Invincible Iron Man #51: Review

Oct 1972

Mike Friedrich, George Tuska

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Story Name:

Now Strikes the Cyborg Sinister

Review & Comments

Rating:

Invincible Iron Man #51 Review by T Vernon (August 13, 2013)

Review: Conclusion of the story arc centering on Marianne’s prophetic vision is quite good, with the Cyborg Sinister being much more visually menacing than the Super-Adaptoid (even with the huge Tuska teeth). Yeah, the micro-world aspect was pretty bizarre and under-utilized but the rest of the tale was just right.

Comments: Part three of three. Sole appearance of Super-Adaptoid as the Cyborg Sinister; we learn in CAPTAIN MARVEL #50 that Tony Stark seals up its remains and stores it away; in that issue it is revived in its original form to battle Iron Man once again.

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Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Invincible Iron Man #51 Synopsis by T Vernon

Iron Man hovers in the air at Stark’s private rocket base, as his new missile is launched into the air. Suddenly, there is a malfunction and the rocket self-destructs, sending debris toward the nearby town. Shellhead races down, destroys the debris before it can hurt anyone and aids the police in capturing a trio of holdup men while he’s there. Tony is distraught, since his hopes for moving his firm from weapons to peaceful research depended on the success of this launch….
In the desolate micro-world, militarist Jarr and pacifist Tyrr are bickering over the former’s scheme to use the revived Super-Adaptoid to route energy from Earth to power the machines to rebuild their world—and become the dictator. Now the android has evolved into a more menacing form—the axe-wielding Cyborg Sinister. This fearsome monster crashes into the Stark labs and terrorizes the staff. Meanwhile, Tony finds Marianne Rodgers in his office, distraught over her visions of Iron Man’s death. He berates her for having deserted him in his time of need (issue #49) and orders her out of his life. Then Tony learns of the Cyborg’s rampage in his factory and heads there as Iron Man. Shellhead places Marianne in a supply room for her safety and goes in search of the intruder—heedless of Marianne’s warning that the supply room is the site of his death in her vision. Iron Man battles the Cyborg Sinister…and as Marianne watches in horror, the contest is carried into the supply room…there is a fight on a catwalk...Marianne rushes to help...the railing breaks...Iron Man falls toward a vat of acid…his jet boots malfunction…suddenly they start again and the hero dodges his death—then he overturns the vat onto the monster and the Cyborg Sinister is weakened enough for Iron Man to smash it to pieces. In the micro-world, Tyrr turns against Jarr and the lab is destroyed in their fight.
Weeks later, a second rocket test is successful. Tony rejoices while Marianne mourns her fate.

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