Essential Iron Man, Vol. 2 (Marvel Essentials) [Paperback]

Stan Lee (Author), Gene Colan (Illustrator), Don Heck (Illustrator)

Book Description

Grade Level: 4 and up

It's armored action at its best as Iron Man faces Ultimo; the Mandarin; the Titanium Man, the ever-popular communist menace; and more! Guest-starring S.H.I.E.L.D., the Sub-Mariner and the Hulk! Includes the first run of Iron Man's solo series!

Collecting:

Tales of Suspense #73-99, Tales to Astonish #82, Iron

Man & Sub-Mariner #1, Iron Man #1-11

Product Details

• Paperback: 608 pages
• Publisher: Marvel (January 19, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0785114874
• ISBN-13: 978-0785114871
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 1.8 x 10 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #216,083 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Golden Avenger returns in another great collection., February 14, 2005

By 

J. A. Hazelwood "TheSynapZe" (Frederick, MD USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Essential Iron Man, Vol. 2 (Marvel Essentials) (Paperback)

When I first started collecting the Marvel Essential volumes last year, among my favorites was Iron Man Vol. 1. I had known so little about the character (I caught one of his UPN shows once), but I found out enough in those first 34 issues of Tales of Suspense to learn that Stan Lee had succeeded again in creating a fantastic superhero who nonetheless possessed all of the problems and faults of any real-life human being.

I finally got around to finishing Vol. 2 recently and I must agree with the blurb on the back as it was "armored action at it's best". The book kicks off with ol' Shell-head's fateful final battle with the Black Knight (so I finally know what happened to BK in that flashback in Avengers Vol. 3), then it's on to a battle with his transformed best friend Happy Hogan as the Freak (would we name a comic character that now?), his first encounter with the Mandarin's pet colossus Ultimo, a memorable scrap with the Sub-Mariner (where the heck is Namor's Essential entry?), two more multi-issue epic brawls with his commie-counterpart Titanium Man (one is set across Washington, D.C., the other in 'Nam), a tense abduction by the Mysterious Melter, the grand return of the Unconquerable Unicorn (in a svelte new costume), and even a confrontation with an enraged Hulk (or is he?). This volume also sees the welcome departure of Tony Stark's underachieving tragic love interest Pepper Potts (who was actually an average-looking woman in her first few issues until she just transmogrified into a ravishing beauty queen like all the other comics have) and the arrival of a more interesting and unique character in the form of Jasper Sitwell, nebbish secret agent and Stark's liason to SHIELD. Since doomed romances were just par for the course in Marvel's Silver Age, Jasper gets a great one when he pursues the affections of affluent socialite Whitney Frost, only to discover that she's ... well, I won't spoil it for you.

These early Iron Man stories work and work well like so many early Marvel tales because of Lee and the rest of the bullpen's wise focus on pathos-inducing characters and plots that are well-grounded in the human experience. Stark is a fine superhero figure because he used his own inherent talents to design a fantastically powerful battlesuit; he wasn't bitten by radioactive animals or pushed into a chemical soup. Also, even though the world sees Stark as a wealthy and enviable bon vivant and playboy (and at Iron Man as being nigh invincible) they both live literally heartbeat to heartbeat with a secret debilitating injury, worried that the end could come at any time.

In short, bravo once again Marvel for releasing the absolutely wonderful Essential line and reintroducing so many classic Silver Age stories at a very low cost to all of us who weren't around the first time. According to Amazon, volumes of Luke Cage, Dr. Strange, the Hulk, Tomb of Dracula, the Defenders, Thor, and soon-to-be cinema darlings the Fantastic Four are set for release this year. They can't come soon enough for me.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fun in a Can, December 24, 2004

By 

Daniel Barer (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Essential Iron Man, Vol. 2 (Marvel Essentials) (Paperback)

This delightful volume collects the Gene Colan-drawn Iron Man stories from the mid- to late-sixties, as well as several well-drawn follow-up stories by EC artist Johnny Craig and golden-age artist George Tuska. In my opinion, Colan drew the most "invincible" looking Iron Man of the character's 40-year history. Just look at the cover of this book: Feet splayed 2 yards apart, armor a foot thick, IM looks like he was drop-forged and cold-rolled into a steel juggernaut who could stop a nuke without blinking. The stories by Stan Lee and Archie Goodwin aren't deep -- lots of stories contrasting IM's super-hard exterior with the fragility of the man inside -- but are entertaining nonetheless. Tony Stark, a more heroic and smarter version of Howard Hughes and the living embodyment of the military-industrial complex, battles his opposite numbers: Communists and men who have augmented their abilities with armor or other weapons. Throughout, Colan delivers ever more dynamic art that mixed cartoony exaggeration with realistic shading and chaotic choreography. If you enjoy action, wit, melodrama, and the sheer terror of running low on battery power, this book will give you hours of fun at the economy rate.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A better follow-up to the original..., January 18, 2009

By 

Mark A. Domeier "Grammar Freak" (Minnesota) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Essential Iron Man: v. 2 (Paperback)

As in the first volume of Iron Man, the stories are a little clipped when they're from Tales of Suspense since they are not very long. Once Iron Man moves into his own mag, the stories get better. Part of that might be Archie Goodwin's stories, but many of the early Marvel stories that shared anthologies got better when they moved into their own full-length magazines (see Captain America and the Hulk).
Iron Man continues to evolve in this edition, not just his armor, but his characterization gets better. He's got some memorable battles against the Mandarin and Sub-Mariner in here, and the Gene Colan artwork continues to astound.