Oh my God. I don’t know why Friedrich was allowed to ruin Iron Man for so long, but these are not good comics. In this story, he returns to Vietnam and fights Sunfire.
He also punches a tiger, so that’s good for my tag about heroes punching animals.
I had forgotten that Mandarin switched into Unicorn’s body. He’s in need of some solar power to help him leave that body and return to his own. So he kidnaps Sunfire in the middle of his conflict with Iron Man.
Trying to stop Mandarin/team up with Sunfire (having already fought him, it’s time to ally with him), Iron Man has to make a new suit of armor.
Ah, yes. The famous Nose Armor. For some reason, it helps with expression to have a nose, which will make him scarier.
What’s scarier to you? A nose…Or no nose?
There’s some big fights, Mandarin uses Ultimo again, Yellow Claw returns (because why not include all three of Marvel’s stereotypical Asians in a single story?)
Actually, this is the second time we see a reference to a new, hidden villain called Black Lama (the first was in Iron Man #53). He’s launched a Supervillain Contest. It is one of Marvel’s first multi-issue “events.” But it never got beyond the pages of Iron Man. Still, it’s important enough to have its own Event Tag (below), because it sets the stage for future, expansive events.
Conclusion: Mandarin gets his body back with a slightly modified ring-power set, Unicorn seems to be dead, and Iron Man’s got new armor.
There’s also a sub-story about a hidden city. More on that later.