Invincible Iron Man #115: Review

Oct 1978

Bill Mantlo, Dan Green

::: click cover to ENLARGE it :::

Story Name:

Betrayal!

Review & Comments

Rating:

Invincible Iron Man #115 Review by T Vernon (November 25, 2014)

Review: This is Bill Mantlo’s last issue as writer so the Unicorn and Arsenal storylines are left hanging for a few years. What we do have otherwise? An unnecessary background check on a villain who won’t be back soon (really, three whole pages on the Unicorn’s past?). Oh yeah and there’s a quartet of thugs in animal costumes. Daredevil had possibly the lamest rogues’ gallery of Marvel in the 60s (Ant-Man’s and Human Torch’s were at least funny) and the Ani-Men were still toward the bottom of the list; their only special power was that there were three or four of them (Frog-Man was optional) and so could pose a threat to a lone DD by ganging up on him. Here, these guys are hardly a match for Tony Stark, once he dons the armor they are worthless. That said, the big fight is pretty well done and Whitney’s betrayal comes as a surprise, making this issue better than it had a right to be.

Comments: Though she was absent in the previous issue, Wasp is with the Avengers in this one. Unicorn is unconscious through his appearance. Eternity Man (Jason Beere) is seen in suspended animation in Tony’s lab despite having been mentioned as being in Avengers Mansion’s lab last issue. Titanium Man does not reappear until #132. And Count Nefaria has been debilitated since AVENGERS #164-166.

From Our Blog:

Gwen Stacy, beauty queen of Standard High School, was Peter Parker's (alias Spider-Man) first great love.

Gwen Stacy: Classic Beauty

Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Invincible Iron Man #115 Synopsis by T Vernon

The Avengers help Iron Man transport the life-support canister containing the dying Unicorn back to the Stark plant. Shellhead brusquely orders them to keep searching for the missing Arsenal and moves the canister into the lab. As Tony hooks up the Unicorn he mentally reviews his foe’s career and ponders who his unseen controller could be. Tony deactivates the Tony Stark LMD which had been standing in for him and heads home….
Interludes: The mystery spy sees his opportunity to assassinate Tony Stark and follows after him while the Unicorn’s controller throws a fit when he learns his pawn is out of the game.
Tony rides up to his penthouse where he is surprised by the Ani-Men—Ape-Man, Bird-Man, Frog-Man, and Cat-Man—who throw him around. Just as he starts to fight back, he is felled by a blow to the back of the neck—he has been betrayed by his lover Madame Masque, who wants him to restore her now-aged father Count Nefaria to his youth….

::: click cover to ENLARGE it :::