Tales Of Suspense #73-74 (1966)

Let’s start with the action-packed Cap story.

I’m getting a big appreciation (or reappreciation) for George Tuska’s pencil work as I read the Cap tale.  Check out the little scene above, where his bike can’t quite make the leap over a gorge.  Very cool.

The overall story is a little silly, but there is a little Nazi trivia in the panel above. 

Basically, Cap fights some Nazi Sleeper robots created by Red Skull, and although he does not appear in the story, his robots look like him.

But all that is just the Cap half of these issues. There’s also…

And talk about great art!  The Iron Man story is illustrated by Gene Colan under his Adam Austin pseudonym.  Look at that splash page—who was using shadows like that back then?  Nobody.  Then there’s this great panel:

The words hit Pepper Potts like lightning, and we see the deep concern in her face.  Simply fantastic.

The world of comic art is about to get much, much more sophisticated.

Sadly the story involves my least favorite Marvel hero.  Black Knight. And not just one Black Knight, either.

Tony is still keeping his secret from Pepper at this time.

Black Knight is left for dead at the end. But there’s no body. So, yeah, of course he’s alive. Both are exceedingly average stories, elevated by very above-average art. Jack Kirby (layouts) with George Tuska (pencils) (Cap) and “Adam Austin” (Gene Colan).