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Yeah, I thought it was time for a thread devoted to my favorite American armored superhero. He is so very different from Sho Fukamachi. And yet, I have the feeling they would get along very well if they ever met. So... who is this guy, anyway? And where did he come from? Okay. Set the scene. It's 1963. Marvel comics has been publishing superhero comics now for a few years and things are going fine. The publishing house sets itself apart from DC, the company that invented the 'cape' genre, by having heroes that a) didn't wear capes (except for Thor, but he gets a pass because he's, like, two thousand years old) and b) had to deal with crap like everybody else. Now, over at DC, the superheroes were generally viewed with awe and admiration by the average upstanding citizen of, say, Metropolis or Gotham City. By this time, even Batman was family-friendly. It was all pretty much squeaky-clean. So, Stan Lee decided not to go that way. Instead, he created heroes that were quirky. They had issues. They weren't 'spit-curled demi-gods'. Now, in 1963 the Marvel stable of heroes was still so small you could comfortably accomodate them in a roadside diner; they consisted only of the Fantastic Four, a loving but dysfunctional family of misfits who received their powers in a disastrous accident; Ant-Man, a dejected scientist who invented a size-changing formula which he initially decided to throw out and never use again after he was almost ripped to pieces by ants; Thor, an actual god whose alter ego / secret identity was a crippled, timid medical doctor; the Hulk, a mild-mannered, physically frail scientist who designed the deadliest weapon ever created, almost got killed by it, and was periodically transformed into a giant, super-strong brute with an enormous chip on his shoulder and zero impulse control; and Spider-Man, a teenager who received super-powers from being bitten by an irradiated creature famed for being creepy, and whose life apart from superheroics was basically a chain of unfortunate events. They didn't get victory parades or autograph signings; they got into legal trouble and had scathing articles written about them in the papers. Where to go next? Stan Lee decided that after creating these counter-culture heroes - unbridled youngsters, world-weary scientists and god-like lumbering warriors, he'd create a guy the young people he wrote for would have to hate. And then make them like him. Enter Anthony Stark. A wealthy - okay, multi-millionaire - socialite, born to an established New York upper-class family, the son of an industrialist, lives in a Manhattan mansion, a playboy, always in well-cut suits with a martini in one hand and a debutante on his other arm. And how did he make his money? By designing and making weapons and ammunition and selling them to the US government. This in 1963. The Cold War was at its peak. The Cuban missile crisis had happened less than a year before. President Kennedy had recently escalated military activity in Vietnam. Anti-establishment feelings were strong among the youth of the USA, and here Marvel Comics presented this almost ultimate establishment character as a new superhero. Ballsy move. How do you make such a guy likable? You put him through Hell. The story goes like this: Tony Stark is in Vietnam, demonstrating his new technology for the US military and observing weapons designed for him in use. However, in the jungle, he runs into a booby trap and is taken captive by enemy soldiers working for a Communist commander named Wong Chu. Wong Chu, a brute who takes delight in challenging people in the villages he conquers to a wrestling match, promising freedom if he is defeated - which he never is - recognizes Tony Stark as a top weapons designer. His surgeon tells him Stark has deadly shrapnel in his body which cannot be removed, and has at most a week to live. Wong Chu convinced Stark to make a weapon for him in return for the promise of life-saving surgery, smirkingly noting that the industrialist is all-too ready to betray his country. However, Tony Stark realizes no such surgery is possible, and intends to trick Wong Chu by building a system which will save his life and help him escape at the same time. He is soon joined by another prisoner, aged Ho Yinsen, a famous scientist in his own right who had been abducted by the Communists to work for them. Together, the two men build Stark's design of a powered armor which will keep his heart beating even after the shrapnel reaches it. Even as the armor is completed and Tony Stark, on the brink of death, is sealed inside it as it is calibrating, Wong Chu approaches to check on his progress. To buy Stark time, Ho Yinsen rushes out of their hut, screaming and running and throwing quite a ruckus, until Wong-Chu has him shot. Inside the hut, they find no trace of Tony Stark; he is hiding himself on the ceiling, using suction cups to stay up, and is momentarily subject to despair as he realizes he can never take the armor off again, or he will die. Moments later, the Communists are confronted by a hulking metal man who resists all their weapons and challenges Wong Chu, swiftly defeating him. The Communists flee, and as Wong Chu himself runs, Iron Man manages to detonate an ammunitions storage, seemingly killing his captor. Having thus avenged Ho Yinsen, Tony Stark walks into the jungle inside his super-strong iron prison, wondering what the future will hold for him. It's just 13 pages, written in thoroughly outdated prose and with some alarmingly racist undertones - the Communists are all saffron-yellow and speak broken English even among themselves - but it certainly does the job of introducing the hero of the piece, and his predicament. Like I said, Stan Lee liked his heroes to have some fairly crippling flaw to deal with, and Tony Stark kind of had a double whammy: he was an establishment arms-dealer during the Vietnam war who was practically cut off from all the benefits of his wealth and good looks, because of the demands of his metal chest plate (turns out he didn't have to wear the full armor - but he couldn't take off the chest piece, and he had to keep it charged, or he'd outright keel over and die in minutes). Maintaining a dual identity - glamorous, intellectual rich boy Tony Stark and stolid, heroic, almost inhuman Iron Man - also took its toll. He could have lady friends, but not a sexual relationship, because then his secret would be out - assuming he could even perform in his current condition, let alone the lady in question. For better or for worse, Iron Man was born. To be continued...

Stan Lee and Archie Goodwin (who died, much too young, in 1998) are both legends, in a way - monuments of writers and editors, as I like to call them: 'Giants of old, men of renown'. They were succeeded by what I shall unkindly call 'lesser gods' - Allyn Brodsky, (not-so-lesser, although this was hardly his best work) Gerry Conway, Mike Friedrich and Bill Mantlo, as well as shorter efforts by Len Wein, no-relation Gary Friedrich and Steve Gerber, and single issues by Robert Kanigher, not-hardly-lesser-gods Jim Shooter and Roy Thomas (Both, like Archie and Stan editor-in-chief at Marvel in various periods) and M.Gold. Until today I didn't actually know who M. Gold is, but it turns out it's actually Mimi Gold, the only woman who has ever written any issue of the Iron Man series*. It wasn't bad, either. In any case, these were the men - and woman - who wrote Iron Man through the 1970s. While not legendary runs, there were certainly enjoyable stories, as well as the on-going addressing of changing social attitudes. Bill Mantlo's first issue, for instance, was a flashback issue to the Vietnam days which offered a considerable reassessment of that situation - as well as the outright statement that Tony Stark was no longer manufacturing weapons for the United States armed forces. Not all was great. Gerry Conway's short run was a confused mess revolving around Marianne Rogers, Tony Stark's aformentioned love interest, and her struggle with her psychic powers. The character was frankly outrageous by modern standards (but then, this was 1971); she was an emotionally unstable, wide-eyed mess who was constantly given the role of the damsel in distress, until Tony told her in no uncertain terms to just get out of his life. That particular ball was picked up much later by another writer. Also in this run was the development of the character Michael O'Brien, a comically Irish sidekick to Tony, who eventually took up the powered armor of Guardsman; only for it, and a rivalry over the love of Marianne Rogers (honestly, that woman was a vortex of trouble) to drive him to madness and death. Next up was Mike Friedrich, who lost no time in having Marianne go completely nuts with terrifying hallucinations sending her into a psychosis, so she was institutionalized (an early form of 'being stuffed in the fridge', as Gail Simone calls it). This freed up Iron Man to deal with something which could have been awesome, but instead turned out to be one of the classic comic book failures of all time: The War of the Supervillains. This 'War' was more like a contest: it started when a mysterious, sinister being calling himself 'The Black Lama' offered all the most powerful supervillains in the Marvel Universe the 'Globe of Power', a device which he claimed would bring them inner peace and with it, the strength to fulfill their goals. But only one of them could claim the globe, and they had to fight all the others for it. Now, a power struggle between all the most powerful supervillains of the Marvel Universe (even in the early Seventies) would have made for a hell of a crossover. Unfortunately, the whole thing was a mess - it was drawn out over more than two tears, there was no real build-up, and the conclusion was unbelievably lame - it turned out, after a LOT of drama, that the Black Lama was from an alternate dimension, his exile in the Marvel Universe had affected his mind, and after his return he had nothing more to offer than "Sorry, I acted a little crazy back there". Also, and rather more important to the Marvel Universe as a whole, Friedrich's run featured one single issue co-written by Jim Starlin which introduced two important characters: Drax the Destroyer, and the being whose nemesis he was created to be: Thanos. It was a humble beginning for the villain who is probably the worst and deadliest menace in Marvel Comics. Anyway, after a few substitute teachers delivered some fairly solid stuff, Bill Mantlo finally took over and, after first reintroducing the Mandarin, told a nice, dare I say epic tale involving Mordecai Midas, Madame Masque and Marianne Rogers. Midas, as it turned out, had been maneuvering behind the scenes for years to take possession of Stark Industries as he had before, but this time, he succeeded through mass bribery, stock manipulation, outright theft and extortion. For a while, he reigned like a king over his new realm, having taken possession not only of the industrial empire but also of several Iron Man armors. Meanwhile, Marianne Rogers had been released from mental hospital (where she had been stuck for over 50 issues) and was gradually making her way back to Tony Stark in a complete psychosis, fully intending to kill him with her escalating mental powers. She finally found him during his ultimate confrontation with Midas - who had turned six of Tony Stark's closest friends including Madame Masque, his present love interest, into golden statues - but her attack, rather than destroying Tony Stark, instead struck Mordecai Midas, seemingly erasing his mind, leaving him a mental vegetable. It was pretty heavy stuff - the former helpless perpetual victim turned into a deadly angel of vengeance - but unfortunately the strain left her in a permanent delusional state again. Back into the refrigerator she went. After this, there was not much more to tell - except a story which led to Tony Stark losing the love of Madame Masque, something from which that character has never recovered. A new age was about to dawn. The Eighties were coming, and they would be heralded in by a writer who is still held by many as the definiteve writer of Iron Man, and who would write one specific issue which might be the most influential and damning of all stories... * Mimi Gold is indeed the only female writer who has ever written on the main Iron Man series, and it would be 41 years before two others each contributed one issue each to an Iron Man miniseries, namely Jen Van Meter and Louise Stevenson, who wrote issues 2 and 3 of 'Iron Man: Iron Age'.

Next to the 1st fight between Kenshiro and Shin in the Hokuto No Ken movie. This has to be one of the most violent fights in anime history.

Stan Lee was actually a pretty classical writer, in his way. In a sense, he is a man from a different era - he was 18 when the second World War began, he was an office hand and writer during the Golden Age of comics (He even wrote for the army) and created Iron Man when he was 41 years old. He belonged to the Greatest Generation, and this inevitably affected the heroes he created and how he wrote for them. Now, as Iron Man finally got his own title, as opposed to appearing in Tales of Suspense, the comic was taken over by younger men - specifically Archie Goodwin, and Iron Man entered a different age, too. These were the late sixties, and the counterculture which had been growing was starting to truly bloom. Iron Man was no longer necessarily a part of the establishment; and the hero's double identity offered the opportunity to express this in a unique way; while Tony Stark remained thoroughly the genius inventor / industrialist / playboy, Iron Man was perceived as a blue-collar worker in employ of Stark Industries and behaved and spoke this way, too. Social issues and the clash between people who wanted to reform society and, usually, Stark Industries, featured heavily - and usually, Tony Stark and Iron Man were caught between the parties, with his sympathies leaning towards change for the better. Apart from this, there was also room for action, superheroism and even the outright kooky. Goodwin was responsible for the creation of several of Iron Man's most memorable enemies, such as the Controller, who enslaved the minds of people and leeched their power, giving his paralyzed body super-strength; Firebrand, who claimed to be a rebel fighting against a rotten system, but in fact seemed more interested in using his flame-throwing powered armor to create mayhem and chaos; the new Crimson Dynamo who infiltrated Stark Industries to seek revenge for the death of his mentor, but ended up falling in love with the same woman as Tony Stark; the mysterious Spymaster - a cipher who deals in information, assassination and sabotage, and whose true face and identity remain a mystery until the present day; Madame Masque, who had a long and complicated love/hate relationship with both Tony Stark and Iron Man, and wore a golden mask to hide her terribly scarred face; and would-be ruler of the world Mordecai Midas - ostensibly the richest man in the world, so fat he could not rise from his hovering, weaponized throne, and for his home had a palace that literally floated in the sky. The greed-consumed Midas had designs on Stark Industries, and his machinations had a most unexpected consequence: Once, Tony Stark had created androids which were indistinguishable from humans; these Life Model Decoys, which were limited in their actions, served to protect specific individuals from attacks. Tony had once used an LMD to safeguard his dual identity by having it pose as himself, while appearing as Iron Man at the same time. Sabotage by order of Midas, however, caused a power surge, and shocked the LMD into life - causing it to take over Tony Stark's life, having him thrown out into the street, even taking over as Iron Man for a short time, until it was destroyed in a final confrontation with its creator. This story would have an echo in Iron Man comics many years down the line. This run of comics also featured Tony Stark's first official girlfriend, Janice Kord; she came to a tragic end without ever even finding out he was also Iron Man. This was the first manifestation of a sinister phenomenon in Tony Stark's life - it is outright dangerous to be the woman he loves. This would also be learned by Marianne Rogers, a young woman with tremendous psychic powers which unfortunately only brought her misery.

So, Iron Man was born. Now he had to find his feet. Stan Lee outright did not have much experience yet with superheroes. Assuming he wasn't going to emulate DC - as mentioned before - he was prospecting some fairly unknown ground. This shows in the early stories of the new series. Iron Man, at first, did not have his own magazine - instead, he appeared in an anthology book known as Tales of Suspense, which published science fiction, mystery and fantasy, and was one of a slew of such books on sale at the time. Ant-Man and Thor both first appeared in similar magazines. So early on, Iron Man stories took aboard some of the (outrageous) science fiction elements of such stories, but now centered them around the exploits of a troubled but dashing hero. Elements included mad scientists, alien invasions, dangerous technologies in the hands of criminals and ancient, lost civilizations; even outright magical elements were not shunned. There was also, very emphatically, the Cold War as a motif. Many of Iron Man's early enemies were Communist spies, saboteurs or assassins, typically portrayed as absolute caricatures; I have always wondered whether Stan was playing to the audience, or whether it was intended as a satire of propaganda. Almost from the start, also, there was the growing into a shared universe with the rest of Marvel's growing stable of superheroes; some of them even debuted in Iron Man stories, notably Hawkeye and the Black Widow - although still as a fur-wearing classic femme fatale rather than a deadlier version of Catwoman. Eventually, the deal was sealed, so to speak, in the first issue of 'Avengers'. From now on, Iron Man was a member of Marvel's primary superhero team, and Tony Stark would bankroll their base, hardware and transportation. Many of the stories from this early age play with Tony Stark's relationship with Iron Man as he tries to keep his double identity a secret from even his closest friends and allies. Apart from the superheroic element, those friends mainly include Pepper Potts, his loyal secretary, and Happy Hogan, his driver and ostensibly body guard. Things develop into a love triangle - Pepper is in love with Tony Stark, who gradually develops feelings for her, too, but he feels he can't enter into a relationship; while Happy Hogan's in love with Pepper, but feels she could never fall for a rough-around-the-edges ex-pug like him. At the same time, Tony Stark frequently attracts women who usually bring their own batch of complications with them (Such as aformentioned Black Widow, Kala, the queen of the Netherworld, and Cleopatra, the queen of Egypt). Many of Iron Man's most enduring enemies first appear in these early stories - Blizzard (albeit as Jack Frost); the Crimson Dynamo; the Melter; the Titanium Man; the Unicorn; Whiplash; lumbering tower of terror Ultimo, and naturally, the Mandarin. The Mandarin is Iron Man's arch-nemesis. He's Chinese, but no Communist; rather, he is a warlord who is enemy to anyone and intends to one day rule the world. He wields the technology of a distant alient planet thousands of years more advanced than our own, and ten rings of power, each of which possesses another deadly ability; while he, himself, is one of the greatest martial artists in the world. Unfortunately, he's also rather caricaturally Chinese - cast in the same mold as, say, Fu Manchu. Still, he's a classic, who made several appearances in the Stan Lee run of Iron Man, which lasted until 1968. (to be continued...)