RED BARBARIAN

Real Name: Unrevealed

Identity/Class: Human, military leader

Occupation: General army of USSR

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: Former partner of the Actor

Enemies: Iron Man (Tony Stark)

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: Excellency

Base of Operations: a "satellite country" inthe USSR

First Appearance: Tales of Suspense I#42 (June, 1963)

Powers: None. The Red Barabarian controlled a large army, as well as employing a number of industrial spies to steal the American technology. He is renown for his brutality, and he will physically attack agents that fail him or report bad news. He has a significant thirst for vodka.

History: Next to nothing is known of the past of the man known only as the Red Barbarian. He ascended to the rank of general in a red (meaning communist) satellite country. He controlled a large spy network. After a group of his spies reported (and were beaten for) the failure to steal the plans for a weapon from Stark Industries, the Red Barbarian was confronted by another communist agent, the Actor. The Actor revealed his skill in disguise and impersonation, and the Barbarian sent him to replace Stark himself, to gain the plans.

The Actor did succeed in doing so, even learning Iron Man's secret identity, but Iron Man stole the plans back and met with the Red Barbarian himself, posing as the actor. Iron Man told him the briefcase was booby-trapped and couldn't be opened for another four hours, and then left, returning to the USA. The real Actor returned to the Red Barbarian, hoping his news of Iron Man's real identity would allow him to be forgiven for failing to gain the plans to the weapon. However, the Red Barbarian saw that the Actor didn't have the plans, and the Actor said he nothing about the time locked brief case. The Red Barbarian refused to believe the Actor and had him shot as a traitor.

Comments: Created by Stan Lee, Robert Bernstein, and Don Heck.

I don't currently own ToS#42; all I have to work with is the Essential Iron Man. If and when I get it (or the Marvel Masterworks), I'll replace the images with better color ones. If you've got them and want to send them to me, that would be great.

Red Barbarian in Russian is Krasnyi Barbar.
--Gammatotem

Thanks to Dennis Giansante for providing the color scan for the second image.

images: (without ads)
Tales of Suspense I#42, Cover (first image)