Overstreet Interviews the Armory

Overstreet Interviews The Iron Man Armory

The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide celebrated Iron Man with a special cover for its thirty-fifth edition, which went on sale in April 2005. The book's Executive Editor, J.C. Vaughn, interviewed The Iron Man Armory for the inside article.

1. What do you think makes Iron Man cool?

What makes Iron Man so cool is that inside that awesome armored suit is a very complex character. Tony Stark is a genius, a billionaire, and a playboy. On the surface he's the guy we all envy, but (and there's always a "but" in a Stan Lee creation), he's got all sort of problems.

Sure, he travels the world, inventing great things, romancing beautiful babes, AND, suits up and battles all manner of customed villains in a fantastic battle suit as Iron Man--but his life is troubled. He can't get close to anyone for fear of them learning his secret. While his business mind and engineering accumen have brought him great wealth, he is forever fighting off covetous corporate raiders. And over the years he's had a number of major health problems--from his original bum heart to alcoholism to a disintegrating nervous system in later years. On top of all of that, many of his struggles are aggrevated by his very role as Iron Man--and yet, if it wasn't for the armor, he'd be dead. So it's a great ride!

Too many IM writers make the mistake of thinking the armored suit is Tony Stark's super power. It's not. His inventive mind is his super power. The best Iron Man stories are those in which Tony has to defeat his opponent with some kind of technical fix or invention--either a gadget he rigs up on the spot (or one he carries), or when he uses his knowledge of science to turn his opponent's strength against him; Scientific jujitsu, if you will.

In addition to his mental prowess, it's often Tony's character that aids in his triumphs. It's a little cliche, but again and again, and mostly the hard way, Tony Stark has learned that it's not the armor, it's the man inside of it that is the hero. He's faced his demons and come out victorious, and that enables him to beat the villains of the universe.

A really great Iron Man story has sci-fi elements, corporate intrigue, romance/personal crisis, and more than a little slam-bang action. The best have Tony fighting in the armor and in the board room.

2. What made you like the character enough to invest the time to do such a cool Web site about him?

Well, as far as liking Iron Man, I think I'd just be repeating myself from what I said above--but why I created the site The Iron Man Armory?

Specifically: I got onto the Web back in the dark ages (like 1994 or '95). There wasn't much of a comics presence on the early Internet. But like a lot of people I saw that the Web had potential as a great resource for research--but most Web sites were either boring academic sites or adult-oriented, or worse: about people's cats. There wasn't much out there for the comic fan.

Anyway, I also thought it was a great place to build a community of comics fans, and I just started messing around because I wanted to learn about all the new technology. I wanted a Web page, but I wanted it to be cool. I wanted a cool subject. And since Iron Man was a technology-based hero, it just seemed natural. I taught myself HTML and other stuff, and began turning my comics hobby into something more.

In early 1996, taking the name of the secret vault where Tony Stark keeps all his magnificent armor, I launched The Iron Man Armory on my college's server. It was the first Iron Man site out there, and I was soon getting e-mails from everywhere--I've had e-mails from every continent but Antarctica. And it just grew and grew because people would ask me all sorts of questions about everything Iron Man and I soon thought I should just make the site the most original and comprehensive encyclopedia of all things Iron Man. I started putting every out there as it came. The Web got more sophisticated and so did the Iron Man Armory.

Today, The Iron Man Armory has its own domain (www.ironmanarmory.com) and features detailed technical specs of the armors with lots of pictures, comprehensive character bios, IM news, the world's only Iron Man trivia game, toy info, and even original interviews with various IM writers and artists. And it's always getting better!

More below . . .

3. What's your favorite version of the armor?

It's hard to say which is my favorite version of the armor. Layton/Michelinie had a lot of cool specialty armors that were great (like the Hydro/Undersea Armor), but I think my favorite might be the Modular Armor from the Kaminski/Hopgood stories. Most of Shellhead's armors are just variations of the same--especially in recent years--but the Modular Armor looked crisp and revolutionary while maintaining the red and gold look. Plus, it allowed Tony to easily swap in and out whatever gizmos he needed, so the armor was always changing its abilities.

4. Do you have a single favorite moment in any of the stories? If so, what is it?

It's hard to name a single favorite moment. Below I've listed some of the more popular stories and creative team tenures, but in addition to those...

I'm a sucker for anything with the Controller (like IRON MAN, Vol. I, issues 12 and 13, 28, and 90 and 91) or Ultimo (his best stuff is in Vol. I, issues 299 and 300 or, in Vol. III, #'s 23, 24, 25). The Controller is a very under-rated foe. And these stories are classics. Ultimo smashes a lot of stuff and he's basically unstoppable, but Iron Man somehow wins in the end.

Other great stories are the Midas story arcs, which also feature doomed romance with Madame Masque (Vol. I issues 17-19, and 103-107). The first Midas arc also contains twists and turns as Tony is replaced by an evil Life Model Decoy (a robot) of himself--that he built to help keep his identity a secret.

5. What do think are remembered as the high points of the various series to date?

Well, it's no surprise that Iron fans believe that the David Michelinie/Bob Layton runs were the best--They introduced foes like Justin Hammer, had Iron Man battle Dr. Doom through time, and did the seminal Shellhead story arc: the Armor Wars (issues 225-232). But people often overlook the great early work of Stan Lee and Don Heck (especially the later TALES OF SUSPENSE issues) and the great stories from Archie Goodwin, who helped Iron Man launch his first Volume. Along with artists like Gene Colan and George Tuska, Goodwin wrote some of the best IM tales--Whiplash and some great Controller appearances come to mind. And--and this is key--his stories still stand up today, where some others seem really dated, even hokey at times.

Denny O'Neil's run from the early '80s is a bit uneven, delivering the great Tony-descends-into-alcoholism stories, but also really lame villains like Vibro and Serpant Squad. That said, with the penciled panels of Luke McDonnell, O'Neil delivered an important chapter of Iron Man's life, starting around #161. Obidiah Stane starts wrecking Tony's life, the aforementioned alcoholic slide, Jim Rhodes in the armor, and Tony's triumphant return/revenge in the Silver Centurion Armor (courtesy of ace artist Mark Bright)!

In later years, Len Kaminski's run (especially begining in #279) really brought the character back to his technology roots, and delivered some truly spectacular story arcs. With penciler Kevin Hopgood, Len gave us War Machine, the "death" of Tony Stark, the great big #300 ish with Ultimo and the Iron Legion (a huge fan fav), and the sinister "Hands of the Mandarin" arc.

Volume II was an interesting arc in retrospect. In other words, when it was a relaunch of the character it was little hard to accept, but now, knowing that it's just an arc--not the "real" Iron Man--it's a pretty good arc. Jeph Loeb creates a Tony Stark that's dark and full of pathos, accentuating the alienation Stan Lee created in Stark; the man forced to live in an armored shell, keeping the world at bay.

Volume III: What can I say... Kurt Busiek and Sean Chen relaunched Tony Stark and the Knight in Golden Armor. Their run is pretty good, but after them Marvel didn't seem to know what to do with ol' Shellhead. Plus, they couldn't (or didn't) keep a regular writer for any length of time, let alone an artist. Sweeping storylines never really panned out and there were some really bad pencilers in the later Volume III issues. Even veteran scribe Mike Grell didn't restore the luster to one of Marvel greatest heroes. He started out with some intruiging, more personal stories, but then he let Iron Man's secret identity out of the bag--and not only did he not know what to do with such a revelation, he left the book! And then Volume III just kinda petered out--more writer/artist juggling and bad art...

Warren Ellis's Volume IV relauch--it's too early to tell. I'm intrigued though. He's done some great stuff in the past, so we'll see. Although I'm not crazy about the painted art. To me, it lacks the crispness of penciled-then-colored art, you know?