The Iron Man

Iron Man's premiere was a collaboration among editor and story-plotter Lee, scripter Lieber, story-artist Heck, who would illustrate most of the early Iron Man tales, and Kirby, who provided the cover pencils and designed the first Iron Man armor.^[1] Heck created the look of characters including protagonist Tony Stark and his secretary, Pepper Potts.^[2] Lee based Stark's personality on Howard Hughes, explaining, "Howard Hughes was one of the most colorful men of our time. He was an inventor, an adventurer, a multi-millionaire, a ladies man and finally a nutcase."^[3]

Iron Man was originally an anti-communist hero. Throughout the character’s comic book series, technological advancement and national defense were constant themes for Iron Man, but later issues developed Stark into a more complex and vulnerable character as they depicted his battle with alcoholism and other personal difficulties.

Iron Man first appeared in 13 to 18 page stories in Tales of Suspense, with other stories featuring anthology science fiction and supernatural stories. Iron Man's costume was originally a bulky grey armor, but was redesigned as golden armor in his second story (issue #40, April 1963), and then redesigned again as a sleek red-and-golden armor starting in issue #48 (Dec. 1963), drawn by Steve Ditko (though whether he or Kirby, singly or in collaboration, designed it, is uncertain).

From issue #59 (Nov. 1964) to its final issue #99 (March 1968), Tales of Suspense replaced the second anthology story with the continuing stories of Captain America. After issue #99 (March 1968), the book's title was changed to Captain America. Iron Man stories were moved to the title Iron Man and Sub-Mariner #1 (April 1968), and then debuted in his own title with The Invincible Iron Man #1 (May 1968).

Writers often portrayed Iron Man as a symbol of humanity's creativity as well as its frailties. He was often placed in contrast with his close friends Captain America and Thor, the former as a contrast between interventionist and cooperative attitudes, and the latter contrasting science and the supernatural. Throughout most of his career, Iron Man has been a member of the superhero team the Avengers, and has been featured in several incarnations of his own various comic-book series. BusinessWeek ranked Iron Man as one of the top ten most intelligent fictional characters in American comics.^[4]