COMIC DETAILS
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Comic Description:
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Tales of Suspense 48
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Grade:
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9.8
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Page Quality:
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WHITE
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Pedigree:
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Don/Maggie Thompson Collection
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Certification #:
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1198173012
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Owner:
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Mississippi Mudcats
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SET DETAILS
Owner's Description
Issue #48 is a mini-key, as it introduces the new sleeker Iron Man. This book also marks the first appearance of Mister Doll, Nathan Dolly. While the cover touts him as being a truly different Super-Villain, he seems an awful lot like the Puppet Master from FF #8 to me.
In the story, Pepper Potts delivers the news to Anthony Stark that one of his business associates, steel tycoon Charleton Carter, has backed out of a deal. Stark doesn’t understand why Carter has done this and goes to Carter's estate to investigate. Once there, he spots a suspicious man dressed in a strange costume slinking around in the shadows and dons his Iron Man armor. Once inside the mansion, he sees Carter on the floor, cowering in fear, with the strangely garbed fellow standing over him. Carter tells the man to let him go, that he has complied with his demands and had cut off his business with Tony Stark, but the strange man continues to poke at a doll he holds in his hands, causing Carter to writhe in pain.
Iron Man enters the room and challenges the man. As Iron Man lifts him up into the air, the self-proclaimed Mister Doll rearranges the appearance of his clay doll to resemble Iron Man, and starts slowly squeezing it. This inflicts intense, claustrophobic pain to Iron Man, causing him to spin and fall off of Carter’s balcony into the ocean. He nearly drowns before the pain subsides and he is able to crawl out of
Mister Doll then turns his attentions back to Carter, while Iron Man rushes back to his office to recharge his chest plate’s batteries. Stark passes out for several hours after barely plugging himself in to the electrical outlet in time. Later he sets about creating a new lighter set of armor that would place less of a strain on his heart.
Meanwhile, Mister Doll has been forcing more and more wealthy individuals to sign over their fortunes to him, and the police are unable to do anything, as it has all been done in the letter of the law. Mister Doll then decides to turn his attention to Tony, and begins to mold his doll in Stark's image.
Back at Stark Industries, Stark has completed construction on the components of his new red and gold Iron Man armor. As he dons the armor for the first time, he describes how it utilizes an intricate system of magnets to connect its form-fitting components to each other. As he puts on the armor’s redesigned face mask, the new Iron Man is born!
Sometime later, the police visit Stark Industries to inform Stark that Mister Doll has somehow been convincing millionaires to turn over their assets to him and they want his help set a trap so they can catch him in the act. Mister Doll appears on the scene and changes his doll to imitate Iron Man. Once again, he starts to press on the doll, causing Iron Man severe pain. He then commands Iron Man to chase out Stark's security guards. With Iron Man quivering under his control, Mister Doll explains how he stole his magical voodoo doll from a witch doctor in Africa and discovered he could use it to inflict pain in others. Mister Doll calls Iron Man a weakling and orders him to leave the room, but not to try to escape or he will cause him more pain.
Iron Man falls to the floor in severe pain and crawls into his laboratory. With the door locked behind him, he decides on a risky gambit. He will disable his chest plate, causing his heartbeat to slow down and prevent Mister Doll from being able to control his pain. With his chest plate disabled, he frantically works on a project that he hopes will allow him to defeat Mister Doll. When the project is complete, he reactivates his chest plate and sets forth to confront Mister Doll again.
As Iron Man barges into the room, Mister Doll begins to manipulate his clay doll into his image again. Iron Man uses his new transistorized ray gadget to mold the doll into the image of Mister Doll himself. The surprised Mister Doll immediately drops the doll, fearing that he might hurt himself. As the doll hits the floor, he collapses into unconsciousness and Iron Man then scoops him up and hands him over to the police.
Our 9.8 comes from the Don/Maggie Thompson Collection. The Thompsons were responsible for several publications and writings during the '60s that helped bring together comic book fandom as we know it today. Already adults when Fantastic Four #1 was released in 1961, the Thompsons carefully stored away copies of most Marvel and DC comics throughout the '60s and '70s. Don passed away in 1994, and in 2013 Maggie decided to sell the collection through Heritage, resulting in nearly $1 million in sales, thanks to the pristine condition of their comics, which included an Avengers #1 and Tales of Suspense #39 in 9.4, a Journey into Mystery #83 in 9.2 and a Hulk #1 in 8.5.
Our book is also one of three highest graded in the census. We acquired it from the November 23, 2013 Heritage Auction.
2024 Update: It was a bad census year for us with respect to TOS, as now there are four 9.8s.
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