Invincible Iron Man #105: Review

Dec 1977

Bill Mantlo, George Tuska

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Story Name:

Every Hand Against Him!

Review & Comments

Rating:

Invincible Iron Man #105 Review by T Vernon (September 16, 2014)

Review: With this issue, Bill Mantlo starts giving Tony Stark some complex characterization. We knew his devotion to his company isolated him from everyone else but now we learn that it was entirely his conscious choice, that now Tony and Iron Man seem like two different persons. All of this has been mentioned before but now Mantlo pulls it all together into a consistent character for Tony Stark. And suddenly the “Tony or Iron Man” conflicts take on a new urgency as his friends try to use the one against the other in an effort to save the company for Tony. Plus, jealousy has turned nerdy Boy Scout Jasper Sitwell into an angry dirty fighter. And we finally get an insight into Abe Klein—did his original creator (Len Wein in issue #82) have anything like this in mind? A lot more going on in this ish than I can put into words. Trust me, this is really good.

Comments: Part three of six parts. The Wraith was rescued by Iron Man and Spider-Man in MARVEL TEAM-UP #48-49; Eddie March was in IRON MAN #21-22 and #67.

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Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Invincible Iron Man #105 Synopsis by T Vernon

Now it’s Tony Stark’s turn to have a nightmare…as Iron Man he lies dying in a forest; the only witness is a little boy who pries open the faceplate. They are both Tony Stark; the young one is taken away by his parents, leaving the adult alone, as his choice has always been, and only if he lets someone in will he be saved…then young Tony finds he is a child of Midas.... He wakes up and shares with Madame Masque the dream of his self-imposed isolation; she assures him she understands and loves him….
Jack of Hearts, unsure of how to help Tony Stark regain his company, is drawn by a psychic vision to an apartment. There he meets several friends of Tony: the Guardsman (Michael O’Brien), Jean DeWolff and her brother Brian a/k/a the Wraith, Eddie March, and finally Nick Fury and Jasper Sitwell. Fury has called them together to aid Stark in recovering his company, in the name of national security….
Tony and Whitney go riding on the Stark Estate while he tells her that his father was only interested in money and profits, while for Tony inventing was what it was all about. Tony gets a phone call but it stops before he can answer it. The caller was Abe Klein at the factory who has now been captured by the robots in Iron Man armors and brought before Midas. Here we learn that Abe was the mole in the company, Midas controlling him with the secret of what happened to Abe’s wife and daughter during the war….
Back at the mansion, the assembled heroes confront Iron Man, demanding to know where Tony Stark is (Michael O’Brien already knows Shellhead is Tony and the Wraith is a mind-reader so he learns the secret right away). A fight seems imminent but Jasper holds a gun to Madame Masque’s head to force Iron Man to lead them against Midas….
Epilogue: Marianne Rodgers descends from a train near the Stark Estate; the conductors, wondering why she was the only one stopping there, look in the car and discover that all the other passengers have had their minds erased….

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