12:01 PM
Brad
Plot Overview: One of Stark's associates back out of a deal and Tony decides to drive out to Charleton Carter's estate to find out why he's decided to no longer do business with him. Stark arrives and sees Carter being terrorized through a window.
Stark becomes Iron Man and enters the room. He comes face to face with Mister Doll. Mister Doll's powers seem to revolve around a sort of voodoo doll that he can shape to look like people. He shapes the doll to look like Iron Man and starts to cause pain. Iron Man tries to flee the scene and falls over a railing into the water. Mister Doll assumes that Iron Man has died.
Iron Man pulls himself out of the water but his chest plate is almost out of power. He manages to get back to his lab and hooked up to the power before passing out. He's awoken the next day by Pepper Potts calling him. Meanwhile, Mister Doll has forced Carter to sign over his business and he now plans to go after Tony Stark.
Tony Stark has become frustrated with the bulk of his current suit and decides to design a new one. He creates the more familiar red and gold armor of Iron Man. This suit features magnets which help him put it on faster. In general, it's got the same or more power but is lighter and more flexible.
The police decide to protect Stark from Mister Doll. Stark is displeased by this because he wants to track down Mister Doll as Iron Man. Stark tricks the guard into thinking he wants to ask Pepper out on a date and the guard allows them to go into a different room. Stark thanks Pepper for her help and tells her, to her disappointment, to keep acting like she's in love with him.
Iron Man relieves the guards just in time for Mister Doll to arrive. Doll again makes Iron Man suffer through the use of the doll. He decides that he's subdued Iron Man and changes his doll to look like Tony Stark. Iron Man now has a problem. If he registers any pain, Mister Doll will know his true identity. Iron Man struggles to not show any reaction and Mister Doll takes his disinterest as a sign of weakness. He decides to send Iron Man away until he has further use of him.
Iron Man locks himself in the lab and struggles with all the pain. He decides that he must temporarily disable his chest plate. This will numb his nerves and block out the pain so he can build a counter to the voodoo doll. Stark works quickly and finishes his device just in time.
Iron Man confronts Mister Doll again and uses his new transistor ray to shape the doll into the shape of Mister Doll. Mister Doll drops the doll out of fear for hurting himself and is incapacitated. Iron Man turns him over to the police.
A short time later, Happy and Tony realize they left Pepper locked in that room. They go let her out, needless to say, she is not happy about it.
My Take: I'm a little sad to see the tank style Iron Mam armor make it's exit so soon. I love the clunky old style look to it. But it does make way for the more iconic red and gold Iron Man armor. Tony will be sporting a version of this armor well into the 70s.
This issue was a pretty fun read despite Mister Doll being a lame villain. We just had the Puppetmaster in FF and he's pretty much the same character. Mister Doll wasn't that important to the story. I think the new armor was the big deal in this issue and I liked how they handled that. They did a good job of showing off the new features of the armor and Tony did a really good job of explaining why the old armor needed to go.
Despite my love of the old armor, the new armor will be better from an art stand point. There were exactly two artists that understood how to draw the tank armor and that was Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko. Everyone else that drew the armor had him doing weird contortionist moves. I consider it a welcome upgrade for the future art of Iron Man appearances.
The art was decent in this issue. Mister Doll was a stupid looking villain and the new armor needs a little work. But those are really my only complaints about it. The art looked pretty good other than those two things.
I give this **1/2 out of *****.
Notes: This is the first appearance of Mister Doll. I had to look him up and it appears he's just a footnote in Marvel history with a handful of appearances. This book is also the first appearance of the Mark III Iron Man armor. As I said earlier, this suit undergoes some revisions but it's one of the iconic armors for Iron Man.
Next Issue: Amazing Spider-Man #7
Posted in: Happy Hogan,Iron Man,Nathan Dolly,Pepper Potts
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