Featuring: Iron Man
Relese: September 10, 1963
Cover: December 1963
12 cents
Written by: Stan Lee
Art: Steve Ditko
18 pages
Iron Man gets a new look.
Steve Ditko is the artist on this issue. Jack Kirby drew the cover. Covers were often completed first. Most internet sites claim Ditko designed the new armor, but it might have been Kirby. These questions have been the subject of decades of debates and lawsuits. I do not know what is true, though I have my guesses.
I do know this new armor is better than the old one. I also know Ditko is responsible for the quality storytelling in the interior.
I also know that Mr. Doll looks much more like a Kirby villain than a Ditko villain. Simple color scheme. Weird headgear. All seems trademark Kirby.
Also, he has a dumb name. The GCD informs me Mr. Doll was supposed to be named Mr. Pain. That’s slightly better, I guess.
Mr. Doll is a poor man’s Puppet Master. He has a single voodoo doll he can reshape. Bafflingly, he reshapes the doll in real time.
It seems clear to me that the secret to defeating Mr. Doll was to strike fast, before he can reshape his doll, perhaps using the element of surprise. Iron Man doesn’t do that, preferring to announce his entrances. Mr. Doll is really a uniquely lame villain. Another approach would just be to send two people against him, as his power only affects one person at a time. Two police officers should suffice. One to take the hit from the doll, the other to whomp the villain in the head. Yet, the first page describes him as “seemingly unbeatable”. That’s an example of Stan’s hyperbolic claims.
The lameness of the villain distracts from what should be a great issue. The new costume really is better.
So what went wrong with Iron man’s costume? I suspect it’s the same thing that’s gone wrong with the entire series; I suspect it’s also what went wrong with the Hulk series.
These were comics that were trapped between Marvel’s transition from making horror comics to making superhero comics that failed to find the right balance. The grey suit of armor from Iron Man’s first appearance was actually a pretty good design… for a horror comic. Similar to the grey Hulk. In his second appearance, they decided it wasn’t superheroic enough, so they painted it gold. But that was an abandonment of their horror roots without making a compelling superhero design. It was a failure at a compromise solution.
With this issue, things get set right. They embrace the superhero.
Ditko gives us this iconic “suiting up” scene, which would inspire decades of Iron Man artists (and filmmakers). We get 3 pages of Iron Man getting dressed. That’s far more decompressed storytelling than we’ve been seeing. And it’s one of the best sequences we’ve yet seen.
We also get a cool couple panels of Tony in his lab building the new suit.
We get a close call like this in almost every issue. It seems long past time for Tony to entrust somebody like Happy with his secret. I at least hope he’s wearing some type of medical tag. “If you find me unconscious, please plug me in.”
Rating: ★★★☆☆, 58/100
Significance: ★★★★★
I read this story in The Invincible Iron Man Omnibus vol. 1. You can also find it in the Iron Man Epic Collection vol. 1 or Marvel Masterworks: Iron Man vol. 1. Or through Kindle.
Characters:
- Tony Stark/Iron Man
- Pepper Potts
- Happy Hogan
- Mr. Carter
- Mr. Doll
Story notes:
- Tony Stark is a millionaire manufacturer.
- Once again, Tony rejects Happy’s offer to chauffeur.
- Mr. Carter cancels deal to supply Stark with steel.
- Tony pretends to have a romantic interest in Pepper to evade his guard.
- Mr. Doll stole his figurine from an African witch doctor.
- Reference to “What’s My Line”.
#123 story in reading order
Next: Tales to Astonish #50
Previous: Fantastic Four #21
