Tales of Suspense #41 – The Stronghold of Doctor Strange!

Stan Lee continues to plot with the scripting being handed off in the Marvel method to come in on top the already done art.  That art and story again is done by Jack Kirby in his full style as the inks aren’t even tempered by Heck this time.  A definite formula has emerged in the stories of #39 and #40 and one begins to see that he has the format down so well that it results in almost a template for generic stories for superheroes and Iron Man.  The details of the plot of this issue have been done better as I have been noting at the Marvel Database.  So, I’ll just note an emerging story formula of introducing each issue with that he is the modern weapons designer and manufacturer, his charm as the rich playboy and the women whom he wines or dines but ultimately can’t get close to because of his life sustaining curse to be Iron Man.  A curse which leads to his varied feats as Iron Man.  Last issue it was the circus amok and in this issue they are more in number and thumb nailed with a dramatic panels.  He stops Commie spies, averts a distaster and thwarts an alien invaders all before taking time to perform a demo for kids at a hospital. 

The story of Doctor Strange and his even stranger daughter dovetails off of this last bit as we see the Doctor serving time in prison and catching the show from a cell window.  It begins a sequence that is also notable in being the first instance in which Stark becomes the tool of another acting as a mind controlled robot to break the Doctor out of the prison. Once the Doctor is free however he seems to have little use for Iron Man and the plot becomes the grounds for the cliché of the brilliant mad man threatening the world. This villain comes complete with his own private island HQ which is protected by a force field  and a band of petty tyrants ready to act as his captains once the world complies with his demands.  Breaching the island’s defenses with both incredible technology and startling simplicity of approach the Iron Man confronts Strange but is almost undone by his depleted power supply.  That is until he is rescued by the Doctor’s daughter who never asked for the world by giving the collapsed Iron Man a Flashlight!?! A flashlight whose batteries restore our hero and his might to capture her father.