Iron Man Is Born!

Tales Of Suspense 039

Playboy scientist Anthony Stark travels to Vietnam to observe his transistorized miniature weapons in action against communist insurgents. ARVN troops equipped with Stark's handheld mortars scatter the guerillas but Stark trips an explosive booby-trap, mortally wounding himself and apparently killing everyone else.
Captured by the warlord Wong-Chu, Stark is offered a choice. If he agrees to build advanced weapons for the enemy, their doctors will operate to remove the shrapnel moving towards his heart. If he refuses, they will simply allow him to die slowly. Stark knows they're bluffing; his wound is inoperable. He promises to build the "most fantastic weapon of all time" . . .

Notes:

• The co-creator of the original Iron Man armor is Chinese physicist Professor Yinsen. Believed to be dead, the professor was kidnapped by communist guerillas and reduced to a manservant. Without his assistance, Stark would not have completed the armor before the shrapnel killed him. Yinsen sacrifices his life while diverting Wong-Chu's men from their makeshift lab while the armor charges to full power.
• The "wood-burning stove" armor debuts with a variety of features including: a "magnetic turbo-insulator" that can generate a magnetic field capable of deflecting bazooka shells, the ability to override PA systems, palm suction cups, and "air-pressure jets" that can lift the bulky armor into the air. Its most important function, however, is keeping the fatal shrapnel in Stark chest from reaching his heart. The armor runs on batteries and doesn't hold much of a charge, apparently.
• The guerillas like to keep filing cabinets full of rocks on the second floor of their buildings; Wong-Chu pushes one over on Iron Man to temporarily immobilize him. These guerillas also like to speak in broken English to each other.
• Wong-Chu perishes in the explosion when Iron Man detonates his ammo dump.

Stan Lee & Larry Lieber create a typically tragic Marvel situation, trapping a guy who is the "dreamiest thing this side of Rock Hudson" (oh, if those girls only knew!) in a metal shell, a walking iron lung. Don Heck's pencils are solid; his ability to draw glamorous women is largely wasted in this story.