Iron Man #172
Firebrand’s Revenge
Tony Stark has gotten so drunk that he has broken into a museum where he has broken a display case and put on a suit of medieval armor.[1] This stunt gets him arrested and he is tossed into jail cell until his lawyers post bail. As Tony Stark leaves, the police officers have nothing but pity for him. Walking outside, Tony is swarmed by members of the media who bombard him with questions. Running away from them and hopping into a cab, Tony asks the driver to take him to the nearest liquor store.
Meanwhile, at Stark International, Iron Man is trying to raise morale by participating in a company baseball game. He impresses everyone on the field by being able to hit a ball out of the park and use his jet boots to fly ahead and catch it.[2]
Returning to the lab, Jim Rhodes meets with Morley Erwin the young scientist who is helping him figure out Iron Man’s armor. He tells Morley that he needs to continue posing as Iron Man until Tony Stark pulls himself together, insisting that Tony has got to do this. Iron Man is then called into a meeting with Yvette Avril (the company vice president), Vic Martinelli (the head of security) and Bambi Arbogast (Tony’s personal secretary) to discuss the growing problems with their boss. Yvette explains that Obadiah Stane has been buying up all of Stark International’s debts and is positioned to take over the company by the end of the day.[3] However, they can delay this for a few weeks and try to save the company if they get Tony to sign a notarized writ before the deadline. Vic has managed to have Tony tracked down as being somewhere between Chinatown and the Bowery. Agreeing to search for him, Iron Man calls Captain America to enlist his aid in locating Tony.
Captain America agrees and is soon in the Bowery searching for Tony Stark. Cap is kicking himself for not doing more when he last saw Tony, who was incredibly intoxicated at the time.[4] This time however, he vows to correct this mistake and get Tony the help he needs. When he stops to ask a homeless man if he’s seen someone matching Tony’s description, the bum points him to a nearby hotel where Tony has rented out a private room. As Captain America heads inside, he is unaware that he had been overheard by Gary Gilbert, aka Firebrand. Having fallen on hard times himself, Gilbert sees this as an opportunity for his alter-ego to make a comeback by killing Tony Stark and Captain America, two men who represent the establishment he hates so much.[5]
By this time, word about where Tony Stark has holed up reaches Vic Martinelli, prompting Iron Man to go there and try to talk to Tony as well. After he is gone, Yvette begins looking in the want ads to find a new job, because she doesn’t have much faith in Iron Man succeeding.
Meanwhile, Captain America has entered Tony’s room and begins lecturing him on how Stark is throwing his life away with booze. This is a very personal thing for Captain America, who tells Tony that his own father was an alcoholic and how it destroyed his family.[6] When Tony explains that he needs to drink, Cap realizes that there is no getting through to him right now. As he leaves, Cap tells Tony that when he’s ready to get help, all he needs to do is call. Out in the hallway, Captain America smell smoke and realizes the building is one fire.
This is because Firebrand has appeared outside and is using his flame throwers to set the hotel ablaze. Captain America drives Firebrand off and then races back inside to save Tony Stark from the inferno. By the time he is back outside, Iron Man has arrived on the scene and Cap orders him to help evacuate the building. Iron Man uses the fire extinguishers built into his suit to put out the flames so the rest of the tenants can exit via the fire escape. Going back outside, Iron Man then grabs a nearby water tower to try and put out the flames. However, as he does so he is attacked by Firebrand who looks forward to defeating his old enemy.
The battle is brief when Iron Man rockets himself and Firebrand into the East River, rendering the villain’s flame throwers useless. Firefighters are finally arriving on the scene just as Iron Man returns to hand Firebrand over to the police. With the situation back under control, Iron Man and Captain America go to the bench where they left Tony Stark. However, the man nodding off there is another drunk in Tony’s clothes. He tells them that Stark paid him money to trade clothing and he has no idea where Tony went. Not far away, Tony Stark is sitting in an alley with a bottle of cheap booze. As Iron Man and Captain America begin searching for him, Iron Man realizes that it is too late as the deadline to file the notarized writ has just expired.
Back at Stark International, Yvette and the others also realize that the deadline has passed. As they try to figure out their next move, Obadiah Stane waltzes into the room and introduces himself as their new boss.
Recurring Characters
Iron Man, Captain America, Firebrand, Obadiah Stane, Tony Stark, Morley Erwin, Vic Martinelli, Yvette Avril, Bambi Arbogast
Continuity Notes
Tony had been clean and sober since Iron Man #128, however, he recently feel off the wagon and his been spiraling down the drain since issue #167. Tony won’t sober up until after a brush with death in Iron Man #182.
One of the Stark employees, upon seeing Iron Man catch his own hit, quips “Didn’t I see that trick in a funny book?” This is most likely a reference to how Superman could hit a baseball with a bat then fly after the ball and catch it. There’s probably more than one instance of this happening but the DC Comic I can be bothered to look up is Superboy #57 which features a story titled “The One-Man Baseball Team” which features Superboy literally playing an entire baseball team at the same time.
Obadiah Stane has been trying to take over Stark International since Iron Man #162. He will finally succeed next issue.
After Iron Man abruptly quit the Avengers in Avengers #231/Iron Man #170, Captain America went to Tony to see what was going on and discovered he had been drinking again. That encounter happened in Avengers #232. Captain America is one of the few people that know that Iron Man and Tony Stark are the same person since Avengers #215-216.
Just so everyone is on the same page: Firebrand started off as an anti-establishment crusader using violent means to fight inequities in society. He has fought Iron Man on a number of occasions. See Iron Man #27, 48-49, 74-75, 77, and 80-81.
Joe Rogers was an alcoholic whose addiction was exacerbated by the Great Depression. See Captain America #255 and Captain America (vol. 7) #1-2.
Topical References
This story frames the Bowery as a slum neighborhood rife with flophouses, drunks, and derelicts. However, this part of New York City has been undergoing gentrification since the 1990s and is not really the “bad neighborhood” it used to be. This might affect the narrative of this story eventually making some aspects of the setting topical.
The homeless man that Captain America encounters states here that he fought during World War II. This should be considered a topical reference as — without some means of slowing or stopping the aging process — it is increasingly impossible for someone who fought in World War II to still be alive today, especially someone who is homeless. Modern readers could assume that this man was a veteran, just not one of World War II. Or perhaps he’s just mentally ill and thinks he fought in World War II, which is another — depressing — possibility.
