Invincible Iron Man #122: Review

May 1979

David Michelinie, Carmine Infantino

Story Name:

Journey!

Review & Comments

Rating:

Invincible Iron Man #122 Review by T Vernon (February 16, 2015)

Comments: Part three of the “Demon in a Bottle” story arc. Previous versions of Iron Man’s origin were in TALES OF SUSPENSE #39, IRON MAN #1 and #47. The first two tests of Justin Hammer’s remote control of Iron Man’s armor were turning on his arc light in issue #118 and opening his helmet underwater at the end of issue #120.

Review: Another rehearsal of Iron Man’s origin? Why? This isn’t a fill-in issue as far as I can tell so there must be a real point. But what…? It looks nice but it isn’t substantially different from the version in issue #47. Yeah it was probably a lot more exciting in its original appearance, having been five years after the last origin rerun; I read them only a few months apart so that’s another thing the internet has messed up. Things seem a lot more repetitive when you can binge-read a long-running title.

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Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Invincible Iron Man #122 Synopsis by T Vernon

After the adventure of the previous issues, Sub-Mariner heads for home, rethinking his distrust of Iron Man, a worthy ally; the Navy takes Hiram Dobbs and the other island survivors home (including Jim Rhodes and Bethany Cabe), and Iron Man himself jets over the ocean waves while tuning in to FM radio. As he relaxes his mind drifts back to his origin….
On a trip to the Vietnam combat zone, Tony Stark is critically injured by a booby-trap. Captured by enemy forces led by Wong-Chu, Tony, aided by captive scientist Prof. Yinsen, builds a pacemaker to keep himself alive supporting a suit of battle armor. Yinsen sacrifices himself to give Tony the time to fully charge the armor. He escapes and late returns to challenge Wong-Chu to a wrestling match in which the new Iron Man defeats him. The hero then broadcasts a call to Wong-Chu’s soldiers to surrender, then he blows up the enemy leader. Returning to America, the Iron Man armor is upgraded and improved many times as its wearer now reminds himself he is Iron Man!
Epilogue: Justin Hammer is delighted with the first two tests of his control over Shellhead’s armor and orders a third and final test….