Includes the complete "War of the Super-Villains" arc!
Iron Man finds himself in the middle of the "War of the Super-Villains," a multi-part epic that is a highwater mark in 1970s Iron Man storytelling. Mandarin vs. Yellow Claw! M.O.D.O.K. vs. the Mad Thinker! Everyone against ol' Shellhead! Will a visit to the San Diego Comic Con provide the rest our hero needs? It's not all bad guys, though, as Iron Man finds time to team with Daredevil, Man-Thing and the Champions before the title is turned over to writer Bill Mantlo, who upgrades Iron Man's armor and brings back classic characters like Madame Masque while weaving Jack of Hearts into the drama. It's a four-year run of underrated Iron Man classics!
COLLECTING: Iron Man (1968) #68-112, Iron Man Annual (1970) #3-4
Written by Mike Friedrich, Bill Mantlo & Gerry Conway With Barry Alfonso, Tom Orzechowski, Len Wein, Roger Slifer, Steve Gerber, Archie Goodwin, Jim Shooter, Herb Trimpe & Roger Stern
Penciled by George Tuska, Herb Trimpe & Keith Pollard With Arvell Jones, Chic Stone, Sal Buscema, Jeff Aclin & Carmine Infantino
After a Justice League of America stint at DC, Mike Friedrich moved to Marvel and to Iron Man, where, with Jim Starlin, he brought Thanos and Drax the Destroyer into the Marvel Universe. He and Starlin continued Thanos' cosmic saga in Captain Marvel. Friedrich also wrote Captain America and various features for Marvel's anthology titles. Back at DC, he wrote regularly for Batman, Green Lantern, Flash, and others.
Bill Mantlo began his Marvel career on Deadly Hands of Kung Fu, in which he introduced White Tiger, one of the industry's earliest Hispanic super heroes. Eventually writing stories for almost every Marvel title, he did some of his most fondly remembered work on Incredible Hulk and Spectacular Spider-Man. He also created Rocket Raccoon, launched Cloak & Dagger in a pair of miniseries and guided Alpha Flight through some of its most harrowing ordeals. Mantlo excelled at integrating licensed properties into the Marvel Universe, as demonstrated by Micronauts and Rom, both of which he wrote from start to finish. At DC, he wrote the Invasion miniseries for one of the company's biggest crossover events.
One of the Golden Age's earliest talents,
George Tuska (1916-2009) created characters for Fiction House, Harvey Comics and Fawcett Comics' Captain Marvel Adventures, among many others. He helped launch one of the most popular post-war genres in Lev Gleason's Crime Does Not Pay. He eventually provided multi-genre art for Atlas Comics, to which he returned following its transformation into Marvel. Tuska penciled Ghost Rider, Luke Cage: Power Man and Sub-Mariner, as well as a ten-year Iron Man stint. At DC, he illustrated Challengers of the Unknown and Superman, among others. As a comic-strip artist, Tuska drew Buck Rogers, Scorchy Smith and DC's World's Greatest Superheroes. His final industry work was cover art for Masquerade, part of Dynamite's Golden Age character revival, bringing him full circle.
Beginning as Stan Lee's production assistant,
Herb Trimpe (1939-2015) went on to pencil a seven-year run on Marvel mainstay Incredible Hulk -- during which he debuted the future X-Man, Wolverine -- as well as 1970s classics Marvel Team-Up, Shogun Warriors and Godzilla. He was equally prolific during the 1980s on Nick Fury, The 'Nam and G.I. Joe; the 1990s saw him illustrate Marvel's First Family on Fantastic Four Unlimited. Trimpe's war-story credits also include the introduction of the Phantom Eagle, the WWI aviator hero whose adventures were later chronicled by Garth Ennis.
