hole that let you see the entire mouth, so this would seems like it would be less expressive...??? No questions, no questions...
And with that, the NEW IRON MAN is born! I love the concept for the new suit. Not only does it look super cool, but the concepts are pretty neat. Especially I love the backup generators in the cuffs, and the way the magnets zip the suit on after he places the cuffs. I wish I could see it animated! With music and flashy backgrounds so it looks like a magical girl transformation sequence! Complete with cute pose at the end!
The new facemask with the v-shape is pretty cool, too. I don't know how soon that is going to go away, but it doesn't last terribly long, which is a shame.
Another important feature of this armor is that it's lightweight. Before, the power of transistors helped Tony manipulate the suit despite it being heavy. But now if you get tossed into the ocean off a balcony from a rich mustached tycoon's house because a doll is making your bones throb, you'll be able to swim to the surface without draining your entire battery fighting against the weight of your own suit. Fantastic!
The police have been questioning why all the richest dudes in the city are signing over all their money to a "Mister Doll." It's pretty hilarious because that would mean Mister Doll is his legal name and he's actually acquiring wealth under that name. So he probably has a Mister Doll bank account. But shouldn't that mean he also has a Mister Doll ID and social security number and stuff? They should be able to find him easily with that identification information...
But uh, no questions. Well the police have questions. But everyone who signs over their assets to Doll seem to be so mortified that the police can figure out nothing from them. After realizing that Charleton Carter was the third richest guy around, the police suspect that Mister Doll's next victim is going to be the weapons dealer Anthony Stark!
The police schedule a meeting with him, warning him of the danger, and offer to stay guard with him. He declines the offer, saying that he has enough of his own private guard. The police leave, and Tony realizes now that his guard is on high alert (he only has one guard lol), he has to figure out a way to ditch him.
He tells the guard that he's been wanting to ask Pepper on a date and would like some alone time with her. They go to a secluded room with only one entrance and exit, so that the guard can stand out front for protection without having to worry that Stark is missing. Pepper is overjoyed that her crush wants to date her and leaps into his arms. Tony thanks her for going along with his scheme and runs off into a secret exit, telling Pepper to continue talking to herself to keep the guard tricked. Of course, this leaves Pepper bewildered, sobbing to herself as he disappears.
Tony runs off to change into Iron Man, and at least the very first thing he thinks as he changes into his suit is that he regrets having to treat Pepper that way. I'm glad he's remorseful, but it was still a super shitty thing to do, and I'm sure he could have come up with some better plan. But if Tony perhaps did realize that Pepper wasn't acting to go along with his plan (which would explain why he felt so bad about it), then now Tony realizes that Pepper has feelings for him, at least. Though considering it's Tony, we're probably just supposed to assume that all women have feelings for him so this isn't even a reveal to him.
He should have just said he wanted to date happy instead and confused everyone for a while.
Iron Man appears in front of the guard watching over the room that Tony and Pepper are supposedly in and tells him that he's arrived to take over the guard duty. What's super weird is that everyone knows that despite his radically new appearance, everyone knows it's Iron Man because they can recognize his voice. His voice! It's Tony's voice! If they can recognize it, why can't they tell it's Tony?! No questions, no questions... ugh... Though I guess that Tony could have installed some kind of transistor-based voice-altering mechanism in his suit... Though this was never addressed...
Not long after Iron Man takes over, Mister Doll appears to target Stark. Iron Man rushes to face him, but the new look isn't too worrying for Doll. He just changes the face on his doll to reflect the new look, soon paralyzing Iron Man by twisting his arm with the power of the doll.
And now I see what Tony meant about the mask showing his expression -- the holes on the mask actually change shape to match Tony's expression! Well, that's not going to work to intimidate Mister Doll now... in fact, he's going to see just how much pain Tony is in by the writhing expression on Iron Man's mask!
So I guess his expression plan backfired. And even more with Doll's next move -- he changes his doll's face to look like Stark, to manipulate him into crawling to him to sign over all his stuff. Little does he know Tony is standing right there next to him. Iron Man turns away from Doll, afraid to show his face, because he can't let Doll see how much he's suffering, or he might realize that Tony Stark is the one under the costume.
For some reason, this annoys Doll and he commands Iron Man to get out of his sight -- just want Iron Man wanted! Thanks to the new lightweight suit, Iron Man is able to fight through the pain enough to get out of the room without raising suspicion. Doll just thinks he's already terrified of him and cowering away. Escaping to his lab, Tony comes up with a very risky plan. He has an idea for a device he can create to defeat Mister Doll, but he's in too much pain from fighting the control of the doll to work on it.
He detaches his chestplate device that keeps his heart beating despite the shrapnel lodged inside. As his heart slows down, it will deaden his nerves, making him unable to feel the pain, so he can work on the new device. But he'll only be able to stay alive for a few short moments before having to plug himself back in. Now, I don't really understand how he's going to sit and build this entire device without his nervous system functioning, but... you know, no questions.
The plan seems to work out with Tony plugging in at the last minute for the second time this issue. After powering up a bit, he rushes off to face Mister Doll. He doesn't seem to be in pain now, despite having plugged himself back in and reactivating his chestplate. Though I guess Doll is using the doll to force Tony to come to him, so complying with the order shouldn't pain him. I guess that makes sense. Of course, Tony busts into the room as Iron Man, which makes Mister Doll think Iron Man has come back to try to fight him again.
He changes the doll's face to resemble Iron Man's again. This time, he threatens to drop the doll onto the floor, which apparently will be devastating. He makes it sound like it would kill him. But before he can drop it, Iron Man quickly spins toward the doll and fires his new device -- a tiny "transistor-powered force beam," which changes the doll's face to Mister Doll's own shape! NO QUESTIONS! But at that exact moment, Doll had already dropped the doll, and he falls to the ground with it, unable to get back up. So I guess he didn't die?
Iron Man alerts Happy and the guard (or maybe the police, idk) that Mister Doll is incapacitated. He returns as Tony and Happy asks him where Pepper is. I guess he just completely forgot about her being locked in that room! Teehee!
They go and find her, and she's super mad. She storms off, and Happy talks about how he doesn't understand women. Tony says he understands women, but not Pepper!
Like... Seriously??? Are you kidding me? You can't understand why she is upset? You misled her into thinking you returned her feelings, made her cry, then told her you were going to make a call and come back, but you never came back, you just completely forgot about locking her in a room by herself to cry, and now much later you let her out and wonder why she is upset?! Like, as readers, we're supposed to relate to Tony and Happy being confused about this like women are some kind of weird, funny, enigmatic alien species that are impossible to understand. But, like, having even a modicum of compassion for fellow human beings would allow you to understand what is wrong here. Are men just supposed to be that fucking dense, or are we supposed to assume women are so inhuman they're incapable of normal feelings and should be happy to be subserviently locked in a room for hours after being lied to just because it was a man that did it...? Like... what??? I can't relate to this at all, and it's unsettling that the writers would assume anyone could relate to this ending... Well, I mean, other than people who relate to Pepper, I guess.
I can't even just write this off with "no questions" because this is just so stupidly dense.
Let's not dwell on it, though... We'll just move on to Handsome Tonys. Chauvinist that he may be, he's still flippin' hot with his sexy little mustache. And with this episode being heavily focused on Tony, we got a lot of 'em:
Mr. Ditko seems a little inconsistent in his style for now, especially with characters other than Tony (that one Pepper... *shudders*), or maybe they really did have him and Ayers taking turns drawing panels or something...? Seems kinda unrealistic, but IDK.
But overall we got a lot of nice Tonys. The eyes are much brighter and more detailed than Kirby or Heck, with focus on different features getting more attention to detail. In particular, the noses are well-detailed, which is a delight for me. The mustache doesn't randomly disappear when Tony is further away from the point of view of the panel, either, and it's not randomly changing thickness as much as the other artists' 'staches.
And the inconsistency isn't any worse than Kirby's, and not nearly as wild as Lieber's, so I'd say this is a great style for Iron Man, and it would be nice to see more of Ditko's style going forward.
Oh, and speaking of Lieber, our side story was another comic by him called "Kraddak." Can you guess that the villain looked like? Though this may be the hottest one yet; though I did really like the guy who got sucked into space. Two different types of tastes, I guess... which one is better depends on the mood. We also had some prose called "The Pact."
With our characters getting more development and Iron Man getting his new look, it seems like going forward should be pretty promising. Until next time, keep on stachin'~
