"His triumphs are human and so are his weaknesses." - What I've learned from Iron Man

In my sheer excitement about seeing the first movie based on my favourite super-hero of all I reneged on a promise I made at the bottom of this post on April 30th 2008 saying I would "recount for you my earliest memories of Iron Man and a brief history of the comic book run itself and what I've learned from reading it.

As Iron Man 2 is mere hours away and the clock is ticking down to the Thursday night preview screening it's time to fulfill that promise albeit belatedly.

Iron Man first appeared in one of Marvel Comics earlier US titles: Tales Of Suspense. This book after #39 or so featured Iron Man and Captain America for the majority, lending half the book to Iron Man and half to Captain America, both characters later got their own separate titles during Marvel's expansion in the late '60s. The adventures of Iron Man continued from the last Tales of Suspense #99 to the first Marvel "One-Shot", a comic intentionally published for only one issue: Iron Man & Namor, The Sub-Mariner #1 (Namor was also migrating from a similar situation in Tales to Astonish to his own book). A month later "The Invincible Iron Man #1" was published in July 1969 and ran until the Marvel Universe "Onslaught" shake-up in Aug 1997 which ended Volume 1 of the Iron Man saga at #332 [as well as a few other characters books]. The "Heroes Reborn" storyline brought them all back of course beginning Volume 2 at #1 again for newer readers.

Unfortunately in it's infinite wisdom, Marvel miscalculated that this Heroes Reborn and Marvel Knights nonsense lost more longtime readers than it gained new ones, so some months later they brought Iron Man (and all the characters they fucked up) back the way he was to begin Vol.3 at #1 again. Still things weren't as perfect as they had been however and so Marvel did some hiring and firing and in 2004 Iron Man Vol.4 #1 was printed to rave reviews and the best acceptance of Shellhead (as Iron Man was commonly nicknamed, usually by the Marvel wisearse, Spider-Man) since before the end of Vol.1. Marvel abandoned Iron Man Vol.4. in Jan 2009 and the concurrent Iron Man title "The Invincible Iron Man" which began in May 2008 became the defacto Iron Man title winning an Eisner Award last year.

And that's as concise as I can get the history of the comic books run. [I'm sure glad I don't collect Spider-Man or X-Men].

My earliest memories of "The Golden Avenger" (another moniker born of his association with the Marvel Super-Hero team: The Avengers) is probably in the early to mid '80s when Marvel began publishing UK-style comic books (British-sized comic books in general were several inches bigger than their US counterparts printed on glossy paper with more vibrant colours). Marvel UK began reprinting "The Secret Wars" for the UK audience, a tale which played host to many Super-Heroes who were abducted from Earth by a god-like being, The Beyonder and were forced to battle against a similarly abducted group of Super-Villains. Fair enough, the concept was ridiculous, but it at least served as a platform for me to discover this 'Iron Man'. By this time, the character wore, what is referred to as his 'Classic' red & gold armour and is the style which is most familiar to comic book readers as Iron Man was depicted in similar variations of this armour for 20 years until the late '80s.

The Transformers UK comic book reprinted many Iron Man stories as a back-up strip over the course of it's 8 year run as in many cases there wasn't a high distribution of comic books from the US in western Europe. It was from reading these strips that I gained a high appreciation for Iron Man and even looked forward to, with great anticipation for a number of years, the month of October when the Marvel Super Heroes Annual was published which frequently featured his adventures, themselves reprints of the US annuals.

Thankfully in closing years of the '80s and into the early '90s I was able to collect the US editions of Iron Man when specialist shops catering for comic book readers began to be established in Ireland. While I did dabble in a few titles at that time, my true allegiance was with Iron Man, and it was the only book (apart from to a lesser extent: G.I.Joe and Star Trek) that I actively sought books from many years beforehand. Some of the Iron Man books I collected at this time were from as far back as 1969, years before I was born! While corny and cheesy by modern standards to read now, they nevertheless provided strong lessons in humanity and to a certain extent an instructive undertone on how best to avoid or combat communism, the red menace.

One of the most daring storylines was "Demon In A Bottle" one particular period where Tony Stark got a bit too fond of the hard stuff and went on a massive bender- FOR TWO YEARS. It was in retrospect an incredible risk for Marvel to run with a story that effectively put the real Iron Man out of commission while James Rhodes took up the mantle for such an extended period of time. Nevertheless it was one of the more successful/controversial Marvel 'epics' ever. In another epic saga- "The Armor Wars", Stark discovered than many of the armoured villains wrecking havoc all over the world were wearing armour that incorporated designs that were stolen from him, and so he set out to reclaim and if necessary to destroy the lot.

Some simple lessons I've learned over the years from Iron Man comics include:

The Incredible Hulk is one tough bastard.

If drinking turns you into an obnoxious asshole, who stands to loose everything you've spent your whole life creating; then stop drinking.

Always tell your friends before faking your own death- they'll be upset with you and may not be your friends for much longer if you keep them in the dark about things like that..

Comic book computers and technology is the same as movie computers and technology, it's not real and isn't possible.. yet.

Always hire a more expensive lawyer than the other guy has- you get what you pay for. Ain't that right Bruce?

When you design something that can be used as a mass-murderous weapon, memorise and then destroy the blueprints so your designs can't be stolen and used against you every 4 or 5 years of your life.

Explain to your girlfriend that you have to leave at 2AM to go and save the world, and explain the reason you don't come home at all some nights is because you're fighting crime; Otherwise she'll think your having an affair. (However if you don't tell her, and she seems to be okay with that, then you should be suspicious yourself of her because she could be a CIA agent who's investigating you).

"Power dressing" for a top board-meeting does not mean wearing a suit of Armour with gyro enhanced strength augmentation and bristling with advanced weaponry.

If you do seal yourself into a suit of impregnable armour and loose consciousness as the result of your life-threatening heart-condition; at least give a trusted friend the means of opening your armour so a doctor can administer treatment.

If you go back in time: don't trust any Russian or Chinese person you meet before the late '80s/early '90s, they're ALL evil communists without exception.

and finally, Dr. Victor Von Doom is a clever bastard.

I think the main reason that Iron Man appeals to me is that Tony Stark, like Bruce "Batman" Wayne or Frank "The Punisher" Castle, is that he has no super-powers. He's a normal man, with an advanced engineering background, a ruthless businessman, a millionaire playboy but is also a recovering alcoholic with a serious heart condition. His triumphs are human and so are his weaknesses. There's no radioactive spider or Kryptonite, just a flesh and blood man in control of the one of the planet's most powerful weapons, the armour of The Invincible Iron Man.