The Real Origin of Iron Man
How Marvel Comics Turned a War Profiteer into a Superhero
In 1963, Marvel comic book creator and editor Stan Lee was enjoying a period of great success. His comic books, The Fantastic Four, The Incredible Hulk, and The Amazing Spider-Man, which he had co-created with his artists, were all selling well and attracting new readers. Fans loved these unconventional heroes with feet of clay who were still able to save the day when called upon.
Eager to push the envelope even further, Lee decided to introduce a hero who would have little to no chance of being popular – and find a way to make him succeed with readers.
A Hero Against the Times
Realizing that many teenagers in the 1960s despised the military industrial complex, Lee spoke to his editor-in-chief Martin Goodman and proposed creating a hero who would initially embody everything these teenagers disliked.
As Lee recalls in his autobiography Excelsior! The Amazing Life of Stan Lee (2002), his new hero would be a tycoon who designed and built weapons for the U.S. military. Acknowledging that many young people, including Marvel Comics fans, disliked war profiteering, Lee assured Goodman he would find some way of making fans like this new hero.
Goodman thought the idea was crazy – but since all of Lee’s comic books were selling, he let Lee run with his idea.
Real Life Influences Superhero Story
Teaming up with his brother Larry Lieber and comic book artists Don Heck and Jack Kirby, Lee modeled this new hero, who he named Tony Stark, after real-life billionaire industrialist Howard Hughes. As Lee’s developed Stark’s personality and his alter ego Iron Man, Stark became a brilliant inventor who remained – like Hughes – an enigmatic celebrity to most of the world.
According to Peter Sanderson’s book Marvel Universe (1996) however, Heck based the look of Tony Stark on actor Errol Flynn, giving the character a dashing demeanor which assisted in Stark’s active love life. Kirby, meanwhile, designed the original version of Iron Man’s armor.
Iron Man Comic Origin in Battle
Lieber scripted the first Iron Man comic book in Tales of Suspense #39 (March 1963), which showed Tony Stark overseeing the use of his weapons in the Vietnam War. During a battle, shrapnel is lodged near Stark’s heart, giving him only a week to live.
Captured by the guerrilla army, Stark is coerced into making a weapon for the Vietcong, but teams up with fellow prisoner Professor Yinsen and builds a suit of armor that gives him the power to escape and keep his heart beating. Later, Stark would use his armor to battle super villains and other criminals.
Despite his new power, Stark would always have to wear his chest plate to stay alive, granting him an Achilles heel that Lee felt was important to all Marvel heroes. Although Stark received a heart transplant in Iron Man #19 (November 1969), subsequent comic book writers would cripple Stark in other ways, most notably by making him an alcoholic in Iron Man #120 (March 1979).
Fan Reactions to Iron Man
The dichotomy of a frail man in a powerful suit of armor interested readers, allowing the Iron Man comic book to become a success. To Lee’s surprise, however, many of these fans were female. In a December 2006 talk, later included in the DVD Marvel Then and Now: An Evening with Stan Lee and Joe Quesada (2007), Lee recalls that the Iron Man comic book received more fan mail from female fans than any other Marvel comic book, and speculates that women were attracted to Stark’s vulnerable heart and wanted to take care of him.
Sources:
Lee, Stan and George Mair. Excelsior! The Amazing Life of Stan Lee. NY: A Fireside Book/Simon& Schuster, Inc., 2002.
Sanderson, Peter. Marvel Universe. NY: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1996.
Also see:
Writing for Comic Books and Animated Cartoons
Invincible Iron Man DVD Cover
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