Okay, so this is a great cover–but why is Captain America getting such small, bottom billing?
Well, don’t cry too hard for Iron Man. These are the last issues where he has to share with anyone. I’m assuming that by the end of 1967, Stan Lee realized that characters like Iron Man and Captain America, Hulk and Sub Mariner could all carry their own books, so he decided to end the anthology titles that produced half-length stories every month.
Smartly, these half-stories roll right into the new titles.
To wrap up the Iron Man half of ToS, Stan introduces one of Iron Man’s most popular foes: Whiplash. We also meet future Editor-in-Chief Archie Goodwin, who assists on the writing chores!
When we last saw him, Iron Man had a heart attack. In these issues, Jasper Sitwell tries to help him as, in his weakened state, he’s attacked by Whiplash. Lash was hired by The Maggia to beat up Iron Man but then A.I.M. intereferes and the bad guys all beat each other up instead until Iron Man can recharge his armor, blow a bunch of stuff up, and escape the fortress where A.I.M. held him captive.
Note that he clearly killed dozens, if not hundreds, of A.I.M. members by blowing up that base.
A few other notes: In this story, and early Iron Man books, Jasper Sitwell gets a leading role.
He’s portrayed as goofy (borderline stereotypically gay) SHEILD agent who is overseeing Stark Industries.
Whitney Frost, who later becomes Madame Masque, is the ingenue.
Here’s the really odd part: Although ToS is cancelled with #99, this story continues in “Iron Man and Submariner #1,” for which there is no #2 and in which we get another split book, and then concludes in Iron Man #1.
Bizarre.
I wonder if Stan had planned for a ToS #100 but then had more Captain America material so he dumped the half-story into a one-shot, and then moved Iron Man into his own title?
And the story in Iron Man #1 doesn’t take up the full issue, either. At the end of Iron Man #1 there is a three-page recap of his origin.