Tales of Suspense #54
The Mandarin’s Revenge!
Receiving a call for Tony Stark to return to Stark Industries, Iron Man uses a secret tunnel to return to his office and change out of his armor.[1] When Tony checks with his secretary Pepper Potts. Tony has been called to the Pentagon for a meeting. Tony decides to go alone. When Happy makes a comment about spending time with Pepper, Tony jealously sends him to do inspections of the Stark Industries facility. Returning to his office, Tony changes into Iron Man again. The trip to Washington is done mostly by flight, with Iron Man stopping to travel partially along the New Jersey turnpike so the built-in roller-skates in his boots can recharge his batteries. When Tony Stark meets with the military brass, he learns that his latest spy satellites have crashed and disappeared. When one of the military brass suggests that Stark is selling them substandard equipment, Tony vows to go to Vietnam to find out.
Changing into Iron Man, Tony hitches the ride on a hypersonic craft to get to the region as quickly as possible. Arriving at the facility where his observers are built, Tony Stark discovers that some kind of force beam has been making them crash. Tony quickly deduces that the only person capable of pulling off such a feat is Iron Man’s old foe, the Mandarin.[2] Suspecting his foe of having defenses set up to destroy Iron Man on sight, Tony decides to head toward the Mandarin’s castle by himself in order to be captured. Sure enough, Tony is quickly captured and, as planned, the Mandarin’s guards try to open his briefcase. This unleashes knock out gas that takes out the guards and gives Tony cover to change into Iron Man.
Although Iron Man ambushes the Mandarin, the armored Avenger quickly finds himself on the defensive due to the Mandarin’s 10 power rings and his hideout’s hidden traps and weapons. However, Iron Man vows to keep fighting until he finds out how the Mandarin is taking down his observers. Unfortunately, the Mandarin eventually snares Iron Man. After blanketing the room with darkness from one of his rings, the Mandarin then snares his foe in unbreakable cables. Preparing to destroy his enemy, the Mandarin tells Iron Man to say any prayers while he still can. Unable to break free, Tony wonders how he will get out of this situation.[3]
Recurring Characters
Iron Man, Mandarin, Pepper Potts, Happy Hogan
Continuity Notes
Although not very clear here, this is the first appearance of Iron Man’s model 3 armor, per the Iron Manual #1. It is distinct from the model 2 introduce in Tales of Suspense #48 as it has a “rivetted” helmet.
Tony recounts his last battle with the Mandarin. This took place in Tales of Suspense #50.
This story is expanded upon in Iron Man: Enter the Mandarin #5.
Topical References
Tony Stark is depicted providing observer missiles to the military for information gathering. This should be considered topical since such technology has been replaced with sophisticated spy satellites.
Likewise, the military shows Stark the footage of the missile being taken down on a black-and-white film projector.
Iron Man travels to Vietnam quickly by hitching a ride on an ICBM. This seems like a highly impractical way of travelling from Washington, D.C. to Vietnam, especially when the fastest plane can fly at Mach 3, and we are already experimenting with hypersonic scramjets that can reach speeds of Mach 9.
The Mandarin’s view screens are in black-and-white.
According to this story, the most revolutionary part of his armor is transistors, something that is now commonplace in every piece of electronic equipment.
Hands Off!
Uatu the Watcher finds himself stuck in an ethical dilemma that could mean life or death to millions of living creatures. He reminds himself how his people have entered a vow of non-interference after their knowledge decimated an alien world.[1] Not long after this, Uatu asked his father Ikor if he could aid a planet in serious jeopardy. His father insisted that under no circumstances should a Watcher interfere, even if it can save lives.
Over the centuries, Uatu watched alien worlds and kept his oath. However, it became tested when he discovered an alien race that would bury its atomic waste underground or in the oceans of their world.[2] These aliens launched their toxic waste into space with little regard for any alien worlds that might be threatened by it. The Watcher would watch this mass of radioactive waste debating on if he should destroy it or not.
Eventually, the radioactive mass was heading toward a populated planet. The Watcher laments over what to do and is about to intervene when suddenly, a star goes nova sending an uninhabited world flying toward the radioactive mass. When the planet collides with the radioactive waste it causes a massive explosion that annihilates both threats. The Watcher realizes that had he acted to destroy the radioactive waste, he would have been too weak to destroy the runaway planet and doomed the planet to destruction anyway. He takes this as a lesson that one can save the lives of others by choosing to do nothing, and renews his vows of non-interference from this day forward.
Recurring Characters
Watcher, Ikor, Yrds
Continuity Notes
For more on how the Watched fucked up the Presilians, see last issue or Original Sin #0.
The aliens are not mentioned by name here. They are identified as the Yrds in Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe #12.