Iron Man #53
The Black Lama
In California, a wildfire has brought Iron Man to the attention of Raga, a cult leader who runs a commune in the California wilderness.[1] He has come to rescue Cynthia Chong, who was forced back into the cult due to her romance with MacKenzie Davies, a local forest ranger. In the ensuing battle, Raga’s ability to turn his emotions into heat has caused the ground under Iron Man’s feet to turn into molten lava. With moments to spare before the lava eats through his armor, Iron Man manages to pull free thanks to his built-in jet boots. With the flow of lava heading downhill toward some houses, the hero quickly uses his repulsor rays to cut a channel into the ground to diver the flow.
As Iron Man makes his way back to the commune, Raga is visited by his master, the mysterious Black Lama.[2] The Lama reminds Raga how he came to gain his powers. It all started when the man who would become Raga went to university and fell in love with an exchange student from India. However, this woman did not share his feelings and eventually returned to her homeland. Obsessed with this woman, the future Raga traveled to India to try and find her only to discover that she was now married to another man. He beat the woman’s new husband and when that didn’t work he knocked her out as well and fled the scene. As he drove away he happened upon the Black Lama standing in the middle of the road flagging him down. This man was then taken in as the Lama’s disciple and underwent training to be able to turn his anger into heat and fire. Now seeing how Raga has begun quarreling with his own disciples, the Black Lama has come to express his disappointment.
His anger growing, Raga tries once again to punish Cynthia Chong for trying to leave his commune. However, she has been trained in the same skills and is able to match his power with her own. Still, Raga is more powerful and manages to overpower Cynthia. Luckily, Iron Man arrives on the scene and renews his attack on his foe. Raga then pleads for the Black Lama’s aid. When the mysterious Lama agrees to help, Iron Man finds that the Lama is intangible. This gives Raga to regain his strength and fight back against Iron Man. By this time, MacKenzie Davies has arrived on the scene and sees that Iron Man, Raga, and Cythnia are in a strange trance and the battle has been happening in their minds. When he is spotted by the Black Lama, MacKenzie is also put into the trance.
There he witnesses Raga grow in size to try and overpower Iron Man.[3] Eventually, Iron Man discovers that his own emotions can cause him to increase his size in this astral battle-field and he defeats Raga. With the battle over, Black Lama returns them all to the physical world and then abandons his disciple by teleporting away. Furious, Raga begins venting his rage as Iron Man flies to safety with Cynthia and MacKenzie. Raga’s powers causes the cliff he is sitting on to crumble. Raga appears to perish as his body falls into the water below and is buried under tons of rock.[4]
Recurring Characters
Iron Man, Black Lama, Raga, Cynthia Chong, MacKenzie Davies
Continuity Notes
Raga’s real name is not given in this story. Marvel Atlas #1 identifies him as George Friedrich.
Black Lama is also unidentified here. He is identified as King Gerold in Iron Man #80. Believe it or not, the Lama is actually the Gerald Ford of another dimension. This dimension is identified as Reality-7511 in Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #3.
When Iron Man compares Raga to Giant-Man, Raga states here that Hank Pym is dead. This is a reference to Marvel Feature #6, which ended with a newspaper incorrectly reporting that Ant-Man and the Wasp were killed in a fire following their battle with Whirlwind.
At the time of this writing (July 2021), Raga has yet to return so I think it’s safe to assume that, almost 50 years since this story was published, that Raga is dead.
