An important note concerning Iron Monday

So apparently Marvel Comics at some point renumbered all of the Iron Man armors and now consider the Golden Avenger and Hulkbuster to be variants of the Mark I and Modular Armor, respectively. So pretty much, my numbering of the armors has been off up until today when I did that belated Iron Monday about the original red and gold armor. It's not a huge deal, but it does mean that I have to go back and fix the numbering on the first four posts.

Like I said, not a big deal but I thought it was worth pointing out.

Iron Monday #5: the original red and gold

Well, a belated Iron Monday, at least! Sorry for not posting one last week, but things can get hectic in real life. So this week I decided to go with the first Iron Man armor to feature the red and gold color scheme.

First appearing in Tales of Suspense #48, this armor was created after Tony nearly died after his first encounter with Mr. Doll, a supervillain who could create voodoo dolls out of clay. His attack on Iron Man caused the golden avenger to fall into the ocean while in excruciating pain and he barely lived to fight another day. In response, Tony decided to ditch the Mark I in favor of a newer and better armor.

As you can see, the biggest difference is the size. The Mark II was much slimmer and lighter looking than its predecessors and that was to solve a major problem that they both had: power consumption. Both of the previous armors were energy hogs that required large amounts of power just to move and function under their own bulky weight. This was a fairly big concern when you factor in the pacemaker that kept Stark's heart going. The more power the armor required to function meant less power for the pacemaker and considering that those requirements increased as the armors were put under greater stresses, it was not an ideal situation. This also put a strain on Stark's already weak heart and it probably would have killed him if he hadn't switched to a new suit.


So how light was the new armor? Well, the chest piece is described as being "wafer-thin", which I'm guessing is pretty damn thin. Similarly, the helmet was thinner and lighter (Tony claiming that he could barely even feel it), and the jets located in the boots were only an inch, much smaller than the ones found in the first two armors. The face plate of the helmet was also designed to allow more of Stark's facial expressions show through, which he believed would have a psychological effect on his enemies. The reduction in weight allowed allowed Stark to add more equipment to the new suit, such as a radio with an antenna attached to the left shoulder. That's actually one of my favorite things about the armor because it gives it even more of a sci-fi feel.

Another thing Tony Stark made sure to add was more power. While the Mark II wasn't an energy hog like his previous armors that didn't mean that he was going to slouch on that particular area. The arm and leg cuffs contained separate power units that he could use if the main power supply went kaput. He would later add power pods on the hips as an additional power sources.

The major feature of the new armor was how fast it took to "suit up". With the prior armors, it took like three minutes for Stark to put on all the component pieces, whereas the new armor took seconds. The aforementioned cuffs contained the gold parts of the armor, which were magnetically drawn to the shoulders and hips, respectively. The jets were separate units that Stark merely had to step hard into (like how a skier steps into those clamps on their skies) and that activated the covering for the boots.

On a minor note, the helmet had three variants. The original's face-plate had a horned look to it, which was later replaced in issue #54 by rivets that outlined the face and removed the horns (making the helmet and face-plate look more integrated). The third version was pretty much just the second version, sans-rivets. I like the riveted version, it gave the armor an "industrial" look about it.

This armor would last until 1965, when it was replaced in Tales of Suspense #66 by the Mark III.

Pictures from Marvel Database.

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.

Iron Monday #3: Tony's idea of telepresence differs wildly from Ciscos

Back in the early 90s, Tony Stark wasn't doing so well. First, he'd been shot by an unstable ex named Kathy Dare in Iron Man Vol. 1 #242. He survived, but was left paralyzed. But oh, things got so much worse. A microchip was implanted in his spine, which turned out to be a plot to take control of the billionaire and ended up slowly destroying his nervous system. While all of this was going on, Stark created a version of his of his Mark VIII armor that allowed him to move while wearing it, but when his nervous system began going to pieces, he created the NTU-150 Telepresence Armor, which first appeared in issue #290.

What made the Telepresence Armor interesting was that it was effectively a robot. Stark at this point was bedridden and slowly dying, so donning an suit of armor was no longer an option. Instead, the TA was designed to be controlled via a special headset that transmitted Stark's thoughts to the armor through subspace. The downside was that he was susceptible to feedback from damage the unit took.

I read the issue where he uses the armor to fight something called the Technovore, which ended with the armor's destruction. I also remember reading issue #291 where Tony saves James Rhodes from the Battledroid attack that started in the previous issue and drops off the War Machine armor and together they whoop some serious ass. I always thought it was cool to see the NTU carrying the other armor in a hand dandy case on its back. The armor looks cool as heck, but I think some of the drama was lost since Tony wasn't actually in the armor. Sure, there was the danger of what was left of his nervous system being destroyed by feedback, but considering that he could just cut the connection before the armor takes a fatal hit.

 Picture sources: 1, 2, 3.

Iron Monday: Catch the Silver bullet, er Centurion

Out of all of the armors that have appeared in the Iron Man comics, the Silver Centurion is one of my all-time favorites. Why? Just take a gander at it.

The most obvious distinction is its color scheme. This is one of the few main armors that doesn't follow the red and gold coloring that Tony Stark preferred. The choice of crimson and silver by whoever designed the suit was a smart choice and the overall design really makes the Silver Centurion stand on its own.

The Silver Centurion made its inaugural appearance in Iron Man #200 which featured the climatic battle between Iron Man and Obadiah Stane (in his Iron Monger armor) and was the culmination of the long story arc that existed between Stark and Stane since the latter stole Stark International and forced Tony to relapse back into alcoholism and become homeless.

Tony would continue to wear the Silver Centurion until issue #230 when it was destroyed by Firepower, a very large and very powerful battlesuit, during the Armor Wars. What's interesting here is that he actually publicly "fired" Iron Man (remember, unlike the MCU, the world didn't know that Tony was Iron Man) and then faked his death during his battle against Firepower. He accomplished the latter by simply removing the suit, filling it with blood packs, then sending the reassembled suit at Firepower to be destroyed. In the next issue, Tony built a new armor and used it to stop Firepower, who was just being a dick by that point by attacking Stark Enterprise properties.

Pictures via Marvel Wiki and Comic Should Be Good.

Iron Monday: The Mark I, where it all started.

Hello and welcome to the inaugural Iron Mondays! So the idea here is that every Monday, I'll post something about the World's Greatest Self-Absorbed Asshole, Iron Man. It might be a pic spam of one of his armors, panels from one of his comics and whatever else I think is worth posting. I decided to start us off with the original Iron Man armor, the venerable Mark I, first seen in Tales of Suspense #39.

Thanks to the movies, everybody knows the gist of IM's origin story, so we'll skip that for now. The Mk. I is one of my favorite armors because I love that it was constructed out of scrap metal and whatever Tony Stark and Ho Yinsen had on hand. It's the ultimate MacGyver. It was pretty basic, compared to the armors that Tony would build since his debut. It had no repulsors (although a Mark "0" version he built later on did), but did possess a chest-mounted monobeam. I actually love how these two nerds not only built a suit of powered armor, but also somehow built a fricking proton-beam laser weapon. They also managed to scrounge up suction cups (and yes, Tony does use them), and a miniature hacksaw that could be mounted on a finger. Like, where did Wong-Chu, the commie warlord who captured Tony and Yinsen and forced them to make weapons for him, even get this stuff and why?

"May as well buy these big ass suction cups, never know when they'll come in handy."

"Oh, a tiny hacksaw? Sure, why not."

What's actually fascinating to me about the Mk. I is the guts of it. According to the Marvel Comics Wiki:

The suit's shell is made of threads of mono-crystalline iron coated with tetrafluoroethene plastic, knitted together using a 3D mechanical loom. Integrated circuits called "micro-modules" were created from sheets of silicon using an e-beam writer, this circuitry that placed 200 transistors in a square inch with wiring and associated components could be used both as a switch and amplifier. This allowed the creation of tiny power amplifiers that could generate the amounts of electricity needed for the DC motors that provided the suit with mobility. Each small motor generated around a horsepower of power. The use of pure iron protected with tetrafluoroethene allowed a 200-inch per second speed. A gauntlet alone, for example, required a dozen of motors. The circuits of the armor are coordinated with its user's brain waves, which allow for the suit to duplicate every action of the human body, the system is not perfect and it requires some time to get used to it. It also employed a negative feedback body motion sensing.

I really dig the thought that went into that. Granted, this is comic book science, so I have no idea how legit any of that is.

At the same time, one of the problems that nags me about the Mk. I is how neat and trim it is for something made of scrap and junk. I think that's why the movie version of the armor is a favorite as well. It looks likes it's been cobbled together, which adds a good deal of realism to Tony's origin story. It displays both the desperation of Stark and Yinsen to escape captivity as well as their ingenuity at producing a suit of powered armor out of whatever was at hand.

Going back to the original armor, the other thing I dig about it how it projects power. It's not as pretty or elegant as the later Iron Man armors, but it still exudes power and strength, and gives you the impression that it could tear through its successors like Kleenex. There's also an air of mystery since you can't really tell right off the bat that it's powered armor and not a robot. Given the name Iron Man, it wouldn't be surprising if that wasn't the first assumption of the general public in the Marvel Comics Universe when he made his public debut.

The armor he wore once he got back to the states wasn't the same that he wore to escape Wong-Chu and his goons. He built a new version that largely looked the same, but I imagine was made out of top of the line parts and materials. I often wondered about that, because the idea of him still using the original was pretty ludicrous, given his wealth and genius.

So, what do you think of the Iron Man Mk. I armor? Like it? Hate? Let me know in the comments below.

Picture credits: Iron Man Wiki and Marvel Wiki. The last picture came from the Iron Man Wiki, but I cropped it to take up less space in the post.