Tales of Suspense #40

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Cover Date: April 1963

Plot Overview: This issue opens and goes about establishing that Tony Stark is a scientist, a playboy and a superhero. It also shows that Stark has to recharge his chest plate from time to time to keep his heart beating. Last issue, he of course suffered an injury where shrapnel is in danger of puncturing his heart.

Stark has a date at the circus when the animals get out of control. Stark becomes Iron Man and notices that the crowd is terrified of him as he enters the building. Iron Man makes short work of the animals but ponders how to alter his appearance. His date, Marion, suggests that Iron Man don gold armor so that people would know that he has a heart of gold. Stark likes the idea and paints his suit gold.

Later, Stark wonders why Marion didn't arrive at the airport and he's told that the city of Granville has shut down it's airport. Stark decides to head to Granville as Iron Man. When he arrives, he finds that the city has built a wall around itself and the federal government is powerless to do anything about it.

Iron Man decides to dig into the city. Upon his arrival he finds that the citizens of Granville are completely under the influence of a caveman called Gargantus. The citizens attack Iron Man while others worship Gargantus. Iron Man evades the locals and issues a public challenge to Gargantus.

The caveman arrives on the scene and Iron Man realizes the creature is trying to hypnotize him by reflecting the sun off his eyes. IM notices that it's a cloudy day and waves a flag to see that there is a breeze. IM evades attack from Gargantus and then uses magnets to subdue him. Gargantus falls apart revealing that he was a robot. The locals become normal again and IM reveals that he figured out that the clouds were unnatural and that Gargantus' hypnosis was coming from a device inside of him. IM then reveals that a UFO was behind the clouds. The aliens flee Earth because they feel they are no match for the Iron Men of this planet.

The issue ends with Stark and Marion reuniting.

My Take: A quick aside to this. Iron Man using transistors for everything is really a sign of the times. He tends to take about his transistor power whatever constantly throughout the issue. He'll do this in pretty much everything until technology shifts a little and Marvel doesn't feel the need to harp on it so much. You just have to grin and bear it for awhile.

This was a decent issue. You get a good idea of the status quo for the early Iron Man tales. He has a love interest or two, has to charge his chest plate and then fights a bad guy. Like a lot of the early Marvel stories, this felt more sci-fi than superhero. It felt like a monster horror movie and there just happened to be a superhero to save the day at the end.

The issue was pretty straightforward from start to finish. They re-established what the character was about in the first few pages and then showing off what he can do for the rest of the issue. The villain was silly but most Silver Age villains are. I tend to look at the villain as an afterthought to this issue though. This was about really hitting home who Tony Stark was and what his adventures were going to be like. I think this issue succeeded at that.

One aspect that I really like about Tony Stark at this point is that he feels like what Bruce Wayne should be. Wayne has always felt like the playboy aspect was tagged on whereas Stark feels like the real deal in that aspect.

The art was solid for this issue. It looks about how you would expect Tony Stark to look in the early 60s. The Iron Man armor makes for some weird art though. The artist was switching between the armor being bulky and clumsy one panel and having him do very agile movements in it the next. It was very distracting.

I'll give this **3/4 out of *****.

Notes: This is the first appearance of Gargantus. He'll pop up again at some point. He's a very very minor villain in the Marvel Universe though. Now, I'm not sure about Marion. She might be a recurring character for awhile but I'm not totally sure on that point. I will mention in future note sections if she does continue to appear.

This issue also sees the first of many armor changes for Iron Man. His armor changed from grey to gold in this issue. He'll keep this look for a few months before changing to a more recognizable armor.

Next Issue: Journey Into Mystery #91

Posted in: Gargantus,Iron Man,Tales of Suspense