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We look at how one of the most important characters in Iron Man’s life hasn’t appeared in over thirty years!
Today, we look at how one of the most important characters in Iron Man’s life hasn’t appeared in over thirty years!
This is “You Act Like We Never Have Met,” which is a feature about one-time cast members of popular comic book series that have fallen by the wayside in the years since. Some of these are characters who would appear in comics routinely read by hundreds of thousands of people but are now effectively mysteries.
Iron Man #128 (by Bob Layton, David Michelinie and John Romita Jr.) famously saw Tony Stark deal with his drinking problem…
However, the issue basically just has Tony quit cold turkey…
and then everything was okay….
Layton and Michelinie were obviously limited by the era, but there were some, including Denny O’Neil, who believed that they had Tony get sober way too quickly.
So when O’Neil took over writing the book, he quickly had Tony relapse into drinking, as seen in Iron Man #169 (art by Luke McDonnell and Steve MitcheLL)…
Tony is such a mess that James Rhodes has to take over as Iron Man…
Things came to a head for Tony in Iron Man #182, with its wonderfully ominous cover…
Tony, by now, is mostly living on the streets as a hobo. A woman he met while on the streets dies giving birth and Tony has to protect her newborn child from the elements…
Tony is admitted to the hospital and presumably went through his detox while possibly unconscious…
By the end of the issue, Tony has been discharged and has stopped drinking. His need to protect Gretl’s baby was enough to keep him alive through that night and to ultimately get him past his addiction.
Tony then moves to California with Rhodey and a pair of sibling scientists to start a new company…
However, just when Tony got his life in order, Stane attacked again, kidnapping the baby…
In Iron Man #200, Tony, now back as Iron Man, fought Obadiah Stane as Iron Monger, who held the baby hostage…
So the baby was a HUGE part of Tony Stark’s life and yet it hasn’t appeared since Iron Man #200! Isn’t that crazy?
Okay, that’s it for this installment of You Act Like We Never Have Met! Feel free to write in to brianc@cbr.com if you have suggestions for future installments!
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