And so we reach the end of Marvel 1989 Week.
One of the constants of this week has been (relatively) radical change. An all-new, all-different line-up of Avengers; a crazy-ass different line-up in the FF; retcon city in the X-Men as they try to clean up their continuity muddles (no, she was a clone who became the Goblin Queen!! Really!!); and Hulk completely changing his circumstances.
But the more some things change, the more others stay the same:
Ahhh....comfort food.
Brought to us by:
As I discussed in Marvel Week 1978, Dave Michelinie and Bob Layton had two great runs on Iron Man, an this is during the second.
Where's Iron Man at in 1989? Well, he had just finished the "Armor Wars" storyline (which, interestingly enough, was never called Armor Wars at the time. The stories were all titled Stark Wars. It was only later when they were collected or referred to that they took the title Armor Wars. You learn something new everyday here at Slay Monstrobot!).
Stark had learned that some of his tech plan were stolen, and Iron Man went on a rampage to destroy the armors of everybody, good guy or bad guy, who was using it. He was kicked off the West Coast Avengers, hunted by the law (hmmm, this is seeming familiar...). He (rather convincingly) faked his own death, and Tony Stark was somehow able to persuade everyone that the old Iron Man had been acting on his own, and now a new guy was inside the armor. Really. Trust me. Plus, it was a pretty good excuse to get rid of the damned ugly red and silver armor...
Man, the people of Marvel-616 are gullible maroons, aren't they?
But back to #241, where we start in media res:
We don't know what's going on yet, but we do get to see Iron Man catch the perp. Except...
OK, that was kind of unusual. What's the scoop?
What, you mean Stark Enterprises didn't already have a branch in Hong Kong?!?
Hmmm...You're in China, dealing with a "shadowy figure" who controls everything, his group is called the Hand, and his minions wield enormously powerful rings. And all you can muster is "familiar"?? Geez, sometimes I think Tony Stark is the Hal Jordan of the Marvel Universe.
Meanwhile, back to our villain, who's about to give us a S.P.E.C.T.R.E.-style killing of a disloyal minion:
Yeah, that's the Mandarin, all right.
Stark also has to deal with a stalker:
In a few issues, she shoots him!! Holy J.R. Ewing!!
It's time for a meeting with our strangely different Mandarin--who is now a pretty sharp dresser:
It turns out that an accident with his "mento-intensifier" ring mostly wiped his memory...so now he's a Gordon Gekko style 1980's evil dude, with an evil proposal:
So, Mandarin sets out to kidnap some of Tony's people...by sending out motorcycle-riding monks wearing super-powered rings!!
And then the Mandarin preps his people for the inevitable Iron Man response:
And they ambush him (so much for fighting with honor, eh?).And get creamed.
And apparently, they've never seen Bugs Bunny cartoons.
But of course, it's all a ruse:
Which leads to a full-page cliffhanger business proposition!!
Uh, Tony, technically, maggots don't spawn, you see, they're the infant version of...oh, never mind. Next?
POW indeed.
SPOILER ALERT: Stark wins, and...gets his permits to do business in Hong Kong. Really? That's what we were fighting over??
Earlier I mentioned Iron Man's faked death. Here's one letter writer's reaction:
So...don't bring Tony Stark back to life, and don't give anybody else the armor?What's your suggestion, Joe Engledow Jr. of Abilene, Texas? Cancel the mag? Than who's going to print your letter? Joe must have been pretty ticked by what was coming up in the near future...
Should I point out that they're running letters about #230 in #241?? Talk about snail mail...
ELSEWHERE IN THE MARVEL UNIVERSE:
Well, technically, not in the Marvel Universe...
It was the last gasp of the New Universe, as D.P. 7 reached issue #30 (only 2 left before cancellation). The New Universe was sort of Marvel's New Coke...no one was really buying it. Various peeps have tried re-jiggering it, playing around with aspects of it, but nothing seemed to catch fire. Even the then-magic touch of John Byrne couldn't turn things around. Marvel readers just didn't want non-616 superhero titles. Perhaps they would have done better today...
D.P.7 was one of the better and more consistent of the New Universe titles, benefiting from the same team for all 32 issues--Mark Gruenwald and Paul Ryan.
One of the constants of this week has been (relatively) radical change. An all-new, all-different line-up of Avengers; a crazy-ass different line-up in the FF; retcon city in the X-Men as they try to clean up their continuity muddles (no, she was a clone who became the Goblin Queen!! Really!!); and Hulk completely changing his circumstances.
But the more some things change, the more others stay the same:
Ahhh....comfort food.Brought to us by:
As I discussed in Marvel Week 1978, Dave Michelinie and Bob Layton had two great runs on Iron Man, an this is during the second.Where's Iron Man at in 1989? Well, he had just finished the "Armor Wars" storyline (which, interestingly enough, was never called Armor Wars at the time. The stories were all titled Stark Wars. It was only later when they were collected or referred to that they took the title Armor Wars. You learn something new everyday here at Slay Monstrobot!).
Stark had learned that some of his tech plan were stolen, and Iron Man went on a rampage to destroy the armors of everybody, good guy or bad guy, who was using it. He was kicked off the West Coast Avengers, hunted by the law (hmmm, this is seeming familiar...). He (rather convincingly) faked his own death, and Tony Stark was somehow able to persuade everyone that the old Iron Man had been acting on his own, and now a new guy was inside the armor. Really. Trust me. Plus, it was a pretty good excuse to get rid of the damned ugly red and silver armor...
Man, the people of Marvel-616 are gullible maroons, aren't they?
But back to #241, where we start in media res:
We don't know what's going on yet, but we do get to see Iron Man catch the perp. Except...
OK, that was kind of unusual. What's the scoop?
What, you mean Stark Enterprises didn't already have a branch in Hong Kong?!?
Hmmm...You're in China, dealing with a "shadowy figure" who controls everything, his group is called the Hand, and his minions wield enormously powerful rings. And all you can muster is "familiar"?? Geez, sometimes I think Tony Stark is the Hal Jordan of the Marvel Universe.Meanwhile, back to our villain, who's about to give us a S.P.E.C.T.R.E.-style killing of a disloyal minion:
Yeah, that's the Mandarin, all right.Stark also has to deal with a stalker:
In a few issues, she shoots him!! Holy J.R. Ewing!!It's time for a meeting with our strangely different Mandarin--who is now a pretty sharp dresser:
It turns out that an accident with his "mento-intensifier" ring mostly wiped his memory...so now he's a Gordon Gekko style 1980's evil dude, with an evil proposal:
So, Mandarin sets out to kidnap some of Tony's people...by sending out motorcycle-riding monks wearing super-powered rings!!
And then the Mandarin preps his people for the inevitable Iron Man response:
And they ambush him (so much for fighting with honor, eh?).And get creamed.
And apparently, they've never seen Bugs Bunny cartoons.
But of course, it's all a ruse:
Which leads to a full-page cliffhanger business proposition!!
Uh, Tony, technically, maggots don't spawn, you see, they're the infant version of...oh, never mind. Next?
POW indeed.SPOILER ALERT: Stark wins, and...gets his permits to do business in Hong Kong. Really? That's what we were fighting over??
Earlier I mentioned Iron Man's faked death. Here's one letter writer's reaction:
So...don't bring Tony Stark back to life, and don't give anybody else the armor?What's your suggestion, Joe Engledow Jr. of Abilene, Texas? Cancel the mag? Than who's going to print your letter? Joe must have been pretty ticked by what was coming up in the near future...
Should I point out that they're running letters about #230 in #241?? Talk about snail mail...
ELSEWHERE IN THE MARVEL UNIVERSE:
Well, technically, not in the Marvel Universe...
It was the last gasp of the New Universe, as D.P. 7 reached issue #30 (only 2 left before cancellation). The New Universe was sort of Marvel's New Coke...no one was really buying it. Various peeps have tried re-jiggering it, playing around with aspects of it, but nothing seemed to catch fire. Even the then-magic touch of John Byrne couldn't turn things around. Marvel readers just didn't want non-616 superhero titles. Perhaps they would have done better today...D.P.7 was one of the better and more consistent of the New Universe titles, benefiting from the same team for all 32 issues--Mark Gruenwald and Paul Ryan.
Once again, I remember the cover, but not the story.
ReplyDeleteI would quit Iron Man in the great purge, even though it was being handled by Byrne and Romita Jr. But a purge is a purge.
I was 15 years old when I wrote that impassioned letter; as I remember, it was a Pretty Big Thing in a young lad's life to have his metallic mythos shattered by the faked death of Tony Stark. I don't ever remember seeing my letter in print, because I think I let my subscription lapse in another fit of pique. (As you mentioned, I was furious about the events of #230, and it wasn't printed until #241.)
ReplyDeleteThanks for showing me my misspent childhood. Even before the Internet, I was already planning a life of demagoguery and grandstanding.
I hope I've grown up.
Aw, don't be so hard on yourself, Joe. There's nothing wrong with a little passion, or a little adolescent overreaction, for that matter.
ReplyDeleteThat's hardly misspent--justt hink of all the 15 year olds without the passion (or ability) to write that letter...