Review: Iron Man #43

Twenty-Five Cents for Iron Man to Fight David Bowie’s Little Brother?

Welcome to August 1971! A month where Marvel upped the price of their comics from 15 to 25 cents! That's an entire dime!

But this extra cost came with additional pages of story and art!

Uh, except for two titles. Daredevil and - you guessed it - Iron Man.

Y'see Timmy, both books were struggling in the sales department, leading Marvel to consider combining into a single title.

Fortunately, that didn't happen. But anyway, this issue of Iron Man had 20 pages of new material and an old Giant Man & Wasp reprint.

As for the 25-cent cover price, that gimmick last only one month. While I don't know the details, I'm pretty confident that given Marvel had a hard enough time churning out books with 20 pages, adding more pages just wasn't realistic on a monthly basis.

Although Daredevil and Iron Man avoided becoming a split book, our guy's title was sentenced to bi-monthly status following this issue with rampant rumors of pending cancellation.

All of this makes a title like “Doomprayer” all the more prophetic.

This image courtesy of Attack of the 50 Year Old Comic Books

Credits

Writer: Gerry Conway

Pencils:  George Tuska

Inks:  Jim Mooney

Letterer:  Al Kurzrok

Editor: Stan Lee

Cover Art:  Gil Kane & Frank Giacoia

Release Date: August 3, 1971

Synopsis

Veteran artist Gil Kane does what he can to make Mikas and his demons look appealing with the cover, hoping that they stand out over the sticker shock of the price increase.

Unfortunately, the eye-catching cover art gives way to a mundane George Tuska splash page with his pencils further hampered by the return of Jim Mooney. 

Someone needs to work on this guy's monologuing! Two 'Tis's on one page is two too many!

Although our poor guy's chained to twin columns like an armored Samson, Iron Man breaks free by...slipping his hands through the cuffs. Yep. It's gonna be one of those stories.

David Bowie's little brother responds to this display of testosterone by creating some weird foam that completely eats through the armor on his right arm while apparently sparing the skin underneath. 

As we add this to Mikas’s ever-expanding list of powers, we check in on Kevin O'Brien, learning that somewhere in the midst of being gone for the last two issues, he's now wearing a two-toned green armor. And that's he's going to rescue Tony Stark!

To which I say he'd better hurry because Mikas is about to toss our hero off a cliff into a steaming, bubbling pool of lava.  Before the glam rocker can do so, Tony turns to Marianne, letting her know that he did it all for her. 

That wimpy display's more than enough incentive for Mikas to cast our hero to molten oblivion. However, it must be a really long fall because Iron Man has enough time to connect the armor to a power pack. I have to wonder why it takes Iron Man so long to switch to another power pack.  Wouldn’t that be kind of a problem during a battle?  Are the Controller or Crimson Dynamo really going to give him a time out to make sure that a new power pack is connected?

Anyway, down to a mere five minutes of power, Iron Man returns for Round Two! 

Odd that Tony Stark never mentioned building Kevin a suit of armor until we see him wearing it.

Despite that laundry list of powers, our villain has decided he can beat Iron Man via fisticuffs.  That translates into two more pages of Iron Man getting stomped - along with forgetting that he has an array of weapons at his disposal - and pleading one last time with Marianne one last time for help. 

Fortunately, umpteenth time is a charm. Once Marianne questions Mikas, he makes the bad move of slapping her, which is not only totally inappropriate behavior, but it also severs his control over her.

And guess what?  Mr. Kline, who had appeared earlier to chastise poor Mikas now reveals to Mikas that’s he’s an android!  And that it’s the hour of “Doomprayer!”.

Which means the hellscape is now transformed into a grand palace with Mikas on a cheap throne facing both Iron Man and Marianne. They're threatened by the Dark Ones - who have the distinct honor of being the dorkiest looking robots this side of "Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space!" - and a huge, nasty looking serpent writhing under a glass panel that is apparently “Doomprayer” or “Doomsprayer” or whatever it’s called in whatever panel. 

Unfortunately, Iron Man’s nearing the end of his power.  And fortunately, we’re nearing the end of the story.  So that means one thing.  Iron Man lets loose with one ginormous , every-last-iota-of-power-that-I-now-have-and-will-ever-have blast into Mikas, the Dark Ones, the palace and that hideous snake - demolishing everything!

Having saved the day, what else can our hero do but collapse.  Which is a perfect time for Kevin’s rocket to break through what appears now to be a movie type set with some busted up robots just a few feet underground.  

With the rocket heading away, we’re shown the hand of a robot that I think we’re expected to believe is actually Mikas. 

This is Doomsprayer? A giant snake?

Can't say it's hard to see how this poor book crash-landed directly into a bi-monthly swamp.

Story 

Sooooo, all of what Iron Man and Marianne Rodgers experienced these past two issues was just an illusion with Mikas being a robot?

How clever.  But I'm also calling bullshit. 

We're supposed to buy that a robot dressed up like a rock star can teleport, control minds, send mental images, conjure demons and robots, commands a huge snake, project energy beams, be invulnerable and so on with everything else an illusion?

If that’s the case, why don’t any of the sensors in Iron Man’s armor inform that none of what he’s seeing is real?  Along those lines, if it’s all an illusion, why is the armor on his arm still damaged?  I suppose I should also add that if Mikas withstood his repulsors before, why did one large burst not only wipe him out, but everyone else as well?

All this was just an illusion and robots? At least it didn't turn out to be a bad dream!

I could go on over the over-wrought purple prose, but you get the idea.

“Doomprayer” underscores the ultimate failure in Gerry Conway’s nine-issue tenure on this book.  While there were the nuggets to some good story ideas, the young writer failed to bring any of them to a remotely satisfactory conclusion, presenting stories that had gaping plot holes that Ultimo could walk through.

It’s my understanding that Gerry Conway left Iron Man for Thor.  While following Stan Lee on any book would be a daunting challenge, I’m also guessing that having an artist the caliber of John Buscema would help cover a multitude of storytelling sins.

As for Iron Man, Marvel’s ascending young writer unfortunately left the book in worse shape than he found it.  2/10

Pretty dynamic pose for our hero! At least until the bad guy has him back at his mercy in about two pages.

Art 

Don’t think either of you are getting off any easier!  Another issue begging on both knees to be saved by the art is instead strewn with "the same old same old." Sneering grins from Mikas.  Downcast expressions on Iron Man’s face mask.  Outstretched arms from both.  Poses we’ve seen too many times before.  Nothing is particularly inspired about either the “Dark Ones” or “Doomprayer” either.  Things get even rougher with the rushed art on that last page.  4/10

Wimp Factor

Well, before we knew that Mikas was just a lousy robot, I was prepared to give Tony a few props for putting up such a good fight against what appeared to be a much more powerful opponent.  But when Mikas and all his trappings were wiped out by a single large burst of energy, then I’m left wondering why he didn't lead with that in the first place?  For that matter, why use only his repulsors? That armor is an arsenal of weapons - many of which could have evened the odds that much more. I also can’t overlook those pathetic pleadings with Marianne either.  He did everything for her?  They only dated once.  She joined him on this trip just two issues back!   You’ll thank me for this someday, Tony.  9/10

Don't you think you should have led with that?

Villain Rating

I’ve vented enough about Mikas - who I actually believe had potential as a villain.  At least until he slapped Marianne - who abandoned her Demon Queen role to return to the side of the Angels.  Then there’s Mr. Kline going “heavy metal” on us.  Throw in a pair of goofy-looking robots and an angry sidewinder, mix them all together and I’m going to generously call it 3/10. 

Overall Rating

Rough, rough sailing on this one.  2/10

Additional Nuts & Bolts

• While we’ll never see Mikas again, we will see quite a bit of the Guardsman in the next several issues.  Without giving anything away, I’ll add that that particular armor eventually assumes a long term role in the Marvel universe.  With some tweaking, it’s maintained that design for decades.  The one positive legacy from this dismal comic.

• This month also introduced "framed covers" for Marvel. This would be with the majority of the art confined to a smaller box with certain characters going beyond those boundaries. Prominent cover artist Gil Kane used this style to remarkable effect, creating a number of dazzling covers.

• Thanks and hearty kudos to Alan Stewart whose amazing Attack of the 50 Year Old Comics blog provides excellent, highly informative reviews each Saturday morning! It was a previous post that provided the information on Iron Man nearly becoming a split book. As someone who's Saturday starts with his latest review, I highly recommend this blog!

  

  The "truest irony"? Oh yeah, Mikas, turns out that you're a robot as well.