Tales of Suspense #39
Iron Man is Born!
In a secluded area in an American occupied zone, Tony Stark is giving a general demonstration of his latest invention, a magnetic device that can pull a steel door off its hinges.[1] Tony Stark is a wealthy inventor who, back home in America, divides his time between creating new weapons for the military and romancing beautiful women. However, Tony Stark’s life is about to suddenly change. This is because the region is being terrorized by a guerrilla group led by the merciless Wong-Chu. After taking over an entire city, Wong-Chu offers the prisoners a chance at freedom by defeating him in a wrestling match. A few desperate villagers attempt to do so, but everyone fails, much to Wong-Chu’s delight.
Meanwhile, Tony Stark has insisted on being brought out to view a field test of one of his new weapons. After seeing a demonstration of his new hand-held mortar cannons, Stark is heading back to base when he steps through a trip-mine and is caught in the blast. When Wong-Chu’s soldiers discover that Stark is still alive, they decide to bring him to their master in case he turns out to be someone important. Wong-Chu instantly recognizes Tony Stark and has one of his surgeons work on saving his life. Although Stark is expected to live, he is on borrowed time as there is a piece of shrapnel that is heading directly to his heart and will eventually kill him.[2] Wong-Chu decides to take advantage of this time left by forcing Stark to build weapons for his army. Wong-Chu lies to Stark by telling him that his surgeon will save his life after he creates the weapons. Stark sees through this and vows to hamper these efforts until his dying breath.
Given a lab to work in, Tony Stark is left alone to work and he quickly begins working on a device he hopes will save his life. He is soon joined by a new captive, a brilliant scientist named Ho Yinsen. Stark is surprised to see Ho Yinsen because the word in the outside world was that Yinsen had died. Learning of Tony’s plight, Yinsen agrees to help work on a device to save his life. They begin working on a suit of iron armor. On top of onboard weapons, it will also have a special chest plate that will keep the shrapnel away from Tony’s life and keep him alive as long as the armor is fully charged. Although Tony’s condition is getting worse, Ho Yinson encourages him to keep pressing on as they are almost finished.
When the armor is complete, Tony is placed in the armor and it is plugged in to charge. That’s when their warning light goes on telling them that someone is coming. Fearing that Wong-Chu will take the Iron Man armor before it can fully charge, Ho Yinsen runs from the lab and creates a distraction to give Tony’s armor time to fully charge. However, this comes at Yinsen’s life as Wong-Chu orders his guards to shoot him.[3] When the armor is fully charged, Tony gets up but finds that remaining on his feet and being able to walk around in this armor is going to take on a learning curve. As Wong-Chu and his men try to break down the lab door, Tony uses the armor’s air pressure jets to leap up and grab onto the ceiling so he is unseen when Wong-Chu finally gets inside.
Assuming that Stark escaped, Wong-Chu orders his guards to go out and find him. Taking a trenchcoat and hat to disguise his armored form, Tony intends to confront Wong-Chu directly. That evening, Wong-Chu entertains himself by wrestling prisoners. That’s when Tony, as Iron Man, challenges him to a battle. Unable to see Tony’s armor under the overcoat and hat, Wong-Chu gladly accepts this new challenger. However, he is shocked when Tony strips off the coat and hat and reveals himself as Iron Man. Tony easily overpowers Wong-Chu in combat. Furious, Wong-Chu orders his men to execute Iron Man, but their bullets bounce harmlessly off his armor. He then pulls their weapons away using a magnetic attachment. When Wong-Chu tries to address his troops from a loudspeaker, Stark hacks into the transmission and — using Wong-Chu’s own voice — orders the soldiers to flee into the jungle.
As Wong-Chu tries to flee, Iron Man ignites an ammunition dump causing it to explode as Wong-Chu passes by. Wong-Chu is seemingly caught in the blast and killed.[4] Satisfied that he had avenged the death of Ho Yinsen, Iron Man heads into the jungle and wonders what destiny has in store for him now.[4]
Recurring Characters
Iron Man, Ho Yinsen, Wong-Chu
Continuity Notes
While this story does not outright state where it is taken place. It’s implied that this is somewhere in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War. This is a topical reference (below). Per History of the Marvel Universe #2, this story now takes place during the Sin-Cong Conflict as opposed to the Vietnam War. (see below, again)
The shrapnel lodged into Tony’s heart here will become an ongoing concern for Tony until he receives a heart transplant in Iron Man #19.
Yinsen actually survived. It is later revealed in Iron Man (vol. 3) #31, Yinsen survived getting shot and was taken away by Sun Tao, one of Yinsen’s students. Sun Tao left him after hearing what he thought were Yinsen’s dying words. However, Iron Man Annual 2000 reveals that Yinsen was pulled forward in time moments after he was shot by Doctor Midas.
Wong-Chu also survived the blast. Iron Man #268 shows that he was found by the Mandarin, turned into a beetle, and then crushed. Iron Man Annual 2000 reveals that the Mandarin only made Wong-Chu believe this to have happened for. Wong-Chu went on to rebuild his organization.
How Iron Man got out of the jungles of Vietnam is not explained until Iron Man #144, which reveals he was found by James Rhodes, an American soldier who became a good friend to Tony in later years.
Topical References
The location where this story takes place is not outright stated but is implied to be somewhere in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War. This should be considered a topical reference. See below.
A lot of the technical and scientific terms used in this story are no dated. Particularly that the groundbreaking secret to Tony Stark’s inventions is transistors. Back in 1963 when this comic book was published, transistors were relatively new, the earliest transistor was invented in 1926. However, they did not become mass-produced until the late 50s, early 60s. They were seen as a technological marvel at the time as most electronics up to this point operated on bulky vacuum tubes that were fragile energy pigs.
Tony Stark’s attractiveness is compared to that of Rock Hudson. This is also a topical reference, particularly because Hudson died in 1985.
This story also uses a lot of dated Cold War terminology which should also be considered topical, particularly calling communists “reds”.
Errors
Wong-Chu offers his minions 10 thousand yen to destroy Iron Man. The Yen is the official currency of Japan. Assuming Wong-Chu is from Sin-Cong (according to Marvel Atlas #1), which has its own currency the Sin-Congese dollar. Even then, the Yen isn’t an official currency in Vietnam (where this story takes place) the currency is the dong (seriously). Even then 10,000 Yen is not a whole lot of money, converting to about $95 USD. I think we can chalk this up to writer Larry Lieber not knowing much about international currencies.
Reconciling the Different Takes on Iron Man’s Origins
There have been multiple re-tellings of Iron Man’s origins and they have included a number of changes. This was primarily because the story, as it is originally presented, has grown more and more dated following the end of the Vietnam War in 1975. These different accounts are as follows:
Iron Man #1 and #144: Reinforce the original origin story, stating that Iron Man’s origins are as they were originally told and took place during the Vietnam War.
Iron Man #267: This retelling states that Iron Man’s origins occurred in some undisclosed location in Southeast Asia. Further references to Iron Man’s origins also reinforce this vague placement of events.
Iron Man (vol. 4) #1: Changes the entire location, stating that Iron Man’s origin took place in the Afganistan during the War on Terror and that instead of Wong-Chu’s guerillas, he instead fought the al-Queda.
History of the Marvel Universe #2: Once again takes things back to the original location. The only change is that instead of the Vietnam War, Tony Stark was involved in the Sin-Cong Conflict, a fictional war created to explain the dated Vietnam War references that were present in early Marvel stories.
With the exception of the origin story is the account made in Iron Man (vol 4) #1. Writer Warren Ellis updated Iron Man’s origins to something more topical for 2005 (The War on Terror) without taking into consideration how intrinsically tied to Vietnam Iron Man’s origins were and changing the location from Southeast Asia to the Middle East created more problems with continuity particularly when it comes to the fact that Iron Man’s origins expand beyond just Tony Stark becoming Iron Man, but has connections to the Mandarin, or that Wong-Chu (omitted from the Ellis retcon) would resurface in later stories, nor did it take into account that Tony Stark’s first encounter with James Rhodes (later War Machine) happened in Vietnam after this story. (For more on these details see below)
In the end, it’s the retelling in Iron Man (vol. 4) #1 that should be ignored, as it always should have been. In the late 90s, and early 00s Marvel was attempting to update the origins of a number of its heroes (notably Spider-Man and the Hulk during John Byrne’s short-lived Chapter One stories) These retcons were ultimately rejected because more competent writers realized that you can modernize these origin stories without reinventing the wheel. Marvel’s fiction avoids major retcons unless they are absolutely necessary. Instead of retconning the actions of the character, it is often much simpler to retcon the external events surrounding the origin so that they can still be told in a modern setting without disrupting the basic events or negating later revelations.
Aside from the physical location of these events, other more specific details are depicted differently. Iron Man (vol. 3) #50 states that Stark actually set off an explosive from a long-forgotten conflict, while Iron Man #144 states that he stepped on a landmine. The Order (vol. 2) #9, states that Stark was actually in a military ATV that was hit by the enemy. While Iron Man (vol. 4) #1 states that an enemy bullet struck a Stark Industries manufactured landmine, causing it to explode. That all said, the tripwire explosion is reinforced in retellings of Iron Man’s origins in Iron Man #1, 244, 267, Age of Innocence: The Rebirth of Iron Man #1, Iron Man: The Iron Age #1, and History of the Marvel Universe #2. As such, the most commonly referenced should be the accepted series of events.
Other accounts of these origins state that Stark wasn’t the only one caught in the blast. These others can be accepted since Tales of Suspense #39 clearly shows Tony Stark with a group of people when he hits the tripwire.
Reconciling the Different Technical Specifications of Iron Man’s Armor
A number of details regarding the technical specifications of Iron Man’s chest plate have changed over the years. Likewise, has Ho Yinsen’s area of expertise changed with the times. In Tales of Suspense #39, Iron Man #1, and Age of Innocence: The Rebirth of Iron Man #1, Ho Yinsen is identified as a brilliant physicist. Iron Man (vol. 4) #5 states that Yinsen was a medical expert and futurist. While most accounts state that it was one of Wong-Chu’s men who initially treated Tony Stark’s injuries (Tales of Suspense #39, Iron Man #1, Iron Man: The Iron Age #1, and Iron Man (vol. 3) #50), another account (Iron Man #267-268) states that Yinsen was the one who treated Stark. I choose to believe that neither of these facts is mutually exclusive.
The technology used in the chest-plate has changed over the years. In this story and others (Iron Man #1, 144, 244, 268) state that the device was a pacemaker. Age of Innocence: The Rebirth of Iron Man #1 states that they invented a unique chest pump to keep the shrapnel out of Tony’s heart. Iron Man (vol. 3) #50 states that the chest plate used “energy cells” to keep his heart beating. Whatever the case may be, this would be an instance where the technology involved should be considered topical as it will change with different retellings to make it sound like advanced technology.
As a side note, in nearly every telling of Iron Man’s origins, the original armor is depicted as grey metallic. However, Iron Man: The Iron Age #1 presents the armor as always being gold in color. It is the only story to contradict the color of the armor. As seen in Tales of Suspense #40, Stark painted the armor gold to make Iron Man less frightening. I presume that this detail was left out of Iron Man: The Iron Age for narrative pacing since was fleshing out details of Iron Man’s early days but did not focus on the events if Tales of Suspense #40.