Tales of Suspense #48
The New Iron Man Battles… The Mysterious Mr. Doll!
Tony Stark is annoyed when Charleton Carter suddenly cancels his deal to supply Stark Industries with steel. Tony decides to pay Carter a personal visit to see what’s going on. When he arrives, he sees a strangely garbed man lurking around the property. Suspecting trouble, Tony rushes back to his car to put on his Iron Man armor.
Iron Man then hears Charleton Carter crying for help and flies to one of the upper levels of the mansion. There he finds the intruder, a man named Mister Doll. Doll is somehow causing Carter pain by manipulating a doll fashioned to look like Charleton. When Iron Man tries attacking Mister Doll, the villain reshapes the clay doll to look like Iron Man. This causes Iron Man a lot of pain and he ends up stumbling over a balcony, causing him to fall down the side of a cliff and into the water below. Returning his attention to Charleton Carter, Mister Doll threatens to cause him more pain. Having witnessed the defeat of Iron Man, Carter surrenders.
With the power supply in his chest plate running out, Iron Man is forced to retreat and flee back to Stark Industries so he can recharge and keep his heart beating. Although Tony manages to get back to his office and plug in his chest plate, the pain caused by the run down chest plate causes him to blackout. He is woken up the following day by a concerned call from Pepper Potts who is concerned that she hasn’t heard from Tony since the night before. After his call, Tony realizes that his current suit of armor is very heavy and as such drains the power supply that keeps his heart beating much faster, requiring more and more frequent recharges. Tony then begins working in a brand new design that will be lighter weight and more versatile than his old armor.
Meanwhile, Charleton Carter has signed over his fortune and business to Mister Doll. The police investigate this strange deal, but can’t do anything unless Carter presses charges. Afraid for his life, Charleton refuses to do so. Meanwhile, Mister Doll gloats over his victory and sets his sights on his next target for extortion: Anthony Stark. By this time, Tony has completed his new suit of red and gold armor. This new suit is lightweight and each modular component magnetically seals together to form the full suit of armor, allowing him to change into Iron Man in seconds. When a police officer comes calling to warn Stark about the threat posed by Mister Doll, Stark is able to quickly change out of his armor to meet with the officer waiting outside his office. While both Pepper and Happy are worried about the safety of their boss, Tony assures the police that he won’t need any extra protection.
Stuck with a security detail following him, Tony convinces the guard to leave him in a room alone with Pepper Potts, by suggesting he wants some alone time to make his move on her. Pepper, who has pined after Tony for some time, is happy for the opportunity. However, she is disappointed when Tony reveals that this was a ruse to allow Tony to use a secret passageway to leave and find Iron Man. By the time he has changed costumes, Mister Doll has been sighted on the property. When Iron Man confronts him, and while his armor has improved energy efficiency, he is still susceptible to the pain caused by the villain’s dolls. Satisfied that he has cowed Iron Man, Mister Doll then makes his clay doll look like Tony Stark and begins willing for Stark to come to him. Since Tony is already in the room, he begins resisting the pain caused by the doll so he doesn’t blow his secret identity.
Getting tired of looking at Iron Man, Mister Doll dismisses the hero, much to Tony’s relief. Alone in his lab, Tony removes the piece of his chest plate that keeps his heart beating. This is so that his slowed heart rate will dull the pain caused by Mister Doll. Tony then races against time to build a device to counteract his foe before his heart stops. Once he completes his device, Tony plugs back in the heart rate monitor. He then confronts Mister Doll with his device which allows Iron Man to remotely change the shape of the clay doll and making it resemble Mister Doll himself. The pain causes Mister Doll to blackout, and he is then turned over to the police. After changing out of his armor, Tony Stark remembers he left Pepper waiting in one of the storerooms. When he and Happy race to go and get her, Pepper is furious for being made to wait for hours on end.[1]
Recurring Characters
Iron Man, Mister Doll, Pepper Potts, Happy Hogan, Charleton Carter
Continuity Notes
In this story, Mister Doll states that he got his mystical doll from a witch doctor in Africa. For more on his origins see Spider-Woman #5 and 12.
Topical References
The technical specifications of Iron Man’s new armor, particularly the primary feature that it “runs on transistors” like that’s somehow a revolutionary design should be considered topical since transistors are common in all electronics now.
