The Peerless Power of Comics!: The Trials and Tribulations of Iron Man, 1963-1977

When it comes to design and engineering, few would argue that Tony Stark has made his mark in the field and then some, with the Iron Man armor being perhaps his crowning achievement in terms of making a noteworthy contribution to the world. Yet looking back at what such an impressive suit of armor has allowed its wearer to accomplish and achieve, Stark himself has all too often found himself to be vulnerable to its flaws and, for a considerable time, a prisoner of its principal reason to exist: to keep his injured heart from failing. Those concerns arguably stem from a central and ever-present problem with the armor that Stark has never been able to do more than address as the need arose. Put simply: How to keep his armor's power levels from being depleted to the point where his heart is put at risk?

From day one, that has been the suit's handicap, and, by extension, Stark's--a man who, for a considerable period in his life (and in his comic's life), dealt with a heart condition which required the wearing of a metal chest plate at all times in order to keep it beating.* The flip side of that situation, of course, is that this handicap provides this character's tie-in with Marvel's "heroes with problems" theme--continuing to act as Iron Man, even though a moment may come at any time when the suit's power is compromised to such a degree that Stark suffers heart failure.** Even so, constantly seeing Iron Man fretting about his dwindling power supply during a battle, or scenes of him trying to drag himself to a wall electrical socket to ward off myocardial infarction, tends to wear on a reader.

*While continuing to date beautiful women who apparently had no problem with one of the most eligible bachelors in the country oddly rebuffing attempts to place a soft head or hand against his chest, much less initiating more forward attempts at intimacy. That adds up to a lot of women comparing notes on you around town, Mr. Stark.

**As a number of you might correctly point out, there's really no drama here in that respect. Tony Stark is the book's title character, so we know he'll survive no matter how many times he collapses in agony--good fortune he shares with Aunt May, closely linked to her book's title character who, in his case, keeps his identity secret to avoid triggering a fatal heart attack in his aunt due to the shock of learning of his existence as Spider-Man.

So the question remains: Why is it that Tony Stark, design engineer extraordinaire--knowing the problem, and realizing that it's the one crack in his armor (figuratively speaking) that might one day prove to be fatal--can't plant himself in front of a drafting table and think of a way to have his cake and eat it too? I.e., use the power of Iron Man, yet isolate his heart with a dedicated and shielded power supply that won't be linked to any systems failures he might encounter in battle?

It just so happens that he was able to do exactly that--or, rather, his alternate dimension counterpart did, in a mid-1977 What If story where the original Avengers had disbanded with the Hulk's departure and Iron Man was forced to battle both the Hulk and the Sub-Mariner alone when the two joined forces. Necessity, it appears, really is the mother of invention:

But though battling valiantly, the odds against Iron Man were too great, and he was seriously injured at the scene. Unfortunately, he had no way of knowing his new "armored Avengers" (Henry Pym, Janet Van Dyne, and Rick Jones, who had originally turned down his call for aid) would suit up and follow Iron Man to the battle site--and with Iron Man too weak to help with acclimating to the new armor, Giant-Man fell to the Hulk and lay in danger of dying. That is, until the golden Avenger makes the decision to drain his last reserves of power to save him.

But as for our Iron Man, I thought it might prove interesting to take the first 100 issues of the character's first series (including his Tales Of Suspense stories) and track the number of instances when Stark was forced or otherwise felt the need to redesign his armored suit in order to resolve certain problems or adapt to a particular set of circumstances. Several of those situations, it goes without saying, were based on his heart condition, which cleared a significant hurdle in 1973 when Stark found his heart had adapted to the synthetic tissue used to repair the organ during his operation in late 1969. Yet that wouldn't be the end of his problems in that regard, as we'll see.

One change Stark made soon after his return to the States following the creation of the Iron Man armor was the result of an offhand comment by Marion, a lady friend who had the opportunity of seeing in action what was apparently a new hero on the scene--Iron Man, still in his gray armor and causing quite a stir among the crowds. But Marion sees a reaction among women and children that came as a surprise to the one who saved lives that day.

Yet it was the battle with the villain known as Mister Doll that made Stark realize that his suit of armor was becoming a liability he couldn't afford to ignore.

Followed by an alteration limited to his face plate, again with the idea of lightness in mind:

(Just make sure your face plate alterations end there, mister.)

From there, credit where credit is due--Stark's new Iron Man armor goes the distance and withstands a number of high-profile challenges to both the suit and to Stark, including but not limited to several attacks by both the Mandarin and the Titanium Man... the original Black Knight, who fights his final battle with his foe in the skies above the Potomac river before plunging to his death... the Mandarin's monstrous creation, Ultimo... and a slug-fest with the Sub-Mariner, all while coping with the armor's dependency on recharging and Stark's heart condition.

But when Stark--while facing the stress of a Senate hearing concerning the disclosure of the identity of Iron Man as well as the armor's specs--succumbs to a massive heart attack, another shock awaits him while in recovery, as his friend and confidante, Happy Hogan, is teleported to China by the Mandarin while wearing the Iron Man armor (to throw suspicion off of Stark) as a move of revenge against his foe. In response, Stark leaves the hospital and races to his plant to engage in a long-overdue upgrade.

Once the character moves to his own solo series, however (a year and a half later, our time), it isn't long before Stark realizes that his current method of storing power is still insufficient and has become outmoded--a realization one no doubt faces up to when one reaches the point of not being able to stay alive without having a massive power cable attached to one's chest.

As we can see, Stark is in the habit of issuing "famous last words" conclusions--stating with certainty that the modifications he's implemented deal with most of his power problems of the past, while in the same breath indicating this will only be the case when he's in a position of being subjected to intense heat or cold, conditions that may or may never occur (and only under certain circumstances). At any rate, this is is the point where Stark has pivoted from constantly praising the merits of his armor's transistors to replacing them with integrated circuitry, a milestone for Iron Man to be sure.

Also, naturally, he's upgraded the armor's strength and durability:

Shortly after his 50th issue, Iron Man, having been somewhat negligent in the maintenance of his armor, decides to remedy the situation while taking the opportunity to shift the suit entirely to solar-based charging. Admittedly the decision is a little short-sighted, given that not all of his battles are fought outdoors in broad daylight--but otherwise, we wouldn't be witness to another instance where he's absolutely, positively certain that his power failures, as well as any risk to his heart, are things of the past.

Later, when Iron Man faces a setback after attempting to pursue the Mandarin, he decides to make further modifications to his face plate--as well as COMPLETELY IGNORE OUR WARNING ABOVE and make a cosmetic alteration using dubious reasoning.

Putting aside for the moment that a nose addition is unlikely to instill fear in one's opponent and certainly does little to nothing to indicate more expression on the wearer's part (well, I'll have to admit that fish looked frightened), Stark had already covered this base way back in the day:

At any rate, in the midst of a later battle with the Freak, Stark has occasion once more to create a new suit of armor***, this time focusing his efforts on... well, on how fast he can suit up. Though to Stark's credit, one feature previously added was junked.

***Ostensibly because the previous armor was deemed "ruined" by being hurled off a building and impacting on the street--though how that can be more damaging to the Iron Man armor than being battered by a state-of-the-art "rocket ram" is questionable.

Four issues later, however, it's clear that Stark still hasn't licked his power problem, though he's finally willing to face up to the fact that that this lightweight armor isn't as powerful as his former suit--something he knew at its inception but went ahead with anyway.

Six issues later, it's back to the drawing board, with another suit--and yes, another ~~rocket ram~~ atomic piledriver test.

Unfortunately, almost immediately, Ultimo does a number on this suit--and once Stark finishes muttering "lawsuit... piledriver manufacturer... fraud..." in his sleep, he faces the grim task of re-casting his armor with modifications that take him nearly back to square one.

With the book's 100th issue just around the corner at this point, the outlook appears grim for both Tony Stark and Iron Man--with Stark's activities as Iron Man hamstrung by his heart condition as well as chasing his tail on one upgrade after another, even as the Iron Man armor remains prone to power failures and breaches of its reputed durability.

Yet later, during his successful run on the book, writer David Michelinie, who would provide readers with the kind of Iron Man that fulfilled the character's potential, preferred to view this journey through a much different lens.