This one has been sitting on my desk for about six weeks. The problem, I think, is that Iron Man is my least favorite Silver Age Marvel feature. The few that I have read seem to follow these two patterns:
1) Iron Man gets defeated, Tony builds newer, stronger armor.
Or
2) Iron Man shows up for battle, throws a punch and starts fretting over needing a recharge! Now!
Still, I always like Ol' Shell-Head in the Avengers and he finally has become an iconic hero, thanks to Robert Downey, Jr. So let's "iron" out these queries!
- Did we ever see any stories set before Tony Stark's capture in Viet Nam? Y'know what was Stark like before he got trapped in his metal suit?
- Iron Man seemed to be Marvel's premiere Commie-Buster, constantly battling the Red Menace. And this was when every Marvel hero fought some Communist villain at some point! (Did Doctor Strange?) But for all his might, the Golden Avenger had some lame foes: the Scarecrow, Mister Doll, the Unicorn, Half-Face and the like.
- Of course, there's the irony of having Marvel's Number One Capitalist confound those Conniving Commies!
- The conceit of the series was that Iron Man was supposed to be Tony Stark's bodyguard, who had considerable pull around the company. Beyond the fact that no one ever saw the two together, which would be strange if IM was there to protect Stark (and Stark got attacked a LOT!), what rationale could there be to have Iron Man in the Avengers? He would be "away" from Stark, not fulfilling his "function"? Why not simply say there are TWO Iron Men?
- For that matter, why keep IM's "real" identity a secret when Stark was still vulnerable?
- It has already been established that Stark was a major player in SHIELD before Nick Fury was put in charge and the Avengers were living in his Manhattan mansion, so no one in the government could consider him "just" a millionaire playboy? Should Stark have always been portrayed as a global leader or at least as a national VIP? And was his connection to SHIELD part of his feature in Tales of Suspense?
- Was Pepper Potts Marvel's least believable love interest? I mean, a filthy rich, extremely handsome, internationally known powerful man caught in a love triangle with his secretary and his chauffer! Sounds like a bad sitcom! And it was Marvel's oddest love triangle, to boot, even including Thor's rivalry with himself!
- How did he get away with wearing that chest plate under his shirt?? Complete with his unibeam oval and epaulets? I'm betting that he didn't hug a lot!
- If he was capable of building stronger armor, why didn't he? For example, let's say his armor Mark II was able to lift ten tons and could operate at peak efficiency for two hours and he could double those numbers with a new version that he had already designed, why wait for a defeat to implement it? Why not just wear it? Every new armor came quickly after a butt-whopping!
- And if conserving energy was a big problem (and it was!!), why not use some sort of aircraft instead of those draining boot jets? An Iron Jet would have been more practical than using his own power to fly from Long Island to NYC or wherever!
- I've spoken about the Mandarin before. Why would an Asian dictator wear an English "M" on his chest? Or wear a mask? Or be able to karate armor without superpowers when, say, Captain America couldn't do that?
- Still it was interesting to have a Chinese menace that the Chinese were afraid of!
- In The Avengers #16, Iron Man left the team "for a break". Would it surprise anyone that his life never became easier? ;-)
- With all this talk about Stark being a futurist, how often was he shown inventing non-Iron Man related devices in Tales of Suspense?
Hope you Men (and Women) of Iron enjoy this and thanks in advance!
Replies
I thought he used robots or occasionally Happy in the armor when he needed to in the same place as Iron Man.
During the Silver Age, Happy wore the armor once that I can recall, and refused to wear it again.
Also during the Silver Age, I have no recollection of him using robots.
He did get into tons of problems about his secret identity, not just with his employees but also with Congress and S.H.I.E.L.D.
Oh, and Philip? Everyone had there shame of lame villains during the Silver Age (really, look at Thor's early Rogues Gallery). Admittedly, Iron Man had very few halfway decent villains, but he did have a few--Black Widow, Hawkeye, the Mandarin, Titanium Man, etc.
Mark S. Ogilvie said:
Happy did wear the armor once, and not only did it end badly for him (Kidnapped and tortured by the Mandarin) but he also was transformed by another of Stark's inventions, the enervator, and turned into "The Freak", a kind of Frankenstein/Lurch unspeaking hulk who lurked in the shadows around the hospital grounds and stark's plant until Tony could reverse the effects.
Though the concept has been dusted off once or twice since then (How many more times must they learn that Happy needs to just stay away from high energy sources??!!) it was never as effective as the first appearance. Plus, the love triangle with Happy, Pepper and Tony was resolved when she married Happy and left the series. I don't know what she's doing back again in the more recent years, and wearing Armor as well...
Yes, Happy Hogan did wear the armor but that doesn't change the question. Both he and Pepper had no idea who Iron Man "really" was nor did they seem to suspect Stark. In fact, they were down right suspicious of Iron Man several times and doubted his ability to do his job: being Stark's bodyguard.
IIRC, Happy Hogan is dead, leaving Pepper to once more free to follow her heart!
Not in the Silver Age.
Iron Man was in and out of the Avengers frequently in the Silver Age. One could easily interpret that the times he was absent were the times he was needed for Stark business.
Also, good public relations for Stark International as well having Stark's bodyguard in a public group of do-gooders.
To protect the man in the suit during those times when he wasn't wearing it.
He was.
Yes.
The older I get, the more I say no.
I've always wondered that myself. The artwork--at least early on--suggested that perhaps there were two chestplates, a thinner one he could wear with clothes and the thicker one he wore as Iron Man. However, I've been disabused of that notion.
As I recall, it wasn't that he didn't have better armor built, it was that he hadn't tested it yet. Usually he had new suits available, but it was dire times indeed for him to put them on without a good test run first.
Maneuverability. He was already wearing heavy armor, having wings or aircraft or whatever would have made him even more clumsy.
Also, that's what the roller skates were for. They allowed him to recharge his armor while he traveled. He didn't take longer flying trips until he developed lighter armor.
Because he appeared in English speaking comics.
Because KARATE!
Yes, all the time. From roller skates for troop movement to anti-gravity inventions.
.
I think Happy learned who Iron Man really was before Pepper, but wasn't it Pepper who suggested painting the first suit all gold?
Possibly but Pepper loved Stark but distrusted Iron Man every time Stark went "missing".
At one point they both suspected Iron Man of betraying Tony Stark.
Not unless that's a retcon. The idea came in the second Iron Man story, when a kid was scared of the large gray robot and sought shelter in the mother's arms. Stark realized he needed an image adjustment. Also, the editor or publisher probably didn't like the impact of trying to color something major (like the Hulk) a uniform gray.
\
When Happy & Pepper were introduced, the specuation is that her initial appearance was based upon the actress who played "Alice" in the Brady Bunch tv series (though though this was long before that role happened.)
No word on who Happy was based upon at first. Both got a make-over when Gene Colan got on the series. Suddenly, Tony started looking more like Don Ameche and Pepper became an attractive red head model, of some beauty. Happy slimmed down and became more regular featured too. No more massive chest or broad shoulders. In short, his stature became much more like Stark.
Mark S. Ogilvie said:
Happy had 3 different distinct appearances-- ALL drawn by Don Heck! After years of re-reading and research, I was able to nail down who I believe he was based on...
1 - Nat Pendleton
2 - Maxie Rosenbloom
3 - James J. Braddock
Look 'em up!!! : )
As far as I can tell, Gene Colan based him on Braddock.
Regarding Pepper... Don Heck has always said he initially based her on Ann B. Davis, but it would have had to have been a YOUNG Ann B. Davis. However, Pepper got a major make-over at the beauty parlor after only a FEW episodes, and, in TV terms, the part was "recast". I still haven't been able to nail down who the "2nd" Pepper (THE PRETTY ONE!!!) was based on.
Tony Stark, of course, was always ERROL FLYNN.
Senator Byrd was based on John Hamilton!
-
1
-
2
-
3
-
4
-
5
of 6 Next