Iron Man versus Gargantus!
by
Stan Lee, Robert Bernstein, Jack Kirby & Don Heck
Cover by Jack Kirby
In the time since becoming the newest superhero around, Tony Stark has remained active in all aspects of his life. Receiving accolades for his inventions, developing new technology for the United States military, dating a myriad of women and taking on all sorts of criminals as the armor clad Iron Man. He is growing to find that keeping his identity as the hero a secret complicates the other facets of who he is; making lame excuses to avoid taking his shirt off to reveal the chest armor underneath that is keeping his heart from rupturing when he is on dates and having to frequently charge it.
Tony has brought a date to the circus. As they sit among the audience, a pack of wildcats break free from the performers. Making a lame excuse, Tony tells his girlfriend Marion that he is calling the police. In actuality, he is putting on his armor suit in order to confront the dangerous felines.
As he stalks through the crowd towards the cats, the audience gape as Iron Man’s hideous grey-colored armor which frightens them. Reaching the performance stage, Iron Man body slams a rushing leopard with enough force to smack it into the other cats. Getting them all to pile on top of him, Iron Man lets loose with an electrical charge just powerful enough to stun the animals. With the beasts all in shock, the performers corral them back to their cage and thank Iron Man for his help.
Returning to Marion, the two of them discuss Iron Man’s scary, bulky, grey suit. Tony inquires what she would do to improve him. Marion explains that since he seems like a modern age knight in shining armor, he should have gold armor to match his golden heart. While seeing her off at the airport to her home in Granville, the couple make plans for next Saturday. That night Tony goes to work on improving his armor’s image. He coats the entirety of the suit in untarnishable gold paint. No longer will citizens fear the presence of Iron Man.
When next Saturday comes around, Marion fails to show up at the airport. Tony questions the pilot. He alerts Tony (who had been busy working on projects in Africa all week long) to the news that Granville’s airport has been shut down for three days. The next day, Tony arrives in Granville as the gold-plated Iron Man. He finds the town to be completely enclosed by a thick, brick-lined wall. Iron Man uses his transistor powered drill to burrow a tunnel underneath the wall to infiltrate the town.
As soon as Iron Man emerges from the hole, citizens of Glenville start pelting him with objects. They inform him that they must obey Gargantus. Blustering through the town to get away from the crowds, Iron Man stumbles upon a group erecting a statue of what appears to be a prehistoric neanderthal, who he takes to be this Gargantus the people speak of. Finding a nearby semi-truck, Iron Man uses his armor’s strength to shove the vehicle directly in the path of the statue. After the statue breaks, the people still praise the fallen idol of Gargantus.
Realizing that the entire town must be under some sort of trance, Iron Man challenges the real Gargantus. Calling him out with his built-in speakers, Gargantus quickly makes his presence known. Springing off a flagpole, the neanderthal flings himself up on a rooftop to confront the hero. His eyes start glowing. Realizing this is how he is hypnotizing people, Iron Man diverts his gaze to a cloud that he notices is blocking out the sun. This makes Iron Man start to develop a theory. Grabbing a nearby flag, Iron Man takes note that the flag banner is rippling in the breeze. Like a bull to a red rag, Iron Man uses the green flag to lead Gargantus off of the building and into the streets where he notices Marion, who is also entranced.
With more room to work with on the ground, Iron Man confronts Gargantus again. While Gargantus smashes a statue in frustration, Iron Man cobbles together some mini-transistors, that he puts inside three magnets, which he explains, “increases their power by a thousand-fold.” Tossing the magnets out to surround the brute, the power of the magnets rip apart Gargantus’ body to reveal it to be a robot underneath.
As soon as Gargantus is destroyed, the people of Glenville wake out of their trance. Iron Man uses the search beam in his chest to reveal a spaceship camouflaged inside the artificial cloud he noticed earlier. They had been controlling Gargantus this whole time in their first step of taking over the world. Iron Man had figured it out when the flag banner had moved, but the wind failed to do anything to the sun blocking cloud. Iron Man hurls more magnets at the spaceship. The panicked aliens inside realize earth has substantially changed since their species last visited some 80,000 years ago. They speed away from earth. Iron Man hopes they never return. He then helps the citizens tear the wall down.
Notes & Observations
First appearance of Iron Man’s golden armor look. It’s still the clunky grey suit from last issue, now spray painted gold.
First appearance of transistor powered roller skates. These will become a feature of Iron Man’s own.
Transistor powered magnets? Oh, Stan…..😔
First time there is reference to aliens previously inhabiting Marvel earth. It’s just a throwaway line by some garbage aliens (they look like muppets), but it becomes more interesting when we start to find out more about this earth’s past.
Sorry for the lack of activity in the paste few months, life's been more than a bit hectic lately.
Review
Not a strong second outing for Iron Man. The main story and combat are a mess, both structurally and visually. It seems to me they are still trying to figure out how Iron Man works as a protagonist. The montage of his adventures is way more interesting than the plot to this particular story. I’d rather see one of those in full.
Next time
The Fantastic Four take a trip to the moon.
