IRON MAN #154

"THE OTHER SIDE OF MADNESS!"
Writer: David Michelinie | Penciler: John Romita, Jr.
Inkers: Dan Green, Chic Stone, & Bob Layton
Letters: Joe Rosen | Colors: Bob Sharen & Don Warfield
Editor: Jim Salicrup | Editor-in-Chief: Jim Shooter

The Plot: On his way to the Yonkers Raceway for some horse races, Iron Man is attacked by a mysterious enemy, who escapes before he can be identified. Our hero proceeds to the races, but is preoccupied and returns to Stark International to find the complex under attack by a very insane Unicorn, who is the same villain that assaulted Iron Man earlier.

Iron Man battles the Unicorn, but uses up all his power reserves in the process of saving several Stark employees. Unicorn prepares to deal the killing blow on behalf of The Other, but Iron Man convinces him The Other has forsaken him, having returned to Russia. The Unicorn departs to travel to Russia and find his missing master, but in his unhinged state, he walks straight into Long Island Sound, apparently drowning.

NEW HEADER

Spruced up the ol' blog header last night, to make it look both a little less plain and a little more like a Marvel comic masthead that might accompany the various corner boxes I use for decoration. I think it turned out pretty nicely.

For those who are curious, the letters in "NOT A" are repurposed and rearranged from the words "GIANT SIZE" on an old Marvel cover from the seventies (the "O" was created from the "G"), while the words "HOAX" and "DREAM" are typed in BadaBoom and DamnNoisyKids, respectively -- both of which are free fonts available from the good people at BlamBot. The "Matthew Blogging Group" is of course a reference to my own name.

For posterity, if anyone cares, a comparison between the old, in retrospect lame, header, and the spiffy new one:

SHANNA THE SHE-DEVIL: SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST

Writers: Jimmy Palmiotti & Justin Gray | Pencils: Khari Evans | Inks: Jimmy Palmiotti
Colors: Paul Mounts with Christina Strain
Letters: Artmonkey's Dave Lanphear & Natalie Lanphear
Assistant Editor: Alejandro Arbona | Editor: Warren Simons
Editor-in-Chief: Joe Quesada | Publisher: Dan Buckley

Storywise, "Survival of the Fittest" is a vast, vast, vast improvement over Frank Cho's first SHANNA THE SHE-DEVIL. Palmiotti and Gray squeeze more material into the first issue than Cho covered in his seven. The story begins with a group of pirates boarding the yacht of a crime lord called the Axe-Man and stealing his diamonds. But the ship is attacked by a monstrous leviathan. The pirates escape as the yacht goes down with all hands and passengers aboard.

The pirates, their boat damaged by the sea creatures, arrive at nearby "Monster Island". They run around, chased by dinosaurs and giant bees, and meet up with Shanna, who takes them to her "Swiss Family Robinson" style treehouse, where she now lives with Doc. But the pirates are pursued to the island by Axe-Man and his minions.

The ensuing story covers Shanna's and the Pirates' attempt to get to Axe-Man's seaplane, and their misadventures as they run afoul of a group of savage neanderthals living in a city of Nazi gold, and hordes of veliciraptors out to eat them. After lots of violence and running around the city, our heroes are whittled down to Shanna and two pirates, Dirk, and Ivan. Axe-Man is killed, and his surviving henchmen agree to help the pirates leave the island in exchange for some diamonds.

Shanna shares a kiss with the pirate leader, Dirk, and then he departs with the rest of his people.

IRON MAN #153

"LIGHT MAKES MIGHT!!"
Plot/Writer: David Michelinie | Plot/Finished Art: Bob Layton
Pencil Art: John Romita, Jr. | Letters: Joe Rosen | Colors: Bob Sharen
Editor: Jim Salicrup | Editor-in-Chief: Jim Shooter

The Plot: Iron Man battles the Living Laser inside the Heaven's Hand complex, while Rhodey ferries Bethany and her injured husband Alex back to the United States. The Laser uses so much power against Iron Man that he begins to overload. He attempts to reconstitute himself before it's too late, but Iron Man stops him and the Laser disperses into particles of light.

Later, back in the U.S., Bethany tells Tony that she will stay with Alex to help him through his rehabilitation. She and Tony part ways, and Tony sheds a tear for the end of their relationship.

Continuity Notes: A footnote tells us that Bethany's and Iron Man's rescue of Alex took place last issue. The Laser then spends a couple pages recapping his recent history: Count Nefaria doubled his power in AVENGERS #164 - 166, but the boost was only temporary. When it wore off, the Laser found that his body now constantly absorbed light, and that he would eventually overload and die. The East Germans offered to help him expel the excess energy by using it to power dormant weapon satellites in Earth's orbit.

The Laser is humanized a bit when Iron Man asks if the thought of betraying his country bothers him and he admits that yes, it somewhat does.

IRON MAN #152

"ESCAPE FROM HEAVEN'S HAND!"
Plot/Writer: David Michelinie | Plot/Finished Art: Bob Layton
Pencil Art: John Romita, Jr. | Letters: Joe Rosen | Colors: Glynis Wein
Editor: Jim Salicrup | Editor-in-Chief: Jim Shooter

The Plot: Iron Man scouts an East German research complex called Heaven's Hand, then returns to the Stark Inernational office in West Germany, where he analyzes his findings. The next day, inside Heaven's Hand, Bethany is brought before another prisoner -- her "late" husband, Alexander van Tilburg. The Germans explain that they faked the death of Alex, East Germany's ambassador to the United States, so that he would reveal to them any information he might have regarding American sleeper agents in Germany. But the drugs they used scrambled Alex's mind, and now the Germans need Bethany to help them inside his head.

That night, Iron Man sneaks into Heaven's Hand, then changes into disguise as an East German major. He has Bethany brought to him, then leads her to a closet for a private conversation. Bethany berates Tony, telling him that her capture was part of her plan to rescue Alex. Mercenaries were to attack the complex, but the equipment Bethany needs to escape with them is in her cell. So she convinces Tony to change into Iron Man and aid her escape.

He does so, and makes short work of the complex's German defenders. Bethany, Alex, and the mercenaries board a plane piloted by Rhodey and escape, but Iron Man is shot down by the Living Laser before he can follow.

THE TIME OF THE SEASON

I assume everyone has this quirk, to some extent, and as the winter turns to spring around here, I find myself thinking about it more: There's something in the realm of entertainment that you like, or even love, but you only want to enjoy it in certain weather or at a certain time of year. I'm not talking specifically seasonal things, like watching HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS in December. I mean something along the lines of, to use an example I've provided before, only wanting to read Batman comics in the winter. Batman just feels like a character you should read when the trees outside are dead and the weather is miserable. Bonus points if it's raining (or even snowing, but that's not something I ever encounter where I live).

I assume part of this feeling has something to do with repetition. I find that hour-long dramas are better when viewed in the fall than almost any other time of year, which makes sense since that's when the TV season traditionally starts. But I've found that cable dramas, like GAME OF THRONES, MAD MEN, and JUSTIFIED, feel more correct to me in the springtime -- again, because that's when most of them premiere. But even if the series isn't currenlty airing -- say I just want to pop in a Blu-Ray to watch an episode -- I still would favor the springtime weather. I also prefer to watch most of my cable dramas while it's still light outside, and again I'm not certain just why that is.

SHANNA THE SHE-DEVIL BY FRANK CHO

"THE KILLING SEASON"
Writer & Artist: Frank Cho | Colors: Dave Stewart & Jason Keith
Letters: Richard Starkings & Comicraft's Rob Steen
Assistant Editor: Cory Sedlmeier | Editor: Axel Alonso
Editor-in-Chief: Joe Quesada | Publisher: Dan Buckley

I have to say, nudity protest aside, I think I'm glad I've never bothered to buy a collected edition of this story. For that matter, I'm even happier I never spent the three or four dollars it would've cost per issue when it was first being released. It's just not that good.

But before I get to my criticism, I'll provide a quick summary: A military unit has crashed on an island inhabited by dinosaurs and an old Nazi lab. In the lab, they discover a nubile young woman, a clone developed by the Nazis to be a perfect killing machine, who they name Shanna (after a comic book character). Some of the soldiers are infected by a chemical weapon created by the Nazis, and Shanna, along with the soldiers' leader, "Doc", must travel to the Nazi lab to recover the antidote. They do so and return to camp.

That's it.