Iron man recommendations?

*tumbleweeds*

Two words dude. Armor Wars

I've read the storyline where he becomes a boozer in full (found it in a brazilian edition at an old bookshop); it's pretty great value for money, he goes from hero to alcoholic and back in like 40 pages (and this is a digest-sized thing, too!)

Especially great is the part where he accidentally scares a child and then goes back to his house to get drunk. Features the line "Iron Man? More like Iron Loser!"

I doubt the Essential volume(s?) have aged well, but I could be wrong. I was a big Iron Man fan in the 80s -- in the years leading up to and following the Red-and-Silver armor, the Stane takeover, etc -- but I don't know how much of that was collected, and like a lot of 80s Marvel it doesn't really lend itself to being collected in less-than-Essential-sized chunks.

Was Iron Man only a boozer in Brazil, or did he drink in America too?

ARMOR WARS OTM. The 2nd Micheline / Layton run from the 80s (from issue #215-248ish) is one fannies love - ARMOR WARS runs from #225-233, I think (& is collected), but the preceding issues give the stuff that happens in ARMOR WARS some context. The short of it: Tony Stark finds out his proprietary armor designs aren't so proprietary, & goes about making sure that all non-sanctioned implementations of his work get destroyed, for both the good AND bad guys. Oooooooo!

All the Obidiah Stane stuff Tep mentions is from the run preceding the M/L return trip - it's written by Batman major domo Denny O'Neil. Early issues feature A-OK art by Luke McDonnell; later issues (including the denouement of the Stane shenanigans), not so much. Tony falls back off the wagon, Rhodey takes over the armor, Stane tries to buy out Stark Enterprises, and lots of KAWHANGing ensues.

The 1st M/L run (which is the one I think Daniel refers to, partially) (circa #110-120, I wanna say) is where Tony Stark first got all drinky drunk, and grappled w/ Roxxon Industries, & other IM things, and is often considered THEE Classic run, and M/L THEE classic Iron Man team. So classic, I guess, that Bob Layton's felt OK w/ publically dismissing any IM team that's followed.

Supposedly, Micheline & Layton are working on an IRON MAN: THE END story. Um, yeah.

I always forget you're new to Marvel, Huck! Oh man, Stark's alcoholism is a big part of the mythos now. He quit being Iron Man for a while because of it. (Rhodey replaced him as Iron Man, and went crazy because the circuitry was designed for Stark's brain and not his!, which I still think is one of the greatest plot developments of all spandex time.)

xpost; oh man, was that O'Neil? I didn't pay as much attention to writers back then.

Ha - I forgot about the INSANE RHODEY bit! But, yeah, that was DO'N. I think he was also writing DAREDEVIL @ the time (the 2-3 years before BORN AGAIN happened).

Non-ILXing friend Matt seconds the recommendation of Micheline.

One of the nice things about that arc -- and really that era -- was the obvious interest in "tying together" all the armored heroes without doing it later-90s style like with the Speed Force, the Source, things like that -- or God help us the Evolutionary War nonsense at Marvel. These days it'd be an Event with spinoff miniseries (Armor Wars: Crimson Dynamo by Dan Chichester; Armor Wars: Iron-Monger by Ben Raab) and squarebound bookends.

Supposedly, the Busiek / Stern run that followed HEROES REBORN is OK, but I fear it's old-fashioned (CAPTION PORN) in a way that'll annoy the shit out of me.

The 6-issue revamp Warren Ellis just oversaw was excellent until the last issue, which was a perfunctory letdown. The stuff that's followed (written by the guys that created HBO's Carnivale) (because that means so much) is pretty good, too, esp. considering they're trying to balance the changes Ellis implemented as well as incorporate elements of the stupid-ass "evil" Stark that's puttering around CIVIL WAR.

Civil War Stark would work better if it were just implemented better. The idea is not bad -- manipulative fascist Stark, I mean, not Civil War -- but come on, this is also someone Captain America's trusted from the get-go. It shouldn't be playing out the way it is. But that's a whole nother rant besides the Iron Man related parts, I guess.

I swear, all the other bits floating around CIVIL WAR have been handled pretty well, which leads me to think that if anyone besides Millar was tied to that turkey (BOB HARRAS COME ON DOWN), it would be infinitely (fnar) more enjoyable.

I recommend the Black Sabbath song!

I'm unhappy with the She-Hulk issues, but I don't like the Jameson marriage either, so my general unhappiness is increased. Most of the others I've skipped or skimmed -- well, that's my approach to the Civil War stuff in general actually, so it all runs together.

I should probably continue flipping the bird to my job WHICH I HATE by going to the CW thread & doing a half-ass rundown on the effectiveness of the x-over action I've read.

I'll read it if you do. I had planned to avoid the whole thing, but it was hard to without giving up She-Hulk and New Avengers, etc., so I've been skimming CBRs (Maximum Security and Inferno would have been such different experiences if I'd had Bit Torrent and CDisplay!)

The Iron Man stories collected in the Essential volumes do seem really really dated now, perhaps moreso than any other classic Marvel series - Iron Man fights the Commies a lot, as well as some pretty mediocre villains (the Mandarin partially excepted.) A few of the very earliest stories are drawn by Steve Ditko, unfortunately inked by George Bell (aka George Roussous, an old school Simon+Kirby shop inker who eventually became Marvel's chief cover colourist, which was a gd thing for all concerned), but most are by Don Heck, who is not exactly Mr Thrill-Power (tho he probably drew the definitive Pepper Potts and Happy Hogan.) Things pick up when the great Gene Colan takes over the pencilling, esp. when he's inked by Jack Abel, but again most of the stories are nothing to write home abt.

Once Iron Man gets his own title, there are some passable early issues written by Archie Goodwin and drawn by ex-EC artist Johnny Craig, though his work was often clod-hoppingly retouched by John Romita and cronies prior to publication. A little while later there were some Jim Starlin issues that sort've tied into his whole Thanos mythology/universe biz, but until the Micheline/Romita Jr/Layton run there really isn't much to get excited abt.

So it looks like I will check out armor wars, and Micheline and Layton in general, that seems to be what I was looking for.

I notice nobody mentioned Ultimate Iron Man, am I to assume it is bad, or at least unpopular?

Ooooh - JR JR was the penciler on the first M/L run? Nice!

& I totally forgot about Starlin's goofiness (tho I just read the Warlock reprint series, & those issues w/ the Blood Brothers are included). I think he was being abetted by Goodwin @ first, then flew solo.

[xpost]

ULTIMATE IRON MAN was OK, but it really doesn't have much to do w/ what Iron Man is - his usage in THE ULTIMATES is a better distillation of what makes IM tick (tho the drinky / playboy aspects are played up a bit), if that's what you're looking for.

Another decent place to start: the recent mini by Joe Casey & Frazier Irving, THE INITIATIVE. It's a throwback story of sorts, released while Warren Ellis' run was stuck in shipping limbo. Dips into IM's kooky rogue gallery (Spymaster! The Ghost! The Living Laser!), and pays homage to the M/L run w/out being totally beholden to it.

Don't get too excited David, it's some of JR JR's v. earliest work and not too hot, and Layton kinda smothers everything anyway w/ his greasy inks

I remember when I was a kid, thinking of Starlin as a Serious Comic Book Writer Who Sometimes Wrote Superheroes, and all I can figure is that Dreadstar must have somehow had something to do with that impression (since it was neither Marvel nor DC, see...)

Anyway, I'm not sure I've read his Iron Man!