Invincible Iron Man #57: Review

Apr 1973

Steve Gerber, George Tuska

Story Name:

Strike!

Review & Comments

Rating:

Invincible Iron Man #57 Review by T Vernon (October 1, 2013)

Review: The Mandarin is back—and he’s a union boss! Seems to me the guy would have more dignity than to take on this role himself but just go with it. This is mainly a story to get Mandy’s rings back and remind us that he’s still around. It also brings Pepper Potts back into the fold, though the position of personal secretary was too conveniently open. Otherwise the issue is just a nice (if familiar) fight scene which climaxes in one of the worst last-page reveals in comics history: the Unicorn arrives, shadowed and in long shot! Tsk tsk.

Comments: Part one of two. Mandarin’s encounter with the Inhumans took place in AMAZING ADVENTURES #3-4

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Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Invincible Iron Man #57 Synopsis by T Vernon

Stark Industries employees go on strike after a rabble-rouser convinces them that Tony Stark’s plan to share environmental research with the Russians is an act of treason. As Tony ponders a course of action, Pepper Potts Hogan shows up to ask for a job; Tony makes her his personal secretary again and finds that his romantic feelings toward her have not died. Iron Man pays a call on union boss Gene Khan and discovers he is the Mandarin plotting a takeover of the nation. The hero clobbers the Mandarin’s enforcers and demands a confession. Mandarin reveals that, while his power rings were confiscated and buried by the Inhumans, a pilgrimage to the alien ship where he originally found them led him to discover a high-tech headband which enabled him to recover his rings. And now the more powerful Mandarin battles Iron Man one-on-one, the fight spilling out into the street. At a moment of stalemate, the villain uses the headband to summon his Eleventh Ring: Iron Man’s old foe, the Unicorn!