Category Archives: geek

There’s something about old 60’s comics, and I’m not just talking about the smell of deteriorating news print. The language, the character arcs, and the serial style of the issues are all a window into the past where you can see how entertainment was consumed.

This was the late 60’s, 1968 to be specific, and a good five years into “The Marvel Age” the focus of “super-heroes with real world problems” is being laid on in a liberal way. Nothing points that out more than issues 3 and 4 (at least so far). At the time most weekly entertainment was still derivative in style to theater shows, live acts and radio plays and that is visible in the way these issues were written. In fact it’s so much a part of the fabric of how all these early issues were written that I don’t think I’ll mention it again until the style changes (sometime in the 70’s).

Both issues feature villains that were prominent in old issues of Tales of Suspense and both are instrumental in effecting Tony Stark’s opinion on being Iron Man.

Reading back through these again I remember issue 3 pretty well. We’re going to see more of The Freak, enough that my 9 year-old self rolled his eyes when I saw him on the cover, but issue 4 was a bit of a surprise. The cover I remember clearly, I mean I’ve had it for over 20 years, but the story was completely new to me! I’m curious how often that is going to happen in this project.

Story stuff: In issue 3 we pick up right after issue 2 with Shellhead returning to his Long Island, New York factory desperate to recharge, as is so often the case.

As he’s flying by, the Uranus rocket that Stark Industries is building falls over.

Iron Man catches it while all the workers escape but the strain on his transistors weakens his already damaged heart and he is forced to re-build a new armor!

Already in the pages of ToS he has re-designed or re-built the armor, but this is the first example in his own book of the Iron Man armor catching up with the technology of the times. Now instead of transistors he’s using integrated circuits and a thermocouple to help keep the armor charged.

Unfortunately, because his heart is so damaged, he can’t build the armor himself so his best friend and former driver, Happy Hogan, comes to help! Happy Hogan and Pepper Potts and long time mainstays in the Iron Man mythology, but this was their first appearance in his own book. Where they used to be comedic foil and romantic interest respectively, from here on out they really just serve as ways to torment the Tony Stark character. By the way, if you’re interested, Gwenth Paltrow plays Pepper in the movies and Jon Favreau plays Happy Hogan.

So during the building of the armor Happy get zapped by some of the rays from one of the machines creating the armor and gets turned into The Freak!!

He beats up Iron Man, who’s still not up to snuff yet since the new armor isn’t charged, grabs Pepper in a very King Kong way, and runs out into the city.

After some typical comic book action The Freak is incapacitated by gas and taken back to Stark Industries to get de-Freaked. The important part of this story is that seeing his best friends hurt makes Tony wonder if being Iron Man, with all of its dangers and secrets, is really worth it – so the whole issue ends on a real bummer.

Then we get to issue 4, page 1: fixing Happy. That goes fine, as all comic book science does when it needs to, but Pepper is all upset because she doesn’t know why Tony would put Happy in danger…

You know what, leaving all the soap opera aside we go to our favorite Cold War enemy, The Soviet Union, where they are giving new super-powers to a character called The Unicorn.

Yep. The Unicorn.

I know the name is silly, but he’s actually one of my favorite early Iron Man villains. I really like the design of this costume and he shows up a lot more becoming a more and more tragic figure. This issue starts all that story.

So the Soviets give him these great powers: super strength, durability, a bitchin’ armor mesh costume and, the piece d’resistance, the Unicorn helmet and power belt!

Small downside, the rays they used to make him powerful put his body in a constant state of crisis response so his life-span is significantly reduced. So he escapes with his new powers bent on finding someone who can fix this little problem…

…fortunately there’s this big science conference, being attended by none other than Tony Stark, still brooding about whether or not being Iron Man is a good idea.

So Unicorn storms in, makes demands on TV, and intends to use the scientists he can to heal himself and then ransom off the ones who can’t help him to make a little money.

Naturally Iron Man can’t let that happen and they fight! It looks like this:

After destroying the power belt, thereby eliminating the very horn that makes the Unicorn the Unicorn, the Unicorn freaks out and dives into the lake after it hoping to fix it. We’re going to see more of his unfortunate dealings with water (including a particularly disturbing run-in with the Atlantic Ocean) but for now the Unicorn is gone.

Seeing someone with unrestricted power proves to Tony that he should, and will, continue being Iron Man because the power of the Iron Man armor can’t be trusted to anyone else. This becomes a bit of a problem about eighty issues from now, but we’re not there yet.

For me, I’m actually surprised at how mature these stories are. Back in the 60’s these comics were written for and intended to children. It makes me sad that these kind of stories, dealing with real things (albeit in a cleaned-up safe way) don’t show up that much anymore in titles that are called “all ages.”

Also the serialized aspect of it all isn’t the same as current comics. These issues all literally take place the next day, if not the next hour, from the last issue. It makes for a kind of tight continuity that helped to make the Marvel Universe what it is today.

We’re getting closer and closer to multi-issue arc stories so more of these multi-issue posts are coming. Leave me a comment and let me know how you’re liking it so far. If the view numbers are any indicator this is one of the most popular series I’ve done so I hope it’s true!

Next Time:

It was bound to happen, I just didn’t realize it would happen this soon.

I have very few memories about this issue.

It features a one-off battle with a robot super-villain, the Cord family (who will play a big role in the early Iron Man comics), and more of the obnoxious SHIELD agent Jasper Sitwell.

Tony Stark also has a bevvy of beauties on his boat, and he wears a captains hat.

This was definitely the 60’s.

I do know that a lot of these early issues, because they were difficult to find, I read out of order. Because of that they don’t have the emotional “stickyness” that I have for some of the other issues. Although I will admit, I’m glad I’m finding the time to read the series in order. It’s really nice to fully understand the story!

I think that it’s worth bringing up that one of my charming foibles, at least back before I was old and cynical, was that I was a “complete-ist.” That’s a collector who wants to have all of whatever it is he collects. This drove my obsession from when I was a kid and well into my twenties.

It wasn’t enough to have all of the recent issues of Iron Man, I wanted ALL of the issues. And then it wasn’t enough to have just his title, then I wanted any issue of whatever book he might have showed up in. That might sound like an impossible task, but I had a resource back then, before the internet, called the Overstreet Price Guide. In it were not only the most reliable prices for all comic books (it’s what everybody used) but also a list of who appeared in what book. You can still get it today, HERE, if you wanted it!

But why stop at comic books? Iron Man was a character that was just popular enough to have some cool memorabilia without it being at Spider-Man or Superman levels of “impossible to find,” so I wanted all that too!

I made a pretty good job of it! With the exception of some stickers and iron-on t-shirt decals, I was able to get just about every Iron Man bit – with one major exception: The Marx Plastic 6″ figure.

I had one opportunity when I was 11 to get it at a convention. The seller had the whole Marvel set and was selling the whole set for $100. That was a LOT of money when all I wanted was one of the figures so I pulled out some of the tricks my dad taught me, no dice. He was only selling them as a set.

Hindsight being 20/20, had I known that eBay would exist and that I would be a relatively active eBay seller I would have happily spent the $100 bucks since I can get about that or more for each of the figures now – but whatcha’ gonna’ do?
EDIT: I just did an eBay search that you can see HERE showing that maybe I was right to walk after all, however maybe it’s worth the $10 bucks to get the Marx Iron Man now? Oh cruel collector gene!!! Why are you re-activating!?


All that being said, I gave up my complete-ist ways a long time ago. It isn’t that Iron Man has suddenly grown into super popularity, although that would make being an Iron Man complete-ist one of the most expensive hobbies ever, but I just kinda’ grew out of it.

Hanging on to the hunt like that is something you really need a lot of extra time for – something a kid, a teenager and a guy in his early twenties actually has.

I think my new relationship with money was an influence as well. There are other things I need/want to spend my money on now. It’s really difficult to say that a piece of plastic that will just be hanging out on my desk is worth even just the few dollars it may cost…

…although every once in a while….

Next time:

So before I even begin I would like you to look at the cover:

You purple circle stamp on the “N” on the cover? Fun story behind why I bought this issue and how it’s easy to confuse a kid who thought he knew everything about his favorite character’s premiere issue but turned out to know just enough to get himself in trouble.

Well, trouble in a relative sense.

OK, so not any actual “trouble’ but we can go with “mild embarrassment.”

I remember very clearly the comic convention where I finally found, and more importantly had saved up the money to buy, Iron Man #1. Well, I remember except for the location – it was definitely a hotel ball room, can’t remember if it was L.A. or Anaheim, but that’s not the important part.

The dealer who was selling it was right next to the entry door. He had what comic collectors would recognize as a “rare wall” where they put all the number one’s and first appearance issues. He had multiple copies of Iron Man #1 ranging in price and condition. Two caught my eye right away – one at $250 and another that was $350. However, because it was so early in the show, I didn’t want to blow my cash right away. And it was a big show so I figured there’d be other dealers carrying the issue.

Comic conventions for my dad and I were really cool bonding moments. We’d walk the aisles, check out artists and new books and he started teaching me the way to negotiate and bargain – ideas that were completely foreign to me. I have several items in my Iron Man collections that he managed to talk down to a fair price, and I still flinch to myself when I remember how I screwed up a negotiation for a Wolverine Secret Wars action figure almost twenty-five years ago ($40 bucks! Gah! I shoulda’ walked away!).

The Shrine shows were my favorite! ComiCon is great and all, but nothing beats a good old fashion comic book and collectors show like the one’s they held at The Shrine auditorium (They still put on this show! INFO HERE). It was $10 to get in and it was an easy way to burn a Sunday. I bought so much Yoda memorabilia there – just ridiculous. I still remember that there was a sculptor one month that did an Iron Man statue. The armor didn’t match any that I was familiar with, it was his own take on the current armor of the time, so I held off buying it. I decided after we got home that it was cool and I did want it after all. We went back the next month and he wasn’t there. Dad told me that sometimes, especially for one of a kind items, you really can’t wait. Lesson learned.

Back to the story…

So we waited until the end of the day to go back to the original dealer, no other dealers at the con had a decent copy of Iron Man #1 at a better price and, as my dad had taught me, people are more likely to wheel and deal when it’s the end of the day.

We went up and I asked to see the two different versions of the issue that had caught my eye in the first place. The $250 one was a little worse off for wear, but still in what would be considered VG or very good condition. The $350 was definitely better overall, practically NM or near mint condition, and there was an extra label on the bag that said “Marvel Value Stamp intact.” At the time I had no idea what a Marvel Value Stamp was. I thought it was that purple mark that I pointed out to you on the “N’ at the beginning of this post. Seeing that as an extra bonus I totally got that one. We talked money, I know the price came down a little but I don’t remember how much (yay for negotiation skills, boo for memory loss), I handed the man my money, bagged it up and I was the happiest little boy walking out of that convention! It was, and continues to be, the pride of my collection. Even after decades of storage it is still in marvelous, no pun intended, condition.

Fast forward, decades later, I find out what a Marvel Value stamp actually is! You can get a full explanation HERE but the basic story is that they were small pin-ups of characters, the size of stamps, that you’d cut-out and collect from all the different issues of Marvel comics – in the mid 70’s! there is no Marvel Value Stamp in this issue! This came out a good five or six years before that promotion! So as an adult I’m thinking to myself, “That bastard screwed over a kid!” Really, using my rational brain, $350 was a very fair price for the issue at the time given it’s condition so even if I had paid full price I couldn’t be too unhappy…

…but then you look at the purple stamp that is there on the “N” and it’s just a constant reminder that part of my decision making process was based on my misunderstanding of what a “Value Stamp” was. So embarrassing! I have no idea what that mark even is. I think it might be a postage mark, but I don’t know for sure. If you do please let me know in the comments.

The issue itself is very fitting for the times. It picks up right where the last issue of Tales of Suspense left off (as retold in Iron Man and Sub-Mariner #1 see last post) with shell-head sucked via vortex beam into the A.I.M. submarine.

This is the end of the story and it wraps up everything nicely – Iron Man wins the day, Jasper Sitwell is saved and we are re-introduced to Whitney Frost (originally introduced in ToS #98 – an issue I do not own so this was my first exposure to her). Whitney becomes very important later so stick her name in the back of your mind.

Some of the cool images of in this issue come from the renderings in and of the A.I.M. island base. Not only are the yellow beekeeper suits eye catching, but apparently in the late 60’s you needed to put a monogram on everything, even the floor!

This is my favorite:

Seriously, that is a highly stylized “A” on that machine arm!

The big-bad in this issue is a one-off named Mordius – a pre-cursor to the menacing M.O.D.O.K. who we’ll meet later. His face is deformed, although there is no explanation as to why, and he speaks just like the kind of super-villain you’d make fun of. He’s so corny, in fact, when Iron Man decides to kiss some ass he makes mention of it:

Oh, and I should probably mention that he invented what is essentially a very powerful 3D scanner and printer that he uses to make copies of the Iron Man armor. What he wasn’t counting on was the refractory coating on the armor that screws up the x-rays and makes it so that the armor copies don’t work right!

The story ends with the island base exploding, Mordius is never heard from again, and we are promised more action with “The Demolisher!”

There’s also a bonus story in the back, a three page re-telling of Iron Man’s origin. There wasn’t a collector’s market at the time. People couldn’t easily get the back issues so re-prints like this were common. When we get to the Giant-Sized issues and Annuals you’ll see more stuff like this.

Now I kinda’ wanna’ take my dad to the next Shrine show.

Next time:

The memory I have in my head: Adventureland Comics, Harbor Blvd., Fullerton, California. Me and my mom shopping for Iron Man comic back issues. Along the wall of the store classic, high priced back issues were displayed. My mom spotted a cover with Iron Man on it and the number “1.” She got my attention and asked me if this is Iron Man number one? Having burned the image of Iron Man number one into my memory (at this time I had not yet found and purchased my own copy of Iron Man number one) I checked it out, made a face and said no. The man behind the counter, bearded with longer unkempt hair, over-heard and filled in the details: this issue is a special reprint of the Iron Man story from Tales of Suspense #99 and the Sub-Mariner story from whatever anthology series he was featured in.

It is important to have this issue to understand what happens in Iron Man number one. I know we didn’t buy the issue that day, but my parents did get it for me for a major gift giving holiday (I forget which) and it is, actually, really important if you want to know what’s going on in Iron Man number one (which is probably why they re-printed it back in the late 60’s in the first place). For a long time this issue was an “also ran” in my collection, it wasn’t an issue of Tales of Suspense or Iron Man number one, but that kind of thinking really discounts how nice this issue is.

The story continues from the tale that we saw in ToS 97, which started (I think) in ToS 95. More Maggia trouble, more Whiplash, more advertisements for correspondence art schools and Grit magazine. Seriously, what the hell was Grit magazine? Has anyone ever read that? The ad reads like multi-level marketing for kids.

Breaking with a tradition that really had yet to be established, Iron Man starts off the story powered down and spends the rest of the issue, remarkably, fully charged! He escapes the evil death ray bed he was magnetized to and, just when he’s about to land the final blow on Whiplash, AIM’s super secret vortex ray sucks him out of the ship and into AIM’s waiting clutches!

It was a lot of fun to re-read this issue. I did not appreciate Gene Colon as an artist when I was younger, all I wanted was John Romita, Jr. or Luke McDonald, but looking at it now is great! The faces are so expressive, the action is really dynamic and he makes great use of shadow and motion. He was really at the top of his game in the late 60’s. There’s another Gene Colon issue coming much later, in the mid-200’s, where I’ll break down the difference between this Gene Colon and the Gene Colon of the late 80’s early 90’s but that’s for later.

The story itself would actually make sense in today’s comic environment with some small changes to the speech bubbles. I find that the writing of dialogue in the 60’s is more like radio-play dialogue than what we’re used to today. If anything reading this story after reading the most recent issue of Avengers shows that not much has changed for the major crime syndicates of the Marvel universe – they’re all still back-stabbing each other for money and power.

As usual we’re left with a cliffhanger and the promise that Iron Man is coming back next month in his own full-length magazine, a magazine that this writer will eventually be way obsessed with.

This is one of those comics that you used to see a lot at comic book stores and on convention floors. For you other comic nerds out there I’m sure you saw the cover and said to yourself, “Oh yeah, I recognize that.” Even at San Diego ComiCon last year it was easy to pick this issue out on the premium boards set-up at different booths. I don’t know how much play Sub-Mariner got out of this, his series that sprung up around this time didn’t last long from what I remember (EDIT: Wikipedia says it only lasted 6 years, 68-74), but Iron Man definitely stuck around and, frankly, just had the way better story in this issue.

Next time we get to number 1!