Featuring: Iron Man Release: November 10, 1966 Cover: February 1967 12 cents Story: Stan Lee Art: Gene Colan Inking: Frank Giacoia Lettering: Sam Rosen Nail-biting: Irv Forbush 12 pages
Featuring: Iron Man Release: October 11, 1966 Cover: January 1967 12 cents Story: Stan Lee Pencilling: Gene Colan Inking: Frankie Giacoia Lettering: Artie Simek 12 pages
From this moment on, Iron Man is more invincible than ever before!
In a plot greatly echoing a recent Daredevil story, Mandarin now believes Happy to be Iron Man, because Happy had been going around in the suit. In the Daredevil analog, Foggy had put on the Daredevil suit to impress Karen. Here, Happy was a bit more noble. He was trying to help preserve the secret identity, as the press was starting to suspect that Tony Stark was Iron Man. On the basis of the fact that it’s ridiculously obvious to anybody paying attention.
Flash Thompson has also gotten himself into similar trouble by wearing the Spider-Man outfit.
Unfortunately, Tony is still recovering from his recent heart attack. It’s not clear he’s in any shape to help Happy after the Mandarin captures him. And even wearing the armor, Happy is no match for Mandarin. He just doesn’t have the practice with it.
Featuring: Iron Man Release: September 8, 1966 Cover: December 1966 12 cents Story: Stan Lee Art: Gene Colan Inking: Frank Giacoia Lettering: Sam Rosen 12 pages
SURVEY SHOWS THAT STARK AND IRON MAN NEVER SEEN AT THE SAME TIME TOGETHER
It’s been a year coming. Back in Tales of Suspense #72, Senator Harrington Byrd planned to summon Tony Stark to Washington to make him reveal Iron Man’s secrets, so the US military could use the technology. The following issue, he tried to confront Stark in his office with the summons, but found only Pepper. The next issue, he got Iron Man on the phone, and says he’ll come to New York with a subpoena unless Stark comes willingly to Washington. In the next issue, he made good on the threat and showed up with the subpoena at Stark offices, only to find Iron Man battling Happy, who had turned into the Freak. Once that resolved, he had police escort Stark to a car, to personally escort him to Washington. Only Tony Stark was transported from that car en route to DC, and found himself in Asia a prisoner of the Mandarin. Then Iron Man had to fight Mandarin and Ultimo. Only to return home and find all his factories shut down because he’d failed to answer the summons to Congress. He needed to recharge, rest, and deal with Namor. But finally he called Senator Byrd and agreed to come to Washington. And he did go to Washington. Only to be attacked by Titanium Man. With Titanium Man defeated, Stark should finally be able to appear before Congress a dozen issues after being summoned.
And here he is.
Ready to reveal the secrets of Iron Man.
Until he has a heart attack before the first question gets asked. How convenient.
Featuring: Iron Man Release: March 10, 1966 Cover: June 1966 12 cents Spectacular story by Stan Lee Pace-setting pencilling by Gene Colan Indescribable inking by Gary Michaels Lonesome lettering by Artie Simek 12 pages
Ultimo, who never really lived– is now truly dead!
Stark factories are closed because Senator Byrd has cancelled the Defense contracts. Tony Stark is missing because Iron Man is in Asia battling Ultimo, the android creation of the Mandarin.
We get a cool time lapse splash page. Ditko often did these time lapse panels in his Spider-Man stories.
Of course, the flip side of all these splash pages and large panels is we get fewer panels to tell the story.
Featuring: Iron Man Release: February 10, 1966 Cover: May 1966 12 cents Homerically written by: Stan Lee Heroically pencilled by: Adam Austin Historically inked by: Gary Michaels Hysterically lettered by: Sam Rosen 12 pages
This is a grave moment in hour nation’s history! A time for patriotism… for dedication to the cause of freedom! There must be no special privileges for self-seeking opportunists like Stark, who flout their country’s laws!
Adam Austin has long since been unmasked as Gene Colan, but he is going back and forth between the two aliases. It’s worth noting that his art seems to improve each month.
Gary Michaels is a pseudonym for Jack Abel. He’s been working with Colan on this series off and on for a few issues now.
When we left off, Tony Stark was a prisoner of the Mandarin and Ultimo is rising. Confusingly, we’ve also seen Tony Stark filling in as the head of SHIELD since then. It’s hard to balance all the things one might want to in a reading order, and sometimes the chronology has to give. Stark’s appearances with SHIELD must take place either before or after this adventure. It’s hard because Tony’s just been pretty busy, and I like to keep the reading order relatively close to publication date.
Mandarin had thrown Stark’s attache case out the window, not realizing it contained the Iron Man armor. What can Stark do without his armor?
Mandarin kidnapped Stark from America to Asia via teleportation. Stark at the time had been in Senator Byrd’s car on the way to Congress to testify about the identity of Iron Man.
Featuring: Iron Man Release: January 1, 1966 Cover: April 1966 12 cents Tenderly written by: Stan Lee Lovingly pencilled by: Adam Austin Gently delineated by: Gary Michaels Finally lettered by: Sam Rosen 12 pages
Look at you! Bedraggled and red-eyed! Too much celebrating last night, eh? I always said you were nothing but a playboy!
Marvel has given up on the idea of clean story breaks, which makes reading tricky when I’d like to put the stories together. This is part 3 of the Happy-as-The-Freak arc, but also part 1 of the Ultimo arc. Essentially they seem to want to end every issue on a cliffhanger, so they begin the next story now. I can’t just keep reading Iron Man. We already are getting ahead of the Captain America stories he shares the title with, because I need to align those with the SHIELD arc. And there’s a whole Marvel Universe to check in with. Which means I need to either break last issue with the Freak saga unresolved, or break after this issue with the Ultimo saga unresolved. The Freak saga resolves in about 2 pages, but the Ultimo saga really only takes up the last 2 pages. The ongoing Senator Byrd subplot dominates the middle bit. I don’t know. We’re reading this now, then we’ll take a break. And see what happens with Ultimo at a later date.
Where were we. The experimental treatment on Happy turned him into a Freak. Iron Man had a thing that might save Happy, at risk to himself.
Well, it worked.
This was all a fallout from the Titanium Man battle. That’s when Happy was injured saving Iron Man, and revealed he knew (or suspected) Tony’s secret. This is their first chance to talk since then.
Featuring: Avengers Release: July 8, 1965 Cover: September 1965 12 cents Wham-Type script by Stan Lee Pow-type pencilling by Don Heck Zowie-type inking by Wallace Wood Rather nice lettering by Artie Simek 20 pages
There’s something about being an Avenger… that seems to get into your blood and never let go!
The creative team is almost never mentioned on the cover of these (or any) comics. This is certainly the first time we’ve seen the inker advertised. Stan knows he’s lucky to have Wally Wood, and perhaps already knows he won’t have him much longer.
We saw Wood inking Heck in Tales of Suspense #71, which comes out one month after this one. So this is properly their first collaboration.
The cover is a rare Kirby/Wood collaboration, and pretty awesome. A team I think many would like to have seen more work by.
We see a rare feat of teamwork for these new Avengers. They seem to be defeating the Swordsman when he disappears.
He finds himself in the lair of the Mandarin. Who wishes to destroy the Avengers, though he’s never met them*. His foe is Iron Man, who used to be an Avenger. And it follows that he must destroy these Avengers, which don’t include Iron Man. Because Iron Man is his foe. And… the Mandarin’s plans may just be too crafty for my little brain.
Featuring: Fantastic Four Release: July 1, 1965 Cover: 1965 25 cents Written by: Stan Lee Drawn by: Jack Kirby Inked by: Vince Colletta Lettered by: Artie Simek 23 pages
I now pronounce you man and wife! You may kiss your bride!
It’s the wedding of the century. Today’s the day. Half the Marvels have been invited! And the rest of them are turning up anyway!
This issue represents by far the largest gathering of heroes and villains yet, forever binding these disparate characters into a universe.
This issue represents the idea that there is no status quo, that these characters are at their best when they change and grow. Forward momentum is an essential ingredient to storytelling. Genuine, non-illusionary, change.
This is the most significant moment in the early Marvel Universe.
I think I’d have come up with a better title than “Bedlam at the Baxter Building”.
I wish Chic Stone or Joe Sinnott had been the inker. A few months too late to have Stone and one month too early to have Sinnott. Also, Colletta is uniquely suited to a long special issue with many characters because he’s famously expedient.
I appreciate that the headline takes for granted the public knows who Reed and Sue are without the need for surnames or superhero identities. The cover does the same for its audience.
Pretty cool this worked out to be the 400th story in our reading order. Currently on track to also have the 500th story be a particularly special issue of Fantastic Four as well. When we read Avengers #1, it was the 100th story, but then I went and retroactively mucked with the ordering.
Featuring: Giant-Man and Wasp Release: January 5, 1965 Cover: April 1965 12 cents Story: Smilin’ Stan Lee Art: Beamin’ Bobby Powell Inking: Friendly Frankie Ray Lettering: Sunny ol’ Sherigail 12 pages
The Giant-Man tale is hogging most of the cover real estate.
Wasp doesn’t seem to be recognized as a co-lead for the second issue in a row. This is just described as a Giant-Man story. The covers have long since omitted her name.
Yes, we are falling farther and farther behind in our Hulk reading.
As before, it’s not actually a new Giant-Man. He just has a new hat.
Madam Macabre is an evil analogue to Giant-Man, with the power to make things shrink or grow. Not knowing she is evil, Giant-Man considers partnering with her, until he learns she thinks they can rule the world together.
Featuring: Iron Man Release: November 10, 1964 Cover: February 1965 12 cents Brashly written by: Stan Lee Boldly drawn by: Don Heck Brazenly inked by: Dick Ayers Bashfully lettered by: S. Rosen 12 pages
Now that the issue is dual-featured, with each feature of similar importance, they need to think of different ways to highlight two pictures on the cover. We’ve seen the Iron Man picture embedded in the Captain America picture, while consuming a large chunk of the real estate, forming the main art of the Cap picture into an ‘L’. We’ve seen 2 separate pictures placed onto the mat at odd angles like postcards dropped on a canvas. The most conventional format will be a split-screen, either horizontal or vertical. This one is basically a horizontal split, but with a slanted line. It feels like the Iron Man portion wastes the portion of the image where it has the space. The Cap portion has extra space on the left and puts Cap himself there. Iron Man is squeezed into the small space on the left, and the extra space on the right is devoted to landscape.
Apparently Marvel had received more than 500 requests for the origin of the Mandarin.
If you look to the Best we’ve read page, it will become obvious the origin stories tend to be my favorite comics. At present, I see a full quarter of the list are origin stories, including the top 3 entries. Conversely, almost every major origin we’ve read is represented. (Sorry to Ant-Man, Thor, and Watcher.) Therefore I’m excited whenever we get a new origin story… unless it’s Mandarin’s story.
