“The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine!” Fantastic Four No. 202

28 Sunday Dec 2025

Posted by percivalhenry in The World's Greatest Comic Magazine

Tags

1978, Fantastic Four, Fantastic Four 202, Iron Man, John Buscema, marv wolfman

Fantastic Four 202
“There’s One Iron Man Too Many!”
Published October 1978
Writer: Marv Wolfman
Pencils: John Buscema
Inks: Joe Sinnott
Letters: Jim Novak
Colors: Janice Cohen
Editor: Wolfman
Cover: Buscema and Sinnott

Synopsis

The Fantastic Four are attacked in the Baxter Building by a doppelgänger of Iron Man, who triggers a new device installed by Mr. Fantastic that allows the top six floors of the building to fly across the world (yes, really). The FF team up with the real Iron Man to track down their building and discover Quasimodo, an artificial intelligence, created a replica Iron Man and stole the Baxter Building to drain its power. After a battle, Quasimodo escapes into space in the FF’s rocket.

What’s going on here?

This issue is only notable because of the appearance of Iron Man, but the story makes clear there’s no legitimate reason for Iron Man to be in the comic. Quasimodo explains he needed a robot to serve as his arms and legs — makes sense! — but he could have built anything. It seems he chose a replica of Iron Man to compel Iron Man’s guest appearance in the comic. It’s the sort of plotting problem an editor could save a writer from making, but in this case, writer Marv Wolfman serves as his own editor. It’s a reminder that Wolfman is much stronger at dialogue and characterizations than in story telling, and another reminder (if we needed one) that writers need actual editors.

John Buscema fills in for Keith Pollard on pencils and delivers his usual steady work.

What I liked

Despite its practical impossibility, I liked the idea of the top floors of the Baxter Building shooting into the sky like a bottle rocket. And Reed’s explanation — that the landlord demanded some sort of failsafe to protect other tenants — actually makes sense.

This scene with Tony Stark is a flashback to our pre-MCU concept of Iron Man, where everyone somehow accepted he was Stark’s body guard, despite them never being seen together.

This cliff hanger ending was intriguing:

What I didn’t like

My big complaint is the dumbness of the story’s premise. But I’ve said my piece about that.

Also, I can usually accept that the image on the cover is meant as marketing, and doesn’t literally capture a scene from the comic. But it’s been a while since I’ve seen one this divorced from the events in the story. Even the the blurb — “Mayhem Over Manhattan! — is misleading.

And why does the FF keep a wooden desk in their high-tech control room?

Anything else?

A very eloquent letter to the editor from Cat Yronwode, who would go to be the editor-in-chief of Eclipse Comics, among many other diverse and varied roles.

Overall

The Yronwode letter is this month’s highlight

So Random! Iron Man No. 230

05 Friday May 2023

Posted by percivalhenry in So Random!

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Comic books, Iron Man

Iron Man 230
“The Day the Hero Died”
Published Jan. 1988
Plot: Bob Layton and Dave Michelinie
Script: Michelinie
Pencils: Mark Bright
Inks: Layton
Letters Janice Chiang
Colors: Bob Sharen
Cover: Bright and Layton

Synopsis

This is chapter six in “Stark Wars,” a story arc detailing Tony Stark’s attempts to round up all the illicit uses of his technology. So far it’s been at a high cost, as he explains that an innocent was killed in the Soviet Union as he battled the Titanium Man. To disable all other uses of his tech, Tony is now deploying a “tapeworm” program, essentially a virus that infects all other technology.

Meanwhile, the U.S. military is working with a contractor developing “Firepower,” its own high-powered armor that utilize stolen Stark technology, with the intention of taking down Iron Man. A senator and generals lean on Tony to help them corner Iron Man, and Tony agrees, reasoning he has to confront Firepower at some point. They battle in the desert, and Tony is badly beaten, and in the last panel appears to have been killed.

What’s going on here?

This is satisfying comic, even jumping in without having read (or more accurately, remembered) the first five installments in the Stark Wars story. It features a lot of the Iron Man set-pieces from this era: Tony looking suave in his fancy Stark offices, Rhodey being the helpful voice of reason, Tony tempted to drink but rejecting booze, etc. It also features the Silver Centurian armor, which, although relatively short-lived, was the main armor for much of my Iron Man-collecting youth and an underrated look for the character.

The comic was also produced by the longtime Iron team of Michelinie and Layton, with Bright on pencils. Layton, particularly, feels like the quintessential Iron Man artist, and manages to make the armor gleam like no other other.

What I liked

This was a well-paced story, with the action alternating between Tony and his plans to eliminate rogue uses of his technology, and the military eagerly testing its powerful new weapon. There’s also a grim sense of inevitability as Tony prepares to take on a foe that seems more than capable of handling him, and in fact kicks his ass. It’s rare to see a hero get as badly beaten as Iron Man was here.

Also, I love the cover logo. Maybe the best Iron Man logo ever.

What I didn’t like

The Firepower design is pretty clumsy and unattractive. The last panel, suggesting Tony is dead, seems like such an obvious red herring. Only someone reading their first comic book would think Tony is dead. And while it’s cool to have Black characters like Rhodey and Jack Taggert, the soldier in the Firepower suit, in prominent roles, Michelinie is too quick to resort to stereotypes, such as Rhodey’s dropping letters in his speech and Taggart’s off-handed mention of “the projects.”