Iron Man Ultimate Guide To The Armored Super Hero

Iron Man has gone by many names since his debut in Tales of Suspense #39 in 1963.  He is called Shellhead and Golden Avenger but we will always now him as Tony Stark, although there have been many other men in the armor.  It is these facts and others you will unravel in the encyclopedia Iron Man Ultimate Guide to the Armored Super Hero by Mathew K. Manning.

The book is a very interesting look at the highs and many lows of the superhero Iron Man and the original man in the armor Tony Stark. I say original because did you know that Tony Stark wasn’t the only one to take on the role of IronMan.  The suit which in itself has gone through many versions has been worn by Tony Stark, Happy Hogan, James Rhodes, Eddie March, Michael O’Brien, Carl Walker, the villain Dr. Demonicus and Wolverine.

Besides the different aspects of the armor the book delves into the many enemies and friends of Tony Stark from such friends as Pepper Potts, Nick Fury and Bethany Cabe and villains like Mandarin, Justin Hammer and Obadiah Stane. Not all enemies were people though. The billionaire has faced a broken body with the biggest problem being a damaged heart that led to him becoming Iron Man originally, too many lost loves and relationships, and a well documented alcohol problem.  This book goes into great detail revealing all of these problems of Tony Stark along with great reprinted artwork from different time periods showcasing the ups and downs of Iron Man and Tony Stark in particular.

Like I said earlier Tony Stark isn’t the only person to wear the armor and the book does an excellent job focusing the most popular other person to wear the suit. This person is James Rhodes who along with being a friend of Starks has been Iron man before becoming War Machine when Tony decided he was able to resume his role as IronMan.  I found it interesting the many sacrifices James Rhodes has suffered with the most drastic being  that he has become more machine than human as  a result of  a deadly accident. 

Just like the Wolverine guide I reviewed earlier the book also reprints synopsis and images from key issues in the long running career of IronMan.  Among them is the debut issue from Tales of Suspense #39 from 1963 from the team of Stan Lee as plotter, Larry Lieber as scripter and Dan Heck as penciler. Then we have Iron man v1 #128 from 1979 from David Michelinni as writer and art by John Romita Jr. This issue brought you the popular story arc of Demon in a bottle focusing on Tony’s first battle against alcoholism.  From the 1980’s we get Iron Man v1 232 from 1988 from David Michelinni as writer and Barry Windsor-smith as artist. In this issue we are introduced to what kind of nightmares Tony face on a daily basis only to find out it was all a dream.  The offering from the 1990’s is Iron man V3 1 from 1998 from Kurt Busiek as writer and Sean Chen as penciler and colored by Liquid!. This issue was the return of Iron man to the Marvel universe  and a rebirth of the character after the closing of the Heroes Reborn event.  Finally from 2000 we have Iron man v4 # 5 from 2006 from Warren Ellis as writer and Adi Granor as artist.   This issue was the introduction of the Extremis armor and a slightly changed retelling of Iron Man’s origin story.  There are many other key issues but these are the ones that stood out the most and focused on different times in Stark’s life. 

Another unique part to this book is it really pointed out just how many crossover events Iron Man was involved in over the years. I knew he was a popular character in the Marvel universe but I never realized how many major storylines he was involved in be they marvel universe wide or just within his own realm of characters and self titled series.  The book very interestingly rehashes the crossover events.  Throughout the years Iron Man took part in Secret Wars 1, Armor Wars 1, Armor Wars 2, Dragon Seed Saga, Operation Galactic Storm, The Crossing, Heroes Reborn, Heroes Return, Avengers Disassembled, House of M, Civil War, Initiative, World War Hulk, and Secret Invasion.  There definitely been others such as the most recent events Dark Reign and Siege but these are the ones that are focused on in the book.  To me this was a nice look back at events I enjoyed and some I never read about before.

I highly recommend picking up this almost 200 page book.  If you are like me and want to know about the character that has just passed the milestone of having passed 500 issues of Invincible Iron Man this is the book for you.  Mathew K. Manning does a great job delving into the legacy of one of the top characters of the marvel universe that was created back in 1963 by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber, Don Heck and Jack Kirby.