Booze, Boobs and Robot Boots No. 16: Tales of Suspense 54

What's happening? For reasons I can even begin to fathom, Tony Stark has changed the way his helmet looks. To look really stupid. Seriously stupid. I don't remember anyone complaining about the old helmet, but it gets changed anyway. And the colorist on this book can't keep his shit straight, so sometimes it's the classic red/yellow two-tone and sometimes it's yellow. Also, this issue seems to try to start the nickname "Bullethead" for Iron Man, but he hasn't had a helmet that looked like a bullet since he changed from the original suit.

Oh, and Tony gets into a major scuffle with our old pal Mandarin. When the Department of Defense gets all bitchy about how Tony's super-missiles (transistor-powered, I guess?) aren't working like they're supposed to, Tony figures it's gotta be Mandarin's work. So he heads back to the place where he got his biggest ass-whoopin' to date.

Tony thinks pretty highly about the importance of these missiles. In fact, he says flat out that they are worth his own precious life. I gotta think just slapping together a new transistor-tech invention on the side would be good enough for government work.

So, the obvious happens. Iron Man gets smacked around by karate champ Mandarin and captured, and we have to wait until the next issue to see what happens.

ETC: The fight between Mandarin and Iron Man is actually pretty good. It's a brawl. Mandarin chops a steel door in half with his hand. Iron Man throws what I think is a giant wood-burning stove at Mandy. The Darkness Ring gets some use and Iron Man has to fight blind. There's some mini-rockets. Iron Man is finally undone when some "throbbing dynamos descend from the ceiling" and fire cables around Iron Man. Tony's life flashes before his eyes (which is just a freeze frame of Happy consoling Pepper).

MIA: Tony's stoic nature. Maybe I haven't really been paying attention but Tony Stark is NOT Peter Parker. Yet, Stan Lee must have just finished penning the most recent Amazing, cause Tony smarts off and quips in every damn panel Mandarin whips his ass. It doesn't really fit Tony at all to be tossing out "You're wrong again, Chuckles!"

MVP: Mandarin is a badass. He's so badass he forgets he even has 10 Rings of Awesome sometimes. He can karate chop like no man before. He even picks up a sword at some point and boasts that no man is his equal in swordplay. Iron Man rightly asks if there's anything Mandarin can't do.

WTF: What the hell is Iron Man doing in this panel? Is he breast stroking through the air? Who flies like this?