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Iron Man

Iron Man

:This article is about Iron Man, the Marvel Comics superhero. For other uses of the term, see Iron Man (disambiguation). Iron Man (Tony Stark) is a Marvel Comics superhero. Created by Stan Lee, Don Heck and Jack Kirby, he first appeared in Tales of Suspense #39 (March 1963).

Publication history

Don Heck drew the early Iron Man stories, while Jack Kirby provided the cover pencils. The character appeared in Tales of Suspense from issues 39 to 99, and then in the Iron Man and Sub-Mariner #1 special, before being given his own title with Iron Man #1 in 1968. Iron Man possesses powered armor which gives him superhuman strength, virtual invulnerability, flight, and an array of weapons. The Iron Man armor was originally invented and is currently worn by Tony Stark, an American industrialist billionaire and military contractor known not only for his lifestyle, but also for his incredible ingenuity and inventive genius. Other people who have assumed the Iron Man identity include James Rhodes, a close associate of Stark's. Iron Man was originally an anti-communist hero. Throughout the character’s comic book series, technological advancement and national defense have been constant themes, but Stark has gained a more complex worldview and flawed character, as he battled alcoholism and personal failure. Writers often portray Iron Man as a symbol of humanity's creativity as well as its frailties. He is often placed in contrast with his close friends Captain America and Thor, the former as a comparison between interventionist and cooperative attitudes, and the latter comparing science and the supernatural. Throughout most of his career, Iron Man has been a member of the all-star group the Avengers and has been featured in several incarnations of his own comic book series.

Character history

Origins

Stark entered the undergraduate electrical engineering program at MIT while only 15 years old and graduated at the top of his class. When he was 21, he inherited his father's company, Stark Industries, after his parents were killed in a car accident. One of the first things Stark did, was to buy out the company that made the faulty brakes on his parent's car and correct the mechanical problem. While on a visit to Vietnam to see how his new mini-transistors could assist the American war effort, Tony Stark was caught in a booby trap. Captured by a Vietnamese warlord, Wong Chu and dying from a piece of shrapnel lodged in his heart from the booby trap, Stark was pressed into building weapons for Wong Chu, along with a fellow prisoner, the famed physicist Yin Sen (later spelled Ho Yinsen). However, Stark and Yin Sen used the workshop to secretly design and construct a suit of powered armor — an iron exoskeleton that gave Stark tremendous strength as well as other abilities — that would keep Stark's heart beating, but allow him to escape. Yin Sen sacrificed himself to buy Stark time to charge the bulky suit of armor, and as Iron Man, Stark made short work of Wong Chu and his men. On the way back, Iron Man encountered a wounded American Air Force helicopter pilot, Jim Rhodes. Introducing himself as Stark's bodyguard, Iron Man and Rhodes managed to defend themselves against the pursuing North Vietnamese before making it back to American lines. On his return to the US, Stark continued to improve the armor, establishing a dual identity as the adventurer and superhero Iron Man. He also greatly expanded his father's company, Stark Industries, eventually renaming it Stark International. North Vietnamese.]] The cover for Iron Man was that he was Stark's bodyguard and corporate mascot. To that end, Iron Man fought threats to his company, Communist opponents such as the Black Widow, the Crimson Dynamo and the Titanium Man as well as independent villains like the Mandarin. Both the Widow and the Dynamo would eventually defect to the United States, and even erstwhile villain Hawkeye, originally a pawn of the Widow, would reform and join the Avengers. No one suspected Stark of being Iron Man as he cultivated his image as a rich playboy and industrialist. Two notable members of Stark's supporting cast were his personal chauffeur Harold "Happy" Hogan and secretary Patricia "Pepper" Potts, to whom he eventually revealed his dual identity. The comic took a fairly right-wing anti-Communist stance in its early years, which was softened as the comics readership displayed opposition to the Vietnam War. This took place in a series of stories with Stark profoundly reconsidering his political opinions and the morality of manufacturing weapons for the military. Stark, however, has remained essentially conservative both in character and politics despite his playboy image. He has also often shown himself to be occasionally arrogant and willing to justify the means with the ends. This has led to personal conflicts with the people around him, both in his civilian and superhero identities. Stark has a vast personal fortune, and is also known as a philanthropist. He donated the use of his boyhood manor as Avengers Mansion, and funded the Avengers' operations through the Maria Stark Foundation, a non-profit organization named after his late mother. The Foundation is not linked to any of Stark's businesses, and has continued to operate even when those businesses have failed. Stark also provides technology to other superheroes, including designing various replacement shields for Captain America, the quinjets used by the Avengers, and the image inducers used by the X-Men. Eventually, Stark's heart condition was discovered by the public and cured with an artificial heart transplant. However, Stark was also developing a serious dependency on alcohol. The first time it became a problem was when Stark discovered that the national security agency S.H.I.E.L.D. had been buying a controlling interest in his company in order to ensure Stark's continued weapons development for them. At the same time, Stark's business rival Justin Hammer hired several supervillains to attack Stark. At one point, the Iron Man armor was even taken over and used to murder a diplomat. Although Iron Man was not immediately under suspicion, Stark was forced to hand the armor over to the authorities. Eventually Stark and his personal pilot and confidant Jim Rhodes tracked down those responsible, although Hammer would return to bedevil Stark again. With the support of his then-girlfriend, Bethany Cabe, his friends and employees, Stark pulled through these crises and, for the moment, overcame his dependency on alcohol.

Changing fortunes

Bethany Cabe Some time later, a ruthless rival, Obadiah Stane, manipulated him emotionally into a serious relapse. As a result, Stark lost control of Stark International, became a homeless vagrant and gave up his armored identity to Rhodes, who became the new Iron Man for a lengthy period of time. Eventually, Stark recovered and started a new company, Circuits Maximus. While Stark concentrated on new technological designs, Rhodes continued to act as Iron Man but steadily grew more aggressive and paranoid. Rhodes's manic mental state was later revealed to be the result of his using armors whose cerebral interfaces were calibrated for Stark's brain, leaving any other long-term user disoriented and confused. Stark had to don a prototype suit to stop Rhodes, who had gone on a rampage. When Circuits Maximus came under assault from Stane, Stark then used the completed next-generation armor to confront Stane in personal combat. Stark's skill proved superior over Stane's unskilled use of his own variant suit, known as the Iron Monger and he regained his company when Stane committed suicide rather than be captured. In an attempt to stop other people from misusing his designs, Stark then went about disabling other armored heroes and villains who were using suits based on the Iron Man technology. However, these "Armor Wars" had tragic consequences, when he inadvertently caused the death of the Soviet Titanium Man. This also led to a falling out between Stark and Steve Rogers, who at the time had given up his Captain America identity. Titanium Man". Art by Kevin Hopgood.]] Rogers, while agreeing with Stark's motives, disapproved of his high-handed methods, considering them reckless and dangerous. The United States government declared Iron Man a danger when he went after their Stark-derived Guardsmen suits and Iron Man was hunted down. Stark eventually had to fake Iron Man's demise and claim that a new person was in the armor. Stark also patched up his friendship with Steve Rogers. However, Stark's health continued to deteriorate, and it was discovered that the armor's cybernetic interface was causing irreversible damage to his nervous system. His condition was aggravated by a failed attempt on his life by a mentally unbalanced former lover which injured his spine, paralyzing him. Stark constructed a "skin" made up of artificial nerve circuitry, intended to assist his own failing nervous system. Stark began to pilot a remote-controlled Iron Man armor, but when faced with the Masters of Silence, the telepresence suit proved insufficient. Stark designed a heavier armed version of the suit to wear, the "Variable Threat Response Battle Suit", which became known as the War Machine armor. Ultimately, the damage to his nervous system was too extensive, and almost killed Stark. Faking his death, he placed himself in suspended animation to heal as Rhodes took over the running of Stark Enterprises and once again took up the mantle of Iron Man using the War Machine armor. Stark ultimately made a full recovery and reassumed the mantle of Iron Man. When Rhodes learned that Stark had manipulated his friends by faking his own death, he became enraged and the two friends parted ways, Rhodes continuing as War Machine in a solo career. A schism within the Avengers following the events of the Kree-Shi'ar War ("Operation: Galactic Storm") led to a difference of opinion regarding the future of the Avenger's west coast branch. Iron Man left the team and formed a new superhero group, Force Works, funded by Tony Stark and comprised of ex-Avengers. However, tensions within that team soon led to his resignation from it, and Iron Man attempted a reconciliation with the Avengers.

Death and life

Force Works.]] It was revealed soon after that a traitor was among the Avengers' ranks, and it turned out that traitor was none other than Iron Man himself. It appeared that the villain Kang the Conqueror had been manipulating Stark for years, using him as a sleeper agent, and causing him to push aside his friends and unconsciously serve Kang. Stark, fully in Kang's thrall, killed Marilla, the nanny of Crystal and Quicksilver's daughter Luna as well as Rita DeMara, the female Yellowjacket, then an ally of the Avengers. Yellowjacket (It was revealed later that everything had really been the machinations of a disguised Immortus, not Kang, and the mental control had only gone back for a few months.) Needing help to defeat both Stark and Kang, the team travelled back in time and recruited a teenage Tony Stark, from alternate timeline, to assist them. "Teen Tony" stole a suit of Stark's armor to aid the Avengers against his older self, and the sight of his younger self shocked the older Stark enough for him to regain momentary control of his actions, and he sacrificed his life to stop Kang. "Teen Tony" then later built his own suit to became the "new" Iron Man. The teenage Stark remained in the present day and legally regained control of his company. During the battle with the creature called Onslaught, "Teen Tony" died, along with many of his teammates and allies. However, Franklin Richards preserved these "dead" heroes in the "Heroes Reborn" pocket universe, in which Tony Stark was once again an adult and a hero. The reborn adult Stark, upon returning to the normal Marvel Universe, retained the memories of both the original and teenage Tony Stark, and considered himself to have been both of them. With the aid of law firm Nelson & Murdock, he successfully regained his fortune and set up a new company (during his "death", Stark Enterprises had been sold), Stark Solutions. He also returned from the pocket universe with a fully-restored living heart. After the Avengers reformed, Stark demanded that a hearing be convened to look into his actions just prior to the Onslaught incident. Cleared of wrongdoing, he rejoined the Avengers.

The new millennium

Nelson & Murdock.]] At one point, Tony's armor itself became sentient, despite fail-safes to prevent its increasingly sophisticated computer systems from doing so. Stark's safeguards were corrupted accidentally when he used the armor to download the mind of the android Jocasta to save her. Jocasta was the creation of the rogue android Ultron, and unknown even to her, embedded in all of Ultron's creations was the Ultron Imperative, a command that would compel them to rebuild Ultron whenever he was destroyed. The Ultron Imperative acted like a trojan horse, infecting the armor's on board systems. Combined with an electrical attack by the villain Whiplash that sent Stark into cardiac arrest, it caused the armor's computer to become self-aware. Initially, Stark welcomed this "living" armor, as it had improved tactical abilities, but soon the armor's behavior began to grow more aggressive, even committing murder. Eventually, the armor reached the point where it wanted to join with Stark and eventually replace him, like Ultron wished to do with his creator Henry Pym. Stark could not defeat the armor, but in the final confrontation on a desert island, Stark suffered another heart attack. To save his life, the armor gave up part of its components to give Stark a new, artificial heart, sacrificing its own existence. The new heart did not have an internal power supply, so Stark became once again dependent on periodic recharging. Henry Pym The sentient armor incident so disturbed Stark that he went back to using an early model version of his armor for a while. He also dabbled with using liquid metal circuitry known as S.K.I.N. that would form itself into a protective shell around his body, but eventually returned to more conventional hard metal armors. Recently, Stark decided to finally reveal to the world that he had been the man behind the Iron Man mask all along. When he discovered that the United States military was still using his technology, rather than confront them as he did before, he accepted a Presidential appointment to act as Secretary of Defense (his predecessor, Dell Rusk, had actually been the Red Skull in disguise). In this way, he hoped to be able to monitor and direct how his designs were being used. Stark continued to act as Iron Man while carrying out his government duties, until being forced to resign after a seemingly drunken tirade against the Latverian Ambassador at the United Nations. The tirade had actually been induced by the Scarlet Witch, who had gone insane (see Avengers Disassembled). This incident was just the part of a series of events that culminated in the deaths of three Avengers, the destruction of Avengers Mansion and the disbanding of the Avengers themselves. In the aftermath of this, he claimed publicly that he would stand down as Iron Man, though there would "always be an Iron Man." The "new" Iron Man was of course still Tony Stark, but the catastrophic events that preceded this had apparently convinced people the Iron Man and Stark were now two different people. Stark left the wreckage of Avengers Mansion as it was, and went on to build Stark Tower, a state-of-the-art office building. Stark Tower now also serves as the headquarters of the new Avengers team, of which he is once again a member. Stark also recently designed and created the giant mecha known as the Mega Morphs.

Other versions

- In Amalgam Comics, Tony Stark is a weapons designer for S.H.I.E.L.D.., that was crippled by the Green Skull.
- In the alternate future of Earth-982, Tony Stark retired after the loss of many heroes in battle, but eventually created the armored computer program Mainframe, which joined the next generation Avengers team.
- In another alternate future on Earth-9997, Tony Stark built a headquarters that protected himself from the plague. Afterwards, he built the Iron Avengers. Later, his headquarters was revealed out to be a giant mecha, which he used to delay the Celestial attack until the coming of Galactus, sacrificing his life in the process.
- Ultimate Iron Man
- House of M Iron Man

Powers and abilities

House of M Iron Man.]] A notable element of the character is, unlike other superheroes, his appearance and abilities are continually in flux as Stark continually modifies and upgrades his equipment. This is most obvious with the regularly changing appearance of his armor. The Iron Man armor was originally grey, but Stark found that this appearance frightened innocents as well as criminals, so he spray-painted it gold (Tales of Suspense #40). This bulky first version armor was changed in Tales of Suspense #48 into a more-form fitting design, sporting a red and gold color scheme which it has mostly retained since. Iron Man's powers and abilities derive from the advanced powered armor that he wears. The armor has evolved from a bulky iron suit to a molecularly aligned matrix of crystallized iron enhanced by magnetic fields over layers of other metals like titanium, creating a shell that is pliable, yet capable of amazing resilience and protection. The suit grants him vast superhuman strength and flight capabilities, and is powered by a combination of solar converters, electrical batteries and an on-board generator that uses beta particle absorption as a fuel source. The suit is also able to convert nearby energy sources, such as heat or kinetic energy into electricity, or even drain electrical energy directly into the batteries for recharge. The suit can be completely sealed for operations in vacuum or underwater, providing its own life support, and is shielded against radiation. The on-board systems of the armor are controlled by Iron Man's brain patterns, read from a cybernetic interface in his helmet. Sophisticated computers with an artificially intelligent operating system of Stark's own design provide tactical information as well as constant feedback on the suit's status, using internal and external sensors. As noted above, Stark has tried to put safeguards in to make sure that the systems do not actually achieve sentience, although these were once circumvented. The weapons systems of the suit have evolved over the years, but Iron Man's standard offensive weapon has always been the repulsor beams that are fired from the palms of the suit. Other weapons built into various incarnations of the armor include the unibeam projector in its chest; pulse bolts that pick up kinetic energy along the way, so that they hit harder the further they have to travel; an electromagnetic pulse generator and an energy shield. electromagnetic pulse In addition to the general purpose model he wears, Stark has developed several specialized suits for space travel, deep-sea diving, stealth and other situations. Stark has modified suits like the "Hulkbuster" heavy armor, composed of add-ons to his so-called modular armor, designed to enhance its strength and durability to allow it to take on the Incredible Hulk. Stark also developed an electronics pack during the Armor Wars that, when attached to armors that use Stark technology, would burn out those components and render the suit useless. This pack was ineffective on later models, however. Quite apart from the powers granted him by the suit, Stark is an inventive mechanical engineering prodigy, constantly creating new technology and looking for ways to improve it. Furthermore, this extends to his remarkable ingenuity dealing with difficult situations such as difficult foes and deathtraps where he is capable of using his available tools like his suit in unorthodox and effective ways. He is also extremely well-respected in the business world, able to command people's attentions when he speaks on economic matters by virtue of the fact that he is savvy enough to have, over the years, built up several multi-million dollar companies from virtually nothing. He is known for the loyalty he commands from and returns to those who work for him, as well as his impeccable business ethics. He also strives to be environmentally responsible in his businesses, and in one case, immediately fired an employee who made profitable (but illegal) sales to Doctor Doom. When Stark was unable to use his armor for a period of time, he asked for some combat training from Captain America and has become quite physically formidable on his own when the situation demands it. Except for his two serious bouts with alcoholism, Stark is possessed of tremendous strength of will, never giving up and often emerging from defeat even stronger. It is arguable that the true "iron man" is not the armor, but Stark himself.

Appearances in other media

Animated series adaptations

Iron Man has appeared in many animated series, including his own in 1966 and 1994. In 1981, Iron Man appeared in Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends. In the 1990s, he also appeared in the Avengers and Spider-Man animated series on Fox and the Hulk animated series on UPN. UPN episode of the Iron Man animated series.]] The 1994 animated series was part of the Marvel Action Hour, which packaged several animated versions of Marvel series, including the Fantastic Four, with two half-hour episodes from different series. Iron Man's origin was changed for this series. Instead of a shrapnel near his heart, Stark instead had multiplier slivers near his spine, threatening paralysis. Also, instead of Wong Chu, Stark and Yisen were held captive by the Mandarin, who had been altered by his rings to have green skin and greater physical strength. The Mandarin led a group of villains, consisting of Dreadknight, Hypnotia, Blizzard, Blacklash, Grey Gargoyle, Whirlwind, M.O.D.O.K. and Justin Hammer against Iron Man and his team, based on Force Works.

Film adaptations

An Iron Man film is scheduled to be released in 2007 (though originally November 2005, but reverted to 2006 then to 2007 due to several undisclosed reasons), with Matt Dillon as the current front-runner to be Tony Stark, and Nick Casavettes as the director. Prior to this Tom Cruise had shown interest in playing the role but has since denied any possibility of his involvement. The film is rumored to feature the armor in the Ultimate Iron Man model.

Video game adaptations

Ultimate Iron Man Iron Man has been featured in several video games. He was one of four selectable heroes in Captain America & The Avengers (1991), and was also in Capcom's Marvel Super-Heroes and the subsequent Marvel vs. Capcom series as well as Iron Man/XO Manowar in Heavy Metal for the PC, PlayStation, the Game Boy, Saturn, and Game Gear. The Invincible Iron Man came out on the Game Boy Advance in late 2002. More recently, Iron Man, Tony Stark and Stark Enterprises made an appearance in the 2005 The Punisher video game, as an unlockable character in X-Men Legends II and as one of the main characters in Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects.

Toys

Toy Biz has produced Iron Man figures based on the Iron Man 1994 cartoon which all featured shiny detachable armor parts. This line reached its fourth assortment before being cancelled due to the expensive production of the detachable parts and their persistent chippings, leading to several dissatisfied customers. The fifth assortment, which never became openly available, can still be found on several eBay lots costing as much as 100 dollars a piece. Since 2002, Toy Biz has produced Iron Man figures in their Marvel Legends line. Iron Man has been featured in Series One (Classic Yellow, Stealth, and pre-Classic Gold with horned rimmed faceplate), Series Seven (Silver Centurion), Series Eight (Modern Armor), and Series Nine (War Machine), all with removable faceplates. His Hulkbuster armor, his bulkiest armor yet and having a flip top helmet, was part of Series Eleven, making him the character with the most number of Marvel Legends figures.

Popular culture

The rapper Ghostface Killah, a member of the extremely influential Wu-Tang Clan, titled his 1996 debut solo album Ironman, and has continued to use lyrics related to the Iron Man comics and samples from the animated TV shows on his records ever since. He has also adopted the nickname Tony Starks (sic) as one of his numerous alter-egos, and the title of his 2004 release The Pretty Toney Album is believed to come from a stylization of this.

Bibliography

List of Iron Man titles

- Tales of Suspense Issues 39-99
- Iron Man and the Sub-Mariner (1968)
- Iron Man (1968 series) #1-332 (May 1968 - September 1996)
- Iron Man Annual (1970 series) #1-15 (1970 - 1994)
- Giant-Size Iron Man (1975)
- Iron Manual (1993)
- Iron Man 2020 (August 1994)
- Age of Innocence: The Rebirth of Iron Man (February 1996)
- Iron Man (1996 series) #1-13 (November 1996 - November 1997)
- Iron Man (1998 series) #1-89 (February 1998 - October 2004)
- Iron Man: The Iron Age (1998 series) #1-2 (August 1998) - September 1998)
- Iron Man Annual '98 (1998)
- Iron Man Annual '99 (1999)
- Iron Man: Bad Blood (2000 series) #1-4 (September 2000 - December 2000)
- Iron Man Annual 2000 (2000)
- Iron Man Annual 2001 (2001)
- Iron Man (2004 series) #1-present (November 2004 - present)

List of appearances in other titles

- Alias #25-26, 28
- Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 1 #18, 334
- Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1, 3, 16, 25
- Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 2 #1
- Avengers Vol. 1 #1-10, 12-16, 32, 45, 51-52, 58, 60, 66-67, 69-71, 76, 79-82, 86-88, 93-97, 314, 316-318, 326-329, 336-340, 345, 347, 391-393, 395
- Avengers Annual #1, 10, 19, 1998, 1999, 2000
- Avengers Vol. 2 #6-13
- Avengers Vol. 3 #0-11, 13, 15-25, 27-34, 36-42, 45-46, 48, 52-63, 66-70, 72-76, 78-82, 84, 500-501, 503
- Avengers/JLA #2
- Avengers/Thunderbolts #1-3
- Avengers: Crossing #1
- Avengers Finale #1
- Avengers Forever #1
- Avengers Spotlight #26, 29-30
- Avengers: Terminatrix Objective #1-4
- Avengers: The Ultron Imperative
- Avengers West Coast #50-62 63, 66-80, 84-86, 89, 93-94, 102
- Avengers West Coast Annual #4-7
- Black Panther Vol. 3 #7-9, 19, 23
- Cable #67-68
- Cage Vol. 1 #7-8
- Captain America Vol. 1 #112-113, 123, 373, 383, 399-401, 437-438
- Captain America Annual #9
- Captain America Vol. 2 #6, 12
- Captain America Vol. 3 #3, 5-7, 15-16, 20-22, 45-47
- Captain America and the Falcon #3
- Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty Vol. 2 #5-6
- Cloak and Dagger Vol. 3 #9
- Contest of Champions II #1-5
- Damage Control Vol. 1 #3
- Damage Control Vol. 2 #1
- Damage Control Vol. 3 #3-4
- Darkhawk Annual #1
- Deadpool Vol. 2 #23, 44
- Defenders Vol. 1 #9-11, 13, 44, 58, 63, 98
- Dr. Strange Vol. 2 #29, 35
- Excalibur #37-39
- Fantastic Four Vol. 1 #25-26, 31, 36, 337-341, 370, 400
- Fantastic Four Annual #3, 22
- Fantastic Four Vol. 2 #8, 12
- Fantastic Four Vol. 3 #15, 24, 26-28, 50
- Fantastic Four Annual 2001
- Force Works #1-17, 19, 21
- Fury/Agent 13 #1-2
- Galactus #1-6
- Hercules #1, 4-5
- Heroes Reborn: The Return #3-4
- Hulk Vol. 2 #3,5,7
- Hulk Annual 2000
- Hulk: Gray #3-4
- Incredible Hulk Vol. 2 #417, 434, 450, 462, 465
- Infinity Crusade #1-6
- Infinity Gauntlet #2-4, 6
- Infinity War #1
- Iron Fist #1
- Iron Fist/Wolverine #2-4
- JLA/Avengers #1, 3
- Juggernaut: Eight Day #1
- New Invaders #0
- Magneto: Dark Seduction #2-4
- Marvel Knights 4 #4
- Marvel Knights Spider-Man #2
- Marvel Team Up Vol. 1 #7, 9-11,
- Marvel Team Up Vol. 2 #11
- Marvel Team Up Vol. 3 #6
- Marvels #2
- Maximum Security #1-3
- Namor, the Sub-Mariner #4-5
- New Avengers #2-11
- New Thunderbolts #13
- New Warriors Vol. 2 #9
- New X-Men: Academy X #13
- Night Thrasher Vol. 2 #10
- Peter Parker: Spider-Man Vol. 2 #11
- The Pulse #3
- Quasar #32
- Runaways Vol. 2 #6
- Secret Wars II #1, 5, 9
- Sensational Spider-Man #28
- Sentry Vol. 1 #2
- Sentry Vol. 2 #1
- She-Hulk Vol. 3 #12
- Silver Surfer Vol. 3 #52, 54
- Silver Surfer Annual 1998
- Spectacular Spider-Man Vol. 1 Annual #11
- Spider-Man: Breakout #2, 5
- Super-Villain Team Up #9, 14
- Thor Annual #14-15
- Thor Vol. 2 #1-2, 5, 14, 27, 58
- Thor: Godstorm #1
- Thunderbolts #0, 11-12, 43-45, 57
- Uncanny X-Men #9
- Untold Tales of Spider-Man #3
- Untold Tales of Spider-Man Annual 1997
- Vision and Scarlet Witch Vol. 1 #3
- Vision and Scarlet Witch Vol. 2 #1-2
- War Machine #4, 8-10, 22
- Web of Spider-Man #104-106
- Web of Spider-Man Annual #7
- West Coast Avengers Vol. 2 #1-5, 8-31
- Wolverine Vol. 3 #22, 25
- Wonder Man Vol. 2 #2, 9
- X-Factor Vol. 1 #32
- X-Men (Second Series) #65, 73
- X-Statix #21, 24-26
- X-Treme X-Men #11, 13, 18
- Young Avengers #1-6
List of significant stories

- Iron Man Vol. 1 #249-250 (Mid November 1989 - December 1989) - Merlin brings Doctor Doom and Iron Man to the year 2093.
- Iron Man Vol. 1 #258-266 (July 1990 - February 1991); "Armor Wars II" - Kearson DeWitt manipulates Tony Stark.
- Iron Man Vol. 1 #284 (September 1992); "Legacy of Iron" - Tony Stark fakes his death, until he can be cured of his health issues. James Rhodes takes over as Iron Man.
- Iron Man Vol. 1 #289 ( February 1993); "The Light at the End" - Tony Stark wakes up from suspended animation and in anger Rhodes quits.
- Force Works #1 (July 1994); "Day-Break" - Iron Man is involved in the creation of the new team.
- Iron Man Vol. 2 #11 (September 1997); "Magical Mystery Tour" - Doctor Doom and Iron Man takes several time jolts through time.
- Iron Man Vol. 3 #1 (February 1998); "Looking Forward" - Tony Stark returns from Franklin Richards' Counter Earth and attempts to bring his life back into order.
- Iron Man Vol. 3 #26-30 (March 2000 - July 2000); "The Maski in the Iron Man" - Iron Man's armor become sentient.
- Iron Man Vol. 3 #46-49 (November 2001 - January 2002); "The Frankenstein Syndrome" - Ultron uses the sentinet armor as a new body.
- Iron Man Vol. 3 #53-55 (June 2002 - July 2002); "Book of Ten Rings" - Iron Man faces the son of the Mandarin.
- Iron Man Vol. 3 #65-69 (April 2003 - August 2003); "Manhunt" - The manhunt is on for Tony Stark, because his technology is used to destroy an Asian embassy in Washington, D.C..
- Iron Man Vol. 3 #73-78 (December 2003 - May 2004); "The Best Defense" - Tony Stark becomes the Secretary of Defense.
- Avengers/Thunderbolts #1-6 (May 2004 - September 2004) - Iron Man infiltrates the Thunderbolts as Cobalt Man.
See also

- Iron Man 2020
External links

- [http://advancediron.com/ Advanced Iron Online]
- [http://www.ironmanarmory.com/ The Iron Man Armory]
- [http://www.republiquelibre.org/cousture/bd/IRNMN4C.HTM The Many Armors of Iron Man]
- [http://members.aol.com/drg4/im.html DRG4's Iron Man the Animated Series Page]
- [http://marvel.toonzone.net/ironman/ Iron Man: The Animated Series (1994-5) @ Marvel Animation Age]
- [http://www.comicbookresources.com/resources/tvthemes/mp3/Iron_Man_1994.mp3 1994 Animated Theme]
- [http://www.comicbookresources.com/resources/tvthemes/mp3/Iron_Man_1996.mp3 1996 Animated Theme]
- [http://ironman12.homestead.com/ Iron Man 12]
- Category:Avengers members Category:Fictional alcoholics Category:Fictional engineers Category:Marvel Comics Thunderbolts members Category:Marvel Comics titles Category:Fictional businesspeople Category:Fictional scientists Category:Fictional inventors Category:West Coast Avengers members simple:Iron Man

Iron Man (disambiguation)
Iron Man is a comic book superhero in the Marvel Comics universe, and a member of The Avengers. Iron Man, or Ironman, may also refer to:
- Ironman (surf lifesaving), a multi-disciplinary surf lifesaving event that consists of a swim leg, a surf board leg, a surf ski leg, and finishes with a beach sprint leg.
- The Iron Man (book), a 1968 novel by British poet laureate Ted Hughes. It is the basis for the 1989 rock musical The Iron Man (album) by Pete Townshend, as well as the 1999 animated film The Iron Giant.
- Iron Man (TV), an animated TV series (1994-1996)
- Iron Man (song), a Grammy-winning song by the heavy metal band Black Sabbath from their 1971 album Paranoid.
- Iron: Man, a 1993 sculpture by Antony Gormley in Birmingham, England.
- Ironman Triathlon, a long-distance Triathlon of 2.4 miles swimming, 112 miles biking and 26 miles running; the World Championship is held annually in Kona, Hawaii.
- Ironman (watch), is a watch made by Timex Corporation, marketed in conjunction with the Ironman Triathlon.
- Ironman (album), an album by rap artist Ghostface Killah.
- Iron Man (Eric Dolphy album), an album by jazz saxophonist Eric Dolphy.
- Ironman (single), a single by Sir Mix-a-Lot.
- "Iron Man of Baseball" refers to either Lou Gehrig or Cal Ripken, Jr., for their long streaks without missing a game. The Iron Man phrase has also been used in other sports for players with long consecutive games played streaks, like Brett Favre.
- Tetsuo: The Iron Man, a 1988 Japanese film about a man who's transformed into iron.
- IronMan (magazine), a bodybuilding and weight-training magazine.

Marvel Comics

Marvel Comics, (AKA Marvel Entertainment Group, Marvel Characters, Inc., and Marvel Enterprises, Inc.) sometimes called by the nickname The House of Ideas, is an American comic book company. Its best-known comics include The Fantastic Four, The Amazing Spider-Man, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, Captain America, and X-Men. Since the 1960s, it has been one of the two largest American comics companies, along with DC Comics. right right right

History

Origins

right), the first comic from Marvel precursor Timely Comics. Art by Frank R. Paul]] Marvel Comics was founded by established pulp magazine publisher Martin Goodman in 1939 as an eventual group of subsidiary companies under the umbrella name Timely Comics. Its first publication was Marvel Comics #1 (Oct. 1939), featuring the first appearance of Carl Burgos' android superhero, the Human Torch, and the first generally available appearance of Bill Everett's mutant anti-hero Namor the Sub-Mariner. The contents of that sales blockbuster were supplied by an outside packager, Funnies, Inc., but by the following year Timely had a staff in place. The company's first editor, the writer-artist Joe Simon, teamed with soon-to-be industry legend Jack Kirby to create one of the first patriotically themed superheroes, Captain America, in Captain America Comics #1 (March 1941). It, too, proved a major sales hit. While no other Timely character would be as successful as these "big three", some notable heroes — many continuing to appear in modern-day retcon appearances and flashbacks — include the Whizzer, Miss America, The Destroyer, the original Vision, and Paul Gustavson's The Angel. Timely also published one of humor cartoonist Basil Wolverton's best-known features, Powerhouse Pepper. Sales of all comic books declined drastically in the post-war era, and the superheroic übermensch archetype popular during the Depression and the war years went out of fashion. Like other comics companies, Timely — generally known as Atlas Comics in the 1950s — followed pop-cultural trends with a variety of genres, including funny animals, Western, horror, war, crime, humor, romance, spy fiction and even medieval adventure, all with varying degrees of success. An attempted superhero revival in 1953-54 with the Human Torch, the Sub-Mariner and Captain America failed. In 1957, Atlas nearly closed its doors due to the bankruptcy of its distributor, American News Service. This summer of 1957 debacle is infamously known as the "Atlas Implosion". The final comic to bear the famous Atlas Globe on its cover was Dippy Duck #1, the only "Atlas" comic with an October 1957 cover date. The Atlas "one-shots" of 1957 reveal that Martin Goodman was attempting to open a new range of "kiddies" titles just as the ax fell. Goodman switched to the distributor Independent News on constrained terms that allowed him only a limited number of titles per month. The surviving sixteen titles are sometimes referred to as the "sweet sixteen" (published bi-monthly, eight titles per month), the first of which to bear the new "Ind." label was Patsy Walker #73, ironically (like Dippy Duck) bearing an October 1957 cover date. The sixteen survivors of the summer of 1957 (the two fantasy and two war titles clearly were simply using up left over "inventory") reveal that the best selling titles were westerns (Kid Colt Outlaw starring in two titles) and girl humor (led primarily by Millie the Model along with Patsy Walker and Hedy Wolfe). The two fantasy titles (Strange Tales and World of Fantasy) clung on printing "inventory" (stories stored away in summer 1957) from late 1957 until late 1958. At the end of 1958 Martin Goodman attempted a new direction (after recently reviving Journey into Mystery) by launching a short-lived space fantasy sci-fi range of stories in six titles :Strange Worlds #1, World of Fantasy #15 , Strange Tales #67, Journey into Mystery #50, Tales of Suspense #1 and Tales to Astonish #1. The space fantasy tales were unsuccessful and faded out after less than a year, but by the end of 1959 most of these titles (Strange Worlds and World of Fantasy were both cancelled) were now sporting covers featuring great hulking monsters and featuring a line-up of Jack Kirby-drawn stories (often inked by Dick Ayers) followed by Steve Ditko's wonderful mysterious "ooky" tales and Don Heck's very atmospheric rendering of jungle/prison escapes and weird adventures. The Kirby/Ayers monster stories were riding on the coattails of popular movie trends of the time with a science fiction bent. Ind-Marvel also expanded its line of girls humor titles in 1959-61 with Kathy the Teen-Age Tornado (Oct 1959) and Linda Carter, Student Nurse (Sept 1961). This fact along with the fanstasy title expansion of late 1958 (and the addition of Amazing Adventures, cover dated June 1961 -- a title which eventually became the Lee & Ditko showpiece Amazing Adult Fantasy before becoming Amazing Fantasy #15 which in turn led to Amazing Spider-Man #1) clearly reveal that Martin Goodman and Stan Lee were looking for ways to expand their comics line.

1960s

Stan Lee), the cornerstone of Marvel and the introduction of a new style of superhero. Art by Jack Kirby.]] In the wake of DC Comics' success reviving superheroes in the late 1950s and early 1960s, particularly with The Justice League of America, Marvel decided to follow suit. Editor/writer Stan Lee and freelance artist Jack Kirby created the Fantastic Four, vaguely reminding one of DC's adventuring quartet the Challengers of the Unknown. The book was a success, and Marvel began publishing further superhero titles featuring such heroes and anti-heroes as the Hulk, Spider-Man, The Mighty Thor, Ant-Man, Iron Man, the X-Men and Daredevil, and such memorable antagonists as Doctor Doom, Magneto, Galactus, the Green Goblin and Doctor Octopus. The most successful new series was The Amazing Spider-Man, by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. Marvel's comics were noted for focusing on characterization to a greater extent than most superhero comics before them — Spider-Man in particular, its young hero suffering from self-doubt and mundane problems like any other teenager. Marvel superheroes are often flawed, freaks, and misfits, unlike the perfect, handsome, athletic heroes found in previous traditional comic books. Some of the Marvel heroes looked like villains and monsters. In time, this non-traditional approach would revolutionize comic books. Peter Sanderson, in an October 10, 2003, column for IGN.com [http://comics.ign.com/articles/595/595576p1.html], said that

"DC was the equivalent of the big Hollywood studios: After the brilliance of DC's reinvention of the superhero ... in the late 1950s and early 1960s, it had run into a creative drought by the decade's end. There was a new audience for comics, now, and it wasn't just the little kids that traditionally had read the books. The Marvel of the 1960s was in its own way the counterpart of the French New Wave.... Marvel was pioneering new methods of comics storytelling and characterization, addressing more serious themes, and in the process keeping and attracting readers in their teens and beyond. Moreover, among this new generation of readers were people who wanted to write or draw comics themselves, within the new style that Marvel had pioneered, and push the creative envelope still further."

Lee became one of the best-known names in comics, with his charming personality and relentless salesmanship of the company. The "voice" of Stan Lee is what one senses in so many of the Marvel Comics of the first half of the 1960s. His sense of humor and general light-hearted manner, and the depiction of the Bullpen (Lee's name for the staff) as one big happy family. In later years it became clear the artists often had as much to do with Marvel's product and success as Lee. Jack Kirby in particular is often credited as the creative well from which sprang many of the cosmic ideas and characters of The Fantastic Four and The Mighty Thor (such as The Watcher, The Silver Surfer and Ego the Living Planet) while Steve Ditko is recognized as the driving artistic force behind the moody atmosphere and street-level naturalism of Spider-Man and the surreal atmosphere of Dr. Strange. Lee, however, continues to deserve great credit for his well-honed skills at dialog and story sense; for his keen hand at choosing and motivating artists and in assembling creative teams; and for his uncanny ability to connect with the readers. In 1968, company founder Martin Goodman sold Marvel Comics and his other publishing businesses to the Perfect Film and Chemical Corporation. It grouped these businesses in a subsidiary called Magazine Management Co. Goodman remained as publisher.

1970s

Martin Goodman). Art by Gene Colan and Steve Leialoha]]In 1972, Goodman retired as publisher and was succeeded by Lee, who stepped aside from running day-to-day operations at Marvel. A series of new editors-in-chief oversaw the company during another slow time for the industry. Once again, Marvel attempted to diversify, and achieved moderate success with titles themed to horror (Tomb of Dracula), martial arts, (Shang-Chi: Master of Kung Fu), sword-and-sorcery (Conan the Barbarian, Red Sonja), satire (Howard the Duck) and science fiction ("Killraven" in Amazing Adventures). Some of these were published in larger-sized black-and-white magazines, targeted for mature readers. Marvel was able to capitalize on its successful superhero comics of the previous decade by acquiring a new newsstand distributor and greatly expanding its comics line. Even more importantly, during a time when the price and format of the standard newsstand comic were in flux, Marvel captured a significant piece of DC's market share by offering a lower-priced product with a higher distributor discount. In 1973, Perfect Film and Chemical Corporation changed its name to Cadence Industries, which in turn renamed Magazine Management Co. as Marvel Comics Group. Goodman, now completely disconnected from Marvel, created a new company called Atlas/Seaboard Comics in 1974, reviving Marvel's old Atlas name, but this project lasted only a year-and-a-half. In the mid-1970s, Marvel was affected by a decline of the newsstand distribution network. Cult hits such as Howard the Duck were the victims of the distribution problems, with some titles reporting low sales when in fact they were being resold at a later date in the first specialty comic-book stores. An attempt by Marvel to buy DC was frustrated by DC's refusal to sell its entire library of characters (wanting to retain control of Superman and Batman), and DC was sold to Warner Communications instead. By the end of the decade, Marvel's fortunes were reviving, thanks to the rise of direct-market distribution (selling through those same comics-specialty stores instead of newsstands) and the sales increase of previously borderline books — such as the canceled '60s title The Uncanny X-Men, revived to become a hit series under team of writer Chris Claremont and artist John Byrne, or the more naturalistic, urban-crime superhero comic Daredevil, by writer/artist Frank Miller.

1980s

Frank Miller). Art by Mike Zeck]]By the 1980s, one-time wunderkind Jim Shooter was Marvel's Editor-in-Chief. Although a controversial personality, Shooter cured many of the procedural ills at Marvel (including repeatedly missed deadlines) and oversaw a creative renaissance at the company. This renaissance included institutionalizing creator royalties, starting the Epic imprint for creator-owned material, and launching a brand-new (albeit ultimately unsuccessful) line named New Universe, to commemorate Marvel's 25th anniversary, in 1986. However, Shooter was responsible for the introduction of the company-wide crossover (Contest of Champions, Secret Wars) and was accused by many creators, especially near the end of his tenure, of exercising his job in a draconian manner and interfering with the writers' creative process. In 1981 Marvel purchased the DePatie-Freleng Enterprises animation studio from famed Looney Tunes director Friz Freleng and his business partner David H. DePatie. The company was renamed Marvel Productions Ltd. and it produced well known animated TV series such as G.I. Joe, The Transformers and Jim Henson's Muppet Babies, Dungeons & Dragons and movies based on the G.I. Joe and The Transformers TV series. Following the acquisition of Marvel by Ronald Perelman, Marvel Productions sold its back catalog to Saban Entertainment and Marvel management permanently closed the animation studio opting to have its animation projects contracted out to third party production companies. In 1982, Marvel launched its creator-owned imprint Epic Comics, specifically for the "direct market," the emerging retail phenomenon of comic-book stores. In 1988, Marvel was bought by investor/entrepreneur Ronald Perelman, who made Marvel a public company listed on the New York Stock Exchange and oversaw a great increase in the number of titles published by the company.

1990s

New York Stock Exchange), one of many spin-offs of The Amazing Spider Man. Art by Todd McFarlane]] Marvel earned a great deal of money and recognition during the early decade's comic-book boom, launching the highly successful 2099 line of comics set in the future (Spider-Man 2099 etc.) and the creatively daring though commercially unsuccessful Razorline imprint of superhero comics created by novelist and filmmaker Clive Barker. Yet by the middle of the decade, the industry had slumped and Marvel filed for bankruptcy amidst accusations that Perelman had strip-mined the company for his own gain. The casualties included the comic-book distribution industry in 1994, when Marvel announced it was acquiring Heroes World to use as its exclusive distributor. As the industry's other major publishers made exclusive distribution deals with other companies, the loss of the industry's largest companies threw the majority of the comic book distributors out of business. Although Marvel's plan failed, only Diamond Comic Distributors Inc. now exists as the major distributor of comic books in North America, a development many comic retailers believe profoundly damaged the business status of the industry. Investor Carl Icahn attempted to take control of Marvel, but after protracted legal battles, in 1997 control of the company landed in the hands of Isaac Perlmutter, owner of the Marvel subsidiary Toy Biz. With his business partner Avi Arad and publisher Bill Jemas and editor-in-chief Bob Harras, Perlmutter helped Marvel back on its feet. In addition to Marvel revitalizing its comics line, several of its properties have been licensed to become hit movies, most notably X-Men and Spider-Man. Creatively and commercially, the '90s were dominated by the use of gimmickry to boost sales, such as variant covers, cover enhancements and regular company-wide crossovers that threw the universe's continuity into disarray. In 1996, Marvel had almost all its titles participate in the Onslaught Saga, a crossover that allowed Marvel to relaunch some of its flagship characters, such as the Avengers and the Fantastic Four, in the Heroes Reborn universe, in which Marvel defectors Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld were given permission to revamp the properties from scratch. After an initial sales bump, sales quickly declined below expected levels, and Marvel killed the experiment after its planned one-year run; the characters returned to the Marvel Universe proper. In 1998, the company launched the imprint Marvel Knights, taking place within Marvel continuity; helmed by soon-to-become editor-in-chief Joe Quesada, and featuring tough, gritty stories showcasing such characters as the Inhumans and Daredevil, it achieved substantial success.

2000s

With the new millennium, Marvel Comics escaped from bankruptcy and again began diversifying its offerings. In 2001, Marvel withdrew from the Comics Code Authority and established its own Marvel Ratings System for comics. It also created new imprints, such as MAX, a line intended for mature readers, and Marvel Age, developed for younger audiences, including children. In addition to this is the highly successful Ultimate Marvel imprint, which allowed Marvel to reboot their major titles by deconstructing and updating their major superhero and villian characters to introduce to a new generation. This imprint exists in a universe parallel to the proper Marvel continuity, which allowed the writers freedom from the characters' convoluted history and the ability to redesign them, and to maintain their other ongoing series without replacing the established continuity. This also allowed Marvel to capitalize on an influx of new readers who were not familiar with comics but became familiar with their characters through their film franchises, making it easier for a mainstream audience to follow. The company has also revamped its graphic novel division, establishing a bigger presence in the bookstore market. Marvel remains a key publisher in the comics business, even as the industry has dwindled to a fraction of its peak size decades earlier. Stan Lee is no longer officially connected to the company, save for the title of "Chairman Emeritus," but remains a visible face in the industry and occasionally remarks on his fondness for the characters. In 2002, he sued successfully for a share of income related to movies and merchandising of Marvel characters, based on a contract between Lee and Marvel from the late 1990s; according to court documents, Marvel had used "Hollywood accounting" to claim that those projects' "earnings" were not profits. Regardless, Marvel has also become a key player in Hollywood, with many of its characters being turned into successful film franchises, with perhaps the best examples being X-Men starting in 2000, and Spider-Man beginning in 2002.

Editors-in-chief

The Marvel editor-in-chief has great power and oversees many creative decisions taken within the company. The position evolved sporadically. In the earliest years the company had a single editor overseeing the entire line, but as the company grew it became increasingly common for individual titles to be overseen separately. The concept of the "writer-editor" evolved, stemming from the days when Stan Lee wrote and oversaw most of the line's output. Overseeing the line in the 1970s were a series of chief editors, though the titles were used intermittently. Confusing matters further some appear to have been appointed merely by extending their existing editorial duties. By the time of the appointment of Jim Shooter in 1978 the post of editor-in-chief was clearly defined. In 1994, Marvel briefly abolished the position, replacing Tom DeFalco with five "group editors", though they each held the title "editor-in-chief" and had some editors underneath them. It reinstated the position later in the year, installing Bob Harras.
- Joe Simon (1939-1941)
- Stan Lee (1941-1942)
- Vincent Fago (acting editor during Stan Lee's military service) (1942-1945)
- Stan Lee (1945-1972)
- Roy Thomas (1972-1974)
- Len Wein (1974-1975)
- Marv Wolfman (B&W magazines 1974-1975, entire line 1975-1976)
- Gerry Conway (1976)
- Archie Goodwin (1976-1978)
- Jim Shooter (1978-1987)
- Tom DeFalco (1987-1994)
- No overall editor-in-chief (1994-1995)
- Bob Harras (1995-2000)
- Joe Quesada (2000-) Sources: [http://www.newkadia.com/MarvelComics.html], [http://www.manwithoutfear.com/interviews/ddINTWolfman.shtml], [http://www.geocities.com/marvel80s/mrv_hist.html].

Imprints

- Current
- Marvel Next
- Icon Comics
- Marvel Age
- Marvel Knights
- MAX
- Ultimate Marvel
- Defunct
- Curtis Magazines
- Epic Comics
- Marvel 2099
- Marvel Music
- Tsunami
- MC2 (only Spider Girl remains)
- Marvel UK
- Malibu Comics
- New Universe
- Paramount Comics
- Razorline
- Star Comics

External links

- [http://www.marvelpics.co.uk Official Marvel Picture site]
- [http://www.marvel.com Marvel Comics official site]
- [http://www.marvel.co.uk Official UK Marvel Site]
- [http://www.marvelstore.co.uk Official UK Marvel Store]
- [http://www.marveldatabase.com Marvel Database Project]
- [http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix/ The Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe]
- [http://www.marveldirectory.com/ Marvel Directory]
- [http://www.comicboards.com/marvelguide Marvel Guide: An Unofficial Handbook of the Marvel Universe]
- [http://www.comics-db.com/comics/page.cgi?g=Marvel_Comics%2F Big Comic Book DataBase: Marvel Comics]
- [http://www.comicartville.com/bellmanpg2.htm A Timely Talk with Allen Bellman]
- [http://www.atlastales.com/ Atlas Tales]
- [http://www.timely-atlas.comics.org/ Timely Atlas Cover Gallery]
- [http://www.samcci.comics.org/index.html Nick Simon's Silver-Age Marvel Comics Cover Index]
- [http://collectedcomicslibrary.blogspot.com/ Collected Comics Library] Category:Comic book publishers (companies)
- Category:Companies based in New York City ja:マーヴェル・コミック simple:Marvel Comics

Stan Lee

Stan Lee (born Stanley Martin Lieber on December 28, 1922, at home at West 98th Street and West End Avenue, New York City) is an American writer, editor, and memoirist, who — with several artist co-creators, especially Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko — introduced complex, naturalistic characters and a thoroughly shared universe into superhero comic books. His success helped change Marvel Comics from a small publishing house to a large multimedia corporation.

Early career

Lee was born to Celia and Jack Lieber, Jewish immigrants from Romania. His father, trained as a dress cutter, worked only sporadically after the Great Depression. The family moved further uptown to Manhattan's Washington Heights neighborhood. When he was nine, his only sibling, brother Larry Lieber, was born. Lee attended DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx. A voracious reader who enjoyed writing as a teen, he worked such part-time jobs as writing obituaries for a news service and press releases for the National Tuberculosis Center; delivering sandwiches for the Jack May pharmacy to offices in Rockefeller Center; working as an office boy for a trouser manufacturer; ushering at the Rivoli Theater on Broadway; and selling subscriptions to the New York Herald-Tribune newspaper. He graduated high school early, at age 16 1/2, in 1939, and joined the WPA Federal Theatre Project. Federal Theatre Project With the help of his uncle, Robbie Solomon, a relative of pulp magazine and comic-book publisher Martin Goodman, Lee was brought in as an assistant at the newly formed Timely Comics division of Goodman's publishing company. Timely, by the the 1960s, would evolve into Marvel Comics. Lee, whose cousin Jean was married to Goodman, was formally hired by Timely editor Joe Simon. Lee's first published work, the text filler "Captain America Foils The Traitor's Revenge" in Captain America Comics #3 (May 1941), used the pseudonym "Stan Lee", which years later he would adopt as his legal name. He graduated from writing filler to actual comics with a backup two issues later. When Simon and his creative partner Jack Kirby left later that year, following a dispute with Goodman, the publisher told Lee, just under 19 years old, to be the interim editor. The youngster showed a knack for the business that led him to remain as the comic-book division's editor-in-chief until 1972, when he would succeed Goodman as publisher. Lee enlisted in the U.S. Army in early 1942 and served in the Signal Corps, writing manuals, training films, and slogans, and occasionally cartooning. His military classification was "playwright"; Lee has said only nine men in the U.S. Army were awarded that title. Vincent Fago, editor of Timely's "animation comics" section, which put out humor and funny animal comics, filled-in until Lee returned from his World War II military service in 1945. In the mid-1950s, by which time the company was now generally known as Atlas Comics, a decency campaign led by psychiatrist Dr. Frederic Wertham and Senator Estes Kefauver blamed comic books for corrupting young readers with images of violence and sexuality. Comic-book companies responded by implementing strict internal regulations, and eventually adopted the stringent Comics Code. During this period, Lee wrote comics in a various genres including romance, Westerns, humor, science fiction, medieval adventure. horror and suspense. By the end of the decade, he had become dissatisfied with his career and considered quitting the field.

Marvel revolution

In the late 1950's, DC Comics revived the superhero genre and experienced a significant success with its updated version of the Flash, and later with super-team the Justice League of America. In response, publisher Martin Goodman assigned Lee to create a new superhero team. Lee's wife urged him to experiment with stories he preferred, since he was planning on changing careers and had nothing to lose. Lee acted on that advice, giving his superheroes a flawed humanity, a change from the ideal archetypes that were typically written for pre-teens. His heroes could have bad tempers, melancholy fits, vanity, greed, etc. They bickered amongst themselves, worried about paying their bills and impressing girlfriends, and even were sometimes physically ill. Before him, superheroes were idealistically perfect people with no problems: Superman was so powerful that nobody could harm him, and Batman was a billionaire in his secret identity. Lee's superheroes captured the imagination of teens and young adults who were part of the population spike known as the post World War II baby boom. Sales soared. post World War II baby boom] The first superhero group Lee and artist Jack Kirby created was the family the Fantastic Four. Its immediate popularity led Lee and Marvel's illustrators to produce a cavalcade of new titles. With Kirby, Lee created the Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, the Mighty Thor and the X-Men; with Bill Everett, Daredevil; and with Steve Ditko, Doctor Strange and Marvel's most successful character, Spider-Man, Throughout the 1960s, Lee scripted, art-directed, and edited most of Marvel's series; moderated the letters pages; wrote a monthly column called "Stan's Soapbox"; and wrote endless promotional copy, often signing off with his trademark phrase, "Excelsior!" (which is also the New York state motto). To maintain his taxing workload yet still meet deadlines, he used a system that was used previously by various comic-book studios, but due to Lee's success with it, is now known as the "Marvel method" or "Marvel style" of comic-book creation. Typically, Lee would brainstorm a story with the artist and then prepare a brief synopsis rather than a full script. Based on the synopsis, the artist would fill the alloted number of pages by determining and drawing the panel-to-panel storytelling. After the artist turned in penciled pages, Lee would write the word balloons and captions, and then oversee the lettering and colouring. In effect, the artists were co-plotters, whose collaborative first drafts Lee built upon. Because of this system, the exact division of creative credits on Lee's comics is still disputed, especially in the cases of comics drawn by Kirby and Ditko. Although Lee has always effusively praised these artists, some observers argue that their contribution was greater than for which they are given credit. The dispute with Ditko over Spider-Man has sometimes been acrimonious. In 1971, Lee indirectly reformed the Comics Code. The US Department of Health, Education and Welfare asked Lee to write a story about the dangers of drugs and Lee wrote a story in which Spider-Man's best friend becomes addicted to pills. The three-part story was slated to be published in Amazing Spider-Man #96-98, but the Comics Code Authority refused it because it depicted drug use; the story context was considered irrelevant. With his publisher's approval, Marvel published the comics without the CCA seal. The comics sold well and Marvel won praise for its socially conscious efforts. The CCA subsequently loosened the Code to permit negative depictions of drugs, among other new freedoms.

Later career

In later years, Lee became a figurehead and public face for Marvel Comics. He made appearances at comic book conventions around the country, lecturing and participating in panel discussions. He moved to California in 1981 to develop Marvel's TV and movie properties. He has been an executive producer for, and has made cameo appearances in, Marvel film adaptations. He can be spotted as a jury foreman in the TV movie The Trial of the Incredible Hulk (1989), as a beach hot-dog vendor in X-Men (2000), as a festival salesman in Spider-Man (2002), about to cross a street with a newspaper in Daredevil (2003), as a security guard leaving a building (with former TV series Hulk Lou Ferrigno) in Hulk (2003), dodging debris in Spider-Man 2 (2004), and as Willie Lumpkin, the title characters' mail carrier in Fantastic Four (2005). Lee also made a cameo in Kevin Smith's motion picture Mallrats (1995) recorded interviews with Smith as in the non-fiction video Stan Lee's Mutants, Monsters, and Marvels (2002), and appeared as himself on the thirteenth season of The Simpsons ("I am Furious Yellow", April 28, 2002). He voiced himself as a character on a Spider-Man animated series in 1998 ("Spider Wars, Chapter 2: Farewell Spider-Man", January 31, 1998) and on the MTV-prouduced series in 2003 ("Frank Elson" in "Mind Games" Part 1 & 2, Aug. 15 & 22, 2003). Lee also appears as himself in the Mark Hamill-directed Comic Book: The Movie (2004), a direct-to-video mockumentary primarily filmed at the 2002 San Diego Comic-Con. Lee befriended Hollywood entrepreneur Peter Paul when Lee was tapped by movie legend Jimmy Stewart in 1989 to chair the American Spirit Foundation established by Paul and Stewart to direct entertainment industry resources and creativity to education reform and democracy movements in the Communist world. Lee's Entertainers for Education initiative was launched by former President Ronald Reagan at a gala in Beverly Hills in 1991. Paul attempted to liberate Lee from his figurehead position at Marvel first by trying to buy Marvel in 1992, then by approaching major Hollywood studios to create a Stan Lee Super Hero production division. While Marvel was being reorganized and sold to Toy Biz in bankruptcy in 1998, Paul helped Lee obtain a $1 million a year contract with Marvel, as Chairman Emeritus. He was given the right to spend 90% of his time engaging in his own competitive endeavors with the right to use the names and images of his Marvel creations to compete with Marvel. Paul joined with Lee to create an online animation studio, Stan Lee Media, in 1999. It grew to 165 people and went public, but by the following year was out of business. Some of Stan Lee's projects at Stan Lee Media included The 7th Portal where he played Izayus. The Drifter, and The Accuser were his other webisode works. The licensed characters of 7th Portal even became part of a touring interactive 3-D movie attraction that played at several amusement parks. In 2005, Lee recovered a settlement of more than $10 million from Marvel for the profits of Marvel's blockbuster movies. In the 2000s, Lee did his first work for DC Comics, launching the Just Imagine... series, in which Lee reimagined the DC superheroes Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and the Flash. In 2001, he did the narration for the film "Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger Part IV", under the pseudonym "Peter Parker". Lee created the risqué animated superhero series Stripperella for Spike TV, and in 2004 announced plans to collaborate with Hugh Hefner on a similar superhero cartoon featuring Playboy Playmates. In August 2004, Lee announced the launch of Stan Lee's Sunday Comics [http://www.cbc.ca/story/arts/national/2004/08/06/Arts/lee040806.html], to be hosted by Komikwerks.com, where monthly subscribers will be able to read a new, updated comic every Sunday. As well, "Stan's Soapbox" will be a weekly column run alongside the Sunday strip.

Fictional portrayals

Jack Kirby, during his years of working for DC Comics in the 1970s, created the character Funky Flashman as a blatant parody of Stan Lee. With his hyperbolic speech pattern, gaudy toupee, and hip 70s Manhattan style beard (a style Lee sported at the time) this ne'er-do-well charlatan first appeared in the pages of Mister Miracle. Kirby later portrayed himself, Lee, production executive Sol Brodsky, and Lee's secretary Flo Steinberg as superheroes in What If #11, "What If the Marvel Bullpen Had Become the Fantastic Four?", in which Lee played the part of Mister Fantastic. Lee has also made numerous cameo appearances in many Marvel titles, appearing in audiences and crowds at many character's ceremonies and parties, and hosting an old-soldiers reunion in an issue of Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos. In Alan Moore's satirical miniseries 1963, based on numerous Marvel characters of the 1960s, Moore's alter ego "Affable Al" parodies Lee and his allegedly unfair treatment of artists. The "Young Dan Pussey" stories by Daniel Clowes, collected in Pussey!, feature an exploitative publisher who relies on Lee's gung-ho style and "Bullpen" mythology to motivate his stable of naïve and underpaid creators; the stories mainly satirize the state of mainstream comics in the 1990s, but also the subculture of young superhero fans that Lee helped to create.

Footnotes

- Lee's account of how he began working for Marvel's predecessor, Timely, has varied. He has said in lectures and elsewhere that he simply answered a newspaper ad seeking a publishing assistant, not knowing it involved comics, let alone his uncle, Goodman:

"I applied for a job in a publishing company ... I didn't even know they published comics. I was fresh out of high school, and I wanted to get into the publishing business, if I could. There was an ad in the paper that said, "Assistant Wanted in a Publishing House." When I found out that they wanted me to assist in comics, I figured, 'Well, I'll stay here for a little while and get some experience, and then I'll get out into the real world.' ... I just wanted to know, 'What do you do in a publishing company?' How do you write? ... How do you publish? I was an assistant. There were two people there named Joe Simon and Jack Kirby – Joe was sort-of the editor/artist/writer, and Jack was the artist/writer. Joe was the senior member. They were turning out most of the artwork. Then there was the publisher, Martin Goodman... And that was about the only staff that I was involved with. After a while, Joe Simon and Jack Kirby left. I was about 17 years old [sic], and Martin Goodman said to me, 'Do you think you can hold down the job of editor until I can find a real person?' When you're 17, what do you know? I said, 'Sure! I can do it!' I think he forgot about me, because I stayed there ever since." [http://filmforce.ign.com/articles/035/035881p1.html]

However, in his 2002 autobiography, Excelsior! The Amazing Life of Stan Lee (cited under References, below), he says:

"My uncle, Robbie Solomon, told me they might be able to use someone at a publishing company where he worked. The idea of being involved in publishing definitely appealed to me. ... So I contacted the man Robbie said did the hiring, Joe Simon, and applied for a job. He took me on and I began working as a gofer for eight dollars a week...."

Joe Simon, in his 1990 autobiography The Comic Book Makers (cited under References, below), gives the account slightly differently:

"One day [Goodman's relative known as] Uncle Robbie came to work with a lanky 17-year-old in tow. 'This is Stanley Lieber, Martin's wife's cousin,' Uncle Robbie said. 'Martin wants you to keep him busy.'"

In an appendix, however, Simon appears to reconcile the two acounts. He relates a 1989 conversation with Lee:

Lee: I've been saying this [classified-ad] story for years, but apparently it isn't so. And I can't remember because I['ve] said it so long now that I believe it."
...
Simon: "Your Uncle Robbie brought you into the office one day and he said, 'This is Martin Goodman's wife's nephew.' [sic] ... You were seventeen years old."

Lee: "Sixteen and a half!"

Simon: "Well, Stan, you told me seventeen. You were probably trying to be older.... I did hire you."

References

- [http://www.stanleeweb.com/ StanLeeWeb.com]
- [http://www.powentertainment.com/ POW! Entertainment]
- [http://stanleebook.com/ StanLeeBook.com]
- [http://www.stanlee.org Stan Lee.org]
- [http://imdb.com/name/nm0498278/ IMDb: Stan Lee]
- Lee, Stan. Excelsior!: The Amazing Life of Stan Lee. (Fireside, 2002). ISBN 0684873052
- Raphael, Jordan and Tom Spurgeon. Stan Lee: And the Rise and Fall of the American Comic Book. (Chicago Review Press, 2003). ISBN 1556525060
- Ro, Ronin. Tales To Astonish: Jack Kirby, Stan Lee, and the American Comic Book Revolution. (Bloomsbury USA, 2004). ISBN 1582343454
- Simon, Joe, with Jim Simon. The Comic Book Makers. (Crestwood/II, 1990). ISBN 1887591354

External links

- [http://www.folkstory.com/articles/spiderman.html Myth and the Hero's Journey: Big Screen blockbusters]
- [http://www.maelmill-insi.de/UHBMCC/ The Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators]
- [http://stanleebook.com/ StanLeeBook.com] "Extras" section includes audio interview
- [http://www.komikwerks.com/sundaycomics.php Stan Lee's Sunday Comics] Lee, Stan Lee, Stan Lee, Stan Lee, Stan Lee, Stan Lee, Stan Lee, Stan Lee, Stan

Don Heck

Don Heck (January 2, 1929-1995) was a comic book artist best known for co-creating the character Iron Man, and for his long run penciling The Avengers in the 1960s. Before then Heck worked on many horror and romance comics. In interviews Don Heck has indicated that his earliest comic work was with Harvey, starting in 1949. Apparently he also worked for Quality, Hillman and possibly Toby Press before finding his niche doing cover artwork including horror for Comic Media. There is no known checklist for this earlier work, so details are very vague. Don Heck began working circa 1952-53 for Comic Media, which was particularly known for its horror tales. Don Heck was noted particularly for his cover art with this firm. Amongst Comic Media's titles were Danger, Death Valley, Dynamite, Horrific, Terrific, War Fury and Weird Terror. Circa 1954-55 the titles which survived the introduction of the Comics Code became part of Charlton Publications. It is generally accepted by many knowledgable comics fans that Don Heck's earlier work was his very finest. His art for Comic Media is very dynamic and clear. The rather dark tales told in War Fury are truly haunting (tales in which the main character(s) of each story always dies in action -- most of these sober adventures take Korea as their setting), and Don's outstanding work ennobles these moving tales of fatal heroism. Stan Lee met Don Heck circa 1954, and was impressed when he was made aware that this was the man behind Comic Media's stunning covers, and immediately hired him to work at Atlas Comics (Atlas later became Marvel Comics). Some of Don's very best work was done for Atlas Comics 1955-57. Whatever genre he turned his hand to in this era has an excellent result: western, jungle adventure, romance, military & naval, mystery/fantasy -- all are outstanding. Some of the jungle adventure tales really stand out as superior. Also many Atlas fans particularly treasure his artwork on naval and sea war adventures as being of special merit. Atlas Comics ceased to exist during the summer of 1957 when this brand-name (which began life as a distribution label) "imploded" reducing from around 70 titles down to 16. With the Atlas Implosion, the Atlas Globe disappered forever from Martin Goodman's comics. Don Heck, along with a multitude of freelancers, found himself without his major employer. Times were very hard for Don and many of those who worked for this major publisher. The sixteen titles which continued simply bore the "Ind." label (the same distrubutor who carried DC's comics). By late 1958 Martin Goodman and Stan Lee had used up all the Atlas left-over inventory stories and were commissioning new work, and Don soon found himself again in their employ. By 1958 a tendency to use lots of "thatching" begins to be seen in Don's work, but in this late 50s era it is done exceedingly well. However, as the decade of the 60s emerged this tendency began to get more erratic and unclear. Don Heck was a major participant in Martin Goodman & Stan Lee's short-lived space fantasy new direction in late 1958 when he drew the well known cover to Tales of Suspense #1 (cover dated January 1959). Heck also gave excellent atmospheric rendering to numerous jungle/prison escape and weird tales during the "pre-hero" or "fantasy/monster" period of Marvel Comics which grew out of the space fantasy year. Later some of these mysterious tales were reprinted in Fantasy Masterpieces (1966) and other 1970s reprint titles. Don Heck drew beautiful women, and these stand out in countless stories including Ind.-Marvel romance comics 1958-63. In the mid-1960s Don also drew numerous romance stories for DC. Don Heck drew the very first Iron Man story in Tales of Suspense #39 (March 1963 cover date). Jack Kirby drew the cover, but it is Don's Iron Man which is remembered so clearly by countless comics fans. Iron Man began with a golden lumbering armor (grey in #39) for the first ten issues of Tales of Suspense before graduating to a much sleeker red-and-gold flexible armor (with minor variations in 1964-65). Don Heck also presided over the first appearance of Hawkeye, Marvel's archer supreme, in Tales of Suspense #57. For many years Don Heck inked his own pencils. However, when Don was struggling to adjust to the Marvel method and Marvel's superhero expansion in general circa 1965, he was assigned the help of an inker for the first time. He successfully made this adjustment, and went on to be one of the best remembered artists on Avengers (comics)The Avengers in the mid-1960s. Eventually he returned to inking his own work in Avengers nos. 32-37. Don continued to be active in comics in later years, drawing Justice League of America and other series for DC. Heck died of lung cancer in 1995.

External links

- [http://povonline.com/Don%20Heck.htm Mark Evanier article on Don Heck's Career]
- [http://www.lambiek.net/heck_don.htm lambiek.net entry on Don Heck] Heck, Don

Jack Kirby

Jack Kirby (August 28, 1917–February 6, 1994) was one of the most influential, recognizable, and prolific artists in United States comic books. Born Jacob Kurtzberg to Jewish Austrian parents in New York City, he was also a comic book writer and editor. His most common nickname is The King.

Early life

Jacob Kurtzberg grew up on Suffolk Street in New York's Lower East Side, attending elementary school at P.S. 20. His father, a garment-factory worker, was a Conservative Jew, and Jacob attended Hebrew school. Jacob's one sibling, a brother five years younger, predeceased him. After a rough-and-tumble childhood with much fighting among the kind of kid gangs he would render more heroically in his future comics, Kirby enrolled at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, at what he said was age 14, leaving after a week. "I wasn't the kind of student that Pratt was looking for. They wanted people who would work on something forever. I didn't want to work on any project forever. I intended to get things done." Essentially self-taught, Kirby cited among his influences the comic strip artists Alex Raymond and Milt Caniff.

The Golden Age of Comics

Kirby joined the Lincoln Newspaper Syndicate in 1936, working there on newspaper comic strips and on single-panel advice cartoons such as Your Health Comes First (under the pseudonym "Jack Curtiss"). Kirby remained until the firm went out of business in 1938, then worked for the movie animation company Fleischer Studios as an "in-betweener", an artist who fills in the action between major-movement frames, on Popeye cartoons. "I went from Lincoln to Fleischer," he recalled. "From Fleischer I had to get out in a hurry because I couldn't take that kind of thing," describing it as "a factory in a sense, like my father's factory. They were manufacturing pictures." Around this time, "I began to see the first comic books appear." The first American comic books were reprints of newspaper comic strips; soon, these tabloid-size, 10-inch by 15-inch "comic books" began to include original material in comic-strip form. Kirby began writing and drawing such material for the comic book packager Eisner & Iger, one of a handful of firms creating comics on demand for publishers. Through that company, Kirby did what he remembers as