b-one comics magazine vol. 2 #1

b-one comics magazine vol. 2 #1
Sep 2008

by Bobgar Ornelas and Paul "Wheels" Ortiz

Most of this issue is part of the ongoing stories called Stonebrook Tales. Chivo and "Iron" Manuel are the main characters. I think they are in high school. Chivo has dark hair and a goatee. Manuel has blond hair. They hang out, screw around, and drink beer. Manuel needs some help studying for a test for his art history class. Chivo tries to help him but Manuel isn't very attentive. The next day he sleeps in and misses the test.

There are some weird surrealistic interludes throughout the book. I don't think they are connected to Stonebrook Tales by anything other than physical proximity.

Melii and Stace are the protagonists of the last bit of the book. Stace has most of her head shaved in what looks like a thin floppy Mohawk. On one of the few colored pages the Mohawk is multicolored. Melii wears a dress but Stace is dressed in jeans and a hoodie. Melii has a crush on one of the guys but it isn't clear just yet which of the guys it is. The guys keep yelling "shark" for no apparent reason. Might be part of a drinking game. Once the women get close enough to see what the guys are up to they lose interest and take off.

So far I like. I like the pacing and the general relaxed feel of the book. The interludes are a nice change of pace. I don't really understand them but they feel like little experiments, scribbles, doodles, half formed ideas.

I bought the first 7 issues in a digital bundle from King Bone Press. I paid $7 but I think you can get them all for as little as $5.

Gum Road: https://gumroad.com/kingbonepress

Iron Man (1968) 103

Iron Man (1968) 103
Oct 1977

Run for the Money!
by Bill Mantlo, George Tuska, and Mike Esposito

All sorts of stuff happens!

Jasper loses Krissy Longfellow and Harry Key. Their car is grabbed by a flying fortress commanded by Midas. He was last seen in Iron Man 19 when he seemed to have been killed when his throne exploded. Harry Key reveals that he has been working for Midas all this time. Midas is displeased when he finds out that the Iron Man armor which Harry stole is fake. He punishes Harry by throwing him from a deadly height from his flying fortress.

Krissy takes off her mask and reveals her true identity to Midas: Madame Masque. He seems conflicted but says he bears no ill will towards her even though she left him for dead. He is conveniently forgetting the part where she helped Tony Stark or maybe he just doesn’t remember that part.

Iron Man flies back to the US from France via a commercial airliner. He arrives just in time to discover that Midas has engineered a takeover of Stark International. Midas has fired Stark’s security force and replaced them with his own men.

Jack Hart arrives at Stark International just in time to see Iron Man go ballistic. Jack transforms into Jack of Hearts and tries to restrain Shell Head from wrecking havoc. This just makes Iron Man, who isn’t fully aware of what has happened just yet, angrier. Iron Man cuts into Jack’s armor which holds back the “explosive force” in Jack’s body. A huge explosion occurs and Iron Man has to scramble to prevent Jack from falling to his death. The two heroes crash through Midas flying fortress and find the villain and Madame Masque. Midas reveals that she was masquerading as Krissy Longfellow. Iron Man is unsure what to do now that Midas has legal control of Stark Industries. He flies off with Madame Masque in one direction. Jack of Hearts takes off in another direction.

Other things:

• Jo Duffy makes a cameo appearance on the plane as Iron Man. They share a panel while she is getting his autograph.
• In a brief aside Jack of Hearts reveals that Tony Stark is one of the trustees of his father’s estate.
• Marianne Rogers, a woman from Tony's past, is shown being released from Milford Sanitorium.
• Jasper arrives just in time to see what’s happened and watch Shell Head and Madame Masque fly away. They are too far away for him to recognize the person with Iron Man.

Good read. Not great but I am enjoying seeing all the pieces come together. Jack of Hearts and Madame Masque will both be regulars in Iron Man for about a year.

Doom Patrol (1964) 114

Doom Patrol (1964) 114
Sep 1967

Kor — the Conqueror
by Arnold Drake, Bruno Premiani

Dr. Anton Koravyk, a compatriot of the Chief from World War II turns an experimental ray he created on himself and is transformed into Kor, a caveman with a ray gun. He rips open a hole in time and some creatures from prehistoric times come through the rift. The Doom Patrol fight with Kor but it isn’t until after they subdue him that they are able to reverse the effects of the ray and restore Koravyk to his original form.


The Kid Who Was King of Crooks
by Arnold Drake, Bruno Premiani

Young Garfield Logan helps a couple of crooks steal diamonds and Gold in South Africa. Everything seems to be going pretty good until Gar decides to mischievously hide the stolen goods. The two crooks blame one another and (before Gar can explain what he did) kill each other.

Velvet 10

Velvet 10
Apt 2015

The Secret Lives of Dead Men - Part 5
by Ed Brubaker, Steve Epting, Elizabeth Breitweiser, Chris Eliopoulos

Velvet fights with the gendarmes first on and then off the train. She mentally runs goes through more than one explanation of what Damian Lake is up to as she fights with policemen. She proves to be more than a match for the handful of gendarmes she encounters.

She goes looking for a vehicle, thinking that Lake is headed for Paris. What she finds instead is Jean Belanger, the head of the ARC-7 Paris office, and some of his men. They get the drop on her and she is subdued. They knock her out after Belanger gets tired of hearing her try and guess what he’s up to and why he is working with Lake.

She wakes up in the trunk of a car which isn’t moving. Belanger and his men are in the car, dead. Lake or one of his allies shot them all.

Ten days later Roberts and Manning are meeting on the street when they both are attacked by a sniper. They are both shot and possibly killed.

This was a hell of an ending to act two of this story. On the letters page Brubaker confirms that there will be just one more arc in this story. The way he puts it leads me to believe that Velvet will survive but Brubaker has been known to mislead readers before so maybe I shouldn’t read too much into the way he talks about his lead character.

The psychological drama is intense in this chapter. There isn’t much in the way of meaningful dialogue. Velvet’s internal thoughts dominate the story.

Seeing three important characters killed off makes me wonder what comes next. The apple cart has definitely been flipped over and every thing is a mess. Even if Velvet catches up to Lake (and Simonson?) then what comes next? She is at least in part responsible for helping Lake to escape.

This book does not feel predictable in the least bit. I feel as though The story is in new territory. It does not feel fun of the mill in the least bit. If only for the way it has me thinking and feeling right now I am very impressed.

Krissy Longfellow

Iron Man 91 - first appearance of Kristine Longfellow, Tony Stark’s new executive secretary; Tony asks her if they have met before but she doesn’t think so

Iron Man 92-96 - supporting member of the cast but no hint of her true identity or that she is anything other than Stark’s executive secretary

Iron Man 97 - captured by the Guardsman II (Michael O’Brien); first hint that she is more than she has seemed up to this point

“For a second Krissy Longfellow sits in silence, her every nerve tensed — and only when she is satisfied that she is truly alone does she rise, and with seemingly uncharacteristic determination — skillfully slips her hands free from the wire that bound them!” P. 12

Iron Man 98 - Jasper Sitwell, agent of SHIELD, not a stranger to the pages of Iron Man, recently assigned to be Tony Stark’s bodyguard, introduces himself to Ms. Longfellow. He thinks they have met before but she says he must be mistaken, after saying something to the contrary under her breath.

Sitwell was absent from the pages of Iron Man for about 50 issues and made his first appearance in over 5 years in Iron Man 96.

Iron Man 99 - a masked woman confronts an intruder (Harry Key) at Stark Industries; the woman isn’t identified except that according to her the intruder used to work for her; he doesn’t recognize her until she removes her mask; he is stunned to see her because he thought she was dead

Harry Key was a private investigator. He made appearances in Iron Man in 1976 and 1977. His first appearance was in Iron Man 88 and his last was in Iron Man 104.

Tony leaves instructions with Jasper that he and Iron Man (haha) will be gone for a while. In his absence Jasper and Krissy are in charge of Stark Industries.

As Sitwell watches Iron Man fly “off on some new dangerous mission,” Krissy asks him, “Jasper… do you ever think of anything… besides danger?”

In the letters page (Sock it to Shell-Head) a reader (David Hill of St. Petersburg, FL) asks, “Whatever happened to Jasper Sitwell and Whitney Frost?” The response from the editor, “Well, David, as of this issue you have not only Jasper Sitwell ... but also threads that are gonna lead to some other ideas you suggested. C’mon, now, you know who this issue’s shady lady is, don’t you?”

Iron Man 100

As Krissy watches the recently returned Michael O’Brien talk to Jasper she thinks to herself, “Tony left Jasper and I in charge! I — I can’t leave without arousing suspicion, yet... I must! And if he follows me, Jasper Sitwell may die!” The narrator adds, “Thus, mystery enshrouds Krissy Longfellow!”

Iron Man 101

Krissy leaves Stark Industries with Harry Key and a briefcase full of industrial secrets. She is spotted by Jasper who quickly jumps in his car and takes off after them.

In the letters column two readers (in response to Iron Man 98) insist that the person in the shadows is Madame Masque. One of them goes a step farther and says that she and Krissy Longfellow are one and the same person. Bill Mantlo refuses to comment and tells them they will just have to keep reading. All will be revealed in a couple more issues.

Iron Man 102

Jasper chases Krissy Longfellow and Harry Key. Harry seems to lose him by making a wild hairpin turn on the highway but Jasper has an ace up his sleeve. He presses a button on his car and it becomes a flying car.

Iron Man (1968) 102

Iron Man (1968) 102
Sep 1977

Dreadknight and the Daughter of Creation!
by Bill Mantlo, George Tuska, and Mike Esposito, Pablo Marcos

Iron Man and Frankenstein’s Monster battle the Dreadknight. They are defeated and imprisoned. It is then that Iron Man meets the Daughter of Creation, who is the great granddaughter of Victor von Frankenstein and the Baroness of the castle.

She tells Iron Man about the Dreadknight: who he is and how he arrived in Castle Frankenstein. His real name is Bram Velsing. He was a Latverian scientist who was punished for talking back to his monarch, Victor von Doom. Doom punished Velsing by fusing an elaborate iron mask to his face. Velsing fled Latveria and wound up by chance at Castle Frankenstein. The baroness nursed him back to health and gave him a bat-winged black horse, which Iron Man believes once belonged to the original Black Knight, Nathan Garrett.

Unsatisfied with the hospitality he received and eager to get revenge on Doom he sought to learn the secrets of Victor von Frankenstein. The baroness refused to share those secrets. The Dreadknight responded by taking over the castle and. imprisoning his benefactor.

Iron Man and Frankenstein break free and defeat the Dreadknight. The baroness is once again restored to her proper place.

This is the first appearance of the Dreadknight. He has only had a few appearances in the 40 years since this story was published.

Jack Hart appears in one panel of this issue. He witnessed Jasper Sitwell chasing Krissy Longfellow and Harry Key in a wild car chase. He notes that they are coming from the direction of Stark Industries and decides to head that way.

New Teen Titans (1980) 20

New Teen Titans (1980) 20
Jun 1982

Dear Mom and Dad
By Marv Wolfman, George Perez, Romeo Tanghal

The Titans battle Disrupter, a villain with an unsupportive father. Disrupter's father wants to become part of the ruling council of the HIVE. He builds his son a suit which disrupts the powers of others. The Titans try battling him singly and in pairs but it isn’t until the whole team comes together to fight Disrupter that they are able to take him down.

The story is framed by a letter that Wally is writing to his parents. The letter is the narration device for the story. In addition to fighting the villain the Titans also get together for another reason: to celebrate Vic’s 19th birthday. Donna claims to also be 19 but she also talks about the fact that she doesn’t know when her birthday is. Terry Long, her boyfriend, is 29.

Vic gets a present from Sarah, although she isn’t at the party. Maybe that’s part of the reason why she visited Terry at the end of the previous issue.

This story strikes me more or less the same as New Teen Titans 17 did. The story doesn’t do a lot for me but the visual storytelling by Perez and Tanghal is very nicely handled.

A Titanic Tales of Titans’ Tomfoolery!
By Marv Wolfman, George Perez, Romeo Tanghal

Marv Wolfman and George Perez are inexplicably transported from Earth-Prime to Earth-1 by a mad scientist who is looking to make a name for himself. The Titans rush in to save the day. There are no credits on this story.

...

That is it for issues of New Teen Titans (1980) in this collected edition. The rest of the volume is filled with the 4-issue mini-series Tales of the New Teen Titans which recounts the origins of Changeling, Starfire, Raven, and Cyborg. So from the looks of it this entire collection is made up of one-and-done stories, unlike the two previous volumes which both had at least one multi-issue story. The next volume sees a return to the multi-part stories starting with a couple of stories that I read in 2012 for the first time.

Velvet 9

Velvet 9
Feb 2015

The Secret Lives of Dead Men - Part 4
By Ed Brubaker, Steve Epting, Elizabeth Breitweiser, Chris Eliopoulos

Lt. Simonson and Sgt. Roberts compare notes about Velvet Templeton in the aftermath of her attack on the van that was transporting a prisoner. She caused the van to crash and took Damian Lake, the prisoner, the former head of the intel division of ARC-7. Fourteen years ago, in 1959, something happened, something he was involved in, something that got a lot of people killed and got him locked up in a mental institution.

The version that Velvet heard prior to meeting Lake is that he was the head of the Paris code station when it was hit by the KGB. He was the only one that survived the strike. He was shell shocked and hasn’t been the same since. That’s the official story.

She broke him out because she needed information from someone who was around when she killed her husband. She needed information from someone that couldn’t possibly be involved in framing her for killing X-14. She suspects that whoever framed her also framed her husband.

When she questions Lake he tells Templeton a story that is different, more complicated than the one she knows. He claims to have stumbled across something that he wasn’t supposed to find or know about. He claims he wasn’t at the station when it was hit. He also claims that ARC-7 is responsible for the hit on the Paris code station.

Templeton doesn’t buy his story. There are holes in it but she takes him with her and they head to Paris by a very roundabout route. They leave England and travel north to Scotland, from there they travel to Holland by ship, from there they travel south to Luxembourg and then to Switzerland, and from there they catch a train into France.

Simonson tells Roberts a third version of what happened at the Paris code station. According to Simonson, Lake is the one who killed the staff of the code station. He was trying to impress someone, someone other than the KGB or at least that’s what Simonson implies.

The chapter ends with Velvet going to look for Lake when he is taking a little too long in the loo. She finds it empty and then is approached by Gendarmes with guns drawn.

It still isn’t clear exactly who Velvet contacted on the phone in Manning’s office in the last chapter. Was the prisoner already being moved or did she call and request the move? Did she contact someone else who has yet to show up.

Good stuff. I’m enjoying the ride. It is s bit of a slow burn but I kind of like it that way. Just one more chapter in this arc. I have no idea if the third arc is the end of the story or not. I don’t want to peek ahead and see.

Iron Man (1968) 101

Iron Man (1968) 101
Aug 1977

Then Came the Monster!
by Bill Mantlo, George Tuska, and Mike Esposito

Iron Man steals a Chinese fighter plane and heads for home. He sets the plane on autopilot and falls asleep. The plane flies west. It is shot down over Eastern Europe. Iron man breaks free from the plane and crashes to the ground and is knocked unconscious.

He wakes up to find himself captured by a squad of gnomes and Frankenstein’s monster. He fights with the monster who associates Iron Man’s appearance with someone whom he refers to as the “other”. The “other” captured the monster’s mistress, the “daughter of creation”. The “other” shows up at the end of the chapter and blindsides Iron Man. He is the Dreadknight.

This story was a bit goofy. I'm reading it because I am reading my way through Bill Mantlo's run on Iron Man (95-115) but I can't say that I was terribly enthused about this issue. I wonder if Mantlo had a reason for having Frankenstein's monster and the Dreadknight in this story. Maybe he originally wanted to have Doctor Doom in it but the powers that be said no so he invented a new iron masked villain from Eastern Europe.

In 1977 Doctor Doom was a regular in Super Villain Team-Up so there's definitely some logic to not having him also appear in this story. It is pure speculation on my part that Bill Mantlo originally wanted Doctor Doom to appear in this story. I have no evidence other than that generated by my overactive imagination.

New Teen Titans (1980) 19

New Teen Titans (1980) 19
May 1982

The Light Fantastic!
By Marv Wolfman, George Perez, Romeo Tanghal, John Costanza

Dr. Light escapes from prison and sets out to rob the museum where Carter Hall (aka Hawkman) works. Light inadvertently activates 4 statues and transforms them into living embodiments of the gods they were made to resemble. The living statues come after Light. He runs in fear from them and heads straight for Titans Tower.

He begs for the Titans' help. They grudgingly take on the living statues after Raven certifies that Dr. Light is telling the truth or at least believes he is. Hawkman lends a hand. The fight ends back at the museum. Hawkman and Robin between them figure out what caused the statues to come to life and how to stop them. Dr. Light says he can’t help them, the heroes damaged the circuitry in his costume. Starfire uses her powers to reverse the process that brought the statues to life.

The story ends with two epilogues. One shows Dr. Light back in prison. The other shows Sarah Sims (Vic’s friend) approaching Terry Long (Donna’s boyfriend). She needs help but the epilogue ends without any more details than that.

This was a fun read. It wasn’t great but it was fun. It was a fairly simple story of a sort which I’m sure I have seen before. There are a few brief character moments that help to make it more than just a stand alone story. Vic considers approaching Sarah Simms but can’t bring himself to do so following her capture by Deathstroke. Sarah wonders what’s happened to Vic and why he doesn’t come around anymore.

Donna talks to Kory about Franklin (her boyfriend who was killed in NTT 16). Wally is moody as usual but there are no callbacks to his atrocious behavior in the last issue.

The layouts and artwork are as always top notch.

11/16

Velvet 8

Velvet 8
Nov 2014

The Secret Lives of Dead Men - Part 3
By Ed Brubaker, Steve Epting, Elizabeth Breitweiser, Chris Eliopoulos

Velvet Templeton breaks into ARC-7 HQ in the midst of the chaos that ensues after a courier delivers her bomb threat. She gets in using the flying suit. She has to deal with Sgt Roberts who figures out what she’s up to at the last minute.

There’s a brief flashback to what transpired between her and Director Manning after she kidnapped him. She breaks in to Manning’s office and uses a red phone hidden behind a painting to contact someone at the Cornwell Institute. The chapter ends with Velvet on motorcycle chasing down a van that is transporting a prisoner.

Not a lot of fun explanation here. It didn’t feel like the plot was advanced much. Something happens other than Templeton’s fight with Roberts but that seems to be the centerpiece. Not quite as satisfying a chapter but still a good one.

Iron Man 35

Iron Man 35
Mar 1971

Revenge!
By Gerry Conway, Don Heck, Mike Esposito

Iron Man teams up with Nick Fury. Daredevil teams up with Madame Masque. Both teams wind up fighting Spymaster and the organization known as Zodiac. The chapter ends with Iron Man, Daredevil, Nick Fury plus Madame Masque and Kevin O’Brien captives of Zodiac. The story continues in Daredevil 73 and then bounces back to Iron Man 36.

Madame Masque gets involved after she hears about Jasper Sitwell’s condition. He was critically injured in a battle with Spymaster in Iron Man 34. He refused to be taken hostage by Spysmasher and so the villain shot him.

Matt Murdock enters the picture because he’s assistant to the District Attorney. Daredevil is attacked by Spymaster and Zodiac soon after he encounters Madame Masque.

This issue felt very rushed and muddled. There was too much going on. Not a fun read which is a shame because I really like the cover.

I was hoping there would be more information about Madame Masque and her relationships with Jasper Sitwell and Tony Stark. I skimmed the rest of the story (Daredevil 73, Iron Man 36). Unfortunately there isn't much in those issues that I was looking for. After all the fighting is over and done with she tries talking to Iron Man. She tells him that she still cares for Tony but that Jasper is the man she loves. She still doesn't know that Tony is Iron Man. He doesn't take it well. This is her last appearance in comics for about 6 years.

New Teen Titans (1980) 18

New Teen Titans (1980) 18
Apr 1982

A Pretty Girl Is Like a -- Maladi!
By Marv Wolfman, George Perez, Romeo Tanghal

The Russian hero named Starfire, who first appeared in Teen Titans (1966) 18, comes to the United States searching for a woman named Maladi. King Faraday warns the Titans about Russian Starfire’s visit. According to his intel, Russian Starfire might be carrying a deadly disease.

The truth of the matter is that Maladi is the one carrying the disease. She was sent my a minor Russian official who is angry about the death of his son. He blames the United States for the careless actions of one American soldier. He infects her with radiation poisoning and sends her to the United States on a mission. Maladi doesn’t know she is sick with a deadly disease that she is transmitting with everyone she meets until it is too late.

The Titans do their best to interfere with Russian Starfire’s mission. Some of them are more zealous in their rush to take him down. Kid Flash far outpaces all the others in jumping to conclusions. He is convinced that Russian Starfire is up to no good, regardless of whether he is the disease carrier or not.

This was not a light read. The ending is heavy stuff. I wasn’t expecting quite so powerful an ending. Kid Flash is stunned by the reveal at the end but he had worn out his welcome me with me. He shows his true colors in this story. I don’t know if he was always so high handed and quick to pass judgment or if that is something that began in this series.

Velvet 7

Velvet 7
Sep 2014

The Secret Lives of Dead Men - Part 2
By Ed Brubaker, Steve Epting, Elizabeth Breitweiser, Chris Eliopoulos

There is very little of Velvet in this chapter. It is mostly Colt (aka X-32) and Sgt Roberts. Colt is new to the story, Roberts is not. Both men are pursuing their own leads in search of Velvet. Like Roberts, Colt didn’t know about Velvet’s background before the search for her began.

Midway through the chapter the two men cross paths in a pub. They compare notes, and theories about what she is really up to. Not long after the meeting the focus moves from Colt to Roberts. The chapter ends at Arc-7 headquarters with the reveal that Director Manning has been kidnapped.

Not a great chapter but I assume that ground is being laid for the next chapter or two.

Iron Man (1968) 24

Iron Man (1968) 24
Apr 1970

My Son… the Minotaur!
by Archie Goodwin, Johnny Craig, and George Tuska

Madame Masque (aka Whitney Frost) washes up on an island in the Agean Sea and is captured by a scientist, Dr. Vryolak, and his son, Miklos, the Minotaur. The scientist saved his son’s life years before but in the process Miklos became something other than fully human. Although his father searches for a cure for his son he ultimately decides to try a different solution, with their captive, Madame Masque.

Dr. Vryolak sells Whitney Frost’s gold mask. Her face is covered in bandages for most of the story. Eventually the mask winds up in the hands of SHIELD and Jasper Sitwell. SHIELD scientists are able to lift two sets of fingerprints off the mask, Whitney’s and Tony’s. Stark tells Sitwell about his fling with Whitney while they were working for Midas (Iron Man 17-19). The two men agree to work together to find Whitney.

This story feels very familiar. It reminds me of the Batman: The Animated Series episode where Catwoman gets changed into a humanoid catlike beast. This comic book precedes that cartoon by about 20-25 years but I’m pretty sure that cartoon wasn’t based on this comic book. If anything the comic book owes a debt to The Island of Dr. Moreau and possibly to an earlier version of this story in another comic, maybe a Batman comic book.

Other stuff:

• Early in the story there is a nine panel grid page which shows Madame Masque dreaming about Tony Stark and Jasper Sitwell
• The art duties are flipped with Craig (the regular inker) doing the pencils and Tuska (the regular penciler) doing the inks. Craig lays out the story very differently than Tuska
• Janice Cord is dead; she was killed during a battle between Iron Man and Titanium Man in Iron Man 22

In the end Madame Masque gets her gold mask back. Jasper Sitwell is unconscious. She shares a moment with Iron Man before walking off into the proverbial sunset. She tells him about what Jasper and Tony mean to her and did for her not realizing that she’s talking to Tony Stark.

New Teen Titans (1980) 17

New Teen Titans (1980) 17
Mar 1982

The Possessing of Francis Kane!
By Marv Wolfman, George Perez, Romeo Tanghal

Wally tries to help Francis Kane (a childhood friend) who seems to be possessed by a supernatural force. He ends up calling in the other Titans (minus Starfire who is still grieving over the death of Franklin in the previous issue). The source of the possession is never revealed, to the Titans. Cyborg solves the problem with a device he gets from STAR Labs that breaks the link with the force that is intermittently possessing Francis.

In the second epilogue the source of the possession is revealed to be Dr. Polaris. He was stranded by Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) in another dimension which must have happened in Green Lantern (1960) 133-135 which was also written by Marv Wolfman.

This issue is a great showcase for what George Perez and Romeo Tanghal can do with a story. I love the art and the way the story is broken down and told visually. When I stop to examine the story without the art I’m not as crazy about it.

Velvet 6

Velvet 6
Jul 2014

The Secret Lives of Dead Men - Part 1
By Ed Brubaker, Steve Epting, Elizabeth Breitweiser, Chris Eliopoulos

This chapter opens with a flashback to 1956, to a mission where Velvet killed a contact for saying something disparaging about her dead husband, Richard aka Mockingbird. With the exception of a brief flashback later in the chapter to the time Velvet spent recovering after that mission, the rest of the chapter takes place in the present, 1973.

Velvet returns to England, thinking it is the last place they will expect her to go. She ponders who could have framed her and comes up with a short list of suspects: Lt. Director Simonson, Director Manning, Jean Bellanger of the Paris Station, Senator Hillerman. The latter two were not in the previous arc. She visits Elodie, another secretary from ARC-7 in the hopes of getting some information from her. She stays away from Megan, her bestie, but tails her to see if she is under surveillance. From what she says it sounds like there are some unresolved issues between the two of them but Velvet isn’t specific about what those issues might be.

The chapter ends with her approaching Director Manning. She has to go through his bodyguards who don’t seem to recognize her, which was strange. Manning wants her to turn herself in but Velvet refuses to sign off on that plan of action and directs him to get in the car.

It has been just over 3 months since I read the first arc of Velvet. I’m not exactly sure why it took me so long to get back to this series. I was probably distracted by other stuff. I hesitated before picking up this series again. I was dithering between reading Velvet and a couple other books. Within two pages I was hooked all over again. I was instantly transported back and felt immersed in the world of Velvet. Damn it felt good to be pulled in like that, that quickly and to feel like I was reading a secret code and it all came back to me just like that. Not all books do that for me.

The back matter includes a letters page and an article by Jess Nevins, The Female Sidekick: From Myth to Reality. The article looks back at the history of female sidekicks in popular fiction going back at least 400 years. Nevins article covers the evolution of the female sidekick over the past few centuries and provides some details about women who were sidekicks. The article can be found in the print and electronic versions of the individual issue but is not included in the collected edition of this arc.

Iron Man (1968) 100

Iron Man (1968) 100
Jul 1977

Ten Rings to the World!
by Bill Mantlo, George Tuska, and Mike Esposito

Iron Man battles the Mandarin in Red China. The fight takes up the bulk of the issue. A couple pages are spent explaining who the Mandarin is and how he came back from the dead.

In addition to the big fight there is a brief glimpse of Krissy Longfellow and Jasper Sitwell who are at Stark Industries Long Island plant when O’Brien arrives back in the United States. There is also a glimpse of a press conference in Washington DC where one of US Senator Hawk’s assistants (who is secretly working for the Mandarin) unsuccessfully attempts to discredit Tony Stark.

This is the culmination of a story that began in Iron Man 95 when Bill Mantlo took over writing the book. I read Iron Man 95-99 a couple years ago, before I started keeping this blog. I recall enjoying those issues but I’m not going to go back and reread those issues today. I might skim them and make some notes about what Krissy Longfellow was up to for reasons that might be clearer once I get a few more issues into Bill Mantlo’s run on Iron Man.