Tales of Suspense #40
Iron Man Versus Gargantus!
Tony Stark is a man of many lives. At the start of his day, he receives a scientific reward in Geneva. Returning to the United States he is demonstrating motorized skates that can rapidly move troop deployments without the need for transports. That evening he attends a party with a beautiful young woman. Things are going well until Jeannie suggests that they go swimming. To her surprise, Stark abruptly ends the evening. This is because he is forced to wear a chest plate in order to keep himself alive.[1]
Tony has been using his new Iron Man armor to fight crime, having used it to take down common crooks and mad scientists. One day, while on a date to the circus, the lions break out of their cages. He abruptly leaves Marion, his date, claiming that he is going to call the police. In reality, he finds a place to hide so he can change into Iron Man, as he keeps his collapsed armor in his briefcase. As Iron Man, Stark quickly rounds up the lions and puts them back in their cages. However, his appearance frightens people almost as badly as the big cats did. Slipping away to change out of his armor, Tony catches up with Marion, she also finds Iron Man’s dull grey appearance to be off-putting. When she suggests Iron Man repaint his armor in gold to look more heroic. After Tony sends her on a plane back to Glenville, he decides to take her advice and repaints his armor.[2]
A week later, when Tony goes to meet Marion at the airport he is surprised when she is a no-show. Asking a pilot about a passenger pick-up in Granville, the pilot tells him that the town has been totally closed off, with nobody allowed in or out. Tony hasn’t followed the news for a week and quickly lears that what is being said about Granville is true. Stark decides to pay a visit as Iron Man and discovers that the town has constructed a massive wall around it in order to isolate itself from the rest of the world. Iron Man decides to find out why and uses an attachment to bore a tunnel under the wall. On the other side, Iron Man is attacked by a bunch of locals who fear that the intruder will cause repraisals from someone named Gargantus.
Fleeing this mob, Iron Man finds another group erecting a statue to Gargantus in the town square. Iron Man is shocked to discover that Gargantus is apparently a Neanderthal. As the mob catches up to him, Iron Man uses a parked truck to knock over the statue of Gargantus, causing it to fall to the ground and shatter. Deciding to face the man responsible for enslaving these people, Iron Man flies to a nearby rooftop and, using a built in loud speaker, issues a challenge to Gargantus. That’s when the massive Neanderthal comes out of hiding and attacks Iron Man. While they struggle, Tony realizes that Gargantus is somehow reflecting sun light off his eyes to hypnotize people. However, when he looks up he sees the town is in overcast. He quickly deduces that he’s actually dealing with some kind of robot and tosses a bunch of weaponized magnets in various directions, causing the robot to be ripped into pieces.
Realizing the cloud overhead hasn’t moved even though it is a windy day, Iron Man then fires a beam to dissipate it, revealing an alien craft. With the pilot project for a planned invasion of Earth a total failure, the alien creature make a hasty retreat from Earth.[3] Iron Man then tears down the wall that closes off Granville from the world as its people are freed from alien influence. The following day, Tony Stark meets with Marion, and plays dumb when she talks about her experience of the past week.
Recurring Characters
Iron Man, Marianne Rodgers
Continuity Notes
If you don’t know Iron Man’s origins by now, go back and re-read my summary of last issue.
“Marion” is not one of Tony’s typical pump-and-dump girlfriends that are littered throughout Iron Man’s publication history. Her real name is Marianne Rodgers. She will resurface in Iron Man #36. She will be in-and-out of Tony Stark’s life until Iron Man #324.
The identities of these alien invaders, what race they represent, and where they came from has yet to be revealed at the time of this writing. (February 2021) These aliens will return to try and invade Earth again in Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty #5. Certain crowd-sourced websites that are poorly edited have suggested that the aliens in this story are possibly the Guna an alien race first seen in Tales of Suspense #55. However, there is nothing to officially substantiate said claim. There are plenty of official resources (namely entries on the Guna in Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe #4, Deluxe Edition #15, Marvel Legacy Handbook: The 1960s, and Official Index to the Marvel Universe: Iron Man) that have been published that have not made any such connection therefore that online resource is (as usual) incorrect.
Topical References
A number of technical and scientific details in this story are now dated by today’s standards. Particularly the fact that Stark Tech is so revolutionary because they use transistors since transistors are quite common in all electronics nowadays.
Also, transistor powered roller skates? Come the fuck on.
The airport that Tony drops Marion off at is identified as a “bustling” location, yet passengers are depicted as getting on board planes from runway stairs. This is also dated since now the majority of international airports have concourses that take you directly to the aircraft and not get exposed to the elements like some kind of primitive barbarian.
