Iron Man in 1969

First half of the year:

It’s not hot garbage — I will give late 1960s Iron Man that much. I can even grant that I can see how fans might love these issues. Mandarin (who is no Doom or Goblin, yet has his own fan base) is floating around occasionally. Pepper and Happy Hogan are rarely around, but they’ve been supplanted increasingly by SHIELD.

It’s entirely logical that a major defense contractor secretly moonlighting as a superhero is going to have the interest of some national espionage agencies. There’s something that vaguely resembles a romantic interest with a female character at Stark’s level of financial success. The villains aren’t quite D-list, and Titanium Man even gave Iron Man a good fight three years earlier. The Maggia are doing something-or-other behind the scenes. Not bad, right?

Yeah, but not great either. Eventually, I think the writers figured it out too, which is why they shook up the formula, making Stark his own worst enemy.

Second half of the year: 

Most of Iron Man’s first decade (or two) doesn’t rank very highly with readers. The latter half of 1969 was marginally acceptable, though. The quality of the lead-up to The Beginning of the End caught me off guard. Frankly, I wasn’t expecting any magic from the same creative team after years of blah. 

But, ah, the interesting combination of a mediocre villain (Midas), a thoroughly middling Madame Masque mistakenly helping Tony Stark take down a life model decoy Iron Man, and some other buffoonery struck something resembling magic. There was a certain Batman-like feel to the stories — almost like the Englehart years, where an intermingling of smaller items enriched the larger story.

So how do I rate this? Oof, let’s split the difference.