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Are They Deliberately Trying to Tank this Book? Dreadfully atrocious? Or should I go with atrociously dreadful? Oops. Excuse me. I didn’t know we were live. I’m still working on adjectives that best describe how pitiful the Masked Marauder is as a villain. I mean if Daredevil - who at this time is dealing with the likes of The Black Messiah and Angar the Screamer - hasn’t wanted this guy back in years, what in God’s name is he doing in Iron Man? Did Mike Friedrich lose a

Iron Man's Most Overrated Villain? Does anyone remember looking really forward to meeting someone only to have them truly disappoint you? That was me with Firebrand in the early spring of 1973. I mean, when I rejoined this book, it seemed that his name came up every other panel. “Firebrand knocked out the FM reception in my armor” or “I now only eat my steaks well-done after facing the intense heat from Firebrand.” Our guy seemed to be going through PTSD because of this dud

“Mandarin and the Unicorn: Double-Death!” I Dare You to Say "The Unicorn" Three Times Without Laughing! Before I start this review, let’s get all the laughing and snickers out of our system. Yeah, I know one of our villains is called The Unicorn. But I’ve got an entire issue to cover. So, I’m going to say “The Unicorn” several times and wait until we’re all done laughing before moving on. Done? Hold it! I see you, Greg. You’re still chucking over your coffee in Pewaukee,

Now For More Mediocrity! "C’mon Rick. It’s time to go work on your blog." "Don’t wanna." "But everyone’s waiting to hear your thoughts on Iron Man #57." "Don’t wanna do that one." "Why not? It has the Mandarin in it. That’s Iron Man’s number one villain." "Big deal. He’s stupid. I hate him. I wanted Controller, Moondragon and Thanos with Jim Starlin’s art." "Rick, we don’t always get what we want in life. You have a responsibility to those three people who have signed

Jim Starlin...You're Fired! "You're travelling through another dimension, whose boundaries are that of imagination. You've entered... The Twilight Zone! In this world, people are still talking about a movie called “The Infinity Endgame” which featured Darkseid’s attempt to take over the entire universe with the Infinity Lanterns, opposed by the Justice League and their remarkable allies, Gamora and her rather unsavory, but ultimately affable colleague Pip the Troll. This mo

Thanos and ...Lurch? Does anyone remember Ted Cassidy? Big guy who played Lurch on the Adam's Family back in the 60's? Had various roles on Star Trek? Used his voice for oodles of cartoon characters in the 60’s and 70’s? Reason I ask is that from the first moment I came across Thanos in this comic book, it was Ted Cassidy’s deep, somewhat unsettling voice that I heard in my head with the evil Titan’s every utterance. That remained the case until the first Guardians of the

It's gotta be the sex. Otherwise, what in the name of nanotech would a guy with Tony Stark's looks, genius, fortune and personality have hooking up into any kind of romantic relationship with some of the women that he's been connected to over the years? Just looking at the first volume of his series and our guy's dated mobsters, stalkers and Russian spies. For someone considered a playboy, our hero seems prone to offer his heart or at least his romantic intentions to women

A High-Water Mark Thanks to The Sub-Mariner & A Hot Bald Villainess ! Who knew that a comic book could be a “gateway drug?” That’s exactly what Iron Man #54 was for me. Once I plunked down my two dimes for it back in late 1972, I unknowingly started down a path that became a bit more than a hobby for over four decades. It started simple enough. Later that month, I grabbed the latest Amazing Spider-Man off the rack. Another month, Fantastic Four joined the party. By that

Iron Man's "Lamest" Villain & Some Guy Named Jim Starlin “Good morning, Marvel. I’m the agent for the Black Lama and here to say that I think you really need to put him into one of your comic books. And let’s face it, you owe me after what you did to my client, Cyborg Sinister. That guy had potential and you know it.” “Alright, so what’s this Black Lama’s schtick? “He’s the leader of a mystic cult with followers around the world, trained to channel their emotions to gene

Was This Comic Worth A Busted Lip & Bloody Nose? I owe it all to my cousin Nick! Coming up from LA, he talked me into buying this comic. And why not? We were such great buds! At least until he beat the tar out of me after an argument. Absent my cousin’s coercions, I doubt Gil Kane’s cover would have sealed the deal. I needed more than a mean hippy melting Iron Man’s armor to sacrifice money that could buy me a few Three Musketeer bars. Fortunately, the actual comic pro

The Best Iron Man Villain...We Never Saw Again! With a laughable Rogues Gallery, it only makes sense that when Iron Man faces a villain with potential, we never see them again. Such as the sorry story of Cyborg Sinister. Okay, so the name’s kinda dorky, but hey, one of Marvel’s top two villains is called Dr. Doom. Our hero’s had multiple bouts with losers like The Melter and The Unicorn (try saying that name twice without snickering!). But a villain with a truly eerie visu

A New Low! For his 50th Anniversary Issue, Iron Man Fights a ...Snake! We’re all friends here, right? If so, it’s okay to say that Princess Python is hot. I don’t mean to go overboard with objectifying someone, but those scaly green leggings and that wavey brunette hair combined with that whole “wrap yourself in reptilian coils” thing is sexy. Why in the world am I bringing this up? Because I’m guessing that either writer Mike Friedrich or penciller George Tuska also thoug

An Avenger, an Adaptoid and a Hot Blonde Walk into a Bar and... Can we all agree that Tony Stark doesn’t have the best of luck when it comes to romance? At least up to this point? Check it out. He falls for his staff assistant, Pepper Potts. Whether out of worry because of his bum ticker or wanting to avoid a harassment suit, Tony devotes most of his sixty plus issues in Tales of Suspense to hooking Pepper up with his chauffeur, Happy Hogan. Then there’s Janice Cord - a lo

Onward & Upward to...Mediocrity? Does anyone remember that scene from “Dirty Dancing” where the dorky grandson of the resort owner tells Patrick Swayze that he wants to change things for the big dance during the final evening? Remember how Patrick Swayze’s character is bursting forth with a multitude of ideas only to have this schmuck swat them all down, instead wanting only the most insignificant of revisions to their musical number? I bring that up because in my mind, I en

“Bless Me, Father, For I Have Sinned.” Painful as this is to admit, I didn’t buy this issue off the rack because I did not like Barry Smith’s art. More specifically, I didn’t like how Marianne Rodgers looked in one panel. That was enough for me to decide to see what Archie and his gang were up to that month. Because of that one panel, I didn’t pick up another issue until a cousin talked me into buying #52 several months later. This issue was one of the last holes I fill

I think we can all agree that when it comes to villains, Iron Man’s Rogues Gallery leaves "a lot a lot" to be desired. The Seventies in particular presented the Golden Avenger with a true cast of pathetic losers and laughable buffoons. Having delved into nearly all of his 70's run with my blog (see below ), I'm allowing my biased opinion to rank worst of them in ascending order. And if you don't recognize some of them, then consider yourself lucky! 10. Princess Python.

Since the Book's Not Called "The Invincible Guardsman", We Can Guess Who Bought the Farm At the offices of Marvel Comics in late 1971, a conversation between incoming Editor-In-Chief Roy Thomas and writer Gary Friedrich… “Hey Gary, I need to talk with you about your script for Iron Man #46.” ”Sure Roy, what’s up?” ”It’s that Kevin O’Brien/Guardsman character. You end this issue by having Tony Stark promise to cure him of the insanity brought on by that armor. And you show t

My First Issue of Iron Man Has Tony Stark Popping the Question! They say that every issue is a first issue for someone. For me, it was tumbling into a rather complicated mess of a story where new writer Gary Friedrich, attempts to remove the wreckage left from the previous one. It's a task that will require one more issue to complete. In the meantime, the drama is amped up with protesting students, board room shenanigans, best buddy betrayals and ... Tony Stark proposing

Please Tell Me That We've Hit Rock Bottom! Are you happy now, Marvel? After several years of treating this series as an afterthought, assigning inexperienced writers with little editorial oversight, Iron Man has been reduced to bi-monthly status with rumors of impending cancellation rampant. As it is, our hero's story is a scant thirteen pages - an abbreviated length due to the previous plan to pair his adventures with Daredevil. The remainder of the book consists of a sill

Please Tell Me That We've Hit Rock Bottom! Are you happy now, Marvel? After several years of treating this series as an afterthought, assigning inexperienced writers with little editorial oversight, Iron Man has been reduced to bi-monthly status with rumors of impending cancellation rampant. As it is, our hero's story is a scant thirteen pages - an abbreviated length due to the previous plan to pair his adventures with Daredevil. The remainder of the book consists of a sill