Iron Man Is Born!

Tales Of Suspense #39, March 1963
(Stan Lee, Larry Lieber and Don Heck)

So, we've done radiation-enhanced heroes, chemical-enhanced heroes, gods. What else do we need? Ah yes, battle-suited heroes. Bring on Iron Man!


Like the origin of the Incredible Hulk, our tale today begins with a scientist hired by the government to produce a new type of weapon for the army. In this case, millionaire industrialist Tony Stark has been hired to produce his miniature transistors to help win the war in Vietnam (younger readers, look it up to learn how that particular escapade turned out). Stark's transistor can turn an ordinary magnet into a super-magnet! Watch.


Stark is whisked off to Southeast Asia, to demonstrate his ingenuity. See, the army want him to build miniature bombs, to help them take on Charlie. Accompanying some of America's finest on a mission into the jungle, Tony watches with admiration as the American troops bomb the crap out of their communist opponents. So filled with glee is Mr Stark that he makes a potentially fatal blunder.


Damn those reds and their filthy traps! Anyway, as you may have guessed, Tony Stark survives the bomb, and finds himself a prisoner of local warlord, Wong-Chu, who plans to use Stark's talents for his own evil purposes.


Stark agrees to Wong-Chu's demands, in order to save his own sorry life. Fortuitously, Stark is joined in his prison laboratory by Asia's greatest non-communist scientist, Professor Yinsen. Yinsen and Stark agree to work together, to thwart Wong-Chu's plans, and the race is on to to build Stark's greatest design - an iron man!

p6 panel 2
And make no mistake, it is a race, for there is a piece of shrapnel making its way slowly towards Tony Stark's heart. It's only a matter of time before he succumbs to a fatal heart attack. Better work quickly, boys!


No sooner is Stark esconsced in his life-preserver, than Dr Yinsen nobly sacrifices his life in order to distract Wong-Chu and his guards. Whilst Yinsen is being chased and killed, Tony gets used to wearing his new armour.


No time for boo-hoos, Tony, because here come the reds. Get' em!


Wong-Chu is no pushover, however, and what's more he's got a filing cabinet filled with rocks, which he keeps for occasions such as this.


Needless to say, rock-filled stationery is not enough to stop the invincible Iron Man, who blows up the warlord, frees the prisoners, and heads back to civilisation.


So there you have it. Another hero joins the pantheon of the Marvel Universe. I wonder how many months it'll be before he starts behaving like a dick...

Beauty And The Beast!

Incredible Hulk #5, January 1963
(Stan Lee and Jack Kirby)

And we're back, with a look at another one of the earliest appearances of the Green Goliath, the Jade-Jawed Giant, the one, the only, Incredible Hulk!

In this Lee / Kirby classic, the Hulk takes on the mighty Tyrannus, a warlord from beneath the ground, who rules an army of midget super-scientists. Here's Tyrannus' secret origin in three panels...


Snappy and consise, no? But what's all this about using Betty Ross as protection from the Great Satan? Ah well, y'see, Tyrannus has a crystal ball, which he's using to spy on the American army's top scientists, and he's spotted that Betty has the hots for gamma boffin Bruce Banner. By kidnapping Betty, Tyrannus hopes to persuade Banner to help him carry out his scheme to conquer the world. Bit of a shame Tyrannus wasn't able to use his scrying glass to keep a decent eye on Banner, because then he might have noticed Banner's habit of turning into a superstrong giant monster.

Anyway, Tyrannus turns up at army headquarters, passing himself of an archaeologist, and promptly cons Betty into letting him abduct her (naturally, this being sixties Marvel, this is so that Betty can make her dispassionate on-off boyfriend jealous). Banner and kid sidekick, Rick Jones, follow Betty and Tyrannus, who's busy threatening Betty's father, General Thadeus "Thunderbolt" Ross.


Wait a minute, though. I thought Tyrannus was planning to blackmail our hero, Bruce Banner, or is there another interpretation of this earlier panel?


Maybe it's more of a general "love makes my enemies weak" thing? Or maybe Stan's just making it up as he goes along. Anyway, ignoring Tyrannus' somewhat confusing motive, Bruce, upset at his girlfriend being snatched, changes into the Hulk, chases after Tyrannus, who promptly subdues the Big Green One, and lords it over his newest prisoner.


Ah, we're back to the "use Betty to threaten her boyfriend" ruse. Except that Tyrannus doesn't know the Hulk / Banner connection, so really this is Plan C, which involved hoping that the Hulk is a big enough softy to not let an innocent girl die. This comic makes my head hurt...

Fortunately, this is the 60s, and even monsters have a good heart, so the Hulk agrees to fight in Tyrannus' arena, against a big scary fire-breathing robot. This, as you might expect, makes the Hulk angry.


Things go badly for the robot at this point, but Tyrannus still has Betty, so puts the Hulk to work, building bridges and dams. Having gained an endless source of manpower, you'd think Tyrannus would be pleased, eh?

Think again.


And this is why some comics fan prefer modern comics featuring hero-killing bad guys who at least attempt to act rationally to the illogic of scenes like this one.

Anyway, fortunately, Rick Jones shows up, rescues everyone, and the Hulk brings down Tyrannus' little kingdom, dropping his underground castle down on the toda-wearing tyrant. He then spends the second half of this issue rescuing the Dalai Lama from some stereotyped Chinese tinpoint general. Which is about as good as it sounds.

The Human Torch!

Strange Tales #101, October 1962
(Stan Lee, Larry Lieber and Jack Kirby)

(Yes, folks, Jack Kirby handles the artistic chores here, which, with him also illustrating Fantastic Four, Journey Into Mystery, Hulk, and the ongoing adventures of Ant-Man in Tales to Astonish, takes him up to 5 titles a month. Phew.)

Back in the earliest days of the FF, before the Thing built up his cult of personality, the Human Torch was regarded as the most popular member of the team. As a teenager, he was most likely to appeal to the young readership, so he was awarded his own title (or at least a share of his own title, as he had to share with various anthology strips).

For the purposes of this series, the Human Torch has taken up residence in Glenville, somewhere in New York State. Bizarelly, despite being a member of the most famous super-hero team in the world, he has a secret identity.


Apparently, the good people of Glenville aren't all that smart, then. Anyway, whilst he gets to battle the Sub-Mariner and Doctor Doom on a regualar basis in FF, here he has to make do with villains like the Destroyer, who may sound like a serious threat, but, well, you'll see.


Yes, the Destroyer is a serious threat. To theme parks. Scary stuff. The Destroyer stages a serious of incidents at the new amusement fayre, which the Torch must stop, without compromising his secret identity.


After his first couple of attempts are thwarted by the Torch, the Destroyer gets mad, and challenges the Torch to battle. This catches the attention of the Torch's team-mate, the Thing, who shows up to help. So much for protecting his secret identity.


Johnny Storm's no chicken, though, and he tells the Thing to sling his hook, so that he can take on the Destroyer himself. In a rare example of intelligence, the Torch decides to investigate why the fayre is being targeted, and discovers...


Yes, the red menace has come to upstate New York. Kids in the 60s must have been convinced there was a communist hiding behind every corner, if these comics had any influence on them. Of course, there was generally an evil alien hiding behind every other corner...

Anyway, the Torch makes short work of the Soviet submarine, and quickly tracks down the Destroyer, who turns out to be -


It's all a bit Scooby-Doo, isn't it?

Captives Of The Deadly Duo!

Fantastic Four #6, September 1962
(Lee and Kirby)

Today, we look back on a classic moment of Marvel history: the very first super-villain team-up!

The issue starts off gently enough, with a visit to the FF in their headquarters, now identified as the Baxter Building. We're even treated to a floorplan of the building


Note that the FF have been in existence for less than a year, and already have a trophy room. Given their predisposition to blowing things up, I have to wonder what they keep in it. Can't help but think that someone's been looking with an envious eye towards a certain Batcave, what with the vast array of vehicles available to our heroes. I mean, really, why would they bother with the Fantasti-Copter, when they have the Fantasti-Car which has a much more effective range, and which is far more maneuverable? And, actually, considering it's only a few months since the FF made the first manned rocket-ship trip, their technology seems to have advanced pretty significantly: missile ships, pogo planes?

But I digress. The point of this entry is to discuss the coming together of two of the FF's greatest foes (although considering that their third greatest foe at this point is the Mole Man, that's not exactly saying much), Doctor Doom and the Savage Sub-Mariner. Let's catch up with them, shall we?


"Now my subjects, the next maneuver..."

This man regards dolphins as his subjects? He really needs to get his kingdom back. Unfortunately his loyal servants are missing, lost since human nuclear tests inadvertantly blew up most of Atlantis. The Sub-Mariner has sworn revenge against humanity for this, but that's not his only concern.


Yes, despite only having met the team for a few minutes a couple of issues back, the Sub-Mariner has fallen in love with the Invisible Girl, and has even taken the time to get her to pose for a photo, which he drools over whilst sipping margharitas in his undersea home. Creepy guy.

Anyway, Dr Doom, himself sworn to destroy the FF, sees the Sub-Mariner as a likely mark, and makes an alliance with him, agreeing to work together to eliminate our heroes.


Meanwhile, back at the Baxter Building...


Oh for goodness sake! Did Sue and Namor go to the photo-booth together or something? I mean, fair enough, if you were engaged to marry the world's most boring man, you might hanker after someone a bit more flavoursome, but would you really leave his picture lying around?

Anyway, the team are just in the middle of arguing about Sue being hot for the Sub-Mariner, when the fishy fellow turns up in their headquarters, looking to make nice. Needless to say, this is just a ruse, so that Subby can get his mits on the Invisible Girl, but he's not reckoned on Dr Doom's inevitable betrayal...


Yes, Victor von Doom knew all along that Sub-Mariner might pose a threat to his plans for world domination, so he's decided to get rid of him at the same time. His cunning plan? To tow the Baxter Building out into space and suffocate his enemies.

Ah, but now we see the genii that are Lee and Kirby at work. Remember that floorplan of the Baxter Building? The one with the spaceship on it? In an excellent piece of foreshadowing, Stan and Jack have paved the way for our heroes to save themselves from certain death, using the pogo plane to take on Doctor Doom, and - wait, what's this?


Well, arse. Not to worry, because the Sub-Mariner is on the case, jumping across the gulf of space to beat the crap out of Dr Doom.


Job done, the heroes get back to work, and Namor heads back to sea.

The group dynamic has mostly been established by this point, for better or (in the case of the female quarter of the team) worse. Mr Fantastic is remote and intellectual, except when his relationship with the Invisible Girl is threatened. Sue Storm is trusting, emotional, and frequently a bit wet. Her brother is the hotheaded teenager, happy to wind up the monstrous Thing, who broods about his appearance, and who really only enjoys fighting. This dynamic was pretty much set in stone for the next forty years, despite numerous attempts to alter it. Why fix what isn't broken?

The Stone Men From Saturn!

Journey Into Mystery #83, August 1962
(Stan Lee, Larry Lieber and Jack Kirby)

Right, then. We've met Hank Pym, the Fantastic Four, the Hulk, and Spider-Man. Who's next?


Oh, him! Yes, I'm afraid it's time for the smuggest, most self-satisfied, most downright annoying superhero of them all to show up. Sorry. Let's get on with it, shall we?


Obviously, in a tale which deals with the return of a mythical Norse god, what we need is space aliens. Here they come.


The invading Saturnians are spotted by a local fisherman, and word quickly catches the ear of the visiting Dr Donald Blake, who sets out to investigate this improbable tale. Unfortunately, our Donald is spotted by the aliens, who pursue him into some nearby caves. Whilst hiding out from the aliens, Dr Blakes makes a shocking discovery.


Failing to use the cane to shift a fallen boulder, Dr Blake hits it off the wall of the cave, and-


Thus transformed, Thor quickly busts out of the cave, and, after bit of practice with the hammer, sets off to stop the Saturnian Stone Men.

Things go badly for the aliens.



And that's that. Thor turns back into Donald Blake, and heads back home.

At this point, you'll note that Blake retains his human persona whilst in Thor form. It's also pure coincidence that he becomes Thor at all. In the years to come, this origin story will get somewhat more complicated, but we'll get to that, later...