Cover: Sal Buscema

Iron Man #33

Jan 1971 · Marvel · 0.15 USD

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“Their Mission: Destroy Stark Industries!!”

★ 1st appearance — Spymaster

About this Issue

Iron Man #33 is the debut issue of Spymaster, a freelance industrial spy and assassin who would go on to become one of the most persistent recurring antagonists in Iron Man's rogues gallery — a villain so durable that multiple characters inherited the codename across decades of stories. The issue also introduced the Espionage Elite, a five-person crew of specialist operatives, and planted the seeds of corporate espionage as a recurring dramatic engine in the Iron Man title, a theme that would deepen significantly throughout the Bronze Age. Arriving right at the cusp of Marvel's transition from Silver Age adventure to grittier, Cold War-inflected Bronze Age storytelling, the issue captured a cultural moment when spy-thriller anxieties about sabotage and industrial secrecy were being channeled directly into superhero comics. The story kicked off a multi-issue arc that spilled over into Daredevil #73 and tied into the larger Zodiac Cartel subplot, making it an early example of deliberate cross-title continuity plotting in the Iron Man series.

In "Their Mission: Destroy Stark Industries!!," Tony Stark faces a dangerous double threat as he reflects on his past battles while the Spymaster and the Espionage Elite launch a covert assault on Stark Industries. With the stakes rising, Stark is drawn into a trap that tests his ingenuity and resolve. Written by Allyn Brodsky and illustrated by Don Heck, with inks by Joe Gaudioso and letters by Jean Izzo, the issue features a cover by Sal Buscema, capturing the tension of a man under siege from within his own empire.

writer Allyn Brodsky · artist Don Heck · inker Joe Gaudioso · letterer Jean Izzo · cover Sal Buscema

ComicBooks.com Value

Our Model is In Beta

Raw (Fine) $11

CGC 9.8 · 13 in census $1,300

CGC 9.6 · 29 in census $258*

CGC 9.4 · 37 in census $164

CGC 9.2 · 30 in census $114

CGC 9.0 · 17 in census $89

CGC 8.5 · 17 in census $78

Show all 16 grades ▾

CGC 8.0 · 15 in census $60

CGC 7.5 · 4 in census $60*

CGC 7.0 · 15 in census $53

CGC 6.5 · 5 in census $47*

CGC 6.0 · 1 in census $45*

CGC 5.5 · 5 in census $36*

CGC 5.0 · 2 in census $34*

CGC 4.5 · 3 in census $31*

CGC 4.0 none in existence

CGC 3.5 · 1 in census $24*

* estimate — limited direct-sales data at this grade

Our model’s value — refined as new sales data arrives · CGC census counts shown where available

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History

Writer Allyn Brodsky was a Marvel office employee — effectively working as a secretary at the company — whose comics-writing tenure was brief but whose run on Iron Man (#30–34) represented his most prominent work. Issue #33 was the fourth script Brodsky produced for the title, and it became his lasting legacy: the creation of Spymaster, conceived alongside penciler Don Heck (returning to the book he had helped define in earlier years) and framed under Stan Lee's editorial hand. The Sal Buscema cover was inked by Buscema himself, while Mike Esposito handled interior inks over Heck's pencils. The story was designed as the opening chapter of a serial that required the next issue (#34) to resolve the Stark Industries siege, with threads extending further into a Zodiac-connected crossover that Gerry Conway — Brodsky's successor on the title — ultimately scripted.

Trivia · 7 facts

First appearance of Spymaster (using aliases including Ted Calloway and Jake Jordan), a costumed freelance industrial spy and assassin hired by the Zodiac crime cartel's Capricorn to infiltrate Stark Industries.
First appearance of the Espionage Elite, Spymaster's five-member team of specialist operatives: Number One (Marya Penskiyov, ex-KGB), Number Two (Samson Washington, strongman), Number Three (Farley London, master of disguise), Number Four (Godfried Herter, electronics expert), and Number Five (Roger Phillips, athlete/gymnast).
Written by Allyn Brodsky; interior art by Don Heck (pencils) and Mike Esposito (inks); cover penciled and inked by Sal Buscema; lettered by Jean Simek (Izzo); edited by Stan Lee.
The story title is 'Their Mission: Destroy Stark Industries!!' — 'Spy-Master' appears hyphenated on the cover only; the interior consistently spells the name as one word.
A key plot device involves Elite member Farley London impersonating Nick Fury to lure Tony Stark into a trap, ending the issue on a cliffhanger with Stark a captive.
The issue opens with an extended recap/flashback sequence in which Tony Stark reflects on past battles and his history with the Avengers, providing a continuity overview for new readers at the start of the Bronze Age.
The Spymaster story arc launched here crosses over into Iron Man #34 and ultimately into Daredevil #73 (February 1971), making it one of the earliest deliberate cross-title serialized arcs in the solo Iron Man series. The arc is collected in Marvel Masterworks: The Invincible Iron Man Vol. 7.