The Bronze Marvel Discussion Part Three - Iron Man

[Jeffro.]

As my collecting preferences change, I find myself more and more interested in building a reading library of comics, instead of collecting high grade.

If interested, please select the links below to previous discussions.

 

Time to move on to old shell head.

I've always been rather turned off by these issues because of artwork by guys like Tuska, Heck, Colletta. I've collected quite a few but never really read them because of the art. Once Marvel took Tuska off the book, things improved but until the Romita/Layton issues is there any reason at all to collect these to actually read?

What do you think?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Previous Bronze Marvel Discussions

Bronze Marvel Discussion Part One - Captain America

 

Bronze Marvel Discussion Part Two - Fantastic Four

[joe_collector]

Iron Man is really hit and miss, and although I used to hate Tuska, he's kind of grown on me over the years - plus, a lot of Iron Man BA artists make Tuska look like Neal Adams.

 

I liked some of the PF stories in the 40's-50's with the Guardsman, Black Lama and the Marianne Rogers soap opera. And the Iron Man-Doc Spectrum-Thor 62-66 is not too bad, but then we get into the bizarro territory where Stan Lee famously asked "Why doesn't Iron Man have a nose" and some truly horrific art from Arvell Jones.

 

There are also lots of "DDD" (Dreaded Deadline Doom) reprints and junk fill-in issues as well. And we also get the incredible "Search for Marty March" saga , more appearances by the Freak ("This time, "Tony says, "I've worked out all the bugs from the Enervator" - "But that device has made Happy/Eddie/whoever into the Freak *every time* it's been used!").

 

Then it gets better with Blizzard, the return of the Blood Brothers, The Controller, Ultimo, The Guardsman II, Sunfire, and finally the Mandarin in issue 100.

[Jeffro.]

Don't get me stated on Iron Man's nose.

[joe_collector]

Apparently Stan was going senile at the time, and after asking to "give Iron Man a nose!" he reportedly came into the Marvel offices later on and asked "Who gave Iron Man a nose - it looks stupid!".

[Crimebuster]

It wasn't Stan going senile, as I'm pretty sure you're aware, but rather everyone being so scared of him that they couldn't think straight and overreacted to everything he said.

 

The version of the story I heard is that Stan was looking at some art and he said "where is Iron Man's nose?"

 

What he meant was that the artist had drawn the helmet in such a way that it would have been impossible for someone with a nose to be wearing it. It was too flat or whatever, so he was suggesting that the artist needed to pay more attention to the fact that Iron Man isn't a robot, it's a suit armor being worn by a person.

 

But somehow they thought Stan meant that the armor should have a nose on it, so they panicked and ordered that the artist add a nose to the armor, because even though that was asinine, they didn't want to go against anything Stan said.

 

When Stan finally saw the nose on the armor, he said what everyone was thinking: That it was incredibly stupid.

 

Stan was thinking straight all along, it's the editors at Marvel that had their heads screwed on backwards.

[Crimebuster]

Regardless of the nose or not, Iron Man was for my money one of the worst Marvel titles pretty much straight through until the issues leading up to the Demon in a Bottle storyline. It seemed to get better in the #110-115 range. Up until then, the issues I have read - which isn't all of them, but is a pretty decent amount - were all mediocre to bad.

[Foxtrot70]

I have a near solid run btw 20-60, 130 to 300s w smattering in gaps. For me comic art doesnt get horrible until 90s. I am rereading my copies and find I enjoy them more now than as a kid. I have so many comics if I read a story that is mediocre I tend to forget. I am a long time fan of shell head so I will eventually complete my run, bronze era and all.

[joe_collector]

The version of the story I heard is that Stan was looking at some art and he said "where is Iron Man's nose?"

 

And you're blaming the editors for Stan's looming senility?

 

If he meant a human nose would not fit under the mask, he would say "Where is Tony Stark's nose?", right?

[Ant-Man]

Then it gets better with Blizzard, the return of the Blood Brothers, The Controller, Ultimo, The Guardsman II, Sunfire, and finally the Mandarin in issue 100.

 

These are the best that I remember from that era as well. Even after 100, there were issues with the Frankenstein Monster & Jack Of Hearts that I enjoyed.

[Crimebuster]

The version of the story I heard is that Stan was looking at some art and he said "where is Iron Man's nose?"

 

And you're blaming the editors for Stan's looming senility?

 

If he meant a human nose would not fit under the mask, he would say "Where is Tony Stark's nose?", right?

 

The explanation I provided is from Sean Howe's "Marvel Comics: The Untold Story."

[joe_collector]

The version of the story I heard is that Stan was looking at some art and he said "where is Iron Man's nose?"

 

And you're blaming the editors for Stan's looming senility?

 

If he meant a human nose would not fit under the mask, he would say "Where is Tony Stark's nose?", right?

 

The explanation I provided is from Sean Howe's "Marvel Comics: The Untold Story."

 

I know and I read it, and I didn't see anything that exonerated Stan and totally blamed the editors.

[Crimebuster]

Well, exonerate isn't the word I would use. That section of the book makes it clear that Stan was paying very little attention any more to the comics, and a stupid mix-up like this is the result - something that never would have happened a few years earlier when he was actually putting his effort into the comics instead of being "publisher," dealing with corporate and trying to get to Hollywood. So he certainly bears some responsibility for the nose. It's just not a result of being senile, rather a result of no longer caring enough to pay attention.

 

The editors certainly have to shoulder their share of the blame for it too, though. They were apparently too intimidated by Stan to a) ask for clarification, which they should have done because b) it was obviously a really stupid idea. But they seem to have been too timid to dare tell Stan one of his ideas was bad, even in a case where the 'idea" wasn't even a idea.

 

If Stan had been paying attention or the editors hadn't been so meek, the nose never would have happened.