Iron Monday #4: Goldmember isn't the only one who likes gold

Out of all of Tony Stark's armors, the Mark I had probably the shortest run of them all. Debuting in Tales to Astonish #39, it was replaced the following issue with the Golden Avenger armor.

The color change was purely aesthetic. Tony's girlfriend at the time, Marion pointed out that the the Mark I's plain grey color was off-putting to the public and mused that Iron Man should have a golden exterior to invoke a "knight in shining armor" vibe. Tony took the advice and wham-o, Golden Avenger.

Sixth panel: That's kind of sexist, Tony.

The Mark II differed from the original in other ways too. The skirt is the most obvious, but the torso armor was also slimmed down so that Tony could wear it under his clothes and not have people go "Holy shit, you're Iron Man!" He added some other gadgets, like a force field generator, loudspeaker, and an upgraded monobeam in the chest.

He was wearing this armor when the Avengers were formed.

Did I mention the aluminum armor he built? No? Well, Iron Man runs into a fella named The Melter who, as his name implies, can melt most metals with a ray gun. For whatever reason, the Melter's gun couldn't touch aluminum, so Tony builds an aluminum

And boy, was he cocky ever about it.

After only eight issues, the Golden Avenger fell to the wayside like it's predecessor. Iron Man battled a man named Mr. Doll and was nearly killed. This lead to the introduction of the first red and gold armor, but that's a post for another day.

Picture sources: 1, 2, 3.