Thrill-packed Third Issue!

For the love of an Iron Man.

 

 Given the tendency of certain people in the wider world as well as the strange subculture of individuals which make up the many types of comic fans to pretend they always have been a fan of whatever is currently determined as cool (1), you can be forgiven for thinking that the comic character Iron Man was always as popular as he has been over the last decade. An insanely successful movie franchise where the character and actor receive top billing will do that to you. 

 Obviously, this has not always been so.

 The truth of the matter is that being a follower of the Golden Avenger over the decades has not been an easy journey. If the pain of the long-suffering supporter of a periodically successful sports team is universally understood I need say no more about the varying fortunes of Iron Man over the years.

 There have been epic eras of greatness for Iron Man over the last fifty-seven years. The David Michelinie/Bob Layton/John Romita Jr. run of the late 70's leading to a decade of success for the title. The Denny O'Neil/Luke McDonnell/Mark Bright run. The definitive Bright/Layton run of 1986-1988. The Heroes Reborn and Heroes Return of the late 90's era and of course, Extremis in the 2000's. This as well as a rather pivotal role in The Avengers/West Coast Avengers and Force Works.

 The Eighties defined the character and armour like never before. As is well-known, Bob Layton brought a more technical aspect to the armour, designing and introducing specialist suits in between co-plotting, drawing, and inking the best-looking Iron Men ever (I'm biased, of course). Before David Michelinie Tony Stark was a superficial billionaire playboy ex-weapons manufacturer with a side-hobby of James Bond style adventures and a founding role in a small super-hero team called the Avengers. With Michelinie as a writer, Tony Stark was transformed into a doubt-driven, alcoholic billionaire playboy ex-weapons manufacturer with a side-hobby of James Bond style adventures and a founding role in a small super-hero team called the Avengers.

 Oh yes, he also travelled through time to Camelot with Doctor Doom once during this run. Comics never get better than that.

Honestly though, the standard of the comic has varied wildly over the years, both in terms of script and art. For every Stark Wars there is a Mask in the Iron Man (2). For every Iron Monger/Silver Centurion fight issue there was the issue where Tony's consciousness is switched with an Artificial Intelligence program, trapping Tony in Virtual Reality and culminating in Tony becoming a robot who defeats the AI and switches his consciousness back to his own body (3).

In terms of characters, well, for every Spymaster there is a Vibro. For every Ghost there is a Flying Tiger. For every Obadiah Stane/Iron Monger there is a Living Laser. For every Iron Man 2020 there is a teen Tony Stark(4). For every Mandarin there is a Mandarin. 

That is to say. for every sublime work of genius there is a hideous display of uninspired hackwork, most often in the same issue.

So, what am I really trying to say? Obviously that I love the character and have done so ever since I picked up Iron Man #200 in 1985. I mean, James Bond in a state-of-the-art technological wonder of a suit, how can you not love that concept?

Oh yes, and his armour just looks sexy of course (Tony with his moustache and mullet? Not so much.)

Notes of the foot

 (1) The peak of Iron Man's coolness being the exact same moment Loki threw Tony Stark out of the window in The Avengers in case you were wondering.

 (2 A story in which the Iron Man Renaissance Armour gains sentience due to the Millennium Bug, quickly becomes a robotic equivalent of a psychotic stalker and eventually strands Tony Stark on a desert island where Tony has to become Arnold Schwarzenegger at the end of Predator in order to survive, facing his sentient armour in final battle during which time he has a heart attack, leading to the sentient suit pulling out its robotic heart and shoving it in Tony's chest as a final act of love. 

Yep, that good.

 (3) The story is something like that anyway. I've never had the courage to read it a second time.

 (4) The horror. The horror.

 The Evolution Of Iron.

 Iron Man was always different,

That is to say Iron Man's creation and the formation of this thing you may have heard about called "The Marvel Universe" was not as straightforward and pre-planned as the people who make a living out of promoting it would have you think.

 The tale that is told telling the tale of the Marvel line of superheroes is well known. Two men(1) you may have heard of took a comic line that produced monster, sci-fi and romance comics (2) and came up with the idea of a superhero family with powers defined by the four elements and called them the Fantastic Four. The success of this led to them taking the concept of Jekyll & Hyde, combining it with the plot of Godzilla and calling it The Incredible Hulk. This was closely followed by the creation of a Superman type hero based on Norse Mythology named Thor. Then came Ant Man, who was a pre-Fantastic Four scientist character who could shrink, given a superhero costume and a giant helmet. Oh, then there was this other character who may sell a few copies named Spider-Man which brings us to the creation of Iron Man.

 As can be seen from the descriptions of Marvel's existing characters in the first year of the Marvel Universe (3) these are all rather varied with one common theme being superpowers. The demand for new characters and the proliferation of Super-heroes from rival companies was making it increasingly difficult to create original origin stories (the simple explanation of people just being born with powers had not been thought of yet).

 So the men who created these characters wanted to try something different, a more classic comic hero with no powers who was more flawed than any Marvel hero before. A character who was more of an establishment figure than the tragic teenagers (4), scientists and demigods that made up their line. Enter a Weapons Manufacturer, dangerously wounded with shrapnel, who creates a magnet chestplate to stay alive, using a suit of armour to fight evil, while also going on James Bond style adventures.

 So, the basic concept created and the initial armor designed (5), Iron Man debuted in Tales of Suspense #39 and quickly became another of Marvel's great success stories. The plotlines for the majority of his appearances in the sixties detailing Tony Stark's efforts to maintain his secret identity (6) while fighting villains, his armour always running out of power during battle leading to a suspenseful ending which would be resolved in the next issue.

 Due to his role in The Avengers Iron Man was always a "decent seller", meaning that while it was not as popular as Spider-Man or The Hulk it sold enough copies to escape cancellation in the late 60's/early 70's (7). The stories during the 70's being usual superhero fare with an occasional highlight, such as Tony realising that the Vietnam War might be bad in 1972, between his adventures facing characters of such fame as The Night Phantom, Mikas and The Demon Queen.

Thankfully, Jim Shooter made the decision to hire David Michelinie as writer along with Bob Layton in 1978 (Issue 116 to be precise) which is where this post first came in.

 Notes of the toes.

 (1) The truth of exactly who created what is contested, with the estates of the artists and Marvel fighting over the rights. This is what happens when something gets insanely successful and profitable, of course. I'm not focusing on the reality of the comics industry (for now) merely celebrating the innocent fantasy of the comics themselves, so forgive my vagueness over who did what, please.

(2) Or, to put it in a more Marvel style: GIANT ATOMIC ANTS WITH NUCLEAR FLAME BREATH! MARTIAN INVADERS DISGUISED AS HUMANS! WOMEN WHO CRY A LOT!

(3) This is different from the "Marvel Age" & "Marvel Era", which were first termed a year or so later in late 1963, the period discussed here is August 1961 to December 1962.

(4) At the time of creation, Spider-Man had one comic appearance, Amazing Fantasy #15.

(5) The original Iron armour only lasted one and a half issues, the suit then becoming the Golden Avenger armour for just under a year, before the creation of the red and gold armour that became so iconic.

(6) The story being that Iron Man was a hired bodyguard for Tony Stark, of course.

(7) Nick Fury, Doctor Strange, The X-Men & The Silver Surfer being the most notable titles cancelled at the time. Daredevil and even Captain America were under consideration for axing, although they survived by becoming Daredevil & Black Widow and Captain America & The Falcon, respectively.