Iron Man is a Marvel Comics character created by writer-editor Stan Lee, scripter Larry Lieber, and artists Jack Kirby and Don Heck. The character first appeared in pages 13-18 of the Tales of Suspense #39 released in March 1963.

Iron Man comic books revolved around the story of Tony Stark—a wealthy industrialist, genius inventor and womanizer who literally had a heart injury when he was kidnapped and forced to build a weapon of mass destruction. In the custody of his kidnappers, he, instead, built a power suit to save himself from his abductors with the help of an Asian scientist, Ho Yinsen—a Nobel Prize winner who was abducted with him. He then improved the composition of the suit so that he can use it to fight crimes. He assumed this heroic social responsibility upon realizing that his very own military weapons and technological inventions almost killed him and are still killing millions of lives across the planet.

Just like Fantastic Four, Incredible Hulk, and other Stan Lee stories, Cold War has become the recurring theme in Iron Man comic books. Specifically, Stan Lee wrote Iron Man as a social critique on America’s participation in the Cold War against communism, seeing it as something that is technologically and business oriented instead of being politically and ideologically motivated. Other than that, Iron Man is also said to tackle more contemporary concerns such as terrorism and corporate crime. Stan Lee said that his idea was to create a businessman, capitalist superhero. It was 1963 back then and he wanted to move the spirit of the times, especially the Marvel readers, negatively. He wanted Iron Man to become a somewhat anti-hero the readers would love to hate and still encompass qualities the readers would get hook on to. This conflicting characterization, Stan Lee believes, is what made Iron Man comic books popular among Marvel readers. Stan Lee claims that he based Tony Stark’s character on the looks and personality of Howard Hughes, a multi-billionaire and womanizer who is the epitome of American manhood and individuality.

Iron Man also appeared as a member of the Avengers. His original armor was a grey suit which later on became golden in issue #40, April 1963. It was redesigned by Steve Ditko for the issue #48, December 1963, into a sleek and stylish red and gold armor. Aside from making Iron Man an anti-communist hero in the premier issues, Stan Lee decided to take the themes to a different level. Still, the main focus of Iron Man comic books has become issues on national defense and the dangers of unethical technological advancements. Tony Starks also turned out to be a more complicated character who suffers from bouts of alcoholism and other psychosocial difficulties.

Iron Man differs from other superheroes in many ways. Unlike Fantastic Four and Incredible Hulk, Tony Stark’s transformation into Iron Man is not something that just happened but was reinforced by Tony Stark’s own exposure to his social environment. Tony Stark is a man of the world, relying mostly on his own intelligence and strength. Historians would say that such themes during that time has also changed American’s view of a hero—from that of a romanticized knight in shining armor to an imperfect business capitalist as portrayed by Tony Stark.