BHOC: IRON MAN #118

This new week also brought a new issue of IRON MAN, a series whose fortunes were improving by the issue. I’ve always really liked this cover, as it’s a very simple concept with an almost visceral hook to it. And in a relatively rare move for the period, it’s devoid of any cover copy explaining that Tony Stark is falling to his death and that his life-saving, armor-containing briefcase has just slipped from his hands. No, this one lets the image do all of the work–and it does.

Rather than being the work of new regular penciler John Romita Jr, this issue is a fill-in by John Byrne, who was fast enough that he was an easy go-to when a title was in some scheduling difficulty. Especially given his close friendship with editor Roger Stern, it’s no surprise that Stern would call upon John if the book was running behind. And ultimately, Bob Layton’s slick inks kept the surface sheen looking the same, even if the storytelling of the issue was more Byrne’s approach than Romita’s. This splash page features the first appearance of any of Iron Man’s specialty armors, and I wonder if they weren’t an innovation of Byrne’s rather than Michelinie or Layton. They’re just a bunch of weird armors here, but Michelinie and Layton would later run with the notion of specialized suits for specialized jobs, introducing both the Space Armor and the Stealth Armor during their run.

This issue is noteworthy for the introduction of a long-running character. Since they’d taken over the series a couple of issues earlier,. Michelinie and Layton had begun to build up a new supporting cast around Tony Stark. This cast included his sardonic secretary Mrs. Arbogast, and his new love interest bodyguard Bethany Cabe. And in an understated fashion, this story introduces Tony’s pilot who will go on to become his best friend, James “Rhodey” Rhodes. The issue opens with Tony having discovered that the weaponry that Spymaster used so effectively against his armored alter ego last month were in fact designed by Tony himself, as part of a package of munitions created for SHIELD. Luckily, there’s a NATO meeting on the SHIELD Helicarrier later that day, which will give Tony the opportunity to poke around and see if he can figure out the connection. He leaves pilot Rhodey behind, choosing to fly his helicopter to the Helicarrier himself due to not knowing how dangerous this is going to be. You’d be forgiven for thinking that Rhodey was just a throwaway character, as he’s dispensed with in this story in just a few panels.

I spoke when writing about the last issue how corrupt SHIELD agent Buck Richlen was a veiled dig at artist Rich Buckler, who’d had a bad interaction with Michelinie and Layton over at DC. Here, we meet another of his cohorts, Val Adair, who is also a Buckler reference, named after Buckler’s regular pseudonym, Validar. This creative team was pissed at Buckler, and make him out, by proxy, to be a weasel without any integrity or morals.

BHOC: IRON MAN #117

Anyway, Tony heads for the Helicarrier for the meeting and promptly contrives an excuse to be on his own. From there, he taps into the ship’s computers, downloading the files he’s looking for into the armor concealed in his briefcase that’s handcuffed to his wrist. SHIELD security really wasn’t on their game this day–as is reiterated by the fact that Buck and his cronies make their move, flooding the Helicarrier with a colorless gas designed to incapacitate barding parties. So Tony and everybody else not wearing breathing apparatus are knocked unconscious.

Having been responsible for hiring Spymaster to kill Stark in the first place, Buck and his goons simply throw the unconscious millionaire over the side of the ship, sending him plummeting, as per the cover, towards the ground below. The rush of air revives Stark, and he’s able to hustle into his armor just in time to halt his fatal fall. I would guess that this sequence inspired the similar moment in the first AVENGERS film where Loki hurls Stark off the top of Avengers Tower. It’s a pretty cool sequence, and Byrne maximizes his space by making it work in a single page–this was still the era of 17-page stories, so there wasn’t any real estate to waste.

Having proven that somebody amidst SHIELD is trying to kill him, Iron Man returns to the Helicarrier and proceeds to shadow the only people still awake and mobile. Shell-Head hears Buck confirm that they were behind hiring Spymaster in an attempt to take control of Stark International and have it go back to manufacturing weapons for America’s defense. But just then, the set-up for a longer plotline that Michelinie and Layton will be developing trips Iron Man up, as his chest-mounted Uni-Beam spotlight turns on without him having activated it. This malfunction is skated by as Richlen’s men immediately turn and attack, but it portents larger events down the line. Michelinie and Layton have been steadily increasing Iron Man’s power and capability, so a battalion of SHIELD agents aren’t anything more than a momentary slowdown for the Armored Avenger. But the self-preservation of Buck Richlen makes him flee while his guys take the fall (another veiled commentary on Buckler’s behavior as Michelinie and Layton saw it.)

But as everybody else on the ship is fast asleep, it isn’t hard for Iron Man to locate where Richlen has run off to. Unfortunately, by the time he gets there, Buck has his pistol jammed up against Nick Fury’s head. Richlen tells Iron Man that he knows he can’t kill the Avenger–but Iron Man should be able to kill himself. He orders Shell-Head to aim his own repulsors at his own head and blow it off. Otherwise, it’ll be Nick Fury who’ll suffer that fate. And on that cliffhanger, the issue is To Be Continued. This was a lot more electrifying and entertaining that the series had been even a couple of issues ago, and the ethos that would guide it over the next several years is now coming into focus. So this issue was pretty good.