Invincible Iron Man #90: Review

Sep 1976

Jim Shooter, George Tuska

Story Name:

When Calls the Controller

Review & Comments

Rating:

Invincible Iron Man #90 Review by Peter Silvestro (May 28, 2014)

Review: Yeah, yeah, the Controller’s back and exactly as powerful as the plot requires him to be at all times. The biggest surprise in the issue is that it ends with the hero’s apparent victory, an odd turn of affairs for part one of a two-parter. The best thing in the story is page 3, where George Tuska’s mind slaves look like extras from a zombie movie, with his art looking just a little bit grittier than usual. Then of course, Controller ruins it with his comically twisted mug and crooked overbite; not one of Tuska’s more impressive efforts. Halfway decent story, though.

Comments: Part one of a two part story. Issue features an exceedingly rare appearance by only one of the Blood Brothers. The Controller was introduced in IRON MAN #12-13 and returned in #28; since then he was recruited by Thanos to battle Mar-Vell in CAPTAIN MARVEL #28-30 which left him in the predicament seen here. Presumably Harry Key set the fire as a distraction but that is never said.

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Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Invincible Iron Man #90 Synopsis by T Vernon

Iron Man, with the help of the police, has the Blood Brothers locked up in separate facilities several miles apart (Ryker’s Island Prison and McGuire Air Force Base). He then sets out to learn why the twin monsters were digging at that Manhattan lot (last issue)….
At said lot, the Controller breaks free. Trapped there from his battle with Captain Marvel in CAPTAIN MARVEL #30, he had exerted a mental call to the Blood Brothers to dig him out; they were interrupted by Iron Man and Daredevil (again last issue) but they had dug deeply enough that he could move the rest of the way himself, once he was powered by captive citizens controlled by the slave discs placed by his minion Scrounger….
Iron Man returns to discover a fire at Stark Industries. He crosses paths with shady private eye Harry Key, disguised as a guard, and puts out the blaze by toppling a water tower on it. Meanwhile, Harry has been captured by Michael O’Brien….
Tony Stark calls Avengers Mansion and learns from Beast that the lot was the site of the Mar-Vell/Controller battle. He heads to the site as Iron Man to discover that the villain has already gotten away in a truck. Deducing that the most likely place for the Controller to go would be the factory of his former employer Cord Industries so he can manufacture more slave discs, Shellhead heads over there and walks into an obvious trap. Iron Man recovers and beats his foe into submission and binds him with a twisted girder. But Scrounger has a plan to rescue his boss, now that he has a larger supply of slave discs….