Iron Man #50 (September 1972)
"Deathplay"
Mike Friedrich-George Tuska/Vince Colletta
Doug: Today I'll close out a series of comic reviews that I had no idea would become a series of comic reviews. In April I posed a question about favorite (or non-favorite) mismatches in comics. In that post, as samples to get you thinking, I displayed the covers to Daredevil #163, Thor #269, and today's mag: Iron Man #50.
Were you a regular Iron Man reader in the Bronze Age? I was not. I don't know why. I bought Thor pretty regularly and generally picked up Captain America.
Tony Stark’s in bad shape. His armor drained after a battle against the Super-Adaptoid, Stark struggles to get to an electric outlet. In the nick of time he’s successful; until Jarvis barges in on him. With IM’s armor scattered about Stark is forced to lie to his faithful butler. Later, Princess Python attacks Jarvis in anticipation of attacking Stark. A young ESPer named Marianne plays heavily in the plot. The Princess eventually captures Stark, but he frees himself to change to Iron Man. IM tussles with a mutated python, but of course wins. Naturally, the next menace lies around the corner…
You know, when I began reading this (from the Iron Man DVD-ROM), I was prepared to come to you in review with a "this was sillier than Thor vs. Stilt-Man" conclusion. 
However, I cannot report in that manner. I actually really liked it, and here's why:
The Good: As I usually do, I'll start with the art. When you think of "classic" Iron Man pencilers, I'm sure Don Heck and Gene Colan come to mind. But if George Tuska isn't in the same thought, I don't know what's wrong with you. I've always enjoyed Tuska's rendition of ol' Shellhead. "Stock poses"? You bet; and they're great. Tuska has a very dynamic style akin to Jack Kirby or John Buscema. While his draftsmanship isn't near Buscema's realism (in fact, Tuska seemed to pride himself on making supporting characters somewhat cartoony) and of course Kirby has no peer, Tuska nevertheless gives us a kinetic Iron Man. You can feel the whirl of a character, the power of a punch, the wind in flight. Later, truthfully only a few years from the publication of this issue, I'd probably take issue with the stiffness of a Tuska-drawn book. But here, in the early Bronze Age, he was solid.
Mike Friedrich's script is wordy! So why is that a good thing? I guess I enjoyed the existentialism with which he wrote Tony Stark. It's a far cry from the Stark current fans know -- the Robert Downey, Jr. Tony Stark of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This Stark seems to be a pretty deep fellow, very sober and introspective. He's not covering for his inadequacies and doubts with witty banter. Conversely, this version of Stark seems cut straight from the early cloth stitched by Stan Lee and Kirby -- feet fully made of clay and struggling to deal with that fact. I've read other scripts by Friedrich, and wordiness is a "thing" of his. In that regard, I can say that I got what I expected when coming to this tale.
I got a real kick out of the manner in which Tony Stark had to remove his armor. It certainly wasn't the drone-service we've seen lately in films.
The Bad: Let's face it -- no way Princess Python gets on Iron Man's dance card. I'd like to have been in whatever meeting took place where editor Roy Thomas signed off on this as a good idea. Thor vs. Stilt-Man, indeed! In a way it works, but only because of the silly "mutation" that takes place with the Python -- the chemical cocktail that slithery monster was bathed in must have been second only to what befell poor Barry Allen. 
That doesn't happen, we got no story. Period.
I was also unsure of the Princess's speech patterns. I would not pretend to be a connoisseur of the adventures of the Circus of Crime, but no where in my memory does it stand out that the Princess speaks "tough broad"-ese. I was further confounded by what appeared to be a different style of speaking as depicted later in this same story. Perhaps I missed something.
Above I said that Friedrich wrote a much more introspective, self-critical Tony Stark. While I'll stand by my liking of that in my comments above, I will say that upon cracking the book it was a bit of a shock to the system. Downey's portrayal of Stark/Iron Man has become the norm, hasn't it? Again, with no rich history of reading Iron Man throughout the character's history this philosophical Stark caught me a bit off guard. Not bad overall, just maybe for me during the reading.
The Ugly: I dunno... I find myself getting to this section with rarely a thing to mention. But today I do have one, and it was in fact a trope we saw in the aforementioned Thor story. Well, actually in the issue after the one I reviewed. Thor is separated from Mjolnir by the big ugliness that is Blastaar. The Thunder God doesn't recover it in time and hence turns back into Dr. Donald Blake. Of course he ends up recovering his walking stick and later knocking Blastaar all the way back to the Negative Zone. Here we see Tony Stark afflicted by an old Silver Age malady, and that's the draining of power from his armor -- notably, the life-sustaining chestplate. In this story Stark even remarks to himself that he has only around 60 seconds to find electricity. And then he counts it down. Like I ever thought he wouldn't find it? Pfah... If the trope doesn't provide drama or advance the story in a fresh way, then lose it. So there -- my "ugly" for this story.
Overall, though, this was time well spent. I really did enjoy this book quite a bit more than I expected. This story really had that early Bronze Age feel to it. The 20c price tag seems to ooze such a sense, am I right?
NOTE: Just an observation here. I own most of the Marvel DVD-ROMs (and again, they are wonderful things! -nearly as swell as sliced bread!), but I have never seen a scanned issue that looked like it was owned by an actual consumer. I always figured that the comics used to create those literary keepsakes came from some Marvel vault. Go figure -- apparently Iron Man #50 was secured from some kid! See below, at the Mighty Marvel Checklist:
The Ugly: I dunno... I find myself getting to this section with rarely a thing to mention. But today I do have one, and it was in fact a trope we saw in the aforementioned Thor story. Well, actually in the issue after the one I reviewed. Thor is separated from Mjolnir by the big ugliness that is Blastaar. The Thunder God doesn't recover it in time and hence turns back into Dr. Donald Blake. Of course he ends up recovering his walking stick and later knocking Blastaar all the way back to the Negative Zone. Here we see Tony Stark afflicted by an old Silver Age malady, and that's the draining of power from his armor -- notably, the life-sustaining chestplate. In this story Stark even remarks to himself that he has only around 60 seconds to find electricity. And then he counts it down. Like I ever thought he wouldn't find it? Pfah... If the trope doesn't provide drama or advance the story in a fresh way, then lose it. So there -- my "ugly" for this story.
Overall, though, this was time well spent. I really did enjoy this book quite a bit more than I expected. This story really had that early Bronze Age feel to it. The 20c price tag seems to ooze such a sense, am I right?
NOTE: Just an observation here. I own most of the Marvel DVD-ROMs (and again, they are wonderful things! -nearly as swell as sliced bread!), but I have never seen a scanned issue that looked like it was owned by an actual consumer. I always figured that the comics used to create those literary keepsakes came from some Marvel vault. Go figure -- apparently Iron Man #50 was secured from some kid! See below, at the Mighty Marvel Checklist: