Biography of Iron Man, 1963

The following is a biography of Iron Man for the year of 1963, in which wealthy industrialist Tony Stark suffered a near-fatal injury that forced him to adopt the persona of Iron Man, became a nationally renowned hero, and helped form the Avengers superteam.

Biography

Origin

While accompanying the United States military on the battlefield in Vietnam in 1963, Tony Stark tripped on a booby trap and wound up with shrapnel dangerously close to his heart. He was captured by communist forces, who told him that the shrapnel was moving closer to his heart by the moment, leading to certain death. Their leader Wong-Chu told Stark that they would treat him if and only if he invented a new, powerful weapon for them. Stark didn't believe him, but lied to him and agreed. He was given fellow captor Yinsen, a renowned physicist who had stood up to the communist regime, to assist him. The two devised a way of treating Stark themselves: a full-torso, iron suit equipped to keep his heart beating even when the shrapnel reached it, along with a helmet and limb coverings to assist movement. As Stark equipped the suit for the first time, Wong-Chu and his men came pounding on the door. Stark needed time for the suit to power itself fully, and Yinsen threw himself at the communist soldiers to buy that time, falling to their gunfire. This allowed Stark to reach his feet and become accustomed to the suit. Newly powerful and nearly invulnerable, the freshly christened Iron Man took the fight to Wong-Chu. His soldiers retreated, and Iron Man killed Wong-Chu by erupting an ammunition stockade near him.

The colossal Gargantus

Iron Man soon became a full-fledged superhero, fighting various sources of crime and generally benefiting humanity, but there was a problem. His grey, mechanical exterior struck many citizens as frightening. On a recommendation from his friend Marion—who was simply musing out loud to him, not realizing his secret identity—Stark altered the Iron Man suit to be bright gold instead of dull grey. He soon learned of a massive wall mysteriously going up around the town of Granville, where Marion was staying. Arriving there and digging underneath the wall, Iron Man found the citizens of Granville to be in a state of mass hypnosis and worshiping a creature called Gargantus, who resembled a neanderthal. Iron Man fought Gargantus and found that he was a robot, tearing him to bits with a series of magnets. He then parted the dark cloud that had been covering Granville and found that there was an alien spaceship high above the city: an unknown alien race had constructed Gargantus to take over Granville as a trial run for a full-scale invasion. Seeing that they had completely failed, the aliens fled Earth's atmosphere.

The mysterious Carlo Strange

While performing for patients at a children's hospital, Iron Man was affected by electromagnetic waves that interacted with his suit. The waves were due to a signal from Carlo Strange, who was serving time in a prison nearby and used a device to control Iron Man's actions. He commanded Iron Man to free him from prison, and the confused hero found himself breaking down the walls of the prison and flying off with Strange in tow. Dropping him off at Strange's headquarters, Iron Man was sent off and soon recovered, not remembering anything he had done since the hospital. Strange soon detonated a bomb above the Earth and transmitted a message to the leaders of the world, threatening their destruction barring total surrender. Iron Man was able to penetrate Strange's base off of the American east coast, and using the last of his electricity, destroyed Strange's equipment. Seemingly helpless, Iron Man was saved by Carlo's daughter Carla Strange, who gave him a pair of small batteries from a nearby flashlight. Carlo fled from the scene, vanishing before he could be captured.

The Red Barbarian

Stark soon developed plans for a disintegration ray that he planned to put to use in a deal with the U.S. military. He then received a letter from a supposed U.S. Senator regarding a meeting in Washington, D.C.. Traveling there, he realized that the meeting was a sham, fabricated by someone in an effort to get him away from his headquarters. Returning there, Stark was ambushed by assassins, but was able to douse the lights and don the Iron Man suit, easily incapcitating them. The assassins were Soviet, and under duress informed Iron Man that they were sent by the Red Barbarian—a Soviet general—alongside the Actor, who had infiltrated Stark's headquarters disguised as him to steal the disintegration-ray plans. Out of desperation, Iron Man commandeered a high-speed rocket in an attempt to reach the Red Barbarian before Actor was able to turn the plans over to the Soviets. He was able to intercept Actor, tying him up and going to Red Barbarian claiming to be Actor disguised as Iron Man. He claimed that there was an explosive time lock on the case containing the plans, and that he would return soon to open it. He then released the Actor and flew home, allowing him to return to Barbarian himself; the confusing supposed reappearance of the Actor prompted by the easily angered Barbarian to shoot him to death.

Into the Netherworld

One day, after a fairly routine incident at Stark's laboratory, Stark suddenly disappeared, reappearing moments later in a previously unknown realm that its inhabitants called the Netherworld, otherwise known as the Earth's core. Stark was greeted by their queen, Kala, who explained that her people were descendants of those of the ancient surface city of Atlantis. Having observed surface civilization for centuries, her people now sought an invasion, and abducted Stark to have him invent a method of transport from the Netherworld to the surface. Much like his situation in Vietnam, Stark "agreed" to the plan, instead using the equipment he was given to rebuild the Iron Man suit from scratch. He met Baxu, a general of Kala's who detested being ruled by a woman, and used his disloyalty to encourage a subtle coup. Fighting through Kala's forces, Iron Man grabbed the queen and flew her through the ground to the surface, where she began to rapidly age—the atmosphere in the core had slowed her aging significantly. Amid insistent pleading, he returned her to the Netherworld, and Kala fell for what she saw as Iron Man's kind heart. Iron Man declined her advances, setting up a marriage between Baxu and Kala and establishing Baxu as the new king. He returned to the surface peacefully.

Cleopatra and the Mad Pharaoh

Tony Stark next participated in an excavation in Egypt, helping an archaeologist friend of his on a potentially major discovery. Stark, secretly as Iron Man, helped the archaeological team dig into the tomb of Hatap, known as the Mad Pharaoh. Shortly afterward, Stark was incredibly approached in his tent by Hatap himself. Hatap explained that after his army was defeated by that of Cleopatra 2,000 years prior, he used a special serum to put himself into a prolonged state of suspended animation, seeming to all the world to be dead. Now, Hatap planned to travel back in time and defeat Cleopatra, using Stark and his scientific brilliance to assist him. To convince Stark to do so, Hatap infected the archaeological team with some sort of plague, and would only give them the antidote if Stark agreed to help. Stark did agree, and Hatap held up his promise before transporting them both to the past with a magical charm. At the first opportunity, Stark quickly got out of sight and donned the Iron Man suit, flying away from a confused Hatap to Cleopatra's palace, under siege by Roman forces. The nigh-divine powers of Iron Man terrified the Roman soldiers, sending them fleeing in a hurry. Iron Man received word that Cleopatra herself had fled on her barge, but was being pursued by a Roman galley. Iron Man found the two vessels, destroying the galley and meeting with the queen at last. He warned Cleopatra of Hatap's coming attack, and she entrusted him to deal with the problem. He indeed was able to deflect Hatap's forces, confronting the man himself and attempting to retrieve his time-traveling charm. In a desperate attempt to hold on to it, Hatap ended up falling onto his own sword, killing himself. Though Cleopatra wished for him to rule by her side, Iron Man returned to the present, where he later found hieroglyphics depicting a figure in golden armor embracing the queen.

Formation of the Avengers

One day, Iron Man heard a radio signal from the Teen Brigade, a league of young do-gooders led by Rick Jones in the southwestern U.S., warning that the monstrous beast the Hulk had resurfaced and apparently tried to destroy a train along with its passengers. His intentions were unclear, and in any case he had to be found. Iron Man answered the call, curious how he would fare against the Hulk. When he arrived at Teen Brigade headquarters, Iron Man found that he wasn’t the only one: Thor, Ant-Man, and the Wasp had also come, though Thor strangely left only moments after. Ant-Man soon received an urgent message from his ant network, that Hulk had been spotted disguised in a nearby circus. Ant-Man and Wasp, followed closely by Iron Man, made their way to the circus and attempted to reason with the Hulk, but to no avail. The long-antagonized Hulk ran from them, and only Iron Man was fast enough to pursue. The two fought, as Hulk’s power matched up evenly with Iron Man’s metal endurance. Thor soon arrived from the sky with his brother Loki in tow: he explained that Loki had framed Hulk for the train incident in a long-winded attempt to get at Thor. Desperate, Loki turned himself radioactive, threatening the rest of the heroes to leave him and Thor alone. But it was Ant-Man and the Wasp who saved the day, as a group of ants on Ant-Man’s signal triggered a trapdoor under Loki’s feet, dropping him into a lead-lined nuclear-disposal tank below. Loki could not maintain his radioactivity indefinitely, and Thor would wait it out before returning him to Asgard. During the wait, Ant-Man and Wasp made a proposal: given the combined power that they all shared, the five of them would make an incredible team. Iron Man and Thor readily agreed in the interest of better serving the public, while Hulk figured that it was better than staying on the run. All that was left for the new team was a name, which the Wasp provided: The Avengers.

A scientist's treachery

Anthony Stark was soon involved in a stock-car race in Indianapolis that he was heavily favored to win. But in trying to maintain his double life, Stark was careless, and forgot to recharge his chest plate. During the race, he experienced extreme pain in his heart, and crashed his vehicle. He was pulled out and rescued by a strange man, moments before the car exploded. Stark offered the man a great deal of money to deliver him to a hotel room and not ask questions. Stark was able to plug into the wall in time, fending off the deadly shrapnel in his chest once more. Fully charged, Stark stepped out and greeted the man properly, who introduced himself as Happy Hogan—a retired boxer with a nickname that made light of his blunt disposition. Hogan turned down Stark’s sizeable reward in exchange for a steady job as Stark’s chauffeur. The two traveled back to Stark’s main plant in Flushing, New York, where Stark introduced Hogan to his secretary, Pepper Potts, and the two immediately antagonized each other. Stark retreated to his office and began some routine testing on the Iron Man suit; at that moment, an alarm went off, indicating an intruder in his secret vault. Arriving there, Iron Man found Gregor Shapanka, one of his most trusted scientists. Realizing that he was no match for the hero, Shapanka tried to make a deal with him, offering to split the fortune they would make from Stark’s secret formulas. Iron Man obviously refused, locking Shapanka in the vault until he could return to deal with him properly. Stark went to his office and doffed his suit, returning to find that security forces had arrived. Stark decided not to call the police, instead simply firing Shapanka in recognition of his great work with the company. Stark told Shapanka to leave before he got “cold feet” about releasing him, a phrase that suspiciously thrilled the mad scientist. A week later, a new villain named Jack Frost began running rampant across New York, robbing banks using a special ice suit to freeze his foes. Frost soon set his sights on Stark’s plant; in his office, Stark donned the Iron Man suit, and defeated Frost with a miniature furnace. Frost was of course revealed to be Shapanka, and Stark this time happily let the authorities take him.

Anton Vanko's defection

During a planned manned rocket launch, Stark suited up as Iron Man, anticipating that something might go wrong, and it did: the electronics of the missile seemed to malfunction, sending it crashing into the ground. He was able to catch it however, breaking its fall and leaving the passengers inside unharmed. Examining the innards of the rocket, Stark found that they had been burned up, as though sabotaged. Over the next several weeks, more and more of Stark's plants themselves came under attack, as disastrous fires wreaked havoc on his production line. Stark's contract with the government suffered, and some even speculated that he was a communist agent, cutting off American weapons supplies to give an edge to the U.S.S.R. Finally, the culprit showed himself, attacking Stark's primary plant in Flushing: he was Soviet scientist Anton Vanko, wearing a specialized metal suit and calling himself the Crimson Dynamo. Anticipating Vanko's electrical attack, Iron Man was able to counter his onslaught, and used a moment away from the battle to record a surreptitious message: he pretended to be Nikita Khrushchev speaking over a radio frequency, ordering his men to kill Vanko upon his return, as he was becoming too threatening and popular. Iron Man grabbed hold of Vanko and carried him to the bay, where a drop in the water would kill him. Vanko surrendered, and Iron Man played the message for him, convincing Vanko of the Soviet Union's lack of loyalty to him. He convinced Vanko to defect to America, and hired him as a top researcher.

The threat of the Melter

Stark's factory soon suffered another attack, this time from a mysterious villain calling himself the Melter. Rushing to the scene as Iron Man, he found that the Melter was equipped with a chest device that fired a beam able to melt iron. As such, Melter dissolved an arm of Iron Man's suit in mere seconds, forcing him to quickly retreat. Iron Man punctured the steam pipes on his way out, forcing Melter to escape as well. Stark received a summons to Washington, where he was berated by government officials for his company's recent disruptions. Stark deduced a simple solution to dealing with the Melter: he crafted a new Iron Man suit made of aluminum instead of iron. Returning to his factory, Iron Man intercepted another Melter attack, and his new advantage proved enough to totally nullify the Melter's offense and force him into retreat. Also around this time, the Avengers defeated the Space Phantom, but the Hulk left the team, upset with his treatment by the other members.

The bizarre Mr. Doll

Stark soon got word that steel manufacturer Charleton Carter was abruptly ceasing his deal with Stark's company. Confused, Stark drove to Carter's mansion on the shore, where he saw a strange man approaching the building. Suspecting trouble, Stark donned the Iron Man suit and went in to investigate. He saw the man, calling himself Mr. Doll, threatening Carter with a small clay doll to sign over his business. Iron Man attempted to confront him, but was stopped in his tracks when Mr. Doll crafted a small Iron Man doll. He was suddenly overcome by intense pain, causing him to fall over Carter's balcony and into the sea. Iron Man washed up ashore and rushed back to his office, plugging himself in just as he passed out from exhaustion. Stark woke up the next day, and realized that his large, lumbering Iron Man suit wasn't practical. He developed a new, lighter-weight suit that allowed greater flexibility and movement and quicker removal. Stark was soon approached by the police, who warned him that he was a likely target for Mr. Doll, who'd already coerced three millionaires into signing over their fortunes to him. The police insisted on keeping him under watch, but Stark was able to slip away and don his new suit, reappearing as Iron Man and convincing the police to leave. Mr. Doll indeed soon arrived, and after an extended conflict, Iron Man used an advanced laser to craft Doll's figure into an image of Doll himself. Doll panickedly dropped the figure, knocking himself unconscious and allowing the police to take him away.

See also

• Biography of Iron Man, 1964
• History of the Avengers, 1963-1964