Incredible Iron Man #3
“The Uncanny Challenge of the Crusher”
Tony Stark has to act happy for Happy Hogan and Pepper Potts when they return to work following their honeymoon. Stark is still not over Pepper and tries to forget her by throwing himself into his work. Now that Stark Industries is phasing out arms manufacturing, his new challenge is to find newer, more profitable fields and is feeling good about space exploration. He has a contract with NASA to develop a new 21-G centrifuge.
Meanwhile, a Cuban scientist named Dr. Criloche waxes about how he was working on centrifuges when he was trapped in one that was started up, and accidentally electrified at the same time. The event triggered a change in him so that he could exert centrifugal force on others. He has finally developed a suit of armor that will magnify that power, and plans to use it to raid Stark Industries and learn Stark’s advancements.
Criloche tries to sneak in with phoney credentials, but is discovered by Pepper. She sounds an alarm, but is then thrown into a closet as Criloche changes into his armor. Iron Man arrives in time to see Criloche, calling himself the Crusher, making employees orbit around him at great speed. Iron Man regrets his employees being put in harm’s way again and volunteers to show all of Tony Stark’s work to him. But this is a trick to lure the Crusher into a centrifuge and reverse direction to cancel out his powers. While Joe, a technician working for Stark keeps Crusher off-balance in the centrifuge, Iron Man goes inside and pastes him a good one, knocking him out.
Plot: Scott Casper
Script: Stan Lee
Pencils: Gene Colan
Inks: Wallace Wood (plus design of Crusher)
August 1967
Fantastic Four #65
“Two Against the Sentry!”
Mr. Fantastic, realizing this is no ordinary robot, tries to contact the FF, but his radio signal cannot penetrate the barrier. The Sentry traces the signal, though, and arrives to attack. Invisible Girl wins an early victory by encasing its feet in forcefield spheres and tripping it, but the Sentry can also fly. Mr. Fantastic has a plan that involves reaching the bunker to look for a way to shut down the barrier, if not the robot. She turns him invisible, Mr. Fantastic Four rolls up until a ball, and everyone gets inside as he rolls across the island. The Sentry soon detects the ruse and switches to infrared vision.
At the bunker entrance, they find the device arrive, but the Sentry overwhelms her forcefield and the feedback knocks Invisible Girl out. Mr. Fantastic distracts the Sentry while the two explorers struggle to deactivate the device, finally succeeding just by randomly pushing buttons. The Sentry is furious and hits them with a force blast that kills one of the two men. Mr. Fantastic gathers Invisible Girl and the surviving explorer, Daniel, and gets them into the bunker. Inside, he finds evidence an alien species has created this place and the Sentry. He is accessing the computer inside when the Sentry comes in after them.
Mr. Fantastic bluffs, pretending he’s ready to send all the information in the computer to computers all around the world so they will know everything there is to know about this alien species. The Sentry is thwarted, for his mission was to observe without being discovered. To stop Mr. Fantastic, the Sentry triggers a self-destruct mechanism in the bunker and everyone barely escapes before everything starts blowing up around them, seemingly taking the Sentry with it.
Script: Scott Casper
Pencils: Jack Kirby
Inks: Joe Sinnott
Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner #94
“Helpless at the Hands of Dragov!”
The Sub-Mariner has returned to Atlantis after months away to get his house in order. He is still expecting a reply from the Fantastic Four about joining their ranks and is furious that they need so long to consider it. He is interrupted by word from his adviser, Vashti, that a message has reached Atlantis from Bulgaria by a man called Dragov. The message is an invitation for the Sub-Mariner, requesting an alliance. Still furious, the Sub-Mariner decides to go to Bulgaria and teach Dragov a lesson for his impudence.
En route, a midget in Dragov’s castle detects the approach of the Sub-Mariner’s airship and fires missiles on it. The Sub-Mariner’s plane is damaged and crashes not far from the castle. Dragov arrives with some soldiers to intercept the Sub-Mariner, and surprise him by trapping in in a forcefield. Dragov tries to make a case that the Bulgarian government fired on his airship and, since they’re communists anyway, the Sub-Mariner should help Dragov depose the country’s government. The Sub-Mariner doesn’t like negotiating from inside a forcefield, however, and pushes against the sides of it until he overloads it and makes the field collapse. Dragov is even more impressed with him and invites him back to the castle to go over details.
Back in Atlantis, Dorma has returned, not wishing to remain in Aquaria without Namor. She was watching the attack on a monitor and has a scientist on hand confirm her guess that the missiles came from the castle.
Meanwhile, the Sub-Mariner has been dining with Dragov while Dragov boasts of his own super-strength, and that together no nation can stand against them. The Sub-Mariner isn’t really interested, but finds it hard to think and to say no. Dragov goes too far, though, bragging that the food and drink was drugged and will make him susceptible to his every command. The Sub-Mariner won’t have that and attacks. Dragov really is super-strong, but the Sub-Mariner figures out that his host is a robot -- based on the strength and the fact that the poison did nothing to him -- and tears him apart. The midget, Goranov, was controlling the robot all along.
Attempting to avoid capture, Goranov jumps out a widow, but is captured by the local authorities. Atlantis (Dorma, really) called General Secretary of Bulgaria and informed him of Goranov’s attempted treachery.
Script: Scott Casper
Pencils: Gene Colan
Inks: Vince Colletta
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