—Iron Man (Tony Stark)My transistors are fully charged -- My armor's in perfect repair -- Your size alone can't beat me!
Appearing in "By Force of Arms!"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
Other Characters:
- Numerous unnamed Washingtonians
- United States Congress
Races and Species:
Locations:
Items:
- Iron Man Armor MK IV
- Titanium Man Armor MK I
- Iron Man's Unstable Freon Bomb (First appearance)
Synopsis for "By Force of Arms!"
Turning himself in to report to a Senate Committee on national security over the secrets of Iron Man's armor, Tony Stark flies into Washington D.C. to present himself to the hearing in his Iron Man armor, however on the way he is attacked by the newly revived Titanium Man who was launched into Washington D.C. by the Soviets.
As the two armor-clad titans clash, the entire city of Washington D.C. looks on, including Senator Harrington Byrd who called the committee meeting, as well as Pepper Potts and Happy Hogan, who have just arrived in D.C. to support their boss, Tony Stark.
As the Titanium Man attempts to destroy Iron Man, the Golden Avenger attempts to bring Titanium Man into a secluded area outside of the town to prevent any innocents from getting injured. However a crowd (including Pepper and Happy) soon appear to watch the fight, and Titanium Man manages to catch Iron Man in his paralysis ray.
As Iron Man tries to break free, Pepper cheers him on and offers to find Tony Stark to help him, however when Iron Man thinks his built-in live wire has allowed him to break free of the paralysis ray, he soon learns that in reality, the Titanium Man is no longer training the ray on him, but on Pepper Potts instead.
Appearing in "The Maddening Mystery of the Inconceivable Adaptoid!"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- A.I.M.
- Adaptoid ⏵ (First appearance) (Impersonates Jarvis and Captain America)
- Count Bornag Royale
Other Characters:
- Bucky (Bucky Barnes) (Photo and hallucination)
- Unidentified Police Department (Photo)
- Two unnamed police officers (Photo)
- Red Skull (Photo)
- Iron Man (Tony Stark) (Mentioned)
- Avengers (Mentioned)
- Agent Axis (First appearance; hallucination)
- Fang the Warlord (Hallucination)
- Nazis (Hallucination)
- Heer (Hallucination)
- Numerous unnamed soldiers (Hallucination)
- Heer (Hallucination)
- United States Army (Hallucination)
- Sgt. Mike Duffy (Hallucination)
- Numerous unnamed soldiers (Hallucination)
- Quicksilver (Pietro) (Hallucination)
- Scarlet Witch (Wanda) (Hallucination)
- S.H.I.E.L.D.
- Colonel Nick Fury (Mentioned)
- Numerous unnamed agents
Races and Species:
- Humans
- Robots
- Spiders (Mentioned in narration or thoughts)
- Life Model Decoys (Mentioned)
Locations:
- Earth
- North America
- United States of America
- New York
- Camp Lehigh, Virgina (Mentioned in narration or thoughts)
- United States of America
- Hiroshima, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan, Asia (Mentioned)
- Europe (Mentioned)
- North America
Items:
Events:
- World War II (Photo)
Synopsis for "The Maddening Mystery of the Inconceivable Adaptoid!"
—Captain AmericaThere's nothing like inaction to sap a fighting man's energy! It's probably just boredom, but I'm actually feeling tired! I hope it isn't my age finally catching up with me! I couldn't bear having to retire!
One night while alone in Avengers Mansion, Captain America is once again reminiscing about his past during World War 2 when he is briefly visited by Jarvis. Deciding to check on the ready room one more time, he is suddenly attacked by his old World War 2 foe, Agent Axis, who vanishes as suddenly as he appears.
When checking the monitor room he is soon interrupted by a communication from yet another old World War 2 foe: Fang the Warlord. Fearing that he may be losing his mind, he soon finds himself living a vivid fantasy where he and his late partner Bucky are in a car fleeing the Nazi's the two fight off their attackers before Cap realizes this is yet another strange hallucination.
Next, he sees what he believes to be Sgt. Duffy and his troops on a hike, and soon grow faint to be helped who appear to be Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch. When Cap asks what they are doing in New York when last he heard they were in Europe trying to get their lost powers back, it turns out that it was really Jarvis he was talking to.
Elsewhere, a group of SHIELD agents have uncovered an AIM facility where they find Count Royal, an AIM operative who has released something that they learn is called an "Adaptoid."
Back at Avengers Mansion as Jarvis places the unconscious Captain America in his bed, Jarvis soon also suddenly transforms into the Adaptoid, which then takes on the shape of Captain America, and takes Cap's shield.
Notes
Continuity Notes[]
- Agent Axis was not actually a Marvel character, but a Golden Age character from the DC universe. It seems either Stan Lee or Jack Kirby confused this when writing/drawing this issue. Agent Axis will appear later as an hallucination in Captain America #162. Eventually, The Agent was retconned and created for the Marvel Universe by Roy Thomas. Agent Axis is properly introduced in Invaders Annual #1.[1]
Publication Notes[]
- This issue contains a letters page, Mails of Suspense. Letters are published from Sterling Evans, Haun Nelson, Timothy Kuhn, James Taylor, and Bill Todd.
- References: Strange Tales #149
Trivia
- The splash page of the Captain America story lists this credit: Irving Forbush sharpened the pencils.
