{"id":28595,"date":"2023-09-08T08:00:42","date_gmt":"2023-09-08T08:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=28595"},"modified":"2023-09-07T15:40:26","modified_gmt":"2023-09-07T15:40:26","slug":"marvel-platinum-the-definitive-iron-man-reloaded-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2023\/09\/08\/marvel-platinum-the-definitive-iron-man-reloaded-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Marvel Platinum: The Definitive Iron Man Reloaded"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nBy Stan Lee<\/strong>, Archie Goodwin<\/strong>, Mike Friedrich<\/strong>, Tony Isabella<\/strong>, Len Kaminski<\/strong>, Matt<\/strong> Fraction<\/strong>, Don Heck<\/strong>, George Tuska<\/strong>, Greg LaRocque<\/strong>, Kev Hopgood<\/strong>, Salvador<\/strong> Larroca<\/strong>, Carmine di Giandomenico<\/strong>, Nathan Fox<\/strong>, Haim Kano<\/strong> & various (Marvel\/Panini UK)
\nISBN: 978-1-84653-529-1 (TPB)<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to encapsulate six decades of excellence but as the Golden Avenger celebrates his anniversary, here\u2019s a rare old gem from ten years gone, still readily available, that has a pretty good go at just that\u2026 <\/em><\/p>\n

Produced under the always intriguing Marvel Platinum\/Definitive Editions <\/strong>umbrella, this treasury of tales gathers a some of the more impressive but happily less obvious landmarks from the Steel Sentinel\u2019s extensive canon; this time cannily focusing on sinister mastermind, ultimate arch-enemy The Mandarin<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Contained herein are high-tech hi-jinks from Tales of Suspense<\/strong> #50, Iron Man<\/strong> volume 1, #21-22, 68-71, 291 & 500, Marvel Team-Up<\/strong> #146 and Iron Man<\/strong> volume 5 #19, (listed on Marvel\u2019s Database as Invincible<\/strong> Iron Man<\/strong> volume 1 #19), cumulatively spanning 1964 to 2011, and offering a fair representation of what is quite frankly an over-abundance of riches to pick from\u2026<\/p>\n

Arch-technocrat and supreme survivor Tony Stark<\/em> has changed his profile many times since debuting in Tales of Suspense<\/strong> #39 (cover-dated March 1963) when, as a VIP visitor in Vietnam observing the efficacy of the munitions he had designed, he was critically wounded and captured by sinister, cruel Communists.<\/p>\n

Put to work building weapons with the dubious promise of medical assistance on completion, Stark instead created the first Iron Man suit to keep himself alive and deliver him from his oppressors. From there it was a simple jump to full time superheroics as a modern Knight in Shining Armour\u2026<\/p>\n

Since then the inventor\/armaments manufacturer has been a liberal capitalist, eco-warrior, space pioneer, Federal politician, affirmed Futurist, Statesman and even Director of the world\u2019s most scientifically advanced spy agency, the Strategic Hazard Intervention Espionage Logistics Directorate<\/em>, and, of course, one of Earth\u2019s most prominent superheroes with The Mighty Avengers\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

For a popular character\/concept lumbered with a decades-long pedigree, radical reboots were and are a painful but vital periodic necessity. To keep contemporary, Stark\u2019s origin and Iron Man\u2019s continuity have been drastically revised every so often with the crucible trigger event perpetually leapfrogging to America\u2019s most recent conflicts. As always, change is everything but, remember, these aren\u2019t just alterations, these are upgrades\u2026<\/p>\n

After a mandatory introduction from co-originator Stan Lee, the star-studded action begins with \u2018The Hands of the Mandarin!\u2019 from Tales of Suspense #50 <\/em>wherein the wonderful <\/em>Don Heck returned as regular penciller and occasional inker after a brief absence, and Lee introduced The Golden Avenger\u2019s first major menace. This was a contemporary Fu Manchu <\/strong>who terrified the Red Chinese so much they manoeuvred him into attacking America in the hope that one threat would destroy the other. Please, if you can, remember that these were simpler, less evolved and far more casually racist times than today\u2026<\/p>\n

In response, the Golden Avenger invades the mastermind\u2019s Chinese citadel where, after a ferocious but futilely inconclusive fight, he simply goes back home to the Land of the Free. The furious Mandarin holds a grudge, however, and would make himself arguably Iron Man\u2019s greatest foe.<\/p>\n

Of course, whilst Stark was the acceptable face of 1960s Capitalism – a glamorous millionaire industrialist, scientist and a benevolent all-conquering hero when clad in the super-scientific armour of his alter-ego – the turbulent tone of the 1970s soon relegated his suave, \u201ccan-do\u201d image to the dustbin of history. With ecological disaster and social catastrophe from the myriad abuses of big business manifestly the new zeitgeists of the young (and how right they were!), the Metal Marvel and Stark International were soon confronting tricky questions from their increasingly politically savvy readership. With glamour, money and fancy gadgetry not quite so cool anymore, the questing voices of a new generation of writers began posing uncomfortable questions in the pages of a series that was once the bastion of militarised America\u2026<\/p>\n

Iron Man<\/strong> #21-22 (January & February 1970, by Archie Goodwin, George Tuska & Mike Esposito-as-Joe Gaudioso) found the multi-zillionaire trying to get out of the arms business and – following a heart transplant – looking to retire from the superhero biz. African-American boxer Eddie March<\/em> became \u2018The Replacement!\u2019<\/em> as Stark, free from the heart-stimulating chest-plate which had preserved him for years, was briefly tempted by a life without strife. Unknown to all, Eddie had a major health problem of his own\u2026<\/p>\n

As Stark pursued a romantic future with business rival Janice Cord<\/em>, her chief researcher and would-be lover Alex Niven<\/em> was revealed as a Russian fugitive using her resources to rebuild the deadly armour of the Crimson Dynamo<\/em>. Niven easily overcame the ailing substitute Avenger and, when Soviet heavy metal super-enforcer Titanium Man<\/em> resurfaced with orders to arrest the defector, a 3-way clash ensued. Stark was forced to take up his metal burden again – but not before Eddie was grievously injured and Janice killed in #22\u2019s classic tragedy \u2018From this Conflict\u2026 Death!\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

Stark\u2019s romantic liaisons always ended badly. Four years later he was ardently pursuing Roxie Gilbert<\/em>, a radical pacifist and sister of his old enemy Firebrand<\/em>. She, of course, had no time for a man with so much blood on his hands\u2026<\/p>\n

Iron Man<\/strong> #68-71 (June to November 1974) was the opening sortie in a multi-part epic which saw mystic menace The Black Lama<\/em> foment a war amongst the World\u2019s greatest villains with ultimate power and inner peace as the promised prize. Crafted by Mike Friedrich, Tuska & Esposito, it began in Vietnam on the \u2018Night of the Rising Sun!\u2019 <\/em>as the Mandarin struggled to free his mind (at that time trapped in the dying body of Russian villain the<\/em> Unicorn<\/em>).<\/p>\n

Roxie had dragged Stark to the recently \u201cliberated\u201d People\u2019s Republic in search of Eddie March\u2019s lost brother: a POW missing since the last days of the war. The Americans were soon separated when Japanese ultra-nationalist, ambulatory atomic inferno and sometime X-Man<\/strong> Sunfire<\/em> was tricked into attacking the Yankee Imperialists. The attack abruptly ended when Mandarin shanghaied the Solar Samurai and used his mutant energies to power a mind-transfer back into his own body.<\/p>\n

Reborn in his original form, the deranged dictator began his campaign in earnest, eager to regain his castle from rival \u201coriental overlord\u201d Yellow Claw<\/em>. First, though, he had to crush Iron Man who – in \u2018Confrontation!\u2019 <\/em>– had tracked him down and freed Sunfire A bombastic battle ended when the Golden Avenger was rendered unconscious and thrown into space\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2018Who Shall Stop\u2026 Ultimo?\u2019 <\/em>found the reactivated giant robot-monster attacking Mandarin\u2019s castle even as the tyrant duelled the Claw to the death, with Iron Man and Sunfire arriving too late and left to mop up the contest\u2019s survivor in \u2018Battle: Tooth and Yellow Claw!\u2019<\/em>\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2018Hometown Boy\u2019 <\/em>(September 1984, by Tony Isabella, Greg LaRocque & Esposito) comes from the period when Stark again succumbed to alcoholism and lost everything, whilst friend and bodyguard Jim Rhodes<\/em> took over the role of Golden Avenger. As Stark tried to make good with a new start-up company, this engaging yarn from Marvel Team-Up<\/strong> #146 sees the substitute hero still finding his ferrous feet whilst battling oft-failed assassin Blacklash<\/em> at a trade fair in Cleveland, as much hindered as helped by visiting hero Spider-Man<\/strong>\u2026<\/p>\n

Despite successfully rebuilding his company, Stark\u2019s woes actually increased. Iron Man<\/strong> #291 (April 1993) found the turbulent technocrat trapped in total body paralysis: using a neural interface to pilot the armour like a telemetric telepresence drone. He had also utterly alienated Rhodes who had been acting as his proxy in a tailored battle suit dubbed War Machine<\/em>\u2026<\/p>\n

Concluding an extended epic saga, \u2018Judgment Day\u2019 <\/em>by Len Kaminski & Kev Hopgood explosively revealed how the feuding friends achieved a tentative rapprochement whilst battling a legion of killer robots and death dealing devices programmed to hunt down Rhodes at all costs\u2026<\/p>\n

From December 2009 comes Invincible<\/strong> Iron Man<\/strong> #19, courtesy of Matt Fraction & Salvador Larroca. At this time, Federal initiative the Superhuman Registration Act led to Civil War <\/strong>between costumed heroes and Stark was appointed the American government\u2019s Security Czar: \u201ctop cop\u201d in sole charge of a beleaguered nation\u2019s defence and freedom. As Director of high-tech enforcement agency S.H.I.E.L.D., he was also the last word in all matters involving metahumans and the USA\u2019s vast costumed community\u2026<\/p>\n

However, his heavy-handed mismanagement of various crises led to the arrest and the assassination of Captain America<\/strong> and an unimaginable escalation of global tension and destruction, culminating in an almost-successful Secret Invasion<\/strong> by shape-shifting alien Skrulls.<\/p>\n

Discredited and ostracised, Stark was replaced by rehabilitated villain and recovering split-personality Norman Osborn<\/em> (the original Green Goblin<\/em>), who assumed full control of the USA\u2019s covert agencies and military resources. He disbanded S.H.I.E.L.D. and placed the nation under the aegis of his new umbrella organisation H.A.M.M.E.R.<\/p>\n

Osborn was still a monster at heart, however, and wanted total power. Intending to appropriate all Stark\u2019s technological assets, the \u201creformed\u201d villain began hunting the fugitive former Avenger. Terrified that not only his weaponry but also the secret identities of most of Earth\u2019s heroes would fall into a ruthless maniac\u2019s hands, Stark began to systematically erase all his memories, effectively lobotomising himself to save everything\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2018Into the White (Einstein on the Beach)\u2019<\/em> delivers the conclusion of that quest as Stark, little more than an animated vegetable wearing his very first suit of armour, faced his merciless adversary in pointless futile battle, whilst in America faithful aide Pepper Potts<\/em>, The Black Widow <\/strong>and S.H.I.E.L.D.\u2019s last deputy director Maria Hill<\/em> raided Osborn\u2019s base to retrieve a disc with Tony\u2019s last hope on it and simultaneously engineer the maniac\u2019s ultimate defeat\u2026<\/p>\n

The comics portion of this winning compilation concludes with the lead tale from Iron Man<\/strong> #500 (March 2011) wherein a mostly recovered Stark is plagued by gaps in his mostly restored memory.<\/p>\n

\u2018The New Iron Age\u2019 <\/em>by Matt Fraction, Carmine di Giandomenico, Nathan Fox, Haim Kano & Salvador Larroca, is a clever, twice-told tale beginning when Stark approaches sometime ally and employee Peter Parker<\/em> in an effort to regain more of his lost past. Stark is plagued by dreams of a super-weapon he may or may not have designed, and together they track down the stolen plans for the ultimate Stark-tech atrocity which has fallen into the hands of murderous anti-progress fanatics resulting in a spectacular showdown of men versus machines\u2026<\/p>\n

Contiguously and interlaced throughout the tale are dark scenes of the near future where the Mandarin has conquered the world, enslaved Tony Stark and his son Howard<\/em> and, with the ruthless deployment of Iron Man troopers and that long-ago-designed super weapon, all but eradicated humanity.<\/p>\n

With Earth dying, rebel leader Ginny Stark<\/em> leads the suicidal Black Widows armed with primitive weapons in one last charge against the dictator, aided by two traitors within the Mandarin\u2019s household and guided by a message and mantra from the far forgotten past\u2026<\/p>\n

The book concludes with covers from Jack Kirby, Tuska, Esposito, Jim Starlin, Dave Cockrum, Ron Wilson, John Romita Sr., LaRoque, Bob Layton, Hopgood & Larroca, plus a dense and hefty 21 pages of text features, including \u2018The Origin of the Mandarin\u2019<\/em> by Mike Conroy and history, background and technical secrets of Crimson Dynamo, Justin Hammer<\/em>, Happy Hogan<\/em>, Mandarin, Pepper Potts, Stark Industries, Titanium Man and War Machine.<\/p>\n

A thoroughly entertaining accompaniment tailored to the cinematic Marvel Fan, this is also a splendid device to make curious movie-goers converts to the comic incarnation: another solid sampling to entice the newcomers and charm the veteran Ferro-phile.
\n\u00a9 2013 Marvel. Licensed by Marvel Characters B.V. through Panini S.p.A. All rights reserved. A British Edition published by Panini Publishing, a division of Panini UK, Ltd.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Stan Lee, Archie Goodwin, Mike Friedrich, Tony Isabella, Len Kaminski, Matt Fraction, Don Heck, George Tuska, Greg LaRocque, Kev Hopgood, Salvador Larroca, Carmine di Giandomenico, Nathan Fox, Haim Kano & various (Marvel\/Panini UK) ISBN: 978-1-84653-529-1 (TPB) It\u2019s hard to encapsulate six decades of excellence but as the Golden Avenger celebrates his anniversary, here\u2019s a … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Marvel Platinum: The Definitive Iron Man Reloaded”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[237,74,120,79,127,39,70],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-black-widow","category-captain-america","category-iron-man","category-marvel-superheroes","category-nostalgia","category-spider-man","category-x-men"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-7rd","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28595"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28595\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28597,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28595\/revisions\/28597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}