Review: Iron Man #55
- Rick Moore
- 58 minutes ago
- 8 min read
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 Galaxy movie with Josh Brolin’s rich voice taking over.
That’s just one minor takeaway from this truly remarkable comic book.
This is where brand-spanking new artist Jim Stalin was allowed to present his characters and, as far as I’m concerned, he knocked it out of the freaking park!
With an issue of dazzling art, we’re introduced to Drax the Destroyer, Mentor, Eros, and who would ultimately become perhaps Marvel Comic’s greatest villain, Thanos!
Without question, this comic knocked me for a loop as a twelve-year-old kid. You had purple-skinned people living inside Saturn’s largest moon. There was that really tough green guy with huge, bushy eyebrows! And of course, a totally spooky master villain that stole every panel he appeared in!
This was serious shit - a word I was careful about using at that age. And my guy - Iron Man - was smack dab in the middle of it! Needless to say, this immediately became my favorite issue of Iron Man and so it remained for a whole buncha years!
Oh, and there were a couple funky-looking apes in it as well. Not sure why, but we’re told to “Beware the…Blood Brothers!”
Credits
Writer: Mike Friedrich
Pencils & Plot: Jim Starlin
Inks: Mike Esposito
Letterer: John Costanza
Editor: Roy Thomas
Cover Art: Jim Starlin & Joe Sinnott
Release Date: October 31, 1972
Synopsis
This was the first issue of Iron Man that I purchased not drawn by Gil Kane - not that I minded one iota. Although rather pedestrian when considering what Starlin would do down the road, it still immediately snagged my attention and twenty hard-earned cents.
Things only got better with a rocking splash page that takes the work of George Tuska and Vince Coletta up another notch or five with this new guy, Drax, warning our guy. Sure, he’s a bit skinnier and talks a lot slicker than Dave Bautista’s better-known version, but with that skull on his belt, it’s clear this is one guy you don’t wanna mess around with!
Unfortunately, his warning comes too late as our hero is already taking a pounding from two mean ape guys. Despite putting a good faith effort into the fight, Iron Man lasts less than two pages before being knocked unconscious. To the credit of the artist, we’re treated to no less than eight panels that take us from Stark Industries to a hidden base somewhere in the southwest. Clearly Jim Starlin is not going to waste a single panel in this story.
Inside this base, we see Drax confronted by the shadowed mastermind, goading him as “totally insignificant” before leaving - and with writer Mike Friedrich committing the annoying sin of having this villain repeat himself with “We shall see.” C’mon, dude. With an issue like this, you gotta bring your “A” game!
Alone, Drax reflects on what’s happened which coincidentally serves as way to bring all of us up to speed on what the heck’s going on. It starts with his mental energies hitting Tony Stark hard enough that he cancels a meeting to change into Iron Man - and kudos to Starlin for using eight-mini panels to show him donning that armor. As the Blood Brothers make their move towards Stark Industries, Drax makes contact, sharing with Iron Man - and all of us - the amazing story of Titan. We are first introduced to Mentor, Eros, the supercomputer ISAAC and Thanos. We learn of Thanos’ betrayal of his race by creating weapons to seize power.
Riveting as that was, it gets even better with a stellar shot of the roustabouts Thanos gathers to attack Titan. From there, we meet the god-like Kronos who creates Drax as a figure writhing out of the ground. We learn that his mission is to destroy Thanos - hence the name! Starlin treats us to several impressive panels where the two do battle with the purple-skinned bad guy emerging victorious. As a prisoner, Drax then recalls that ISAAC told him of superheroes on earth who assist him. Iron Man was the one selected since his book wasn’t all that popular so that if Starlin’s story bombed, it wouldn’t have that much of an impact. Of course, ISAAC may have had a slightly different story.
And yeah, years later I would see parallels between this story and Jack Kirby’s New Gods across the street at DC. But at that moment, all of this was the best thing to hit my world since peanut butter met jelly!
We then move to Titan where Mentor is busy behind the scenes working out a plan to free Drax. With the Destroyer whispering sweet mental messages to Iron Man about his location, our guy breaks free of the Blood Bros, hightailing it to free Drax.
Unfortunately, because he didn’t wait to listen to Drax’s warning about backfire from the devices holding the Destroyer, he’s knocked onto his armored keister. Which leads to perhaps the coolest four panels in this already incredible comic.
In three of those panels, we see a heavy black boot slam down on Iron Man’s hand revealing on the next page, the first full appearance of Thanos! Yeah, he's much skinnier than what we’d seen in even his next appearance. But damn, the purple guy still exudes power and menace with just a few words.
Things look mighty grim for our heroes with Iron Man back in the grasp of those nasty Blood Bros. But through some super-funky science, ISAAC sends a blue beam through space somehow activates Iron Man’s UniBeam - providing two incredible accomplishments! First, having Iron Man use a weapon other than his repulsor rays for the first time since the Pleistocene Era and second, freeing said Destroyer for some serious ass-kicking.
Which is exactly what happens with both heroes putting the overmatched Blood Bros to bed within two pages. Thanos reenters the scene, threatening to blow up the base. However, Drax zaps him before his can throw the switch, giving Iron Man time to deliver a good right cross that …reveals Thanos to be a robot.
Drax and Iron Man realize that if Thanos has already skipped out for parts unknown, they'd better do likewise. Having made good use of storytelling space with all those smaller panels, this gives Jim Starlin a grand opportunity for a full-page spread displaying an explosion that still leaves my ears ringing.
For the final page, Iron Man offers words of encouragement to the Destroyer before both go their separate ways and we’re told that the guest of honor next issue will be a guy named Rasputin.
Story
While I’m not sure Iron Man was the best comic to launch this first Thanos War, I will repeat myself in saying that Jim Starlin made the absolute most of his opportunity. Not simply a change of pace, this story contained extraordinary concepts that carried over not only to several comics that remain classics to this day, but to fuel one of the highest grossing movies series of all time.
Outside of a few fumbles on the script, regular Iron Man writer Mike Friedrich did his job by not blowing a 100-meter lead with 50 meters to go in a 400-meter race. 9/10
Art
Jim Starlin’s pencils in this issue only scratch the surface at the remarkable heights he would later achieve in Captain Marvel and Warlock. But even with Mike Esposito’s rather mundane inks over what seems a more cautious set of pencils, the art in this issue amply demonstrates why I’ve always considered him a top-tier artist. That being the energy and detail he brings to each page and each panel. I’ve commented several times already on his use of smaller panels to move the story along or set up a more significant scene. Nor does Starlin miss an opportunity to be creative in lieu of a traditional image.
There are also several standout scenes - such as Titan’s origin page, the Destroyer’s creation, Thanos’s introduction with his stomping on Iron Man’s hand and that final eye to eye exchange between Drax and Iron Man.
With that amount of thought going into his storytelling, it’s small wonder that Starlin’s star would rise so quickly. 8/10
Wimp Factor
Let’s see. We have Iron Man hanging out with Drax the Destroyer and Thanos and doing so with nary a muted whisper about an armor malfunction or lack of power. Indeed, he puts down one of the Blood Brothers solo and is key to saving the day. Add to that, he decks a Thanos that turns out to be a robot. Take a bow, Golden Avenger! You did yourself proud. 0/10
Villain Rating
Are you effing kidding? This is Thanos we’re talking about! Baddest mofo in the entire Marvel Universe. 10/10. And the Blood Brothers? Eh, yeah. I’ll say that they were effective this issue with their significance dwindling with subsequent appearances. 7/10.
Overall Rating
Classic isn’t the right term for this issue. I think of it more as a springboard to many classic comic books to come. Either way, this is most definitely an outstanding issue and the high-water mark for this series for several years on either side of it. 9/10
Additional Nuts & Bolts
Yeah, we do end up seeing just tab bit more of Thanos after this issue. Actually, the initial plan had been to have Starlin stick around, letting this Thanos War play out in Iron Man. What went wrong? We’ll talk about that in the review of our next issue, Iron Man #56.
Likewise, Drax the Destroyer has certainly made more than his fair share of appearances since this issue. But his story has had a considerable number of twists and turns - including another death with a resurrection that essentially turned him into a more brainless version. That was before he hooked up with some interstellar tat artist and started hanging around the Guardians of the Galaxy. And believe me, there’s much more that I’m not sharing.
Mentor, Eros and ISSAC also remain important characters in the coming years and decades. First, they go from purple flesh to our human tones. Eros later becomes Starfox and joins the Avengers where we learn that he has the ability to become a human “date rape drug” which essentially ruined the character for me. ISAAC simply helped the Vison nearly take over the world about a decade later in the Avengers.
The Titans and the godlike Kronos were eventually retconned into being Eternals who had left Earth long ago for our solar system’s largest moon.
