Customer Reviews

Essential Iron Man, Vol. 2 (Marvel Essentials)

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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.

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.

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.

This volume captures the very best writing and the very best artwork in the long history of Iron Man. Re-reading this material was just so entertaining! Reading the modern version is such a let down to me because the work of Gene Colan, Johnny Craig and George Tuska in these stories is just so good. This is what Iron Man should look like.

I kept thinking that Hollywood would be well advised to mine this volume for good story material for the Iron Man movie. At this writing, multiple drafts for the movie have been rejected and the project is just about dead. But what if some of Stan Lee's great PRIME silver-age Iron Man material was adapted for the screen? There is plenty of action, drama, romance, suspense and science-fiction integral to Iron Man. Any of the multi-story arcs would work. The characters are rich and fully developed. Word to the wise of Hollywood if you are reading this.

Thanks for re-printing it all. I'm still hoping for the Marvel Masterworks version in full color.

I had to wait several years for Marvel to begin printing this collection again. But, it was well-worth the wait! This book has the end of Iron Man's run on "Tales of Suspence" and then begins his own title. His battles with the Mandarin, Ultimo, Titanium Man, the Melter, the Sub-Mariner and all here. Excellent artwork and stories. Cannot recommend this collection enough!

This is Iron Man as he moves into the late 60's. The writing is a little more stilted, and the plots a bit more repetitive than in vol. 1. Also, the artwork is more erratic, as new artists such as Gene Colon start to fill in for Don Heck. Some of the art is better, some worse, but the wild variations hurt the book, especially in the segments that rely heavily on ZipTone. They're muddy almost to the point of being unreadable.

Still, if you liked vol. 1, you'll also like vol. 2.

By the time I got to this volume of IRON MAN I had begun to really enjoy Gene Colan's artwork. He is replaced partway through this collection by Johnny Craig and then the combination of George Tuska and Johnny Craig. I found all the art teams to be quite enjoyable! Within these pages you will see Tony Stark struggle to maintain his secret identity, further development of Iron Man's supporting cast including Pepper Potts and Happy Hogan as well as the introduction of SHIELD agent Jasper Sitwell (who I found to be a surprisingly good character). Villains face include the Mandarin, Unicorn, the Black Knight, Titanium Man, Mole Man, Grey Gargoyle, the introduction of Whiplash and more!