"THE HERO WITHIN"
Plot/Script: David Michelinie | Plot/Finished Art: Bob Layton
Layouts: Jerry Bingham | Letters: Irving Watanabe | Colors: Glynis Wein
Editor: Roger Stern | Editor-in-Chief: Jim Shooter
Plot/Script: David Michelinie | Plot/Finished Art: Bob Layton
Layouts: Jerry Bingham | Letters: Irving Watanabe | Colors: Glynis Wein
Editor: Roger Stern | Editor-in-Chief: Jim Shooter
At the same time, elsewhere in Stark's complex, the pulse regulator has been removed from the unconscious Hulk, allowing him to revert to Bruce Banner. Tony Stark arrives at the operation's completion, and helps Banner to surreptitiously escape Stark International before the Army can recapture him.
Continuity Notes: Bethany tells Rhodey that despite their past differences, she has accepted Iron Man as an important part of Tony's life.
My Thoughts: This issue is Michelinie and Layton's tribute to that Roy Thomas/Neal Adams classic, "A Journey to the Center of the Android!" from AVENGERS #93. We see Ant-Man wandering through the inside of Iron Man's armor, confronting sparking wires, flame-retardant foam, and fused slag. Unlike the classic Vision tale, this adventure doesn't feature any active threat against Ant-Man, making the whole thing a rather boring affair. The pictures are pretty, but even with the threat of Tony running low on oxygen, there is no real tension to Ant-Man's quest.
Lastly, I just have to comment that Rhodey referring to the Hulk as a "big green honky" is one of the greatest things I've ever seen in a comic book.
I'm sure the occasional letter had something to do with wrapping up the dangling Titanium Man subplot, but it was also that Jim Shooter just didn't let writers get away with crap like that. (Or with letting genocidal mass-murderers walk free, as Claremont/Byrne originally wanted to do with Dark Phoenix and an "oops, all cured now!" resolution. Instead, we got UXM #137, perhaps the greatest Marvel comic ever. [Until Jean gets un-killed five years later, at least.])
ReplyDeleteShooter was a vicious boss (and his assistant/hitman, Jim "Christopher Priest" Owsley, was hardly nicer), but they ran a tight ship. Much better than Joe "Screw Continuity!" Quesada, Jemas, and the TPB-driven crap Marvel's descended to since '01. JMO.
—Dan
Yeah, the first part of the Shooter era produced some great comics. I find that as his tenure went on, though, the artwork across almost the entire line began to look bland. John Byrne has said several times that Shooter was too controlling and Dick Giordano, then EiC at DC, was too permissive. In Byrne's ideal scenario, the two would've swapped jobs every five years so Shooter could get Giordano's trains running on time again, while Giordano could mellow out some of the built-up tension left by Shooter.
DeletePriest has a great article about working for Shooter on his website. I believe it's called "Why I Never Talk About Spider-Man". He's very candid there about things that went on back then and some of the bridges he burned as an impressionable youngster. I read the thing every few years because I find it so fascinating.
I hadn’t read this 3-parter until 2015 when researching an article on Ant-Man. I was then, and remain, surprised at how substantive a crossover this is for a self-contained Iron Man story when there was also a solo Hulk title coming out.
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