The change was almost imperceivable, so incremental had it been, at least to me. But starting at around this point, it was difficult to argue that IRON MAN had become a much better title than at any earlier point in recent memory. The new creative team of co-plotter and scripter David Michelinie, penciler John Romita Jr. and co-plotter and inker Bob Layton had focused the elements of the series expertly, emphasizing its corporate environment and making Iron Man’s adventures about espionage and technology. They also upgraded Iron Man himself, who often came across as a bit of a pushover in past years. They made it a point every issue to have the armored Avenger do something visually spectacular, to underline just how powerful and formidable he was.
This issue picks up on the cliffhanger from last time. Having discovered that SHIELD has hired the Spymaster to eliminate Tony Stark, Iron Man went to the Helicarrier to figure out what was behind it. There, he ran afoul of a group of conspirators led by agent Buck Richlen (who, as I indicated in the earlier chapters of this story, was a thinly-disguised parody of artist Rich Buckler, with whom Michelinie and Layton had had beef when they worked together at DC.) At the end of last issue, Richlan got the drop on SHIELD Director Nick Fury, using him as a hostage to force Iron Man to turn his own repulsor rays upon himself. As this issue opens, that’s where we pick things up.
Iron Man is in a jam, but fortunately, his armor contains other equipment besides his repulsors. So he sets off an electromagnetic pulse that causes a ceiling-mounted camera to explode, distracting Richlen for the split second it will take for Shell-Head to get the drop on him. Iron Man clobbers Richlen, but there’s another problem: with nobody at the controls, the Helicarrier has drifted into Soviet airspace, and a flight of M-2 fighters have been dispatched to either force the craft to withdraw or else blast it out of the sky.
Leaving Richlen with the recovering Nick Fury, Iron Man takes to the sky to duel the quintet of warplanes. It takes a little bit of doing, but he’s able to knock them all out of the sky, and prevent their missiles from destroying the Helicarrier, which now begins to reverse its course. Michelinie, Romita and Layton do a fun sequence in here where the cocky wing leader blasts Iron Man and thinks that he’s annihilated the American super hero. But as the smoke clears away, the pilot is horrified to find Iron Man coming directly at him–and in a full page splash, Iron Man utterly destroys the warplane. (Also, nothing is ever made of it, but as opposed to the others, that pilot is definitely killed when his plane is exploded. But as it never becomes a focal point, the Comics Code slid right past it, as I’m sure many readers did. It definitely eluded me when I was a reader.)
ADDITIONAL: An eagle-eyed reader points out the tiny figure of the parachuting pilot in the lower left corner here, which I missed. He’s placed awkwardly enough, though, that I wonder if he was a part of the original composition or something that was added in later G.I.Joe-style to assure people that Iron Man hadn’t killed anyone here.
The remaining warplanes choose this point to withdraw, not relishing tangling with the Golden Avenger any further. But this prompts the Soviets to fire a pair of I.C.B.M.s at the retreating Helicarrier. Iron Man can’t simply smash them directly for fear that they will detonate around him, destroying him, and repulsor blasts might set off the warheads. So he’s forced to rip the steeple from a church on the ground and throw it like a missile through the two missiles, destroying them. Meanwhile, the Helicarrier is racing for open territory, but the ship has coasted downward to a lower altitude over the course of this misadventure, and it doesn’t have enough lift to get over a mountain range that’s directly in its path. It looks as though the Helicarrier will run straight into it.
But Iron Man is on the job here as well. He adds the thrust of his own armor to the output of the Helicarrier, shouldering the gigantic craft upwards just enough to where it can clear the obstacle. And so now everybody is safe and Shell-Head can return to the craft and finish things off with Buck Richlen. Nick Fury needs a download on what has been going on, and in the manner of his inspiration Rich Buckler, Richlen tries to pin the blame for what has occurred on his assistants. By this point, Tony Stark has had enough adventure for one day, and he asks Fury to drop him off at Stark International’s Paris offices.
After an evening of relaxing, Tony turns his attention back to the encoded data on Stark International’s shareholders that he swiped from SHIELD’s data files last time. Once he decodes it, he’s outraged, and immediately calls Nick Fury, who confirms what he’s discovered: SHIELD has been buying up Stark stock and now has almost enough to be a controlling interest. Fury tells Tony that SHIELD depends on the weapons that his company produces, and as Stark has turned further away from arms manufacture, they had no choice in order but to take control of the organization. Fury is determined to take Stark’s company away from him, in a manner entirely legal. And so the battle lines are drawn between the two former friends, and this is where the issue closes. Not quite a To Be Continued, but definitely a plotline that’s going to be followed up on.
The Tom Brevoort Experience 
That looks like the pilot parachuting to safety in the bottom left-hand corner of the splash with Iron Man destroying the jet, so definitely not killed. Maybe he was added at the last minute, so perhaps it didn’t quite slide past the code.
LikeLiked by 2 people
You are correct! Added info to that end.
LikeLiked by 2 people
That figure of Iron Man trashing the plane looks awfully familiar – perhaps cribbed from a Jack Kirby pose?
LikeLike
I think this is the best Iron man has ever been portrayed to this point both in art and story. Colan wasn’t given worthy material most of the time and Tuska had unsuitable inkers more often than not. As for stories, I still haven’t gotten over the horrid way the Black Llama story ended. Mantlo raised the bar but Layton and Michelinie just clicked with the book. The art showcased here reminds me that I loved the younger Romita’s art once. Paired most of often with Jansen these days, the end result always looks like rough layouts inked with Sharpie and detracts from any story for me. Green on X-men, Layton here, and most of the ASM inkers looked better with what I assume were fuller pencils.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think the first 20 or so issues of Ironman by Goodwin, Tuska, and Craig are a pretty solid and entertaining run. There’s quite a bit there that later writers would mine, and Goodwin gets points for moving Stark beyond the status quo of needing constant recharging due to a failing heart. He also beefs up Ironman in the power department somewhat…. only to have him struggle with a Daredevil villain.
It’s unfortunate that the stories in Suspense when Colan took over were uneven… cuz the art is sure pretty… though I don’t think any less uneven in that regard than Heck’s run. Both have at least a handful of standout classics stories among the so-so.
Before Romita, Layton, and Michelinie turned Ironman into a great book… Mantlo had managed to at least make it pretty good. I especially remember the Pollard issues fondly.
119 was a pretty great issue. Pushing the Helicarrier over a mountain is almost a DC level feat. Pretty impressive for a guy who at one time could be slowed down by a filing cabinet full or rocks.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I think given the Marvel Method Colan gets at least part of the blame for weak stories — though they certainly improved a bunch once Archie Goodwin became scripter.
Michelenie’s run was the only time I was an Iron Man regular buyer
LikeLiked by 1 person
Disagree with the Janson complaints. ASM # 250 & 251 had Janson’s cinematic lighting, & wet stone toughness over JRJr-drawn faces & figures. The Hobgoblin never looked as menacing. But I do think Al Williamson added a grace to JRJr’s drawing that no one else could.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I think JRJR has improved as a penciller quite a bit from his first Ironman run where he was a solid storyteller, not particularly distinctive… and pretty much buried by Layton. His style got more exaggerated and fluid, and I think it paired quite nicely with Janson and especially Williamson. I like his work quite a bit on the later Ironman run he did with Byrne, as well as his Daredevil and Thor runs. He’s loose and expressive (and maybe getting looser) which isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but like Kirby he knows how to make his art go BIG…. which is cool.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Layton has always had a different philosophy regarding inking. Considering the penciller to provide the foundation and the inkers job to be the finisher. I love his art with JrJr, but I know some pencillers were not happy with Layton inking over them.
LikeLike
@davidPlunkert Yeah, JRJr’s 1990(?) return to Iron-Man was really great. Bulky, but still sleek, and an inherently powerful figure. My 2nd fave IM armor after Adi Granov’s. I can almost forgive Tony’s awful permed mullet. Bob Wiacek’s slick inks? The Living Laser looked like the harbinger of Armageddon, destroyer of worlds.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Layton & JRJr definitely gave the suit a sleek, slick finish to the same design that’d been in pace for dozens of issues. The corner box art with IM’s stiff flying figure that’d been in place since #89 would remain a few more issues, up until #123. It’d be replaced on issue # 124’s cover by what I think looks like a JRJr & Layton figure, pretty memorable & iconic, running towards the reader.
This same conner box art would outlast that creative team, changing on the cover of #175, to Luke McDonnell’s, & maybe my fave IM corner box figure.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That full page (15?) of IM smashing the Soviet fighter jet was pretty flashy. There’s another punch, IM to Bucks face, that I doubt Buck would’ve survived, & only suffering the minor injuries we see when he’s hauled away by Fury’s agents. Fury’s hair is totally of the day. A lot longer than his US Army days decades before. Tony holding that wine bottle on the final page of the story, feels more foreboding, 46 years later.
LikeLike
The previous issue Iron Man#118 began a long run for me of Iron Man that ended with issue 159 ( missing issue 128 ), until the next long run came along.
LikeLike