Tales of Suspense #44
Iron Man Faces the Menace of the Mad Pharaoh!
Tony Stark is taking a flight to Egypt. As he boards his plane he tells a group of reporters that he’s going to assist an archeologist friend and not for any romantic reasons.
When he arrives at the site of the dig, his friend Paul is trying to find the entrance to King Hatap’s tomb. Tony then offers to get the aid of Iron Man, saying that he and the hero are close friends. Tony then returns to Cairo, intending to return to the dig as Iron Man in the morning. That evening, Tony has to end an evening out abruptly when he realizes he forgot to charge his chest plate. With the aid of the hotel bellhops, he manages to get to his room in time to plug his chest plate into a nearby wall socket so it could recharge.
The following morning, Tony changes into Iron Man and returns to the site. Using a pair of special goggles that allow him to see through walls, he quickly locates the entrance and uses his burrowing attachment to dig his way inside the tomb in minutes. Iron Man leaves Paul to examine the body of King Hatap, aka the “Mad Pharaoh”, saying that Tony Start will be by soon. When he returns later at Tony Stark, Paul tells him that someone stole the body of Hatap from his sarcophagus. As Paul looks for a thief, Tony stays behind. To his surprise, Tony is soon confronted by King Hatap himself. The ancient pharaoh reveals that after a failed insurrection against Cleopatra, Hatap appeared to take his own life by drinking what everyone thought was a cup of poison. In reality, it was a mixture that put him in suspended animation for centuries.
Now that he is free and in the presence of one of the most brilliant minds of this era, Hatap intends on kidnapping Stark and taking him back to assist in overthrowing Cleopatra. In order to force Tony into complying, Hatap has infected the dig workers with a plague. Tony agrees and rubs a golden charm twice, summoning the so-called Chariot of Time to send them back in time. Tony takes his briefcase containing his Iron Man armor, intending on using it to fight his way back to the present.
When they arrive in the past, Tony intentionally rolls down a hill of sand to get away from his foe long enough to change into Iron Man. He then takes to the air and flies toward a nearby palace, which is under attack by Roman soldiers. Iron Man easily trashes their weapons and sends the troops fleeing. Learning that Cleopatra had fled in her royal ship, Iron Man then saves the vessel from a Roman galley. He is brought to Cleopatra herself who thanks him for his help. When Iron Man tells her about Hatap’s plan, she asks for his aid in stopping him.
Soon, Hatap leads an army in the attack of Cleopatra’s palace, intending to use his mystical charm to return to the future if things don’t go well for him. However, Iron Man easily bowls over Hatap and his invading army after attaching a jet engine and wheels to his suit of armor to turn his body into a battering ram. When Hatap attempts to use the charm to escape, Iron Man knocks it out of his hand. Hatap then trips and falls on his own sword trying to regain the charm, ending his life. With the battle over, Cleopatra offers Iron Man a place to rule by her side but he instead chooses to return to his own era.
Back in the present, Tony is amused to see that Cleopatra’s followers have immortalized their meeting by writing about it in hieroglyphics recently uncovered by his friend Paul.
Recurring Characters
Iron Man, Cleopatra
Topical References
Stark is depicted boarding an aircraft by a set of runway steps. This should be considered topical as these have since been replaced with concourses that take passengers directly from the gate on board the plane.
One of the reporters is depicted using a cardioid microphone commonly used in the 1960s. Unless he’s a reporter for the Hipster News, I think we can also call that a topical reference.
Hatap states that that the length of time between the Modern Age and the reign of Cleopatra is 2000 years. This should be considered a topical reference due to the Sliding Timescale. As the STS pushes the Modern Age forward, the length of time between ancient Egypt and the modern-day will continue to grow longer.
Further, references to the present day taking place in the 20th Century or specific references to the year being 1963 should also be considered a topical reference. Modern readers should interpret this story as taking place during “Year One” of the Modern Age of the Marvel Universe and the moments in Egypt taking place in 37 BC. (see below on how you get to that figure)
Historical Notes
The reign of Cleopatra lasted from 51 to 30 BC, when she died at the age of 39. These parts of this story that take place in the past happen sometime in the year 37 BC (which is the year you get when you subtract 2000 years from 1963)
One of the reporters asks how Tony would do trying to romance Cleopatra, referring to her as the “Siren of the Nile”. The idea that Cleopatra was a 10 is a misconception that was popularized when Elizabeth Taylor portrayed the character in 1963. She was actually quite average looking for someone of the era if you trust stone carvings that are thousands of years old.
