The New Iron Man Battles...The Mysterious Mr. Doll! 1st "Mr.Doll"
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 under stand why Carter has done this and drives to Carter's estate in order to take up the matter personally. Once there, he spots a suspicious man dressed in a strange costume slinking around in the shadows. He dons his Iron Man armor and sets out to investigate. 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
New Iron Man
the water. Mister Doll, thinking he has finished Iron Man for good, turns his attentions back to Carter.
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 that day, Stark tells Pepper to hold all calls, as he doesn’t want to be disturbed for anything. He then 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 Anthony Stark, 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 armor 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, champion of champions, 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. As they leave, a guard is left to protect Stark. He tells the guard that he needs a few minutes of private time with Pepper so that he can ask her out on a date. Pepper is extremely excited by this, and though the guard is unsure, he agrees to leave the two of them alone in Stark’s office. Much to her disappointment, Tony tells Pepper to keep up the act, while he sneaks out and finds Iron Man.
Iron Man arrives at the office and dismisses the guard. Suddenly 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 his chest plate disabled, he frantically works on a project that he ho
The Pact A historian writing about the trial and execution of his ancestor for witchcraft interviews the only remaining party concerned in the case: the Devil. (Text story with illustrations.)
Kraddak An alien tells a greedy mine owner that he will be killed in a fall. The mine owner hides at the lowest possible point in his mine, but is killed in a cave-in. This is a retelling of "The Man Who Fell!" drawn by Paul Reinman in Strange Tales (Marvel, 1951 series) #85 (June 1961).
