X-Over

Tales of Suspense #49 - By Stan Lee and Steve Ditko

I'm not sure I'll make a regular habit of discussing crossover issues. This one looked fun mostly because it's Iron Man. I just watched the movie starring Robert Downey, Jr. again last week and I'm really excited about Iron Man 2 in May, so I'm in the right frame of mind for an Iron Man story.

I've not really read too many Iron Man comics over the years. Sure I read the origin story back in the day in the big, phone-book-sized Secret Origins (not yet called a Trade Paperback) and I read more Iron Man in the 90s and early 2000s, but I'd never have called myself an Iron Man "fan!" I've been told by friends that there are some compelling stories from the last several years and heard that Iron Man (Tony Stark, perhaps) had become director of SHIELD. That's all well and good, my TARDIS is still parked in 1963.

This story opens with Angel winging his way back to Xavier's mansion and taking a short-cut over the Stark Industries plant. It just so happens that the plant is about to detonate an atomic device for testing and the Angel is about to fly right through the testing zone. Iron Man does his best Bruce Banner and tries to stop the wayward mutant, but both get caught in the blast. Iron Man's armor protects him, but the Angel's mind is affected by the atomic rays and his personality changes - he's now becoming evil!

The newly evil Angel defeats Iron Man by flying higher then Iron Man's Power Jets can handle and takes off back to the mansion to deliver his notice that he's quitting the X-Men. The others try and stop him, but his new evil personality must have brought some new insight to using his powers with it, since he's much more skilled then in the previous issues of X-Men. Angel escapes and declares he's off to find the "Evil Mutants" to help them rule the world.

It all seems pretty comical - detonating atomic devices in New York City, atomic rays affecting your personality and the general silliness of the Angel's plans. But somehow the innocence of it all is rather charming. And when Angel runs off to find the evil mutants, it's very much like a petulant child running away from home and expecting the circus train to stop by and pick him up.

Iron Man reenters the scene during Angel's search for the evil mutants. They have a few scuffles and Iron Man decides that the only way to save the Angel is to shock him back into his right mind. He stages the same incident as earlier in the story with the boot jets failing, and the Angel is forced to snap fight off the effects of the atomic rays and save him. Cliched now, but back in 1963 we hadn't seen that too often.

Overall this was a fun and entertaining little cross-over. Ditko's art isn't outstanding and his X-Men must have been based on Kirby's original sketches. I do like the stiffness he gives Iron Man. You get the feeling that he's in armor compared to the Angel's agile flight. It was also fun to see tiny cameos of the other Avengers - Hulk, Thor, Ant-Man and the Wasp. No Captain America yet, so I'm guessing even this reference was to point readers to that comic as well as to the X-Men next time they were at their local newsstand.

The issue also featured a back-up story starring the Watcher. This little five-page story isn't so much a story as a call to straighten up our act. The story focuses on a race called the Sneepers who currently rule most of the galaxy, but feel threatened by humanity. They watch us from afar because they can't get to us with their present technology. The Sneepers begin to put effort into finding a way to destroy the earth until they find out someone else might do it for them - us! Nuclear weapons, rioting, the Cuban Missile Crisis and more makes them feel that we will destroy ourselves. In the end, the Watcher calls out to us to change our destiny and not allow the Sneepers to take the galaxy by default. Its a little over-bearing, but interesting to see that there was a call to kids to be socially conscious and pay attention to the world around them.

Up Next: Uncanny X-Men #4 and Professor Xavier and the X-Men #4