Biography of Iron Man, 1965

The following is a biography of Iron Man for the year of 1965, in which Iron Man left the Avengers and facilitated their new, smaller lineup led by Captain America.

Biography

Widow and Hawkeye return

Tony Stark soon received a call from the Black Widow and Hawkeye, who had kidnapped Pepper Potts and Happy Hogan. Stark saw through their ploy to catch him unawares and outsmarted them upon his arrival, defeating the two after a fierce battle. Stark noticed that Hawkeye paid an unusual amount of care to Widow's wellbeing, and used this to his advantage to take them down and force them to flee. Also around this time, the Avengers foiled the malicious plans of the Mole Man and Count Nefaria. In the latter adventure, the Wasp was critically injured when a stray bullet from a Maggia henchman punctured her lung. Through a complex series of events, the Avengers managed to secure the help of Dr. Hjarmal Svenson, who was able to operate on Wasp in time and save her life.

The impostor Iron Man

Tony remained distraught over his doomed love for Pepper: he knew that his state would preclude them from ever being together, but he also knew that she loved him, and that being around her was causing her pain. In his distress, Stark left his attache case holding the Iron Man suit unprotected in his office. As a result, a small-time criminal named Weasel Wills snuck into the Stark Industries plant in Flushing and stole and donned the Iron Man suit. Over the next several days, the fake Iron Man robbed a series of banks, amassing a small fortune. Seeing it as his only option for stopping the thief, Stark equipped his outdated, bulkier Iron Man suit. He contacted Wills via a special radio frequency tuned to his suit and challenged him to fight him at the factory. Wills arrived to accept the challenge, and as Stark had assumed, Wills had figured out his secret identity. The two fought, and the sounds of the battle soon alerted a security guard outside. Stark preserved his energy and shut down power to the factory, tricking Wills into wasting his suit's power and preventing him from plugging in again. As a result, Stark's Iron Man suit outlasted his foe's, and he was able to defeat him. The police arrived and took Wills away: Stark was afraid he'd reveal his identity, but Wills seemed to have come under the delusion that he himself was the true Iron Man. Some time later, Baron Zemo gathered a rearranged version of the Masters of Evil, springing Black Knight and Melter out of prison to fight side-by-side with Enchantress and Executioner. The Avengers fended them off, and Zemo apparently killed himself accidentally when Captain America trailed him to South America. Black Knight and Melter were returned to prison, but the Asgardians escaped capture. Afterward, Thor hastily returned to Asgard to handle urgent personal business. Iron Man, Giant-Man, and Wasp decided to take an indefinite leave of absence from the Avengers, worn out from the constant fighting. In their stead, they recruited reformed villains Hawkeye, Quicksilver, and Scarlet Witch. Thor was also quietly phased out of the team, as he remained occupied with Asgardian concerns. Captain America returned, and became the new leader of the team effective immediately.

Attuma's undersea plot

At the Stark Industries plant in Flushing, Tony prepared to demonstrate a one-man transistorized submarine for a U.S. Senator, who had been previously unconvinced that Stark was worthy to be a weapons contractor for the government. They met in Stark's office, where Pepper and Happy observed. Happy secretly noticed Pepper's infatuation with Tony, and set out to impress her to get her attention. He volunteered to drive the sub, but Stark told him that Iron Man was already signed on to do the job. A defiantly determined Hogan insisted that he should do it instead, and that he'd quit otherwise. Stark knew that the test was too dangerous, and allowed Happy to walk out. Later, Iron Man met with the senator and his men at the dock to pilot the miniature submarine. As he piloted the sub deep into the water, he suddenly found that he was under attack. Equipped with 30 minutes' worth of oxygen in his suit, he parked the sub somewhere safe and went to investigate. He found a huge cannon on the sea floor manned by a number of Atlanteans: he recognized their leader Attuma, a violent warlord, from descriptions relayed to him by Giant-Man. He eavesdropped as Attuma explained his plan: the cannon Iron Man saw before him, made of the rare ocean metal nautilium, would fire a rocket into the atmosphere, where the rocket would detonate and alter the density of the air so as to stifle human breathing, allowing Attuma to conquer the surface and force the humans into enslavement by conditionally granting them helmets of pure air. Iron Man attacked Attuma's base, but ran out of oxygen before he could destroy the gun. He retreated to the unarmed sub and had to crash it into the cannon as an act of desperation. He returned to the surface, where the senator was utterly unimpressed by the sub's apparent failure.

Nefaria's secret dream assault

Iron Man set his sights on bringing Happy back into the fold, but first had to return to his office to recharge. As he sat restoring his energy, he was suddenly transported to the top of the Brooklyn Bridge and confronted by the Unicorn and Crimson Dynamo. Iron Man was utterly confused by these events for numerous reasons, but found that he could defeat the two villains with conspicuous ease. He realized that he was dreaming, and woke up after having dozed off from exhaustion. Brushing off this strange occurrence, he returned to the business of bringing Happy back. Pepper was furious with Iron Man, blaming him for Happy's departure, and speculating that he had some sort of control over Tony Stark. Happy had left behind flowers for Pepper and a note stating that he was seeing his grandfather in Ireland. Iron Man flew there and tried to convince Happy to return to no avail. He sat down near the fireplace in Happy's grandfather's home and fell asleep into a dream version of the house. This time, he was confronted by Crimson Dynamo, Jack Frost, and Gargantus. This onslaught of Iron Man's old foes continued with the Melter and the Black Knight. Iron Man knew that he was dreaming, and that something strange was going on besides, but felt a strange urge to fight as hard as he could nonetheless. He defeated the gallery of weakened enemies and awoke: unbeknownst to him, these bizarre dreams had been orchestrated by Count Nefaria, who sought revenge on the Avengers. Nefaria used a special machine to influence Iron Man's dreams such that, if he were to die in the dream, he would die in reality. As Iron Man awoke, he saw Happy on the telephone, agreeing to come back to work under Pepper's urging.

Cousin Morgan's deception

Tony returned to Flushing and soon welcomed Happy back to work. He received a letter from his estranged cousin, Morgan Stark, announcing a visit. Unbeknownst to Tony, Morgan was in gambling debt to Nefaria, and the villain had arranged this meeting himself as another attempt at bringing Iron Man down. Over the next few days, Tony spotted a number of bizarre objects—a nuclear rocket, a spaceship, an alien—and each time, tried to notify someone else, including the government and the press. Each time, the object would disappear before they could see it: each of them was a carefully fabricated illusion produced by Morgan, using a sophisticated projection device provided to him by Nefaria. As public scrutiny toward Tony grew, he went as Iron Man to investigate around the area where these sightings had begun to occur. By pure chance, at that moment, a spaceship containing a group of large, green, apelike aliens landed and began to attack. Morgan Stark also appeared nearby, and Iron Man fought off the aliens and prevented them from taking him. Morgan's projection device was destroyed in the attack, and he went on to corroborate Tony's story this time, vindicating him in the press. Tony returned Morgan to Monte Carlo, where he faced Nefaria's wrath.

Wedding of Reed Richards and Sue Storm

Full article: Wedding of Reed Richards and Sue Storm

Tony Stark and a date attended the wedding of Mr. Fantastic and Invisible Girl of the Fantastic Four, as did a number of renowned heroes. Tony initially showed up as himself, dressed to the nines as one would expect. Doctor Doom attempted to sabotage the wedding by using his "emotion machine" to encourage (or coerce) a veritable army of other villains to attack the Baxter Building. Stark suited up as Iron Man and fought alongside his hero compatriots, causing a brief reunion with the new Avengers lineup. In the end, Reed Richards used a device provided by Uatu to transport all of the villains back slightly in time and wipe their memories of these events. Reed and Sue Storm were thus successfully and peacefully married.

The Happy Hogan Saga

The challenge of Titanium Man

Tony's heart problems had been growing worse throughout the year, to the point of being a partial motivator for his departure from the Avengers. He received a letter addressed to Iron Man from a Soviet agent calling himself Titanium Man, challenging Iron Man to a fight. The letter had also been sent to major newspapers to pressure Iron Man into accepting. Stark was hesitant to do it with his heart being in such trouble, but he devised a small transistor weapon that would allow him to fight admirably. The fight was to be held in the small, neutral European country of Alberia, with a worldwide television audience watching. Tony took Happy and Pepper with him to Alberia, where he ran into Countess Stephanie de la Spiroza, an old girlfriend of his. The two were outwardly polite to each other, but de la Spiroza was secretly vengeful for her perceived slighting at his hands. The following day, Iron Man and Titanium Man met in the middle of an old World War II battlefield, backed up by officers from the U.S. and U.S.S.R., respectively. The two began to fight for their rapt audience, but Iron Man was quickly taken off guard when he walked into a minefield that Titanium Man had had installed.

One of his boots was damaged in the explosion, hindering his agility advantage. Though he held his own, Iron Man was quickly losing ground to Titanium Man. Iron Man began to feel pain in his chest and reached for his new weapon, but found that he had left it in his hotel room. The fight's first 15-minute round expired, and a 10-minute rest period began. Iron Man flew back to his hotel room and found that his weapon was missing. He found a handkerchief belonging to Stephanie de la Spiroza, clearly indicating that she had taken it. He flew down to Happy in the crowd and urgently asked him to find Stephanie and recover the item from her, and Happy agreed. The second round of the fight began, and Happy soon arrived with the device. Iron Man warned him to stay away, causing a distraction which allowed Titanium Man to blast him with a molecule-scrambler ray. The shot ricocheted off of Iron Man's armor and hit Happy in the chest, knocking him to the ground. Happy handed Iron Man the device and seemingly began to die. Hogan was content, as Pepper's concern had shown she loved him as he ran out onto the field. He called Iron Man "boss," demonstrating that he had figured out his identity. Happy collapsed in Tony's arms, and Stark realized that Hogan had helped him in spite of their romantic rivalry in the past. With renewed equipment and determination, Iron Man returned to battle.

Happy was in fact merely comatose, and medical personnel carefully loaded him into an ambulance. With his new transistor and renewed sense of purpose, Iron Man flew circles around his opponent, even to the point of showing off. Titanium Man ran out of tricks, devices, and traps to employ, and Iron Man trounced him convincingly, resulting in a Titanium Man surrender. Iron Man pulled off his opponent's helmet, allowing the worldwide audience to see his face, and surely causing him a great humiliation. Iron Man went out into the cheering crowd and learned that Happy was still alive in the hospital. After desperately recharging in his hotel room, Tony went to the hospital and learned that Happy was barely clinging to life. He comforted Pepper, but she was disgusted that he'd been absent while Iron Man fought for America and Happy nearly sacrificed himself. Stephanie was annoyed that he wouldn't talk to her at all, and he insistently blew her off.

Stephanie turns to the Thinker

Iron Man returned to New York to a hero's welcome, but remained distraught over Happy's condition. The victory had also attracted a great deal of public scrutiny from those who demanded to know Iron Man's true identity. While Tony worked in his office, the building was suddenly attacked by the Awesome Android belonging to the Mad Thinker. The Android went straight after Stark, capturing him and taking him far away to the home of the Thinker. Tony also happened to be carrying the attache case containing the Iron Man suit, which the Android brought along with him. Thinker was there with Stephanie de la Spiroza, and the two demanded to know Iron Man's identity. Thinker tried to open Stark's attache case, but its precautionary fingerprint scanner caused the case to emit a sleep gas that knocked out Thinker and Spiroza. Tony suited up as Iron Man and fought the Awesome Android, which was naturally unaffected by the gas. The Android employed its mimicking ability to become essentially a bigger, stronger Iron Man, easily gaining a significant advantage on the hero. Thinker and Spiroza recovered, and Thinker used a large laser to blast Iron Man with power-sapping rays, but Iron Man used a device of his own to emit a reflecting mist that instead focused the rays on the Android. Iron Man destroyed Thinker's control panel, setting off a chain reaction that would cause the building to explode in moments. He flew out with Thinker and Spiroza in tow, explaining that he'd gotten Stark away while they were knocked out. He dropped Spiroza nearby, letting her walk the several miles back to her penthouse suite, and flew Thinker straight to jail.

The Black Knight's vengeance

Without further obstructions, Iron Man finally made it to Happy's hospital room, only to find that he wasn't there, to the bewilderment of the police on guard. Iron Man found a hoofprint on the windowsill and concluded that only the Black Knight and his flying horse could be responsible. He further deduced that the Black Knight was luring him into a trap, a hunch confirmed by one of Black Knight's gloves left conspicuously on the ground, pointing to an antiquated castle some thirty miles from Washington, D.C. The castle, as Stark recalled, had been gradually moved from England by a baron who died before actually moving in. Iron Man made his way to the center of the castle, where a series of deceptive images of the Black Knight confused him and allowed his foe to gain the upper hand, striking with an ionic blast from his lance. The concussive energy wreaked havoc on Iron Man's transistors, leaving him in intense pain and nearly helpless. Iron Man desperately feigned unconsciousness as the Black Knight took him upon his horse high into the sky and dropped him, attempting to defeat Iron Man with a fatal fall—in doing so, he declared his grander intentions of delivering reprisal to the rest of his nemeses, the Avengers.

As he fell, Iron Man grabbed the Black Knight's leg, just managing to unhorse him and force him to fall as well. He used what little remaining power he had to fly to a nearby body of water as he fell, but lost track of the Black Knight in the confusion. Iron Man found the Knight's cape in the woods nearby, suggesting that he had landed safely among the trees. Iron Man gingerly returned to the castle and found a strange machine apparently responsible for creating the Black Knight's double images. He also found Happy, still unconscious but not further harmed. He radioed Washington police the location, and they soon came and rescued Happy, but Iron Man's strength waned and he passed out, just outside of the authorities' view. During this conflict, Senator Harrington Byrd became determined to force Tony Stark to reveal Iron Man's identity as a matter of national security.

Happy's tragic transformation

As his energy drained and the threat to his heart became critical, Iron Man used his last bit of power to radio Pepper for help. She soon arrived and dragged him in his heavy armor to her car, where he began recharging himself using the lighter port. On his instruction, she returned him to the Stark factory and began charging him in earnest. Iron Man recognized a loving tone to Pepper's voice that she had once granted to his public alterego. She informed him that Happy was safely at the hospital, and that the surgeons were about to use Stark's invention the "enervator," believed to be the only method to save his life. Iron Man was worried that the enervator may have serious side effects, as it had never been tested. Senator Byrd called, angrily demanding Iron Man come to Washington and threatening him with a subpoena. Iron Man abruptly hung up on him and left to be with Happy—but he was too late. Hogan had indeed had his life spared by the enervator, but he was consequently transformed into a hulking man the surgeons called the Freak. Iron Man tried to fight him gently, but the Freak easily overpowered him.

Lacking the means to disable his friend safely, and unwilling to use his more powerful weaponry, Iron Man decided to lure the Freak back to his lab in hopes of reversing the enervator's effects. Still largely drained from his encounter with the Black Knight, Iron Man used his remaining energy to reach his lab, but collapsed shortly before he could arrive. The Freak disregarded him however, hearing the voice of Pepper Potts within. Inside, Senator Byrd was speaking with Pepper and angrily demanding to see Iron Man or Tony Stark. The Freak stalked toward Pepper, but Byrd got in his way, prompting him to throw the senator across the room. Pepper didn't recognize Hogan in his new, colossal form, and fainted as he approached. He carried her body out through a second-story window, where he was spotted by Byrd's police escort outside. As a dizzied Iron Man came to, the police shot at the Freak, inadvertently causing him to drop Pepper. A desperate Iron Man jumped into action, using his repulsor ray to safely slow Pepper's fall. She awoke as a result, confused but unharmed. Iron Man flew inside and activated his enervation intensifier, his only recourse to defeating the Freak and saving Happy. He was forced to set the machine to full power, and its dangerous feedback began affecting him as well. Iron Man narrowly held on long enough for the intensifier to return Happy back to his true form. The intense energy forced him to doff his red-hot Iron Man suit and change back into plain clothes as Happy fell unconscious. He revived Happy, who was peaceful but perfectly amnesiac, not recognizing Tony or himself. Before Tony could explain much, Senator Byrd and his escort burst in with his subpoena at last. Stark agreed to come to Washington to testify as to the identity of Iron Man (bringing his attaché case containing the Iron Man suit), leaving Pepper to take care of Happy.

Mandarin's ultimate challenge

Within seconds of Stark and Byrd's departure, strange flashing bolts across the sky struck their police escort vehicle, causing it to disappear. Stark was dragged through a space-time portal, while Byrd and the car returned to their original position. The scientific anomaly had been fabricated by the Mandarin, who said that he had been searching for Iron Man but opted to abduct Stark in his absence. He explained that he wished for Iron Man (or Stark) to witness the manifestation of his ultimate dominion over Earth, brought about by his creation known as Ultimo. He blasted Stark's attaché case out of the window of his stone tower and into his deep moat below, concerned that it might contain an explosive. Mandarin pulled a lever, triggering the appearance of a colossal figure from a nearby volcano. As Ultimo emerged, Chinese troops began marching on the Mandarin's castle. As Mandarin was distracted watching them on a monitor, Stark tried to escape to retrieve the Iron Man suit, but Mandarin saw him and blasted him with an energy ray from his rings. The blast sent him out of the room and down the stairs, only surviving thanks to his chest device bearing the brunt of the blow. He escaped to the moat and suited up as Iron Man before spotting the colossal Ultimo, dozens of feet tall, decimating the Chinese forces. The android boasted shocking strength as well as the ability to fire lasers from its eyes, proving to be perhaps Iron Man's most daunting foe to date. Meanwhile, in America, Senator Byrd placed Stark in contempt of congress and canceled all of Stark Industries' government contracts effective immediately, believing that his sudden disappearance was deliberate.

Iron Man's abilities on their own proved fruitless in direct battle against Ultimo, but his wits allowed him to win the day, luring the android back into its volcano and dodging its most intense energy blast yet, which landed inside the volcano's walls and catalyzed an enormous eruption, apparently swallowing Ultimo whole as Iron Man flew off. For his part, Mandarin believed that he had killed Tony Stark with his rings, and that Iron Man had retrieved his body before fleeing. With little energy remaining, Iron Man fought off a pair of Chinese soldiers at a nearby air base and commandeered a jet to return to the west. He found some American pilots shortly after takeoff, who facilitated his return home. Returning to Flushing, Stark was crestfallen to learn of Byrd's closing of the Stark plant and the warrant out for his arrest.

See also

• Biography of Iron Man, 1964
• History of the Avengers, 1965