Iron Man

Iron Man is a superhero in American comic books from Marvel Comics. The character was created by writer and editor Stan Lee, scripter Larry Lieber, and artists Don Heck and Jack Kirby. Iron Man first appeared in Tales of Suspense #39 in 1962. He is a founding member of the superhero team the Avengers, with Thor, Ant-Man, the Wasp, and the Hulk.

Iron Man is Tony Stark, a businessman and engineer who runs Stark Industries. When Stark was in danger, he built his Iron Man armor to escape. The Iron Man suits give him super strength, the ability to fly, and other powers.

Over the years, Iron Man has been part of many important stories about technology, secrets, and personal challenges. Major stories include "Demon in a Bottle," "Armor Wars," "Extremis," and "Iron Man 2020." He has also been part of big events like Civil War, Dark Reign, and Civil War II.

Robert Downey Jr. played Tony Stark in the film Iron Man (2008), the first movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and continued until Avengers: Endgame (2019). The character has also appeared in many animated films, television shows, and video games.

Publication history

Further information: List of Iron Man titles

Creation

After the success of the Fantastic Four in 1961 and the return of American comic books with superheroes, Marvel Comics made new superhero characters. Stan Lee created the idea for Iron Man. He wanted to make a character who might not be liked at first but could win readers over. Iron Man was made during a time when the arms industry grew in the United States, and this was part of the character's story. The character first appeared in the Vietnam War. Lee described the feeling about Vietnam when Iron Man was made as a time when many felt it was a battle between good and evil.

Larry Lieber made Iron Man's story and wrote the first Iron Man tale, while Jack Kirby and Don Heck designed the character. Lee based Iron Man on businessman Howard Hughes, using his look, businessman style, and proud personality. Kirby and Heck also used parts of actor Errol Flynn in the design. When designing the character, Lee wanted a modern Arthurian knight. Kirby first drew the Iron Man armor as a "round and clunky gray heap", and Heck changed the design to add tools like jets, drills, and suction cups. Iron Man was made when comic book characters began to face real-life problems, and his heart problem was an early example of a superhero with a health issue.

Early years

Iron Man's first stories were in the monster-themed anthology series Tales of Suspense. Marvel introduced many superheroes this way in the 1960s as superhero comics grew more popular than science-fiction and horror comics. Iron Man's first appearance, "Iron Man is Born!", was in Tales of Suspense #39, published in December 1962 with a March 1963 cover date. The Iron Man armor was gray at first, but Marvel changed it to gold because of printing issues. Lee first asked others to write the stories, but he felt their work was not good; so he took control of writing Iron Man's stories himself.

When Marvel's distributor allowed more monthly issues, The Avengers (1963) was made as a new comic book series. Iron Man was one of the five characters who formed the titular superhero team. By 1965, it was hard to keep the story straight between The Avengers and the solo issues, so Lee temporarily removed Iron Man from The Avengers.

Heck was the main Iron Man artist until 1965, as Kirby worked on other Marvel characters. As part of a change to match artists with characters, Steve Ditko briefly became the Iron Man artist. He only worked on three issues in late 1963, but he changed Iron Man's suit from fully gold to the red and gold colors that became the main look. Iron Man's main enemy, the Mandarin, first appeared shortly after in Tales of Suspense #50 (1964). By this time, science-fiction and horror stories were removed from Tales of Suspense, and the series only had Iron Man and Captain America stories. Gene Colan became the Iron Man artist in January 1966, using an expressionist style.

For the first five years, Iron Man stood for the United States in Cold War stories. As more people opposed the American involvement in Vietnam, Iron Man's character changed. This was part of Marvel's push in the late 1960s to avoid politics. Over time, letters to the editor in issues had many political talks. Lee changed the stories to focus on spying and crime at home, using Marvel's fictional agency S.H.I.E.L.D. He also used villains from other Marvel heroes, avoiding Iron Man's main communist enemies and changing some of them to have personal reasons instead.

Iron Man was one of several characters Marvel gave their own full comic series in 1968. Marvel combined the last issues of Tales of Suspense and the Sub-Mariner's Tales to Astonish into a one-shot special, Iron Man and Sub-Mariner. Iron Man then started its own series under writer Archie Goodwin. Goodwin slowly brought back political themes over the next years, focusing on issues at home like racial conflict and the environment instead of world politics. George Tuska began drawing the character in Iron Man #5 (1968) and drew over one hundred issues for the character.

1970s

I don't feel Tony Stark is a dinosaur, a creature unable to change before the weight of time crushes him aside. Yeah, it is hard in 1977 to praise a millionaire industrialist, playboy and former munitions-manufacturer—but it isn't impossible to change that image. Which is what I plan to do.

— Bill Mantlo, Iron Man #100

When Goodwin became Marvel's editor-in-chief, he chose Gerry Conway to write Iron Man. Conway was one of several writers in a four-year effort to change Iron Man, starting in 1971, with stories about the character's history as a weapons maker. These stories were most noticeable during a run by Mike Friedrich, where changing Stark Industries was a regular part of the story.

Iron Man was one of several Marvel characters who became less popular in the 1970s, and the series had a time without a main writer until Bill Mantlo took over in 1977. The next year, David Michelinie and Bob Layton took over the series, starting with issue #116. While drawing the series, Layton used magazines like GQ, Playboy, and electronics catalogs to keep the Iron Man armor advanced. Layton was inspired by the many outfits used by Batman when designing Iron Man's armors.

In Iron Man #117 and #118 (1978), Michelinie and Layton changed many parts of the series: they removed Iron Man's love interest Whitney Frost and Stark's robotic Life Model Decoy, and moved Stark to a new home. They introduced Iron Man's new love interest, Bethany Cabe, as a strong character who worked as his guard. They wanted to make Iron Man more realistic. The biggest change was making Iron Man an alcoholic, which was new for a main comic book hero, leading to the "Demon in a Bottle" story from issues #120 to #128 (1979). They also introduced the character Justin Hammer, who helped fund several Iron Man enemies.

1980s and 1990s

Michelinie and Layton worked on the series until Iron Man #153 (1981). Michelinie later said, "The reason I quit is that we felt we'd done everything with it that we'd set out to do." Through the 1980s, writers for Iron Man focused on the character's role as a businessman, showing the economic changes of Reaganomics, and many of his problems were threats to his company. Denny O'Neil took over Iron Man starting with issue #158 (1982). His stories looked at Stark's mind, showing him drinking again and suffering from a business rival Obadiah Stane. O'Neil wrote Stark out of the role starting with issue #170 (1983), having him temporarily stop being Iron Man and replaced by his friend James Rhodes. Stark was a smaller part of the story until he returned to being a hero in Iron Man #200 (1985).

The 1987 "Armor Wars" story had Iron Man taking back his technology, which Justin Hammer gave to several villains. This story mixed the character's superhero and businessman sides when Stark used lawyers against his rivals. Michelinie and Layton returned to the series with issue #215 (1988) through issue #232 (1989). They tried new versions of the Iron Man armor and focused on real-life stories.

In 1990, Michelinie and Layton passed the series to John Byrne, one of the most respected comic book writers. He wrote three story arcs across 20 issues: "Armor Wars II", "The Dragon Seed Saga", and "War Games". Byrne changed Iron Man's fight against communism to show it as less of a threat, and he rewrote Iron Man's beginning to remove references to communism and the Vietnam War. He lost interest in the series by 1992 as his artists John Romita Jr. and Howard Mackie moved on. Iron Man's ally War Machine got his own comic book series in 1994.

The Iron Man series stopped big political themes by the 1990s, and Stark's support for American democracy was replaced by personal values. He still opposed communism, saying he supported democracy and refused to do business in China after the Tiannamen Square Massacre in 1989. With no Cold War, stories often tried new ideas about technology before moving on. When terrorism became more important, writers changed Iron Man's role from fighting communism to fighting terrorism.

As part of a company change in 1996, Marvel's main characters, including Iron Man, were given to former Marvel writers Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld in a deal to share profits. Lee and Liefeld were in charge of the "Heroes Reborn" brand that started Marvel's long comics at issue #1. This new Iron Man series, called volume two, was in an alternate universe made during the "Onslaught" event. It ran for 13 issues, written by Lee and Scott Lobdell and drawn by Whilce Portacio. The next year, Marvel brought the characters back with the "Heroes Return" event, resetting characters like Iron Man to issue #1. Kurt Busiek became the writer for volume three while Sean Chen was the artist.

2000s

When the Ultimate Marvel group was made with new versions of Marvel's characters, an alternate Iron Man appeared in 2002 with the Ultimates, the group's version of the Avengers. Marvel released a five-issue series, Ultimate Iron Man, with this character in 2005.

Iron Man tried to show what a superhero was like in the 21st century, after the September 11 attacks, linking the fear of terrorism to the fear of uncontrolled super-powered beings. In 2004, Iron Man was a main character in the Avengers Disassembled event and then became a founding member of the New Avengers. Iron Man volume four started in 2005, with Warren Ellis writing and Adi Granov drawing. Its first story, "Extremis", had Iron Man upgrade his body with the Extremis virus, giving him control over a biological armor. The first 14 issues used the Iron Man title, while issues #15–32 (2007–2008) were called Iron Man: Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Iron Man led the side supporting registration during the 2006 Civil War event by Mark Millar and Steve McNiven. This was a story about the Patriot Act and government surveillance, where Iron Man's group stood for government surveillance for safety, against Captain America's group that believed in personal freedom. Iron Man chose what he thought was the less bad choice, while Captain America believed in ideal choices, and both paid greatly for their beliefs. Marvel was neutral, but readers mostly saw Iron Man as the bad guy, the stronger force the hero had to beat.

Iron Man appeared with the Mighty Avengers in 2007 as the one who formed the team, and his character showed more of his futurist side. After the popular film Iron Man in 2008, Marvel restarted Iron Man's comics with Invincible Iron Man, written by Matt Fraction and drawn by Salvador Larroca. This series made Iron Man more like the film version. Marvel also published the one-shot Iron Man: The End in 2009 showing a version of Iron Man retiring.

2010s and 2020s

Iron Man teamed up with Spider-Man in the five-issue miniseries Carnage in 2010, written by Zeb Wells and drawn by Clayton Crain. The Iron Man series went back to the original numbering in 2011, with the 500th issue published as Iron Man #500. A series called Iron Man Legacy by Fred Van Lente started in 2010 for the film Iron Man 2. Iron Man was one of several characters whose series started again at issue #1 with the Marvel Now! brand after the 2012 Avengers vs. X-Men event, written by Kieron Gillen. The character's beginning was changed in the tenth issue of Iron Man's Marvel Now! series, retroactively saying he was not a real member of the Stark family. The 2014 "AXIS" event led to the Superior Iron Man series by Tom Taylor, with Iron Man having a new reversed personality.

A new Invincible Iron Man series written by Brian Michael Bendis and drawn by David Marquez started in 2015. At the same time, an Iron Man series called International Iron Man ran for seven issues in 2016 under Marvel's All-New, All-Different Marvel brand, also by Bendis. This series made sure Iron Man stayed important as All-New, All-Different grew. A second Civil War event in 2016 showed Iron Man supporting free will against Captain Marvel's determinism.

As part of Marvel's plan to use new characters instead of main ones in the 2010s, Iron Man was temporarily replaced by Ironheart, a teenaged African-American girl who made her own Iron Man armor, in 2016. At the same time, the series Infamous Iron Man started with Doctor Doom as Iron Man.

The series Tony Stark: Iron Man began in 2018 with the Fresh Start brand, written by Dan Slott and drawn by Valerio Schiti. In 2020, Iron Man started again in a new series, written by Christopher Cantwell and drawn by CAFU, after the "Iron Man 2020" event. This series left some of Stark's past changes and stories to start new tales in a normal superhero world. The character started again in 2022 with Invincible Iron Man, written by Gerry Duggan and drawn by Juan Frigeri. A new volume started in October 2024, written by Spencer Ackerman and drawn by Julius Ohta.

Characterization

Tony Stark was born on Long Island, New York. When he was a child, his parents died in a car crash. He took over his family’s business, Stark Industries.

While making equipment for the U.S. military, Tony traveled to a place where there was a war. There, he was hurt and captured by a leader named Wong-Chu. To escape, Tony built a special suit of armor that helped his heart. This suit made him Iron Man.

Iron Man returned to the United States and became a superhero. He told people he was just Tony Stark’s bodyguard. He joined other heroes like the Hulk, Thor, Ant-Man, and the Wasp to form the Avengers team.

Over time, Tony changed his company to focus on electronics, clean energy, and helping to end world hunger. He faced many challenges, including losing his company and dealing with rivals.

Themes and motifs

Politics and economics

Iron Man had strong political views, different from other heroes. His stories looked at ideas about government and business. Iron Man cared about using wealth to help others, but he had rivals who wanted to use technology for bad things.

Technology

Iron Man's stories focus on technology and its effects. He uses special suits of armor with many tools and weapons. These stories show how technology can be used for good, but also how it can go wrong. They talk about how humans control technology and how new inventions change society.

Armor

Iron Man gets his strength from special armor he built himself. This armor can lift heavy objects and fly fast. Over time, the armor has changed with new technology, like tiny machines and special materials. The armor protects Iron Man and helps him fight, but it also shows that even advanced tools need a person to guide them. In some stories, the armor becomes part of Iron Man, letting him call it up when needed and control it with his thoughts.

Supporting characters

Allies

Main article: List of Iron Man supporting characters

Pepper Potts worked at Stark Industries and helped Tony Stark. She learned to run the business when Stark was busy being Iron Man. After an accident, Stark used special technology to help her heart, and she later became the company's leader. She even took up a special suit to become the hero Rescue.

James Rhodes worked for Stark and stepped in as Iron Man when Stark could not. Later, he got his own suit called War Machine and became a hero too. Happy Hogan was Stark's driver and knew his secret. Iron Man also works with heroes like Captain America and the Wasp, and has smart computer helpers.

Romantic interests

Iron Man has had many friends who were also romantic partners. Early on, there was a story about Pepper and another friend, Happy. Later, other women joined, like Roxie Gilbert and Whitney Frost. Over time, these characters became stronger and more independent.

Villains

Main article: List of Iron Man enemies

Iron Man fights many bad guys. Some early enemies were from places with different governments. Later, he faced villains who were against technology or big business. One big rival is Obadiah Stane, who runs his business in a very different way. There are also many other villains who try to hurt Stark Industries or cause trouble in other ways.

Alternate versions

Other versions of Iron Man exist in different universes. In one universe, Arno Stark, a cousin of Tony, becomes Iron Man 2020 and travels back in time to help.

Reception and legacy

When Iron Man first appeared in the 1960s, some readers had mixed feelings about the character because of his ties to the military. Marvel changed the story in the 1970s so that Iron Man thought more about the effects of war.

Many of Iron Man's stories have been very popular with readers and critics. "Demon in a Bottle" is famous for showing Iron Man's struggles. Other popular stories include "Doomquest," "Armor Wars," and "Extremis." The 2008 film Iron Man made the character very popular and changed how people think about superhero movies. Because of this, Iron Man is often listed as one of the best superheroes. The character's advanced technology has also influenced how people imagine future inventions. In 2019, a statue of Iron Man was placed in Forte dei Marmi, Italy, to honor the character's role in Avengers: Endgame and to remind people that everyone can make a difference.

In other media

See also: Tony Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

In 2008, a film named Iron Man was released. An actor called Robert Downey Jr. played the part of Tony Stark. The movie was very popular and started a large group of films called the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Robert Downey Jr. continued to play Iron Man in many more movies.

Iron Man first appeared in animated shows in 1966 and has been in many cartoons since. He has also appeared in several video games, some connected to the movies and others made just for him.