The Sinister Scarecrow!

Tales of Suspense 051

A chance encounter with Iron Man gives a vaudeville entertainer the inspiration to abandon his act for a criminal career as The Scarecrow!

Notes:

• The story begins with Iron Man pursuing an armed robber--but "the Uncanny Umberto", a contortionist who just happens to be performing nearby, actually stops the criminal with a well-timed tackle. Peter Parker (aka Spider-Man) once allowed a robber to run past him and escape, beginning a tragic chain of events that ultimately led to Parker accepting the responsibilities of a hero. Umberto brings down a fleeing perp but an opposite action produces an opposite result in this case . . . "Seeing how you operate, I'm mighty glad you're on the side of the law, pal," says Iron Man. "Yeah, I guess a guy like me would make a mighty tough opponent," responds Umberto. Whoa, there, fella! Being an exceptionally limber egomaniac doesn't qualify you to be a super-villain!
• Or does it? It's Iron Man's turn to feel the sting of humiliation in this issue. Right after defeating the Mandarin, who commanded a castle full of advanced weaponry and was capable of cowing an entire nation, our hero is bearded in his own penthouse lair by a sideshow performer armed with nothing more than bendy limbs and a couple of trained crows. Allowing two birds to tangle him in drapes really plumbs the depths of super-hero embarassment. (Well, maybe they were really expensive drapes and Tony didn't want tear them . . . It's one thing to wreck a place that belongs to someone else--like a Chinese super-villain, for instance--but this is Iron Man's crib!)
• "It was child's play to outwit that overrated fool!" boasts the Scarecrow just before escaping with secret weapon designs from Stark's wall safe. He may be right but he's punching above his weight class and probably should've quit while he was ahead . . . The Scarecrow also makes a fool of Happy when the ex-fighter tries to wade into him. "The only reason I lost so many fights when I was a boxer is because I was too soft-hearted to wanna hurt anyone," claims Hap. "But I don't feel that way about crooks!" Riiiight. Good thing Stark is his own bodyguard.
• The Scarecrow next tries to sell the stolen plans to a bunch of Castro look-alikes aboard a Cuban gunboat but the deal is interrupted by Iron Man. (Cuba is apparently only a short motorboat trip from Flushing, Long Island in the Marvel Universe.) This encounter doesn't go quite as well for the rookie bad guy and he ends up getting dragged to exile in Cuba by his birds in the story's preposterous conclusion. (Iron Man's "jet transistors" are low on power and he can't give chase.)
• Pepper sabotages Tony's date with a haughty fake blonde named Veronica Vogue. Tony suspects the truth but seems to prefer an evening playing cards with his chauffeur than trying to fix things with VV, establishing Happy Hogan as the most entertaining poker partner ever.
• The Scarecrow refers to his birds as his "little slaves". What a jerk.

Heck's art improves; Lee's scripting does not. 'Nuff said.

The Hands of the Mandarin!

Tales of Suspense 050

Who is the most powerful man in China? Who is the mysterious warlord whom even the Chinese Communists fear? Who is the Mandarin? The Pentagon wants to know and Iron Man is sent to find out . . .

Notes:

• A quartet of awestruck PLA officers is granted an audience with the Mandarin, a man who apparently rules his own feudal kingdom, complete with castle, deep inside Red China. They beg him to share his technological secrets. "With your help, we could menace the world with nuclear destruction!" offers General Ho Lee. The Mandarin has his own world-menacing ambitions, however, and sends the Chinese military men scampering back to their masters in Beijing empty-handed.
• Tony accepts a secret mission to investigate the Mandarin but the Mandarin is already aware of Iron Man even before our hero appears in his back yard. "Though you do not even suspect my existence, you head the list of those The Mandarin has sworn to destroy!" We also see Iron Man within the Mandarin's "all-seeing crystal globe", one of many fantastic devices found in the villain's castle. The Mandarin wears 10 rings, each of which possesses a different power. In this issue, he uses 2 rings on Iron-Man; one emits a deafening sound wave and the other a "paralyzer ray".
• Predictably, Iron Man's new armor spontaneously short-circuits almost as soon as his mission begins, leaving him dangerously low on power deep inside Chinese territory.
• Finally penetrating the Mandarin's castle, Iron Man is battered by this-rays and that-beams until the villain, obviously feeling rather chuffed, decides to deliver the quietus with his own hands. "And so, Iron Man, prepare to meet your finish at the hands of the greatest karate master the world has ever known!" he brags.
• Dodging karate strikes capable of shattering an iron bar, Tony flips open a "slide-rule calculator" concealed in his gauntlet and begins crunching numbers. Laughing, the Mandarin's hand slices down . . . and smashes against Tony's armor at the wrong angle. Then, the greatest karate master the world has ever known screams and passes out on the floor. Tony used his calculator to determine the correct way to turn his body to cause the Mandarin to break his own hand. Nerd fu rules! Hiiii-yah!!
• The final panel shows the Mandarin pouting on his throne with a bandaged hand. An ignominious debut for Iron Man's arch-enemy.
• This & That: Shouldn't a Chinese villain be a master of kung-fu? Pepper shows off a new hairstyle for the S.I. employees dinner, welcomed by a complete lack of interest by Tony Stark.

Don Heck draws a pretty Pepper but shows little aptitude for anything else. Kirby provides the cover, illustrating a very impressive throne for our new member of the rogues gallery. I'm still trying to decide whether the Mandarin's defeat was intentionally funny or not.

The New Iron-Man Meets The Angel!

Tales of Suspense 049

My renewed enthusiasm for blogging is tested severely in this issue as The Angel turns evil and only Iron Man can save him . . .

Notes:

• The splash page announces that "The Angel and The X-Men appear in this story through the courtesy of the editors of 'The X-Men' magazine!" The cover also trumpets a "special arrangement" with "X-Men magazine" allowing The Angel to guest-star. Stan Lee wrote and edited the entire line almost single-handedly in those days; I suppose he wanted the readers to think Marvel Comics was a bigger outfit than it really was . . .
• "Back, you young fool . . . get back!" shouts Iron Man as The Angel soars innocently over the site of a Stark Industries atomic weapon test on his way to Professor X's school. "A deadly atomic explosion is about to be detonated here!" And where is "here"? Westchester County, New York--home to nearly a million people and one of the wealthiest areas of the United States. Does the Atomic Energy Commission know about this? (Considering the government agency's cavalier attitude regarding the health of Americans exposed to fallout from nuclear tests back in the '50s, the answer is probably "yes".) Fortunately, by special arrangement, only one winged guest-star is affected by the blast . . .
  
• His personality inverted by a massive dose of radiation, The Angel quits the X-Men and goes on a TNT-tossing rampage, hoping to attract the attention of evil mutants so he can join them to attack "ordinary humans". Magneto probably read this issue's script, however, and he wisely stays out of sight.
• New Iron Man, same old technical difficulties. His boot jets flame out twice at high altitude, an obvious disadvantage when your opponent has wings.
  

Lee's premise is ludicrous and Ditko's art is marred by incompatible inking. Even by the current low standards of the strip, this is a very bad issue.