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Tales of Suspense #89

May 1967
Stan Lee, Gene Colan

Story Name:

The Monstrous Menace of the Mysterious Melter!


Synopsis

Tales of Suspense #89 synopsis by T Vernon
Rating: 4 stars
Image from Tales of Suspense #89

Tony Stark is supervising construction of a new factory to replace the one destroyed by the Mole Man (issues #87-88). Senator Byrd stops by to tell Tony that he has dropped his plans to have Tony testify before his Senate Committee revealing the secrets of Iron Man’s armor since they would be dangerous were they to fall into the wrong hands. Pepper and Happy also drop by; a crane carrying a load of rocks malfunctions and drops debris on them. Happy is buried alive but quickly rescued and Pepper’s reaction to his peril convinces Tony that she truly loves happy and he can put her behind him. To forget, he goes back to his old playboy lifestyle, dating a string of glamorous socialites and models….

Meanwhile in prison, the Melter has plans to escape: his cellmate has been smuggling machine parts to him in exchange for taking him along. When the villain finally assembled his new melting ray gun he burns his way through the bars and knocks out his duped partner. His plan: forcing Tony Stark to build him a better, more advanced gun….

Melter arrives at the newly-completed Stark factory to be met by Iron Man (Tony had been in the process of testing some new devices on the armor). The hero has a hard time dodging the Melter’s dangerous beams and when the villain destroys a tall crane where workmen are standing, he must stop to rescue the unfortunate employees. Iron Man hurries back to his lab where he changes into Tony Stark. The Melter confronts him, demanding that the industrialist create a smaller, more easily concealable version of the gun. Tony is caught in a dilemma: help a criminal, or risk death by trying to stop him as Iron Man….



Story #2

Back From The Dead!

Writer: Stan Lee. Penciler: Gil Kane. Inker: Gil Kane. Colorist: ?.

Synopsis

By Peter Silvestro
Rating: 3 stars
…the Red Skull, who was able to survive being trapped on the ocean floor by the residual power of the Cosmic Cube. Now he has taken over this long-forgotten Nazi base to threaten the world with his plastic bubbles. The Skull drops the bubble with Captain America into a basement where Cap battles and destroys a huge robot, eludes a miniature missile, and is brought face-to-face with…Bucky. His former partner, long thought dead, is embittered against the Avenger, accusing Cap of failing to rescue him through envy. Now Bucky is a willing servant of the Red Skull and determined to take his vengeance out on Cap. Cap however realizes that his "ex-partner" is a robot and manages to wreck it in combat. The Red Skull, disappointed that his deception didn’t succeed, throws a switch causing the wall to slowly close in on Captain America....

 

Review / Commentaries


Tales of Suspense #89 Review by (February 15, 2010)
Second of a four-part story.


Tales of Suspense #89 Review by (July 9, 2012)
Review (Iron Man): Finally we can get past the Tony/Pepper soap opera! She really loves Happy! So, the Melter is back and Iron Man is afraid of him…so he chooses to face him as Tony Stark…and give in to his demands! Surely Shellhead could meet the villain on his own ground and throw something at him or electrocute him or any of the dozens of other combat strategies which do not require him to stand in front of his enemy’s discomforting ray…but no. One thing, Gene Colan can make anything look cool.

Comments (Iron Man): The Melter was introduced in issue #47. Senator Byrd is inadvertently called Senator Boyd on the first page.


> Tales of Suspense comic book info and issue index

Elektra

This comic is in the following collection:
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Collecting CAPTAIN AMERICA (1968) #100-113 and material from TALES OF SUSPENSE (1959) #59-99 and NOT BRAND ECHH #3.

Excelsioring your collection:
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Holy smokes, Batman!
(The Boy Wonder)

Gene Colan
Frank Giacoia
?
Gene Colan (Cover Penciler)
Frank Giacoia (Cover Inker)
Stan Goldberg (Cover Colorist)


Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.

Captain America
Captain America

(Steven Rogers)
Iron Man
Iron Man

(Anthony Stark)
Pepper Potts
Pepper Potts

(Pepper Hogan)
Red Skull
Red Skull

(Johann Shmidt)

Plus: Melter (Bruno Horgan), Senator Byrd.