IRON MAN #36 April 1971

Welcome to my first blog entry of 2021, and we start with a dramatic moment from mid-way into IRON MAN #36, dated April 1971, but on sale in the first week of January that year. The cover is the work of Sal Buscema, interior art is by Don Heck and Mike Esposito. The story, "...Among Men Stalks the Ramrod" is written by Gerry Conway who was quickly establishing his position at Marvel, having just become writer on both this title and DAREDEVIL.

So let's take a glance at this moment of great drama from page 9 of this issue--

Tossing his golden mask frustratedly away from him, Tony Stark remarks that the protective visage has become a means for him to hide his feelings from others. Specifically he is referring to his seemingly cold-hearted treatment of Madame Masque. But this is also a moment of great revelation, informed as it is by the writer's incorporation of Jungian archetypes and the poetry of T.S. Eliot.

The events of IRON MAN #36 begin with a wrapping up of an extended storyline which had crossed-over into the pages of DAREDEVIL and included Nick Fury and Madame Masque amongst its protagonists in a lengthy battle with The Zodiac group of villains and the inter-dimensional Brotherhood of Ankh. The opening splash-page depicts the moment they are ejected from the Brotherhood's dimension, a process Iron Man describes as "madness".  But visually the page seems as much a depiction of the sub-conscious mind as it does a "sidereal corridor in time", its blue, yellow and green coloured intersecting circles garnering an appropriate and subtle clue as to the mental crises that will follow--

As the other baddies are routinely rounded up, the mysterious Spymaster, who has been hired by Zodiac, is engaged in aerial combat with Iron Man. There is clearly a deliberate intention on writer Gerry Conway's part to suggest a link in this story between these two characters which here extends to the artwork.  In the first of the pair of frames showing them flying, Spymaster's arms are outstretched while Iron Man's are at his sides. 

Then in the second frame these positions are reversed. Additionally, the 'ZZZT!' sound-effect which stretches between the two masked aeronauts, tethers them together visually. Both characters have costumes which combine the colour yellow with another primary colour, and the blue, yellow and green of Spymaster's suit are the colours used to represent the sidereal corridor, or as I would suggest, an aspect of Iron Man's unconscious mind--

In terms of Jungian archetypes it is possible to see Spymaster being depicted as Iron Man's 'Shadow', the side to a character that is hidden or supressed, in other words a part of their subconscious-- their dirty secrets, guilty fantasies or shameful weaknesses. Fiction-writers frequently use this idea in creating heroes and villains for their narratives, the idea that the conflicting characters are two sides of the same coin. In the previous part of the story in DAREDEVIL #73, the pair had squared of against each other, Spymaster taunting Iron Man in a way that prompts the latter to assert what motivates him-- 

While Spymaster had scornfully labelled his foe an idealist, Iron Man proudly acknowledged that indeed he is motivated by his desire to help others, with no thought for how he will personally gain--

This is the "altruism" of the Hero archetype, held up in so many stories against the self-centredness of the villainous Shadow characters. But, since the Shadow is seen as representing the darker aspects of the Hero, Spymaster here also symbolises the anxieties and doubts of Tony Stark, that part of Stark's subconscious that challenges his motives for being Iron Man. And as the story progresses those taunts will soon take their toll. Let's return to the aerial battle in IRON MAN #36. We see that Spymaster again attempts to goad Iron Man, mocking his "attempts at vengeance". 

But Iron Man refuses to acknowledge that revenge is his motivation, instead categorising his motivation as taking responsibility for others. Again Spymaster represents the Shadow side speaking, attempting to undermine Stark's heroic impulses. 

The battle itself is curtailed and as Spymaster manages to elude capture, Gerry Conway treats the reader to an interesting moment of interior monologue. The bad-guy sneers at his foe's talk of "responsibilities", and says that "Only fools and old men speak of duty... obligation to a higher ideal"--

As he ruminates on how the two men "differ", he addresses Iron Man in his absence directly, scoffing that "you ... waste your energies upon the weak and helpless" whereas he fights only for himself. As if to underline this Shadow aspect of Spymaster's function in this story he is drawn with his face completely hidden by shadow and departs as a silhouette. 

On the following page a very different kind of challenge is met as Madame Masque requests advice from Iron Man. "Perhaps we both may hide our emotions behind these golden masks" she says. Again it is likely that Conway is employing the Jungian archetype of the Anima-- the female counterpart to the male protagonist--

But while Madame Masque is ready to lift her mask as she describes it, and talk about her emotions, Stark is not ready to do the same. His petulant response to her request for advice is to reject her outright--

As with Spymaster, Iron Man clings to the Super-hero playscript, but by now can hardly even put up a brave defence. The cracks are starting to show, his rude treatment of Madame Masque a case in point. And his defence is about to be split wide open.

And so we come to the moment when Tony Stark lifts his mask-- in private and with anger, stripping it off and hurling it across the room, as The Shadow takes control of him. As he does so we see the influence of T.S. Eliot's poem THE HOLLOW MEN on Conway's writing-- "You're nothing but a man of straw!" he snarls at himself--

Just as Spymaster had addressed Iron Man directly in his absence, challenging him for the third time, here we witness Stark addressing himself in the second person in the frame's final line. And although he does not acknowledge it, choosing instead to mention Madame Masque's words to him, it is clear that the character who has acted as his Shadow has really affected his thinking, and this is underlined in the frame where now his entire head is blacked out in shadow--

And then, in answer to his own question, "Why can't I face what I've become?" he calls himself "a hollow man", a blatant reference to Eliot's poem about a life which is meaningless. He describes his suit as "fool's gold" - worthless - and, identifying himself as being separate from his alter-ego, bemoans the fact that Iron Man has "controlled" his life bringing only "grief and frustration"--

The opening stanza of Eliot's THE HOLLOW MEN is worth reading here, not only since it contains references to "hollow men" and "stuffed men ... filled with straw", but also because it offers a perfect description of the character of Tony Stark as we see him over the next five or six pages--

    We are the hollow men

    We are the stuffed men

    Leaning together

    Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!

    Our dried voices, when

    We whisper together

    Are quiet and meaningless

    As wind in dry grass

    Or rats' feet over broken glass

    In our dry cellar

Having removed his Iron Man suit and slammed it shut in his briefcase, Stark declares his alter-ego to be nothing more than a "living death". Again this is an idea suggested by Eliot's poem--

    Is it like this

    In death's other kingdom

    Waking alone

    At the hour when we are

    Trembling with tenderness

So, it is not just Madame Masque's words which have stung him, it's Spymaster's too. And now Stark will confront his Shadow in a very different way, by becoming "the new, improved playboy industrialist", like Spymaster acting only in his own interests. He has also at this point exchanged the red of his outfit for a suit which is blue like Spymaster's costume.

Handing the running of operations over to Kevin O'Brian, Stark is depicted with heavy shadows on his face, emphasising the way this aspect of his unconscious is now being allowed to surface. Again the colour blue is used to emphasise the link with Spymaster. It is also the way Madame Masque was depicted just before the disgruntled Iron Man turned his back on her--

Let's just take a short detour at this point-- Before we look at how Tony Stark fairs throughout the rest of the comicbook let's just take a few moments to consider one or two other aspects of the poem which has been so influential on art and culture since it was published, with particular attention to some other Marvel Bronze Age comics. First, it's no coincidence that T.S. Eliot also uses the concept of The Shadow in THE HOLLOW MEN, suggesting that it exists, amongst others, in that gap between "idea" and "reality" or "emotion" and "response"--

    Between the idea

    And the reality

    Between the motion

    And the act

    Falls the Shadow

                                   For Thine is the Kingdom

   

    Between the conception

    And the creation

    Between the emotion

    And the response

    Falls the Shadow

                                   Life is very long

   

    Between the desire

    And the spasm

    Between the potency

    And the existence

    Between the essence

    And the descent

    Falls the Shadow

                                   For Thine is the Kingdom

Interestingly, a variation on this phrase had turned up in Roy Thomas's script for SUB-MARINER #32 in Dec 1970, in which he had written "Between the thought and the action falls but the shadow of a moment"--

Secondly, the influence of some of Eliot's other lines from THE HOLLOW MEN was obviously very much on the minds of Marvel's cover designers, especially the poem's closing phrase--

    This is the way the world ends

    Not with a bang but a whimper.

Here is a reference to it on the cover of THOR #184 from Jan 1971--

The exact line itself was later used for the cover of THOR #244 and AVENGERS #104 (and probably several more times too)--

If the poem is new to you then it's worth reading in its entirety, and you can find it very easily on-line, for instance here--

And so, returning to Tony Stark, he embarks upon a more hedonistic lifestyle, branding his activities as Iron Man as "adolescent nonsense", opting now to expend his energies in a different direction--

But once danger threatens the city in the shape of a gigantic maniacal robot, the not-so-hollow man is once more conflicted internally-- here he is seen wearing not only the blue suit but also a yellow shirt. The combo would entirely match Spymaster's colour-scheme if his tie were also green, but instead it is red, a signal that Iron Man is still lurking within Stark somewhere--

And again the art team uses the shadowy blue effect across his face as he realises that once again he is hiding behind a mask, albeit a different one, and cannot be satisfied allowing others to suffer while he stands by and lives the playboy life--

As the huge machine creature, Ramrod, destroys building after building, Iron Man finally appears--

The robot is coloured blue and yellow, instantly linking it to the departed Spymaster, clearly prompting a comparison-- this is the same problem being faced, except that now the problem - the Shadow - is so much bigger and more deadly for Iron Man to tackle--

Sure enough, Iron Man seems powerless against an enemy which symbolises his own darker side when it's allowed to thrive and grow and get out of control, rather like the id-monster in FORBIDDEN PLANET--

Struggling to harness Ramrod's destructive powers, Iron Man is also locked in an internal struggle with his own sense of purpose-- again he addresses himself directly, or rather the Iron Man side addresses the Tony Stark side, condemning himself as "a guy who ... hides behind this golden mask" and whose social life is "sickening" and worthless. 

And realising that the two sides are inseparable he asserts that it is the Iron Man side that is the "only decent thing" that Stark has--

But rather than overcoming this Shadow self, the strain of battle proves too much, the challenge too great.

All of which leaves Iron Man lying lifelessly amid the ruins at the book's conclusion. And Ramrod remains undefeated--

It's a great cliff-hanger, made more potent by the fact that it represents not only Iron Man's failure to defeat a villainous robot, but also Tony Stark's failure to come back successfully from this foray into a different lifestyle, to regain meaning and purpose when he has cast himself as a "hollow man". And so, as we leave our hero lifeless on the ground it seems only fitting to close with these words on death from THE HOLLOW MEN--

    Eyes I dare not meet in dreams

    In death's dream kingdom

    These do not appear:

    There, the eyes are

    Sunlight on a broken column

    There, is a tree swinging

    And voices are

    In the wind's singing

    More distant and more solemn

    Than a fading star.

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