| ISSUE |
STORY |
CHARACTERS |
COMMENTS |
 Tales
of Suspense #39, March 1963 |
"Iron Man is Born!"
Presumably you all know the origin story: Tony Stark goes to Viet Nam
to show off some weapons, gets wounded and captured by guerrilla
leader
Wong-Chu, has to make chestplate to keep heart beating, helped in building
crude suit of armor by Prof. Yinsen (who gives his life as a
distraction), blows
up Wong-Chu and makes his way home. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Wong
Chu |
Prof.
Ho Yinsen |
Anthony
Stark |
Iron
Man (grey) |
|
|
 Tales
of Suspense #40, April 1963" |
"Iron Man Versus Gargantus!"
Stark's girlfriend du jour goes missing, so Iron Man tracks her
down. Finds her and entire city she's in in a hypnotic trance,
ruled
by Gargantus, a giant Neanderthal. He learns Gargantus is a robot
with hypnotic eyes, so he tears it apart, and the invading aliens who
built it flee in terror. |
 |
 |
| Gargantus |
Iron
Man (gold) |
|
|
 Tales
of Suspense #41, May 1963 |
"The Stronghold of Doctor Strange!"
Mad scientist Doctor Strange hypnotizes Iron Man into helping him
break jail. Iron Man
wants to clear his name, so he goes after Strange. Strange
manages to drain most of IM's power, but Strange's daughter (who
doesn't want to rule the world -- she just wants her dad's love)
tosses IM a flashlight, and the D-cell batteries recharge him just
enough.
Strange escapes, but he never returns. However, two months
later, a different Doctor Strange appears in STRANGE TALES, and comics history
is made.)
I've always referred to this guy as "the evil Dr. Strange", since
Stephen Strange became well-known, but now, I can't think that without
also thinking of "the eevil Kabai Singh" from The Phantom movie. |
 |
| Doctor
Strange |
|
|
 Tales
of Suspense #42, June 1963 |
"Trapped by the Red Barbarian!"
There's always a couple of Commie warlords in these early Marvel
stories. Iron Man's is The Red Barbarian. When RB's spies fail to
get some
of Stark's plans, an agent called The Actor offers to do it by
impersonating Stark. He almost succeeds, getting to Russia with
the plans and learning Stark is IM in the process, but Iron Man catches
up, briefly imprisons him, goes to the Red Barbarian pretending to be
The Actor in disguise, and sets Actor up for a fall. RB shoots
the Actor when he next
appears.
I didn't do The Actor because he's just a guy in a suit. |
 |
| Red
Barbarian |
|
|
 Tales
of Suspense #43, July 1963 |
"Iron Man Versus Kala, Queen of the Netherworld!"
Stark is kidnapped in a giant diamond, which passes through the ground
to a subterranean domed city. It's The Netherworld, last remnant
of sunken Atlantis (it says here, ignoring Sub-Mariner stories), ruled
by
Queen Kala, who wants Stark to develop a way to transport all their
terrible weapons to the surface world for conquering purposes. As
with Wong-Chu, Stark instead builds a suit of armor, and as Iron Man,
he beats all the weapons and captures Kala. Taking her to the
surface, they find
that surface air causes Netherworlders to age rapidly, so he extracts a
promise of peace from Kala and returns her
home. |
 |
| Queen
Kala |
|
|
 Tales
of Suspense #44, August 1963 |
"The Mad Pharaoh!"
Iron Man is called in to help locate the tomb of Pharaoh Hatap, called
"The Mad Pharaoh" because of his cruel ways and black magic. (No
mention of Nyarlathotep, but thanks for asking.) The pharaoh's
mummy is strangely well-preserved, and when Stark retires for the
night, he finds
the reanimated Hatap waiting for him. Hatap had escaped his
enemy,
Queen Cleopatra, by putting himself into suspended animation for 2,000
years, but now he's back, and since Stark is a great inventor, he
kidnaps him and travels back in time (using a magic charm), intending
to have Stark build weapons for him. Stark escapes, endears
himself to Cleopatra,
and, as Iron Man, helps beat Hatap's army. Hatap dies while
fleeing, and Iron Man uses the charm to return to
1963. |
 |
| Mad
Pharaoh |
|
|
 Tales
of Suspense #45, September 1963 |
"The Icy Fingers of Jack Frost!" |
|
 |
|
| Jack
Frost |
"Happy"
Hogan |
"Pepper"
Potts |
|
|
 Tales
of Suspense #46, October 1963 |
"Iron Man Faces the Crimson Dynamo!" |
|
| Crimson Dynamo I |
|
|
 Tales
of Suspense #47, November 1963 |
"Iron Man Battles the Melter!" |
Melter |
|
|
 Tales
of Suspense #48, December 1963 |
"The Mysterious Mr. Doll!"
Mister Doll has a magic African voodoo doll. He shapes someone's
features onto it, squeezes it (his original villain name was "Mister Pain"), and squeezes them for what he
wants. He does the same when encountering Iron Man, who is at
even more of a disadvantage because his heavy armor requires too much
power for him to beat Mister Doll fast enough. So Stark redesigns
the armor, and the
first red-and-gold Iron Man is born. He also adds new gadgets and
is able to beat Mr. Doll (never mind how -- it's
cheesy).
I'd long wondered about Mister Doll. His story was never
reprinted while I was growing up, although the new armor sequence from
the story had been. I had to wait for Marv Wolfman to write
Spider-Woman in the 1970s to learn about
Mr. Doll, for he became Brother Grimm. The story's too long to
recap here, but you can get it
from the Marvel Handbook Appendix site. |
 |
 |
| Mister
Doll |
Iron
Man (visor) |
|
|
 Tales
of Suspense #49, January 1964 |
"The New Iron Man Meets the Angel!" |
The
X-Men
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Angel |
Beast |
Iceman |
Cyclops |
Marvel
Girl |
Professor
X |
|
|
 Tales
of Suspense #50, February 1964 |
"The Hands of the Mandarin!" |
 |
| Mandarin |
|
|
 Tales
of Suspense #51, March 1964 |
"The Sinister Scarecrow" |
 |
| Scarecrow |
|
|
 Tales
of Suspense #52, April 1964 |
"The Crimson Dynamo Strikes Again!" |
 |
 |
| Black
Widow |
Crimson
Dynamo II |
|
|
 Tales
of Suspense #53, May 1964 |
"The Black Widow Strikes Again!" |
|
 Tales
of Suspense #54, June 1964 |
"The Mandarin's Revenge!" |
 |
| Mandarin |
|
|
 Tales
of Suspense #55, July 1964 |
"No One Escapes the Mandarin!" |
Mandarin |
|
There actually have been a few renditions of the Unicorn, but none
that I
can find of his original costume.
 Tales
of Suspense #56, August 1964 |
"The Uncanny Unicorn!" |
Unicorn |
|
 Tales
of Suspense #57, September 1964 |
"Hawkeye, the Marksman!" |
Hawkeye |
Black Widow |
Iron Man (rivets) |
|
|
 Tales
of Suspense #58, October 1964 |
"In Mortal Combat with Captain America!" |
Kraven the Hunter |
Chameleon |
Captain America |
|
|
 Tales
of Suspense #59, November 1964 |
"The Black Knight!" |
Black Knight |
|
 Tales
of Suspense #60, December 1964 |
"The Death of Tony Stark!" |
|
|
 Tales
of Suspense #61, January 1965 |
"Suspected of Murder!" |
Mandarin |
|
 Tales
of Suspense #62, February 1965 |
"The Origin of the Mandarin!" |
Mandarin |
|
 Tales
of Suspense #63, March 1965 |
"Somewhere Lurks the Phantom!"
The Phantom (or Phantom Saboteur, depending on how much caption
space there was in a given panel) was blowing up things at Stark
Industries. Iron Man kept tripping over himself when he tried to beat
him
(no explanations -- it was just to prolong the story), until the
final encounter, when The Phantom was revealed to be a disgruntled
Stark employee. This guy, too, never managed to return. |
 |
| Phantom
Saboteur |
|
|
 Tales
of Suspense #64, April 1965 |
"Hawkeye and the New Black Widow Strike Again!" |
Hawkeye |
Black Widow |
|
|
 Tales
of Suspense #65, May 1965 |
"When Titans Clash!"
"Weasel Wills" is a common thief who stole IM's armor, forcing Stark to
use the old clunky gold armor to get it back. But Wills was just
another unmemorable guy in a suit, so I skipped him. *I* want an
unmemorable guy in a *costume*! |
Weasel Wills |
|
 Tales
of Suspense #66, June 1965 |
"If I Fail, A World is Lost!" |
Attuma |
Sen. Byrd |
|
|
 Tales
of Suspense #67, July 1965 |
"Where Walk the Villains!"
Using a machine, the Dream-Master can induce dreams in anyone.
But if you die in one of his dreams, you die in reality, too. He
first softens IM up by having him dream of encounters with old
villains. IM beats them easily and realizes it's a dream. This is
supposed to make him over-confident, so that he won't try too hard
later -- why knock himself out if it's only a dream? But in the
later dream-encounter, Stark's competitive nature won't let him give up
even to dream-foes, and he beats them all. The furious
Dream-Master tries to throw even more old foes at IM, but he overloads
the machine, and it blows up. (And a good thing for the readers,
too. In these dreams, IM had already encountered most of his
memorable old foes. What sort of challenge could a team of Doctor
Strange, Mister Doll, Red Barbarian, The Phantom, and Kala
provide?)
This story oddly says The Dream-Master is Count Nefaria, with a
new gimmick. But nothing about The Dream-Master reminds one of
Nefaria, other than they're both based in Europe. He has a
different gimmick,
a different base, and a completely different appearance. And in
the very next issue, the old-style Count Nefaria appears, with no
reference to this story! I suspect this guy was not originally
intended to be
Nefaria, and some post-production impulse of Stan's caused him to
re-dialogue the story to make the change. |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Dream-Master
(Count Nefaria) |
"Unicorn" |
"Crimson
Dynamo" |
"Jack
Frost" |
"Gargantus" |
"Melter" |
"Black
Knight" |
|
|
 Tales
of Suspense #68, August 1965 |
"If a Man Be Mad!"
Morgan Stark, Tony's ne'er-do-well cousin, owes Big Bucks to
Count Nefaria. Nefaria offers him a chance to square the debt by
ruining cousin Tony. Morgan hates Tony anyway, so why not?
Morgan's given
devices to make Stark think he's seeing Little Green Men from
Space. Stark unwisely says publicly "Hey! Little Green Men
from Space!", and the press starts to say he's going bonkers. In
Washington, Sen. Byrd uses this as
an excuse to investigate Stark. Morgan sets Tony up for the final
blow, but, wouldn't you know it, this is just the time *real* aliens
choose to show up. And these are Big Green Men from Space -- from
the Moon, actually. And since the Moon is popularly thought to be made
of green cheese, the aliens are green and have names like Gouda and
Edam. Stark becomes IM to beat them and has to rescue Morgan in
the process, forcing Morgan to tell the press about the encounter and
leading them to believe Tony had been seeing *these* Green Men from
Space all along. Count Nefaria is
not pleased with Morgan... |
Count Nefaria |
The Moon Men |
Morgan Stark |
|
|
 Tales
of Suspense #69, September 1965 |
"If I Must Die, Let It Be With Honor!" |
Titanium Man |
|
 Tales
of Suspense #70, October 1965 |
"Fight On! For a World is Watching!" |
Titanium Man |
|
 Tales
of Suspense #71, November 1965 |
"What Price Victory?" |
| Titanium Man |
Sen.
Byrd |
Countess Stephanie de la Spiroza |
Iron Man (shellhead) |
|
|
 Tales
of Suspense #72, December 1965 |
"Hoorah for the Conquering Hero!" |
Mad Thinker |
Awesome Android |
Countess Stephanie de la
Spiroza |
|
|
 Tales
of Suspense #73, January 1966 |
"My Life for Yours!" |
Black Knight |
|
 Tales
of Suspense #74, February 1966 |
"If This Guilt Be Mine--!" |
Freak |
|
 Tales
of Suspense #75, March 1966 |
"The Fury of... the Freak!" |
 |
| Freak |
|
|
 Tales
of Suspense #76, April 1966 |
"Here Lies Hidden.. the Unspeakable Ultimo!" |
 |
| Mandarin |
|
|
 Tales
of Suspense #77, May 1966 |
"Ultimo Lives!" |
Ultimo |
Mandarin |
|
|
 Tales
of Suspense #78, June 1966 |
"Crescendo!" |
| Mandarin |
Ultimo |
|
|
 Tales
of Suspense #79, July 1966 |
"Disaster!" |
| Warlord Krang |
Lady Dorma |
Sub-Mariner |
|
|
 Tales
of Suspense #80, August 1966 |
"When Fall the Mighty!" |
|
|
 Tales
to Astonish #82, August 1966 |
"The Power of Iron Man!" |
Warlord Krang |
Sub-Mariner |
|
|
 Tales
of Suspense #81, September 1966 |
"The Return of the Titanium Man!" |
|
|
 Tales
of Suspense #82, October 1966 |
"By Force of Arms!" |
|
|
 Tales
of Suspense #83, November 1966 |
"Victory!" |
|
|
 Tales
of Suspense #84, December 1966 |
"The Other Iron Man!" |
Mandarin |
Sen. Byrd |
"Happy" Hogan/Iron Man |
|
|
 Tales
of Suspense #85, January 1967 |
"Into the Jaws of Death" |
|
|
 Tales
of Suspense #86, February 1967 |
"Death Duel for the Life of Happy Hogan!" |
|
|
 Tales
of Suspense #87, March 1967 |
"Crisis--at the Earth's Core!" |
 |
| Mole Man |
|
|
 Tales
of Suspense #88, April 1967 |
"Beyond All Rescue!" |
|
|
 Tales
of Suspense #89, May 1967 |
"The Monstrous Menace of the Mysterious Melter!" |
 |
| Melter |
|
|
 Tales
of Suspense #90, June 1967 |
"The Golden Ghost!" |
|
|
 Tales
of Suspense #91, July 1967 |
"The Uncanny Challenge of the Crusher!"
This Cuban scientist developed a ray to make a subject invulnerable by
increasing its density. He presented it to Fidel Castro who,
mistrustful,
tested it on the scientist himself. When the scientist proved to be
not
only immune to rifle and cannon fire but a worse threat to Castro, he
was
sent to challenge Iron Man. The Crusher gained in size and strength as
he
apparently walked from Cuba to Long Island (okay, he was probably put
ashoe somewhere, but we didn't get to see that part), where Iron Man,
unable to beat him directly, hit him with a ray which increased his
weight
as well. The Crusher sank into the earth and disappeared... only to
return a year or so later, after finding technology (from Hulk foe
Tyrannus) which allowed him to return to his previous Crusher-state.
In
this fight, he fell into the sea and, too heavy to swim, presumably
drowned.
|
|
Crusher |
|
|
 Tales
of Suspense #92, August 1967 |
"Within the Vastness of Viet Nam!"
Half-Face appeared in one storyline in the late '60s. He was an
evil Vietnamese scientist who accidentally blew himself up because he
was thinking of his family. Scarred (at least, he thought so), he
couldn't return to them, so he turned to Evil Science full-time for his
Communist Masters. He resurrected the Titanium Man, intending to
have TM wreck a Vietnamese village and have the damage blamed on
American bombers, but, wouldn't you know it, his family happened to be
in that village, and all the old feelings came back. He switched
off TM and decided to
work against Communism. And that was the last we saw of him until
1989, when he turned up to frame a "Top Ten Iron Man Villains" feature
in an annual. |
 |
| Half-Face |
|
|
 Tales
of Suspense #93, September 1967 |
"The Golden Gladiator and... the Giant!" |
|
|
 Tales
of Suspense #94, October 1967 |
"The Tragedy and the Triumph!" |
|
|
 Tales
of Suspense #95, November 1967 |
"If a Man Be Stone!" |
 |
 |
| Grey Gargoyle |
Jasper Sitwell |
|
|
 Tales
of Suspense #96, December 1967 |
"The Deadly Victory!" |
| Grey Gargoyle |
Jasper Sitwell |
|
|
 Tales
of Suspense #97, January 1968 |
"The Coming of... Whiplash!"
The Maggia is the Marvel Comics version of the Mafia, a world-wide
organized crime ring. Originally ruled by Count Nefaria, its current
leader at this time is the shadowy "Big M", who holds court in a
submarine
below an off-shore casino cruise ship. Iron Man is caught in the
middle
of a battle between the Maggia and the criminal engineers A.I.M., and
the
ship/sub sinks. SHIELD agent Jasper Sitwell, assigned to guard Tony
Stark, ends up helping the beautiful socialite Whitney Frost,
escape.
Only afterwards is it revealed that she is Big M, Count Nefaria's
daughter. (Later, she is scarred and becomes the adventuress Madame
Masque.)
Here's Whitney in a Big M jumpsuit worn only in IRON MAN #1.
|
Whiplash |
 Big M |
The Maggia |
Morgan Stark |
|
|
 Tales
of Suspense #98, February 1968 |
"The Warrior and the Whip!" |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
| Whiplash |
Big
M |
The Maggia |
S.H.I.E.L.D. |
Col. Nick Fury |
"Dum-Dum" Dugan |
Gabe Jones |
|
|
 Tales
of Suspense #99, March 1968 |
"At the Mercy of the Maggia" |
|
|
 Iron
Man and Sub-Mariner #1, April 1968 |
"The Torrent Without--The Tumult Within!" |
 |
|
|
|
| A.I.M. |
Whiplash |
The Maggia |
Big M |
|
|
 Iron
Man, Vol. 1, #1, May 1968 |
"Alone Against A.I.M.!" |
| A.I.M. |
Mordius |
Whitney Frost/Big M |
|
|
|
"The Origin of Iron Man" |
|
|
 Iron
Man, Vol. 1, #2, June 1968 |
"The Day of the Demolisher!" |
|
|
|
| Demolisher |
Drexel Cord |
Janice Cord |
|
|
 Iron
Man, Vol. 1, #3, July 1968 |
"My Friend, My Foe... the Freak!" |
|
|
 Iron
Man, Vol. 1, #4, August 1968 |
"Unconquered is the Unicorn!" |
 |
| Unicorn |
|
|
 Iron
Man, Vol. 1, #5, September 1968 |
"Frenzy in a Far-Flung Future!" |
|
|
 Iron
Man, Vol. 1, #6, October 1968 |
"Vengeance... Cries the Crusher!" |
 |
|
|
| (Tyrannus) |
Crusher |
The Maggia |
|
|
 Iron
Man, Vol. 1, #7, November 1968 |
"The Maggia Strikes" |
|
 |
|
 |
 |
| The Maggia |
Gladiator |
Big M |
Masked Marauder |
Daredevil |
|
|
 Iron
Man, Vol. 1, #8, December 1968 |
"A Duel Must End" |
|
|
|
|
| The Maggia |
Gladiator |
Big M |
Count Nefaria |
|
|
 Iron
Man, Vol. 1, #9, January 1969 |
"...There Lives a Green Goliath" |
|
|
| Hulk-robot |
Mandarin |
|
|
 Iron
Man, Vol. 1, #10, February 1969 |
"Once More... the Mandarin!" |
|
| Mandarin |
|
|
 Iron
Man, Vol. 1, #11, March 1969 |
"Unmasked!" |
|
|
 Iron
Man, Vol. 1, #12, April 1969 |
"The Coming of the Controller" |
 |
| Controller |
|
|
 Iron
Man, Vol. 1, #13, May 1969 |
"Captives of the Controller" |
 |
| Controller |
|
|
 Iron
Man, Vol. 1, #14, June 1969 |
"The Night Phantom Walks"
The Night Phantom was Travis Hoyt, a bitter crippled author who
resented Stark's bringing progress to his Haiti-analogue home.
Actually, Hoyt had discovered a radioactive pool, where regular baths
restored his mobility and gave him great strength (while scarring his
skin, but you can't have everything). Nearby excavations for
Stark projects had opened a
crack under the pool, causing it to slowly seep away, so Hoyt became
the Night Phantom, and set up loudspeakers of voodoo drums to bolster
his claim to be a vengeful voodoo spirit who was wrecking the Stark
sites. In their sole encounter, Hoyt was being beaten, so he
jumped into the pool
to rebuild his strength, but the vibrations from his own loudspeakers
had weakened the rockbed even more, and he and the pool disappeared
into a sudden
chasm.
I always thought the Night Phantom was pretty cool-looking and
should return, but no one else has agreed with me; his only
"reappearance" was as an android copy during the Mister Kline
storyline (which I'll probably cover at some future time). |
 |
| Night Phantom |
|
|
 Iron
Man, Vol. 1, #15, July 1969 |
"Said the Unicorn To the Ghost" |
|
|
| Red Ghost |
Unicorn |
|
|
 Iron
Man, Vol. 1, #16, August 1969 |
"Of Beasts and Men" |
|
|
| Red Ghost |
Unicorn |
|
|
 Iron
Man, Vol. 1, #17, September 1969 |
"The Beginning of the End!"
Midas was an avaricious Aegean businessman who surrounded himself
with golden things -- sort of like Goldfinger, but less mobile.
He was
too fat to move without his jet-propelled chair. His actual
dramatic
function in his first appearance was to provide a reason for Whitney
Frost, the
former leader of the Maggia, to become Madame Masque. Midas
supposedly
died when he fell out of his chair in some story-terminal explosions
and
couldn't get up because the golden furnishing around him were too weak
to
support him. (This was an Archie Goodwin story, so an ironic
ending
was required.)
As with Kala, I can't believe someone hasn't made a micro of
this character already, but I couldn't find one. Bill Mantlo
later
brought him back, thoughtfully providing him with an exo-skeleton, and
way later,
Kurt Busiek made him into a solid gold creature. Maybe I'll do
those
versions some day, but here, at least, is one Midas to fill the
void. |
 |
 |
 |
| Midas |
Madame Masque |
Stark L.M.D. |
|
|
 Iron
Man, Vol. 1, #18, October 1969 |
"Even Heroes Die!" |
|
|
|
 |
| Stark L.M.D. |
Midas |
Madame Masque |
Hydra |
|
|
 Iron
Man, Vol. 1, #19, November 1969 |
"What Price Life??" |
|
|
|
| Madame Masque |
Midas |
Dr. Jose Santini |
|
|
 Iron
Man, Vol. 1, #20, December 1969 |
"Who Serves Lucifer?" |
 |
| Lucifer |
|
|
 Iron
Man, Vol. 1, #21, January 1970 |
"The Replacement" |
|
 |
| Crimson Dynamo III |
Iron Man III
(Eddie March) |
|
|
 Iron
Man, Vol. 1, #22, February 1970 |
"From This Conflict, Death" |
|
|
| Titanium Man |
Crimson Dynamo III |
|
|
 Iron
Man, Vol. 1, #23, March 1970 |
"The Man Who Killed Tony Stark" |
|
|
 Iron
Man, Vol. 1, #24, April 1970 |
"My Son, the Minotaur" |
|
|
|
| Minotaur |
Doctor Vryolak |
Madame Masque |
|
|
 Iron
Man, Vol. 1, #25, May 1970 |
"This Doomed Land, This Dying Sea" |
|
|
 Iron
Man, Vol. 1, #26, June 1970 |
"Duel In a Dark Dimension" |
|
|
|
| Collector |
Shar-Khan |
Val-Larr |
|
|
 Iron
Man, Vol. 1, #27, July 1970 |
"The Fury of the Firebrand" |
 |
| Firebrand |
|
|
 Iron
Man, Vol. 1, #28, August 1970 |
"The Controller Lives" |
|
| Controller |
|
|
