IRON MAN #54 (1972)
story by Bill Everett
script by Mike Friedrich
pencils by George Tuska & Bill Everett
cover by Gil Kane
If you only go by the cover, you’ll never guess which Marvel character debuts here.
While this is an Iron Man story, what he’s doing in this period is pretty much inconsequential.
We waste little time getting into weird shenanigans, witnessing a high-tech submarine shooting a satellite into space and back.
Said submarine belongs to a bald woman who should be quite familiar to Marvel fans, even though she’s using a completely different color scheme from her usual green.
That’s right, this is the debut of the future superheroine Moondragon, but she doesn’t use that name yet. Oh no, she has what is possibly the most ridiculous supervillain name I’ve ever heard outside of outright parodies.
Madame MacEvil.
Madame.
Mac.
Evil.
If you know ANYTHING about Moondragon… forget everything, because Madame MacEvil is just a straight up evil super-scientist in this story.
And since she’s interested in Namor to run experiments on him, it makes perfect sense for her to show up on Iron Man. Provided you’re insane, of course.
Her plan includes blowing up a random civilian ship, to force Namor to help humans.
According to the credits, the pencils are by George Tuska. Bill Everett is credited for the story and “helping hand”. While he’s not outright acknowledged as contributing to the artwork, I’m going to assume he drew SOMETHING because this doesn’t look like Tuska.
Moondragon will evolve into a rather complex character, while Madame MacEvil is so stereotypical it hurts. It gets old really fast, but her interactions with the stoic computer from her ship is mildly amusing.
Seriously, Madame MacEvil is just Lex Luthor if he was a woman in a skimpy outfit who just snorted half a ton of cocaine.
As I said, Iron Man is completely superfluous in the story. But he DOES show up… with his armor being controlled remotely by Madame MacEvil.
But we’re all here just for Madame MacEvil. Honestly, while I really like Moondragon as a character, I’m kind of sad we lost this incarnation… she’s so campy, over-the-top and BATS##T INSANE that she’s a lot of fun!
Later stories will retcon the hell out of this first appearance: not only she has a different personality and different motives, but she also lacks her telepathy and it’s abundantly clear her background is WILDLY different.
Her relationship with the ship’s computer is simply hilarious.
Madame MacEvil sends Iron Man to fight Namor, which takes up a large chunk of the issue.
I like both characters, but this situation has a bunch of problems:
1) Iron Man is not technically fighting, since he’s not the one controlling the armor
2) Iron Man can’t even talk!!!
3) Namor is RIDICULOUSLY overpowered when he’s underwater, so it’s not very believable he would struggle against a mind-controlled Iron Man (remember than underwater he’s STRONGER THAN THE HULK!!!)
4) It robs us from more episodes from the “Madame MacEvil and the robot” sitcom!!!
I’m being 100% serious, folks. I get the urge to boo this comic whenever the villain is not in the scene.
Eventually Iron Man gains enough freedom to crash full-speed into Namor, which SOMEHOW means Madame MacEvil won’t be able to capture Namor.
But don’t worry, our favorite duo still has some scene to chew.
Unfortunately they are defeated when the fight between Iron Man and Namor ends up damaging the ship, severing her control over shellhead’s armor.
Moondragon might have mentioned these events when she later joins the Avengers, but I struggle to remember if she’s ever even MET Namor again!
Historical significance: WTF/MADAME
Silver Age-ness: ∞/MAC
Does it stand the test of time? 10/EVIL 
How close is this to the modern character? ‘Nuff Said
So… yeah, that was Moondragon’s first story. There’s something else to laugh at, but it requires some introduction.
Her second appearances is a year later, in Daredevil #105 of all places.
According to that story, “Madame MacEvil” was a name given by the computer, which is completely at odds with the Iron Man story.
Her Daredevil story establishes a lot of things. She has her green costume, her mind powers, her connection to Titan and Thanos (whose first story will be the next villain review), and she finally adopts the name Moondragon.
She tells her origin story there. Basically she was a kid whose parents were indirectly killed by Thanos (VERY indirectly here, a little less in later retellings).
Interestingly, she says she was from the 1950s; that’s a 1973 story, so she’s supposed to be in her early 20s.
She’s rescued by Thanos’ father Mentor, and she grows up in a space shaolin monastery.
The reason given for her Madame MacEvil exploits is she was looking for people to help her fight Thanos. Which of course doesn’t work AT ALL with the original story.
(also: wrong caption, because Iron Man #55 is the first appearance of Thanos, NOT the Madame MacEvil story!)
The fact that this massive infodump about a space shaolin warrior priestess is happening in a Daredevil story is insane enough…
…but in the following issue, we also have Daredevil’s blindness being an actual handicap for once!
Until she temporarily cures his blindness (WTF!?) with her telepathy (double WTF!?).
And by “temporarily”, I don’t mean that she can only give him his sight for a while… no, I mean that Daredevil WANTS TO STAY BLIND.
While these two stories have their share of ridiculousness, that’s not the funny part.
The final punchline is that while it’s rumored that the idea behind Moondragon comes from Jim Starlin (who draws the flashbacks), these two Daredevil stories are written by Steve Gerber.
And since this is where she takes the name Moondragon… it means that the name “Madame MacEvil” was considered too stupid to be taken seriously BY THE CREATOR OF HOWARD THE DUCK.
Madame MacEvil is really entertaining. Is Moondragon still around?
Yes she’s around. She hasn’t been used as a villain since her days in the Defenders, but she’s been in Adam Warlock’s Infinity Watch and in the Guardians of the Galaxy.
She pops out every time Starlin writes anything set in space, since he loves to bring her in even when it makes no sense for the story.
Occasionally she can still be a sort of anti-hero, but most of the time she’s a regular space hero. She’s mellowed out over the yeras, but thankfully she still gets to be her old insufferable b#tch self.
Hi! Longtime reader, first time commenter. Huge fan! This labor of love of yours has been a highlight to my day on many occasions. Sorry im too poor to patreon you currently. Soon I think!
Anyhow, the gleeful disdain, and the finding of the few positive bits within each story, are the best features of your work. And are why I keep reading.
Therefore, I challenge you to begin a comprehensive appearance history for Xmen villain Mr. Sinister.
Yes I know you hate the xmen. And Chris Claremonts writing, but just think of the glorious dunking on their idiotic antics you could do. I know I am. Even of it only went from origin to say the age of apocalypse storyline. Anyways I’d love to see your take on all that. Ty for what you do whether you do or don’t do my idea. You are first on my list when I get wealthy.
Thank you for your kind words!
I don’t really hate the X-Men, though I’m not a big fan and find several of their typically praised stories to be overrated. High praise, I know, but I do like some runs.
I’m afraid Mr. Sinister falls a bit off the scope of my reviews, since with the exceptions of very specific retrospectives I stop at the mid-80s.
I will be covering Apocalypse’s first appearance as part of the Villain Origins, however, since the behind the scenes reasons for his creation are absolutely bonkers.
I’ll also cover the first appearances of Sabretooth and Mystique in the 70s, because it’s kind of insane that they debuted on Iron Fist and Ms. Marvel respectively.
You could do the whole thing as xmen are obvious villains and Mr. Sin as the valiant hero trying his best. It would be glorious. And youve probably already read thru…suffered thru…most of that stuff anyhow.
PS: I’m the guy that has never read a Legion comic. All I know about them is from you. And I thank you. Never cared about the spoilers…darkness villain was pretty obvious just from the artwork, shrinking violets switcheroo did catch me, but no one with brains could be reading all this and then cry if you happen to spoil to a 20yr old story.
I’m sorry. It’s late…I get verbose.
That’s fascinating! Really glad to have helped you discover the Legion universe.
I try to avoid some of the big spoilers mostly for the fun of it, but I’m curious to see if you’ll solve a big mystery that’s coming up soon for the Legion retrospective. Let me know when we get there.
I doubt Darkseid surprised too many people at the time, though I still don’t like how modern reprints straight up put him on the cover.
And of course the Shrinking Violet switch is one of the best interpretations of the trope.
I’ll keep my eyes peeled for this mystery, it sounds fun.
Darkseids boom tubes going Ploink! still makes me giggle.
Moondragons cousin Sundragon should be an Avenger.