Iron Man (Marvel Comics)

Iron Man is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was co-created by writer and editor Stan Lee, developed by scripter Larry Lieber, and designed by artists Don Heck and Jack Kirby. The character made his first appearance in ''Tales of Suspense'' #39 (cover dated March 1963), and received his own title in ''Iron Man'' #1 (May 1968). In 1963, the character founded the Avengers superhero team with Thor, Ant-Man, Wasp and the Hulk.

A wealthy American business magnate, playboy, philanthropist, inventor and ingenious scientist, Anthony Edward "Tony" Stark suffers a severe chest injury during a kidnapping. When his captors attempt to force him to build a weapon of mass destruction, he instead creates a mechanized suit of armor to save his life and escape captivity. Later, Stark develops his suit, adding weapons and other technological devices he designed through his company, Stark Industries. He uses the suit and successive versions to protect the world as Iron Man. Although at first concealing his true identity, Stark eventually publicly reveals himself to be Iron Man.

Initially, Stan Lee used Iron Man to explore Cold War themes, particularly the role of American technology and industry in the fight against communism. Subsequent re-imaginings of Iron Man have shifted to contemporary matters.

Iron Man has headlined various comic book series. Throughout most of the character's publication history, he has been a founding member of the Avengers.

Iron Man has been adapted for several animated television shows and films. In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Tony Stark was portrayed by Robert Downey Jr. in the films ''Iron Man'' (2008), ''The Incredible Hulk'' (2008), ''Iron Man 2'' (2010), '' The Avengers'' (2012), ''Iron Man 3'' (2013), '' Avengers: Age of Ultron'' (2015), '' Captain America: Civil War'' (2016), '' Spider-Man: Homecoming'' (2017), '' Avengers: Infinity War'' (2018), and '' Avengers: Endgame'' (2019); while Mick Wingert voiced the character in the animated series '' What If...?'' (2021).

Publication history

Premiere

Iron Man's Marvel Comics premiere in ''Tales of Suspense'' #39 (cover dated March 1963) was a collaboration among editor and story-plotter Stan Lee, scripter Larry Lieber, story-artist Don Heck, and cover-artist and character-designer Jack Kirby. In 1963, Lee had been toying with the idea of a businessman superhero. He wanted to create the "quintessential capitalist", a character that would go against the spirit of the times and Marvel's readership. Lee said:

He set out to make the new character a wealthy, glamorous ladies' man, but one with a secret that would plague and torment him as well.Lee, ''Son of Origins of Marvel Comics'' pp. 46-48 Writer Gerry Conway said, "Here you have this character, who on the outside is invulnerable, I mean, just can't be touched, but inside is a wounded figure. Stan made it very much an in-your-face wound, you know, his heart was broken, you know, literally broken. But there's a metaphor going on there. And that's, I think, what made that character interesting." Lee based this playboy's looks and personality on Howard Hughes, explaining, "Howard Hughes was one of the most colorful men of our time. He was an inventor, an adventurer, a multi-billionaire, a ladies' man and finally a nutcase." "Without being crazy, he was Howard Hughes," Lee said.

While Lee intended to write the story himself,Lee, ''Son of Origins,'' p. 47. a minor deadline emergency eventually forced him to hand over the premiere issue to Lieber, who fleshed out the story. The art was split between Kirby and Heck. "He designed the costume," Heck said of Kirby, "because he was doing the cover. The covers were always done first. But I created the look of the characters, like Tony Stark and his secretary Pepper Potts." In a 1990 interview, when asked if he had "a specific model for Tony Stark and the other characters?", Heck replied "No, I would be thinking more along the lines of some characters I like, which would be the same kind of characters that Alex Toth liked, which was an Errol Flynn type." Iron Man first appeared in 13- to 18-page stories in ''Tales of Suspense,'' which featured anthology science fiction and supernatural stories. The character's original costume was a bulky gray armored suit, replaced by a golden version in the second story (issue #40 April 1963). It was redesigned as sleeker, red-and-golden armor in issue #48 (December 1963) by that issue's interior artist, Steve Ditko, although Kirby drew it on the cover. As Heck recalled in 1985, " e second costume, the red and yellow one, was designed by Steve Ditko. I found it easier than drawing that bulky old thing. The earlier design, the robot-looking one, was more Kirbyish."Heck, quoted in

In his premiere, Iron Man was an anti-communist hero, defeating various Vietnamese agents. Lee later regretted this early focus. Throughout the character's comic book series, technological advancement and national defense were constant themes for Iron Man, but later issues developed Stark into a more complex and vulnerable character as they depicted his battle with alcoholism (as in the "Demon in a Bottle" storyline) and other personal difficulties.

From issue #59 (November 1964) to its final issue #99 (March 1968), the anthological science-fiction backup stories in ''Tales of Suspense'' were replaced by a feature starring the superhero Captain America. Lee and Heck introduced several adversaries for the character including the Mandarin in issue #50 (February 1964), the Black Widow in #52 (April 1964) and Hawkeye five issues later.

Lee said that "of all the comic books we published at Marvel, we got more fan mail for Iron Man from women, from females, than any other title ... We didn't get much fan mail from girls, but whenever we did, the letter was usually addressed to Iron Man."

Lee and Kirby included Iron Man in '' The Avengers'' #1 (September 1963) as a founding member of the superhero team. The character has since appeared in every subsequent volume of the series.

Writers have updated the war and locale in which Stark is injured. In the original 1963 story, it was the Vietnam War. In the 1990s, it was updated to be the first Gulf War, and in the 2000s updated again to be the war in Afghanistan. Stark's time with the Asian Nobel Prize-winning scientist Ho Yinsen is consistent through nearly all incarnations of the Iron Man origin, depicting Stark and Yinsen building the original armor together. One exception is the direct-to-DVD animated feature film '' The Invincible Iron Man'', in which the armor Stark uses to escape his captors is not the first Iron Man suit.

Themes

The original ''Iron Man'' title explored Cold War themes, as did other Stan Lee projects in the early years of Marvel Comics. Where ''The Fantastic Four'' and ''The Incredible Hulk'' respectively focused on American domestic and government responses to the Communist threat, ''Iron Man'' explored industry's role in the struggle. Tony Stark's real-life model, Howard Hughes, was a significant defense contractor who developed new weapons technologies. Hughes was an icon both of American individualism and of the burdens of fame.

Historian Robert Genter, in ''The Journal of Popular Culture'', writes that Tony Stark specifically presents an idealized portrait of the American inventor. Where earlier decades had seen important technological innovations come from famous ''individuals'' (e.g., Nikola Tesla

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