Iron Man Is Born!
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Face Front, True Believers! This week, we look at the 1963 first appearance of Iron Man from Tales of Suspense #39, then compare it to 1994’s The Marvel Action Hour: Iron Man episodes 11 & 12, “Origin of Iron Man: Part 1 & 2!”
Please Note: The timing of this episode was unintentional and unavoidable by the time it was noticed. No offense was intended with regard to the tragedy of September 11, 2001. Please try to take the episode in the spirit for which it was intended, and remember that Tony Stark is a kick ass American, if that helps.
Note: We like our language NSFW salty, and there be spoilers here. Episode art tumblr here.
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Great episode, guys! In fact, other than the SDCC and GotG episodes, I think this was your best yet. At least, it appealed to me the most because I’m a much bigger fan of Iron Man than the Annihilation books. He was one of the first non-X-Men Marvel heroes that I really liked because he was one of the only Secret Wars action figures I had.
1. Of all the characters introduced in the sixties, I think Spider-Man and Iron Man’s origin stories have held up best over the years. You wouldn’t think that would work because Iron Man’s is so specific to a time and place, but the themes of his origin are universal. You could transplant him in almost any era (past, present, or future) and get the same classic tale.
1A. I’m also of the strong belief that Iron Man, Doctor Strange, and Green Arrow all have, in essence, the same origin, but they each adopt a different gimmick.
2. The timeliness of this episode is very welcome since I have been reading the O’Neil/McDonnell run on Marvel Unlimited. I finally got around to finishing the omnibus covering the Michelinie, Layton and JRJR run, which was exceptional. Denny O’Neill and Luke McDonnell come aboard almost immediately after around issue #158 and Obadiah Stane is introduced early on. So if that story line goes up to issue #200, yeah, that’s one long-ass 40-issue story arc! McDonnell’s art was a tough transition coming off of Layton and Romita, Jr. but he got much better after the first year.
3. If I understand it correctly, Jack Kirby designed the original gray armored suit and Steve Ditko created the red and gold redesign, so they both have sort-of tangential creator credit on Iron Man even though they never worked on the character’s Tales of Suspense appearances. Can Mac or any of you confirm/deny this idea?
4. After the success of the X-Men and Spider-Man cartoons of the ’90s, I was excited to see the Iron Man and Fantastic Four cartoons… but I hated them. On the other hand, there was an unexpectedly great Iron Man cartoon that came out after the movie called IRON MAN: ARMORED ADVENTURES. It repositioned Tony, Rhodey, and Pepper as teenagers in high school and used a pretty typical Harry/Ron/Hermione dynamic; also, the animation style was really stiff computer generated like REBOOT, but aside from those differences, the stories were solid and the way they adapted and showcased Iron Man’s rogues gallery was awesome!
I loved this episode, fellas! Mac’s passion for the character as well as the analysis of the story and historical context filled this episode with a lot of energy and humor. More of this, please!
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Thanks Count! We think its important to break the Annihilation coverage up for obvious reasons. Glad you enjoyed it! That secret wars figure was great!
I firmly believe that JRJR “inked” (Frank and I always joke that he was assimilated) by Bob Layton is artistically one of the most underrated runs of the 80’s. It’s just gorgeous stuff. I had the pleasure of telling Bob that in person last year (even the assimilated JRJR comment).
Its going to be fun getting Frank and Fixit reading IM stuff. He really has some great, UNIQUE arcs, that they have basically zero exposure to.
I think you’re correct with Ditko getting co-creator credit. That sounds right for some reason.
I’ll have to check out the Armored Adventures. Sounds interesting!
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The show is on Netflix. Not saying it’s perfect and the first episode is so-so, but I liked it.
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I can’t comment at the Blogger site without logging in to .deuchland, so I’ll reply to Anj’s comments from there here.
I can see the logical behind assigning Warren Ellis an Iron Man script, of all super-heroes, but I was also unsurprised when Ellis compromised the core concept through Extremis, crafting probably the worst Iron Man story ever written. Mac hadn’t read it, but when I tell him it formed the spine of Iron Man 3, that won’t encourage him. I wasn’t that into the art, either.
I tried the first issue of Fraction’s run, and it was promising, but I was not (and still have not) invested in any Marvel series in a good many years. Both DC and Marvel are so in love with their big universes that I’ve disconnected with that I have an aversion to buying any “core” series anymore.
Honestly, my exposure to Iron Man is very spotter, largely back issues loaned to me by Mac. My longest sustained reads were likely either a tpb-sized portion of Layton/Michelinie or maybe even Heroes Reborn.
I don’t think Don Heck did anything good at DC (Steel: The Indestructible Man?) and Iron Man remains his career high, as far as I know.
Count, I was less a Marvel Comics reader and more a mutie lover for most of the eighties, so I hear where you’re coming from. I can see your point about origin overlap, but Green Arrow’s is so much less than Iron Man’s that his very name befouled the air. The telling is important to, which is why I love Doctor Strange’s origin above near any other. Spider-Man has widely been regarded as having the best origin of all time, and I’d have to strain to say otherwise.
Armored Adventures does not sound remotely interesting, but I’ll take you at your word it’s good when Mac makes me try Teen Tony Tales. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to take pictures of my Secret Wars Captain America action figure siting on the remains of the Berlin Wall…
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I started reading Iron Man in the Michelinie/Layton days, not long before Armor Wars, though I had been introduced to Iron Man in comics long before, in horrible black and white French translations, and then as a member of the Avengers and West Coast Avengers. I had this thing in my early teens where I was only really interested in team books and not solo books, so I was late getting into Iron Man, Cap, Hulk, etc. Don’t ask me why, I think I just wanted more superheroes for my buck.
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I started out with solo heroes, then progressed to team-ups, and settled into favoring group books from preadolescence way up into my twenties. I still prefer a universe of characters to pure soloists, but as I’ve been gravitating away from DC/Marvel, the tendency in my reading has been toward single stars with rich background characters and ensembles rather than actual teams.
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So its a return to classic movie character talk!! Just in time. There was a heavy reliance on Marvel cosmic on the last two shows..so old Hero here had to tap out for a show or two. This Iron Man origin episode really brought it back to the original vibe of the show!
I agree that Iron Mans original origin is rock solid! Love how you guys contrasted many versions of the origin from the comic/cartoon to the movie versions!
Armor wars has been referenced several times throughout many of the shows..how about an episode on that classic arc?
Cant wait to hear more classic superhero origins!! As you could probably tell..you guys hooked me originally with the Marvel SuperHero cartoon theme that resonates through your shows! That original Marvel series of cartoons were very entertaining for me as I watched them on the MARVEL SUPERHEROS HOUR on a Canadian TV network prior to even the most basic cable packages!
Anyways thanks for bringing memories of that great series and all the rest of the stuff you guys tie in with it!
Onwards to episode 11! Almost current!
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We’ll get to plenty of Iron Man talk. We are trying to get through the Annihilation story arc since it led to what became the Guardians of the Galaxy…which looks like it’s going to be the biggest movie of 2014.
We don’t want to run Annihilation episodes every week, so we try and mix it up.
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