While flying home, Iron Man's armor begins to malfunction, sending him flying uncontrollably through the sky and crash landing. He regains control and later tests the armor in his lab, and finds nothing apparently wrong. Stark is visiting a casino with Bethany Cabe when Blizzard, the Melter, and Whiplash arrive and attempt to rob the casino's vault. Stark slips away, dons his armor, and battles and defeats the villains. During the fight, he overhears a comment from Blizzard about "Hammer" wanting Iron Man kept alive. Stark later receives and agrees to a request for Iron Man to represent his company, Stark International, at a public ceremony and meet with a foreign ambassador. At the ceremony, Iron Man's armor again malfunctions, striking the ambassador with a repulsor blast, killing him. Iron Man tells the police about the malfunction, claiming he did not intentionally kill the ambassador. Doubtful, but knowing they can't fight him, the police let him go but demand that Stark turn over his armor for inspection, and Stark complies. During this time, Stark's drinking increases significantly. I've been wanting to read the comic where Tony Stark has a drinking problem for quite some time. Ok, that sounds kind of weird, but it's true. This is the volume that includes the classic "Demon in a Bottle" comic. D.K. Latta of Pulp and Dagger praised Michelinie for "deliver[ing] smart writing and plausible, grown up characters that are a pleasure to read and a rich tapestry of plot threads" and "avoid[ing] the preachy, holier-than-thou route, and instead just tell[ing] a story that happens to concern a costumed super-hero getting a little...lost." Latta found Romita's pencil art "problematic" but added that "Bob Layton's inks help a lot." [7] Win Wiacek of Now Read This! said, "The fall and rise of a hero is a classic plot, and it’s seldom been better used in the graphic narrative medium and never bettered in the super-hero field. An adult and very mature tale for kids of all ages, it is an unforgettable instance of triumph and tragedy perfectly told." [4] Just not much as good as I used to remember, but this minisaga is still an Iron Man milestone, introducing themes like alcoholism, addiction and obsession to a comic book character son of both Cold War (just look at the Michelinie/Infantino origin story "remake"/fill-in inside this volume with the big bad evil commies... Oh good grief) and Spy fiction, and making him for the first time far more interesting.

The bottom of the liquor bottle pictured on the cover of this issue says "Coming Soon Jerry Bingham...". Bingham would replace John Romita Jr. as Iron Man's regular artist in Iron Man #131. It is in this storyline that the Tony Stark character was given the deep human elements that will make him timeless. He was shown at his most humble and at his noblest. The opening lines to the final issue of this story arc say it all: Storywise, there's a lot going on here. Tony's struggling with the possible hostile takeover of Stark Industries by SHIELD, as well as troubles with his armor. And though the story doesn't specifically mention it, I felt like he's also dealing with the strain of lying to some of his best friends (Rhodey and Bethany) about his dual identity. There's a murder and also a near-death at the hands of Namor. Finally, some goofy villains seems to be teaming up, making his life much more hellish than they normally would. So the b-plot is that Tony seems to be drinking a lot more than normal, and it causes trouble. (see some great scenes with Jarvis on this subject) It's important to remember the original audience of old comic books. When the "Demon in a Bottle" storyline originally ran in 1978 the average comic book reader was closer to 10-12 years old; much younger than the 25-30 year olds who make up the bulk of comic book readers now.

Demon in a Bottle is a piece of comic canon that depicts a significant event in Tony Stark's life: his battle with alcoholism. While bidding for the contract to build an electronics plant in the Communist country of Carnelia, Justin Hammer lost the bidding contract to Stark International. Hammer reacts in a personal manner with a vendetta against Tony Stark. Hammer plans to ruin Stark's reputation by defaming Iron Man. Hammer has his engineers build the hypersonic scan transmitter which is integral in his plans to ruin Stark. This device transmits a signal that could breach the refractory coating of Iron Man's armor and take control of the armor. Hammer tests the device three times before attempting to take full control. Iron Man steps down as Chairman of the Avengers, placing Captain America in charge. From this point forward, the dominant image of the team is Cap as the leader. Later, Hammer gets Whiplash, the Melter and the Blizzard out of custody. Soon Stark and Jim Rhodes land in Monaco, then Stark is captured by Hammer's henchmen and brought to his headquarters via an amphibious craft. Stark learns that although Hammer is not as public a figure as Stark, Hammer's wealth and power is second only to that of Stark's influence. Stark International had been Hammer's business rival for a long time but the Carnelian contract was the most recent competition between the two. Stark also learns that losing the Carnelian contract to him was the main reason that Hammer discredited him.

WARNING: References to addiction. If you are struggling with addiction, call the SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) National Hotline at 1-800-662-HELP. Writer/artist Bob Layton said of the story: "I'm gonna quote David Michelinie here, that it was never our intention to do anything relevant. We were paid to, basically, do the next episode of Iron Man. [It's] just [that in] that particular issue, alcoholism was the bad guy. Instead of Doctor Doom or somebody like that, it was the bottle. That was our villain of the month. And that's really the way we treated it. We built everything up to that. But the point of it is, it was never... we never attempted to be relevant. It just... in the corporate world, what gets to guys? What causes the downfall? Usually it's greed, or it's sex and drugs, right? Well, we couldn't do the sex part, right? Alcohol wasn't talked about all that much, really, to be honest with you. Especially with kids, you know, in that particular era. But, you know, we treated it as we intended to, as the bad guy." [2] Reception and legacy [ edit ]

Plot Summary

Stark then tries to escape the complex, only to learn that it is a moving, floating, houseboat. Stark is put in a cell, but then he escapes again, destroys the transmitter and changes into his Iron Man armor. Hammer sends his minions after Iron Man, who dispatches them easily, and then Hammer attempts to escape to international waters by powering up jet powered lift pods on the bottom of his floating Villa. There are people who think that heroes should never have serious flaws,” recounted O’Neil. “I don’t think they should be jerks, the word “hero” is from the Greek “to serve and protect” and I think that has to be an element of it. But, having a guy overcome something like an addiction or a terrible flaw seems to me to enhance his heroism…it comes down to a question of who the man inside the suit really is, and it doesn’t matter if the suit comes from a subterranean laboratory or Brooks Brothers.” Coming after two years of hardship, O’Neil and McDonnell would end their first major arc having completely revolutionized Iron Man, passing the mantle to a new generation while sending Tony Stark on a new path of his own. This, however, would only be the first of many changes to come. HEAVY IS THE HEAD This is a sort of last hurrah of sorts for the original incarnations of Blizzard and Melter, as both would only make a few more appearances after this storyline before being unceremoniously killed off. While the second Blizzard would become a mainstay in Iron Man's rogues gallery, the Melter would rarely reappear in any incarnation.