Comic Review of Tales of Suspense #44

In Tales of Suspense #44 Iron Man heads back to Ancient Egypt to take on the Mad Pharaoh and Tony falls in under the spell of the beautiful Cleopatra. Will he be able to get back to 1963 or will he run outta power thousands of years in the past?

Issue: Tales of Suspense #44

Name: Iron Man Faces the Menace of the Mad Pharaoh!
Published: 1963 by Marvel Comics

Blurb:

Creators:

Writer: Stan Lee and Robert Bernstein
Artist: Don Heck
Letterer: San Rosen

Characters:

The Good: Iron Man (Anthony Stark), Cleopatra
The Bad: The Mad Pharaoh (Hatap)
The Undecided:

My Reading:

Tony flies to Egypt where his archaeologist buddy is excavating a new tomb. Actually though, they aren’t sure where to dig to get into King Hatap’s tomb but Iron Man is able to help out with his fluoroscope. He figures out where to dig and proceeds to tunnel down to the tomb where they find Hatap’s sarcophagus. With the day’s work done, everyone takes a break and sometime during the night, Hatap wakes up. Apparently, during his final battle against Cleopatra, when he was certain his side was gonna lose, Hatap drank a potion that put him in hibernation for years. Now he’s awake and he demands Stark accompany him back in time to defeat Cleopatra.

Hatap summons the Chariot of Time and the two travel back to ancient Egypt where Tony quickly switches into Iron Man. He escapes from Hatap and heads towards the Egyptian forces only to be confronted by the Romans. These ancient warriors pose no problems for Iron Man and he quickly defeats them and meets up with the Siren of the Nile. Of course Tony is smitten and he decides he’s gonna have to defeat Hatap and take the Golden Charm so he can get back to 1963. Affixing rollers on his armor and a transistor-powered jet engine on his helmet Iron Man smashes into Hatap’s forces and defeats them. And as Hatap tries to escape into the future, he falls on a sword…dead…leaving the Charm for Tony to use to transit back to 1963.

What did I learn:

• Once again, transistors can power anything…jet engines and fluoroscopes included.

My Thoughts:

I’m happy to see that there are other bad guys that Stan and company can use in their comics during the 1963 run. For a change, we aren’t dealing with Alien invaders nor communists but instead we’re up against magic wielding, time traveling mummies. Ok, so the Mad Pharaoh isn’t really a mummy but he starts that way.

Regardless, I liked the fact that Iron Man had an opponent that was different in this issue. I do wonder if Stan was told to do some historical stories since the recent Tales to Astonish dealt with Ancient Greece and the Cyclops while this issue focuses on Ancient Egypt and Cleopatra. Or maybe Stan was hoping that he’d be sent overseas to do research for these comics.

I will say that while I liked the fact that he was dealing with different opponents than before but I think the rolling Iron Man using a jet engine and rollers to speed across the desert has to be a low point in technological ideas. This is just silly, even by 1963 standards.

Hmm…I just figured out the fixation on historical figures…in 1963, Elizabeth Taylor starred in the huge Cleopatra film. No wonder Stan and Marvel wanted Iron Man to head back in time.

My Rating: C+

This comic can be found on Marvel Unlimited, Comixology or at your local comic book shop.

Daily Ramble 272.1 | Comics – 1963 Marvel – Comic Review of Tales of Suspense #44