Tales of Suspense #44

 "Cleopatra's beauty is almost worth it, but my work is in the twentieth century."

This story is, of course, bonkers. It's also yet another instalment that doesn't move the character forward. Yes, we've established that Stark is a wealthy playboy, the armour, the heart condition. But there are no other recurring side characters and villains are invariably one-offs- as here, where we have the "Mad Pharaoh", the fictional King Hatap, seemingly in reality just a failed rebel against Cleopatra, well into late Hellenic times.

We have some archaeological fun, along with the usual hijinks with heart trouble and transistors. But soon we have Hatap returned to life, having been in suspended animation for 2,000 years and, even more miraculously, speaking English, a language that didn't exist until many centuries after he was mummified.

And so we have this sorcerer take Stark and travel back in time and.. oh dear, let's try and overlook the historical inaccuracies, shall we? Romans in green, with chariots. Oh, and Stark now apparently speaks Ancient Greek, or Coptic, whatever Cleopatra is speaking, and gets to meet her, the lucky sod.

He soon saves the day and returns to 1963- and yes, Marvel Time adherents, the actual year is mentioned several times. But then, at the end, we have the twist: Tony Stark, in the last panel, sees a film at the cinema, a film which is clearly Cleopatra, with Elizabeth Taylor, an epic released that very year. Yep. This story is... a tie-in to a film currently in cinemas. I must admit that's rather cool.

But can we please have some recurring characters and identity for these Iron Man stories?