Score One More for Capitalist Decadence

Sifting through the battles between the Titanium Man and his western counterpart, Iron Man, it becomes clear how trapped the former character seems to be in his own profile. Outside of the stabs he's taken at independence with his associations with the Titanic Three and, to an extent, Half-Face, his loyalties have remained with his homeland and the communist party; and when he falls out of favor with them, his goal is to win his way back into their good graces. So it comes as little surprise when he makes yet another high-profile attack on Iron Man, sounding almost like a broken record:

We've come full-circle with the Titanium Man--and if you've followed this series of posts every step of the way, you're probably wondering as much as I am what's been accomplished with him. And that's mainly been the point--to see if I could understand why this villain has lasted as long as he has, only to go basically nowhere. Iron Man, as well as Captain America, are also products of their backgrounds and times, and both had to evolve from those confines if they were to survive as contemporary super-beings. Cap, for instance, had to cease being the steadfast carrier of the flag and instead shift his "mission" to fighting for the American dream, which put him more in touch with the people he was fighting for. Iron Man, the virtual poster boy for Stark Industries, a weapons manufacturer and supporter of the war in Vietnam, had to discard that image in favor of scientific and engineering initiatives designed to make the world a better place. By contrast, the Titanium Man's tired dogma of party loyalty and capitalist derision haven't budged one iota in the fifteen years since his first appearance.

And so once more, he meets Iron Man in battle, in the hopes of letting his superiors in Moscow see that he still has what it takes to be their top operative--and this time, he'll punctuate that message by destroying New York City, as well. How ironic that this all started as an arranged match where the stakes were just in terms of a propaganda victory, with the countries of both participants willingly endorsing the fight; yet now, with the Titanium Man's unilateral plan to cause such death and destruction, those in power in Russia are probably scrambling to disavow any knowledge of his actions, since a victory on his part could mean the lives of hundreds of thousands of people and most likely take both countries to the brink of war if the U.S. government believes he's still acting on orders.

Stop Draggin' My Heart Around

I know it's hard to believe, given this woman's history, but:

Aunt May came out of this situation WITHOUT having a heart attack.

(Which makes the Beetle either a great caregiver, or a lousy menace.)

Crime Reaches New Heights

Can YOU

Name This Marvel Villain??

More Machine Than Man

You know you've hit bottom when you've become little more than an errand boy for your superiors and your transportation to your next task is in a crate that's thrown overboard:

But give the Titanium Man credit--even after his last defeat, he still has the stones to throw his weight around. Though intimidating two cops on patrol is hardly going to enhance his super-villain cred:

Iron Man #22 is the Titanium Man's fourth battle with the golden Avenger, yet he's something of a bit player in the story compared with all the other things going on in this issue; in fact, it's because of those things that I can recommend the issue so positively. For starters, it wraps up a life-or-death fight between Eddie March (who was picked by Tony Stark to be his replacement when Stark decided to avoid subjecting his repaired heart to the stress of being Iron Man) and the Crimson Dynamo, the outcome of which eventually provides the impetus for Stark to reclaim his responsibilities. There's also the Dynamo himself, Alex Niven, obsessed with a vendetta with Stark for what he sees as the corruption and exploitation of his mentor, Professor Vanko, the first Crimson Dynamo. Niven is also enamored with Janice Cord, a manufacturer who's involved with Stark personally and who's discovered that Niven has been using her facilities to create and use the Dynamo armor. To top things off, the issue is written by Archie Goodwin, who always seems to have a firm grasp of a book's characters and consistently writes an engaging and well-paced story.

In Appreciation

Doubtless there will be many postings in the comics blogosphere today noting the passing of artist/editor Carmine Infantino on Thursday. His extensive history and contributions to the comics industry are unquestionably worthy of review, though a discussion of his legacy is something I'll defer to those far more qualified than myself.

I thought I'd just present you with a little of his artwork which might have slipped under your radar, taken from a series of stories in What If? #17 which explore alternate fates for Captain Marvel, Spider-Woman, and the Ghost Rider:

Infantino pencilled all three stories, and was joined by various inkers whose credits are noted. If you have the chance, be sure to also sample other comics blogs today, because you're sure to see some real gems featured from this artist.

How The Mighty Have Fallen

By the time the Titanium Man makes his third appearance, as the lackey of the communist scientist known as Half-Face (Tales of Suspense #s 93-94), he seems to have been reduced to being little more than a two-dimensional villain who periodically emerges to battle Iron Man. "Bigger," "stronger," "deadlier," "more powerful than ever," "how will I stop him this time?", you know the drill. And they're not kidding about that "bigger" part. In his last encounter with Iron Man, the Titanium Man claimed that he consumed "special hormone pills to enlarge my body--so that I can control my titanium suit with ease!", an explanation really just for our benefit in order to quickly skirt around the obvious effort to make the Titanium Man a more visually looming, menacing threat to Iron Man (or perhaps simply to accommodate the liberties artist Gene Colan was taking with the character). But, jeez Louise, the guy was starting to look like he was attaining Goliath proportions:

Hello, My Name Is Boris

After Boris Bullski's humiliating defeat at the hands of Iron Man, you'd think his superiors would want to distance themselves from the "Titanium Man," the armored suit that Bullski created and wore to challenge the golden Avenger in an east vs. west battle in front of the entire world. On the contrary--even after Bullski's loss which resulted in a propaganda disaster for them, they decided to double down, working on the armor with Bullski in an effort to once more confront Iron Man and erase the stain of their defeat.

And finally, it looks like all systems are "go":

Which makes you wonder if any of these guys had their TVs on like the rest of the world while the first battle was going on. Because if they had, they might have noticed that Iron Man never made a dent in the titanium armor, and so its resistance to force was never the problem. Rather, Iron Man was able to compromise and neutralize the armor's defensive components, in effect rendering it useless. So, basically, they've spent a lot of rubles beefing up a quality of the armor that was never at fault.

Regardless, the stage is set. And in this second battle, initiated by the "reds" to keep the secrets of Iron Man's armor from being divulged to the U.S. military, you'll notice a number of similarities with the original battle which took place just ten issues prior. Once again, the battle occurs in a three-issue story arc (Strange Tales #s 81-83). Once again, the story unquestionably takes on a tone of east vs. west, communism vs. capitalism. Once again, the TV cameras are rolling, and the spectators are featured prominently to add to the fight's patriotic thrill. Once again, Tony Stark's aides, Pepper Potts and Happy Hogan, are front and center, with one of them again directly involved in the fight. And once again, a last-minute development spurs Iron Man into galvanized action.

The Biggest Loser

The cover of Iron Man Annual #1 has had me thinking about the various battles that Iron Man fought with the Titanium Man, his communist foe whose history with the golden Avenger began when he issued a challenge to participate in a spectator's fight on an abandoned battlefield in Alberia. The Titanium Man has, in a way, been the Rodney Dangerfield of Iron Man's foes, given that his reputedly formidable armor has never stood the test against the opponent he was created to defeat. Their first battle, in Tales of Suspense #s 69-71, had all the trappings of a championship fight--right down to the television cameras, and, of all things, rounds. Yet even with all the fanfare, it never quite gave the Titanium Man the exalted status that Iron Man's other foes such as the Mandarin, the Sub-Mariner, or even the Melter have received.

So I thought I'd go over those earliest battles, in an effort to find out where the Titanium Man went wrong--or why he never really took off. That's a heck of a lot of armor to dump in a recycling bin.

The titanium armor's original wearer, Boris Bullski, hoped a victory against such a high-profile American hero, in front of the entire world, would elevate his status at home, where he languished as the Commissar of a remote labor camp--but Bullski had no intention of letting himself be thus held in check by superiors who feared his ambitions. Enlisting the abilities of some captured scientists, and providing them with the Crimson Dynamo's lab facilities, Bullski ordered the construction of a suit of armor which would be superior to Iron Man's.

Chilled By The Thrills

While I'll grant you the "twice as many pages" part:

I'm not sure how many readers were thrilled to plunk down change for the very first Iron Man annual only to find it filled from cover to cover with reprinted material:

To add insult to injury, the first reprint in the issue was the continuation of another reprinted story that was published the same month in Marvel's Greatest Comics #28. Cross-over stories as a sales gimmick are bad enough, but asking readers to follow the trail of bread crumbs for material that had already seen print several years earlier borders on the ridiculous.

I could probably have avoided some of the disappointment had I been able to read between the lines of this cover box:

Which said, in so many words and with a generous helping of alliteration and adjectives, that the issue contained prior material. If only I'd been more alert and ignored the new, attention-getting artwork* while focusing instead on dissecting what the cover captions were trying to tell me.

*An exquisite cover, by the way, beautifully done by Marie Severin and Bill Everett.

But about that "fabulous foursome" of free-for-alls--did you take that to mean that this annual had four fights? Ha ha! You read between the lines about as well as I do, it seems. Even if you somehow deduced that you were picking up a "king-size special" of only reprints, in fact there were only two in this annual--one with the Titanium Man, and one (in three chapters) with the Sub-Mariner. You see, there's the math you learned in school, and then there's Marvel math. For what it's worth, not even a calculator would have helped you here.

Iron Man's second annual followed suit, I'm afraid, packed with more reprinted material--and again with new cover art, this time by Sal Buscema:

A prior battle with the Titanium Man is again included. As you can see, there wasn't enough room for him on the cover this time (nor does the Crusher seem to need his help with Iron Man)--but according to Marvel, you'll be thrilled nonetheless.

The Hippie-Proof Disguise

It probably goes without saying that Volume 1 of The Silver Surfer was almost formulaic in terms of its plots and treatment of the title character. The Surfer's life on Earth was filled with needless strife; humans were suspicious and fearful of him, misunderstanding his efforts to protect and save them; the character was often the victim of deception; high-profile guest stars like Thor, the Human Torch, the Inhumans, and Spider-Man were being used to ramp up interest; and Mephisto might as well have been given "Special Guest-Star" status and had his name appearing underneath the Surfer's cover masthead.

And writer Stan Lee seemed determined to maintain the status quo. After all, for a long time, elements of this formula worked very well for the Hulk, though with one very important difference: the Hulk was generally openly hostile when he encountered humans, whom he considered intrusive. By contrast, it took a lot to push the Surfer over the edge, to the point of having him aggressively defend himself; whereas the Hulk came at you with little provocation and a lot more determination to crush you, perhaps even literally.

So by the Surfer's thirteenth issue, his stories were mostly lather, rinse, repeat. In short, the Surfer would be expending great effort to fight for us, only to end up being scorned and rejected by those he strove to save. Lee seemed adamant at making the Surfer an outcast of the world he was imprisoned on--even from day one, where he rescued a trapped astronaut in full view of the Navy, only to be fired on as he departed. If Lee was trying to make the point that as a species, we were distrustful and hostile and our own worst enemies, then perhaps The Silver Surfer would allow him to get that point across to better reception than he found with a more blunt instrument like the Hulk.

It didn't turn out that way, as we know. In his own series, the Surfer became as trapped in Lee's key plot points as he was on Earth. And for anyone not familiar with Lee's writing on The Silver Surfer, "The Dawn Of The Doomsday Man!" is an excellent example of his treatment of the character as well as the single-minded course he intended the Surfer to unerringly adhere to.