![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
MRL - Tales of Suspense (1959) #39, 45-46
Nov. 26th, 2025 11:14 pmTales of Suspense (1959) #39, #45, #46 - Stan Lee/Larry Lieber/Don Heck/R. Berns
Another iconic Marvel hero, taking over another anthology series!
Iron Man was created by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Don Heck, with Heck serving as the main artist and Larry Lieber as the writer of his origin story. Lee’s goal with Iron Man was to create a likeable pro-war character. The early stories lean onto the Cold War setting, with several Communist antagonists. The main inspirations for Tony Stark were Howard Hughes and Errol Flynn, for the looks.
Iron Man's origin is not too different from the movie. Anthony Stark is a playboy, millionaire, genius inventor, working with the US military to develop weapons using his mini-transistor technology (according to Wikipedia, a transistor is a semiconductor device used to amplify or switch electrical signals and power. I don’t understand what that meas, tbh. It’s easier to think of them as basically magical objects).
He ends up in Vietnam - it was the 60's, remember - to supervise their deployment and he's captured by a communist militia led by Wong-Chu.
Tony was hit with shrapnel and only has a few days to love before it reaches his heart. Wong-Chu wants to use this to get Tony to build him weapons, with the promise of helping him later, if Tony proves useful.
Tony knows Wong-Chu is lying, but agrees in order to gain time. Wong-Chu sends Yinsen, a prisoner who is also a famous physicist, to assist Tony.
Together, they built the Iron Man suit, using Tony's transistor technology. Its main feature is the ability to keep Tony alive, besides many other useful little gadgets.
Yinsen sacrifices himself to allow Iron Man to escape, defeating Wong-Chu and his militia in the process.
Tony Stark goes on keeping a double life. He needs to wear the chest plate all the time (and charge it regularly) and he keeps his armour in a suitcase, folded like origami. He pretends he and Iron Man are good friends, to explain why he's always hanging around.
Of course, the day Tony forgets to charge his plate, he crashes his sports car during a race and has to be rescued by a spectator.
Happy Hogan is a former boxer. His career never took off because he couldn't bring himself to finish his opponents. His friends call him Happy because they never saw him smile.
He doesn't want Tony's money - he thinks he isn't valuing his life high enough - so Tony offers him a job as his chauffeur/bodyguard.
When Happy meets Tony's secretary, Pepper Potts, they start a bit of a Slap, Slap but no Kiss thing - she's hung up on Tony, just waiting for the day he finally notices her and gives up all other woman.
We also meet the Crimson Dynamo, a soviet scientist who is the world's foremost electricity expert. He built is own suit, with magical electrical powers, in order to destroy Iron Man.
He's ordered by the Soviet leader to go to America and destroy Tony Stark. The Dynamo does a good job, destroying Stark's plants to the point he's facing bankruptcy and distrust in Washington.
Still, when the Crimson Dynamo and Iron Man come face to face, Iron Man prevails, to the point he convinces Professor Vanko to switch sides.
(Tony makes him listen to a fake recording of the leader planning to have Vanko assassinated; that's actually true, but Tony's just acting on the knowledge that communists are naturally distrusting and paranoid.)
In the end, Professor Vanko becomes the latest recruit to Stark Industries.
Another iconic Marvel hero, taking over another anthology series!
Iron Man was created by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Don Heck, with Heck serving as the main artist and Larry Lieber as the writer of his origin story. Lee’s goal with Iron Man was to create a likeable pro-war character. The early stories lean onto the Cold War setting, with several Communist antagonists. The main inspirations for Tony Stark were Howard Hughes and Errol Flynn, for the looks.
Iron Man's origin is not too different from the movie. Anthony Stark is a playboy, millionaire, genius inventor, working with the US military to develop weapons using his mini-transistor technology (according to Wikipedia, a transistor is a semiconductor device used to amplify or switch electrical signals and power. I don’t understand what that meas, tbh. It’s easier to think of them as basically magical objects).
He ends up in Vietnam - it was the 60's, remember - to supervise their deployment and he's captured by a communist militia led by Wong-Chu.
Tony was hit with shrapnel and only has a few days to love before it reaches his heart. Wong-Chu wants to use this to get Tony to build him weapons, with the promise of helping him later, if Tony proves useful.
Tony knows Wong-Chu is lying, but agrees in order to gain time. Wong-Chu sends Yinsen, a prisoner who is also a famous physicist, to assist Tony.
Together, they built the Iron Man suit, using Tony's transistor technology. Its main feature is the ability to keep Tony alive, besides many other useful little gadgets.
Yinsen sacrifices himself to allow Iron Man to escape, defeating Wong-Chu and his militia in the process.
Tony Stark goes on keeping a double life. He needs to wear the chest plate all the time (and charge it regularly) and he keeps his armour in a suitcase, folded like origami. He pretends he and Iron Man are good friends, to explain why he's always hanging around.
Of course, the day Tony forgets to charge his plate, he crashes his sports car during a race and has to be rescued by a spectator.
Happy Hogan is a former boxer. His career never took off because he couldn't bring himself to finish his opponents. His friends call him Happy because they never saw him smile.
He doesn't want Tony's money - he thinks he isn't valuing his life high enough - so Tony offers him a job as his chauffeur/bodyguard.
When Happy meets Tony's secretary, Pepper Potts, they start a bit of a Slap, Slap but no Kiss thing - she's hung up on Tony, just waiting for the day he finally notices her and gives up all other woman.
We also meet the Crimson Dynamo, a soviet scientist who is the world's foremost electricity expert. He built is own suit, with magical electrical powers, in order to destroy Iron Man.
He's ordered by the Soviet leader to go to America and destroy Tony Stark. The Dynamo does a good job, destroying Stark's plants to the point he's facing bankruptcy and distrust in Washington.
Still, when the Crimson Dynamo and Iron Man come face to face, Iron Man prevails, to the point he convinces Professor Vanko to switch sides.
(Tony makes him listen to a fake recording of the leader planning to have Vanko assassinated; that's actually true, but Tony's just acting on the knowledge that communists are naturally distrusting and paranoid.)
In the end, Professor Vanko becomes the latest recruit to Stark Industries.
