Iron Man in 1963
It is really hard to read the Iron Man origin story in contemporary times without bringing to mind the first Iron Man movie. That movie had the most effective superhero movie origin story that I can think of, and it’s hard not to read Tales of Suspense as quaint in comparison.
Anyway, I quite like the overarching concept of Stark as a Howard Hughes-like industrial titan who moonlights as a superhero. An interesting grand concept can help a flimsy story along for a while (such as masking a steady stream of Monster-of-the-Week hijinks), but it can’t keep things going forever.
The Iron Man of 1963 has the benefit of stunning adventure comics-oriented art. This seems relatively rare within Marvel, as I believe there was an unofficial dictate at the time to replicate the Kirby “house style.”
Kirby’s art is incomparable and welcome nearly everywhere, but the occasional divergence is ok when needed. Don Heck knocks it out of the park here, making Tony Stark seem much more the adventurer, fielding danger and a deadly heart condition in a metal suit.
Heck was definitely the right pick for this series, given his history in nearly every comics genre up to that point, including adventure, fantasy, horror, and sci-fi, giving his art a metric ton of flexibility.
At just-after-midyear, Iron Man receives its menagerie of side-characters, Pepper Potts and Happy Hogan. No opinion on them yet, though I’m aware that they eventually form a romantic triangle.
Hogan wants Potts and worships Stark, Potts wants Stark and is annoyed with Hogan, and Stark wants to avoid destroying his relationships with both Potts and Hogan. Did I get that right?
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