A Cry of Beasts

Tony Stark wakes up from a nightmare where he has gotten drunk at a bar and belligerently reveals his secret identity to the patrons. Waking up from this, Tony is shocked by how vivid the dream was and how strong a hold alcohol has on him even though he has been sober for a year now.[1] After a shower and getting dressed, Tony checks in with his head of security — Vic Martinelli — to make sure the preparations for a presentation at the local zoo. Vic promises a Stark International security team will be on sight even though it seems unlikely that there will be any trouble.

They would be wrong, as that evening a trio of in hooded cowls arrive at the main gate later that evening. One of them makes the guard think she is his wife. When she invites him to kiss her, she kills him on the spot so they can go inside.

Sometime later, Tony arrives at the event with his date a ditzy actress named Muffy Cuddle. When Tony is offered a glass of 25-year-old scotch, Tony struggles with accepting it but ultimately decides to turn it down. Muffy — a total lush — takes her own drink and the one prepared for Tony. Tony is unhappy to have to spend the night entertaining a total lush. However, Muffy’s debauchery falls on the wayside when it’s time for Tony to show off the invention he created for the zoo: a sophisticated computer system that keeps track of the dietary needs of the animals on site. He tells the crowd that the only hitch they had in the plan was that they had to change the location of the central control room at the last minute due to size constraints in the originally planned location.

As it happens, the trio of intruders — Black Mamba, Death Adder, and Anaconda of the Serpent Squad — are learning this the hard way.[2] Needing to find the new location for the control room, Black Mamba orders Anaconda to free the animals to create a distraction so they can search uninterrupted.

By this time, security has alerted Tony about the death of the guard at the front gate. Fearing that someone might be after the computer system he built, Tony rushes off to go and check on it. Unwilling to take a hint, an incredibly intoxicated Muffy Cuddle decides to follow along with him. Once in the control center, Tony sees the freed animals on the security monitors and rushes off to change into Iron Man. While Iron Man is busy capturing the animals, he witnesses as Death Adder kills a gorilla with a single swipe of his claws. However, before the Avenger can chase after Death Adder, he hears Muffy crying for help. He quickly rescues her from a tiger but lost Death Adder in the process.

With no leads to go on, Iron Man checks back in with Vic Martinelli, who has investigated the attack and learned that the Serpent Society are the ones responsible. He also tells Tony that the guard was killed when one of the Serpent Squad members tricked him into thinking she was his wife. While Iron Man searches the grounds for the intruders, the Serpent Society find the control room and take Muffy hostage. They also recover what they came looking for: a microscanner in the main computer that can also power a disruptor weapon of Black Mamba’s design. When one of the other patrons enters the room looking for Tony Stark, he becomes the first victim of Black Mamba’s disruptor.

That’s when Iron Man returns and confronts the introducers. When Anaconda tries to wrap her arms around Iron Man’s head, he electrifies his armor giving her a powerful shock. He then uses his repulsors to blast the flask of alcohol that Death Adder confiscated from Muffy, allowing Iron Man to free her. However, when he turns to confront Black Mamba, she uses her hypnotic powers to make her first appear to be Bethany Cabe, then changes her appearance to look like Pepper Potts.[3] Remembering the security report about Black Mamba’s ability to appear as someone’s true love, Iron Man fights off the illusion. Surprised, Black Mamba fires the disruptor at him causing the Avenger’s suit to briefly spasm out of control. He uses this to get enough momentum to knock Black Mamba out with a single punch.

With the battle over and his armor back under control, Iron Man takes a moment to check his face in the mirror and sees he’s pretty badly beat up, but he’s glad to be alive. Returning to the control room he sees that Muffy is starting to suffer from the DT’s after weeks of partying. Iron Man can’t help but feel sorry for her and wonders if he’ll ever be free from his own nightmare with the bottle.

Recurring Characters

Iron Man, Serpent Squad (Anaconda, Death Adder, Black Mamba), Vic Martinelli, Bambi Arbogast (voice only)

Continuity Notes

1. Tony spiraled into alcoholism over the course of Iron Man #120 through 128. His statement that he has been sober for about a year is more-or-less accurate according to the Sliding Timescale and should be considered factual.

2. Here, Anaconda states that she rescued her partners from tons of silt on their last job. They were hired to recover the Serpent Crown and were left to die in the ocean by their employer during a battle with the Thing and Stingray. See Marvel Two-in-One #65.

3. Black Mamba tries to confuse Iron Man by appearing as two of his former love interestes:

   • First she attempts to appear as Bethany Cabe. She and Tony started dating shortly after they first met in Iron Man #117. At the time, as explained in Iron Man #128, Beth believed she had been widowed after her husband died in a car accident caused by a drug binge. In reality, her husband was kidnapped by Russian spies that faked his death. After she and Iron Man rescued him, Beth broke off her relationship with Tony to support her husband. See Iron Man #152-153.

   • Next she tries resembling Pepper Potts. Tony’s original secretary. Tony was in regular competition with his chauffer, Happy Hogan, for Pepper’s affections from Tales of Suspense #45 onwards. Ultimately, Happy won and married Pepper in Tales of Suspense #91.

Topical References

• In this story, the zoo in question is called the “Long Island Zoo”. This may be a reference to the Long Island Game Farm, which has been in operation since 1970. Anyway, it may be a topical reference depending on how you want to look at it.

• The master computer in this story is depicted as having a reel-to-reel tape player built into it. This was a method of data storage that was already outdated when this comic was published and should be considered topical. Chalk it up to Steve Ditko being a recluse most of his life.