Iron Man #160 (1982)

On the splash page, we get a dream sequence of Tony in his armor, drunk.  Well, it’s more of a nightmare.  And Steve Ditko refused to draw a drunk superhero, because, you know, he has weird ethics, so Marie Severin drew that one page.  It kind of works, since it’s a dream, being totally different in art style from the rest of the issue, which is drawn by Steve Ditko.

Steve Ditko drawing Iron Man in 1982 is weird.  A plot where the Serpent Squad takes over a zoo is even weirder.  The only interesting thing here is Tony getting tempted by scotch—some decent foreshadowing, and a nod from O’Neil to the prior creative team that he’ll not drop the fabulous character development and investments they put into a character who, before that, had really been one dimensional.

Also, punching animals.

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