From Invincible Iron Man vol. 1 #24 (1970)
Okay I’m just gonna word vomit for a second.
I mean, if you are even slightly familiar with Madame Masque’s story, you will know how damn heartbreaking this is.
The woman literally just survived a plane crash, her face is horribly scarred (so much so that men faint -that’s right faint- at the sight of it), and, not to mention, up until this point she has placed her faith in men who have let her down.
Her fiance (who is a dick) left her because of her criminal heritage and his career is more important to him that his loving wife-to-be, and her father practically gave her no choice in the matter and made her take over his criminal empire when shit hit the fan for him.
Top this off with becoming horribly disfigured, and you’ve pretty much got yourself an emotional wreck.
And then we have Tony, playboy billionare, tall, dark and handsome, kissing her and telling her she is beautiful even despite her scars. And she unselfishly gave him up because she thought knew that he’d be better off without a criminal in his life (re: asshole ex-fiance). She doesn’t want to be evil, she wants to be good, but now with her scars, who will give her a chance?
Now this guys shows up, after his crazy-ass minotaur son attacked her, tells her he can fix her. And with her being so emotionally fragile of course she is going to trust this guy. And then later in the issue we find out that he just wanted her for his bull-headed son because like her, he is butt ugly and won’t ever be accepted by society.
And then of course from here on in it just keeps going downhill; Jasper meltdown (in which he points a damn gun to her head), Tony’s unintentional betrayal, and let’s not forget Obediah Stane’s ol’ brain-switcheroo.
Can we really blame her for hiding underground in Nevada and thinking everyone wants to kill her? (Avengers vol. 3)
