From the Mouths of the Marvels:

"I feel different! As though I'm a new person! A smarter, craftier, slyer person. And yes...I admit it! A far more evil person!"

- - the Angel, page 3

A rare Iron Man panel by Steve Ditko!

Iron Man from Tales of Suspense #49
January 1964 • 18 pages

Publication Date: October 8, 1963

Letters Page: No letters page was published in this issue

I: Feature Story: "The New Iron Man Meets the Angel!"

Pages: 18

Script: Stan Lee
Pencils: Steve Ditko
Inks: Paul Reinman
Letters: Sam Rosen

First Appearance: Rocco & Charlie

Guest Appearance: The Angel, Happy Hogan, Pepper Potts; The X-Men: Beast, Marvel Girl, Cyclops, Iceman and Professor Xavier

Cameo: Rocco, Charlie, The Avengers: Hulk/Bruce Banner, Thor/Dr. Don Blake, Giant-Man & The Wasp/Hank Pym & Janet Van Dyne

Synopsis: As Iron Man guards the Stark facilities during an atomic bomb test, the winged X-Man named the Angel flies onto the scene by happenstance. Iron Man sees him and rushes toward him to warn him to get away, but it is too late. The bomb explodes, and while Iron Man is shielded effectively from the radiation by his suit, the Angel feels a large enough effect that his personality changes from good to evil. Iron Man tries to get near him, propelled by his new jet boots, but the Angel lets him chase him up into the sky until his jet boots give out, leaving him to fall to Earth. While he plummets down, he uses his Magnetic Repeller to create a counter-force that helps break his fall when he crashes through the roof of a Stark company storehouse.

Now that his personality has changed from good to evil, the Angel goes back to Professor Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters and declares that he is leaving their membership and joining up with the Evil Mutants, because "that's where the action is!" The X-Men try to talk him out of it, but he won't budge. Matters escalate, and the Beast, Marvel Girl, Cyclops and Iceman all try to stop him from leaving, but they are unsuccessful, and he flies out the window in search of the Evil Mutants. Professor X tries to mentally command him to return, but it's no use, and the Xavier wonders if he has failed his young charges, and further wonders if he should scrap the X-Men altogether.

But first, he tries to solve the matter at hand, and reaches out through his top-secret communications device to reach the Avengers for help. None of the Avengers (the Hulk, Thor, and Giant-Man and the Wasp) are reachable, and only Tony Stark hears the summons. Knowing he is partly responsible for the Angel's descent into madness, he flies into action to get the young boy to come to his senses.

As the Angel flies over New York, he figures one way to locate the Evil Mutants is to make a big show of his newly discovered evil nature and draw their attention! He steals some dynamite from a demolition depot and starts tossing lit sticks of TNT up in the sky, down in the water, and alongside bridges. Unfortunately for the "evil" Angel, no Evil Mutants show up, but Iron Man finds him! After negotiating with the police to hold their fire on the Angel until he can try and reason with him, Iron Man pursues the aerial mutant through the sky. After reaching a stalemate in the air, Iron Man pulls the Angel down to the ground and tries to talk sense into him, but with no luck. The Angel winds up locking Iron Man inside a building and tries to get away, but Iron Man tears the door down and gives chase again.

From a distance, Iron Man spots the Angel standing alone atop a water tower, waiting for the Evil Mutants to show up, and decides to put into action a daring and risky plan. He torpedoes towards the Angel at high velocity, propelled by his jet boots, and tackles him off the water tower. Not letting go, Iron Man races the Angel towards the sky, hurtling ever upward, until finally Iron Man runs out of energy and starts to fall to the ground. Iron Man is banking on the idea that the Angel will turn back to good in order to save his life, but after many tense seconds, it doesn't seem like that will happen. At the last second, though, the Angel realizes he doesn't want the armored Avenger to die, so he chases after him and saves his life. This snaps him back to reality, and after Iron Man explains that his personality was changed after the atomic explosion, order is restored. Professor X and the X-Men give much thanks to Iron Man for saving their teammate from his evil self.

--synopsis by Gormuu

Issues Reprinted
Iron Man from
Tales of Suspense #39-50

Click on cover image to learn more about each issue.

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