Comic Book Review Stan LEE Tales of Suspense 56 Iron MAN THE Uncanny Unicorn

COMIC BOOK REVIEW STAN LEE TALES OF SUSPENSE 56 IRON MAN THE UNCANNY UNICORN 1964 Marvel

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One of the worst Iron Man adventures, with a villain who seems to be just like so many other villains in use at this time by Marvel.

The Unicorn is just a psycho nut-job with a light beam on his head that can burn through walls and throw heavy objects around.  The previous two stories both pitched Iron Man against enemies able to make gravity go away too.

The only novelty here is that Iron Man appears to be trying to quit his job. He is frustrated that he gets more attention than he ever did in his human guise as Tony Stark, and tries to withdraw from crime fighting.

The Unicorn’s attacks on his business interests, and injury to a close friend, Happy, force Stark to reconsider his retirement plans. He comes back to deal with The Unicorn properly.

The Unicorn is yet another Communist spy with super gadgets, some of which he shows off before Iron Man attacks him, but he doesn’t try them out on Iron Man, preferring to save them for their future conflicts, so the whole story is quite an anti-climax.

It has its moments to be sure, mainly in Iron Man’s wrath when he trashes the Unicorn’s aeroplane from the inside as the Russians try to kidnap him, but overall, this is deeply uninspired writing, that shows Lee treading water to await a better story coming to him later on.

There is a brief appearance by the other Avengers, including Wasp Woman and Thor when they try to warn Iron Man by phone of the Unicorn’s approach while being busy dealing with other villains themselves.  It’s not everyone who gets a call from an Asgardian Thunder God.

Arthur Chappell