Tales of Suspense #80 – When Fall the Mighty!

The Iron Man portion of  Tales of Suspense had shown only two prior encounters with Atlanteans in its publishing history until this issue one of which was last issue. In a prior posting about that first appearance of someone from Atlantis I pointed out the Golden Age publishing history by Marvel of the Sub-Mariner.  Like the other revived character Captain America from that time Marvel preserved the idea that the these characters had lived in the 1940’s as when they had been published and folded this fictional history into current continuity of the 1960’s. What I did not mention was the soft spot that these characters exposes about the treatment of such characters by the generation that took them up after a decade.  Stan Lee and Jack Kirby had both been very young employees in the comic industry at the time of the Golden Age and saw the time as a great period of not just comics but history due in no small part to the War. Jack Kirby’s attachment to Captain America is more readily understandable as he co-created him and served in Europe when the draft came. Stan too served stateside in the Signal Corps and had brief work on Captain America but it would seem that the sense responsibility that fell upon him at 19 years old, as interim editor of Marvel never left his affections what came out of those years.

I mention all this because some of that Sacred Cow quality shows up here in Tales of Suspense #80 as it did Tales of Suspense #58 as the “fight” turns out to be more evenly matched or even humiliating for the titled hero than one would expect. What we see this issue could even be called being pwned.

Iron Man holds on against a raging Sub-Mariner at Stark Industries in already damaged armor but otherwise holds little chance of beating. By tricking Sub-Mariner to throw him into a room he seals himself in a technical vault to conduct repairs and recharge while he safe from his attacker. The Sub-Mariner himself weakens after being away from the water and exertion of his attacks and leaves the impenetrable vault at the factory to return to the bay.  Iron Man emerges repaired and prepared but finds his enemy gone but encounters the police who have responded to the resounding sounds of the battle and have only Iron Man to blame for the rampage and destruction.

Though both characters are ready to rumble with no apparent handicaps by the issue’s end for round two Marvel required that you buy not the next issue but a entire different comic title that featured Sub-Mariner and the Hulk in a format similar to Tales of Suspense called Tales to Astonish.  Captain America’s half of this Tales of Suspense gave the reader Jack Kirby’s cover promoted Cosmic Cube story that is a classic unto itself so I doubt they thew down the issue in disgust.