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Iron Man Epic Collection
Iron Man Epic Collection, Vol. 2: By Force of Arms
Tony Stark is back as the Invincible Iron Man! Stan Lee and Gene Colan's complete run — a host of iconic Iron Man adventures, including one of Marvel's first crossovers — is proudly presented in this Epic Collection. Brought before the United States Senate to divulge the secrets of Stark Enterprises, Tony Stark has never faced higher stakes. But survival in the halls of government means risking the life of his friend, Happy Hogan! Then, the Mandarin tests Iron Man's mettle, executive privilege does nothing to save Tony from Whiplash and the Titanium Man, and the ideologues at A.I.M. attack — taking us to the debut of Iron Man's very own solo series!
Collects Tales of Suspense (1959) #73-99; Tales to Astonish (1959) #82; Iron Man & Sub-Mariner (1968) #1; Iron Man (1968) #1; material from Not Brand Echh (1967) #2.
Collects Tales of Suspense (1959) #73-99; Tales to Astonish (1959) #82; Iron Man & Sub-Mariner (1968) #1; Iron Man (1968) #1; material from Not Brand Echh (1967) #2.
417 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 7, 2017
About the author
Stan Lee
7,598 books2,405 followersStan Lee (born Stanley Martin Lieber) was an American writer, editor, creator of comic book superheroes, and the former president and chairman of Marvel Comics.
With several artist co-creators, most notably Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, he co-created Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, Thor as a superhero, the X-Men, Iron Man, the Hulk, Daredevil, the Silver Surfer, Dr. Strange, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Scarlet Witch, The Inhumans, and many other characters, introducing complex, naturalistic characters and a thoroughly shared universe into superhero comic books. He subsequently led the expansion of Marvel Comics from a small division of a publishing house to a large multimedia corporation.
With several artist co-creators, most notably Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, he co-created Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, Thor as a superhero, the X-Men, Iron Man, the Hulk, Daredevil, the Silver Surfer, Dr. Strange, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Scarlet Witch, The Inhumans, and many other characters, introducing complex, naturalistic characters and a thoroughly shared universe into superhero comic books. He subsequently led the expansion of Marvel Comics from a small division of a publishing house to a large multimedia corporation.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
February 6, 2024
My main complaint: we get all this time with Happy and Pepper...and then Happy finds out TONY STARK IS IRON MAN! But then he loses his memory. And then he gets it back! But then Pep and Happy elope and are just...gone. Poof.
It's a conspiracy, I tell ya.
It's a conspiracy, I tell ya.
July 13, 2026
I don't know if this was the worst thing to read back int he 60s while being published monthly or not. It definitely is now while I'm reading everything chronologically, I can tell that much.
Repetitive plot and boring dialogue to say the least, along with the dumbest reason for any character to take any course of action and make any kind of choice. The artwork was ok.
Repetitive plot and boring dialogue to say the least, along with the dumbest reason for any character to take any course of action and make any kind of choice. The artwork was ok.
August 20, 2020
You know, honestly, I'm starting to get why my mom says Iron Man was her favorite Marvel series of the 60s.
And here we've reached a Mighty Marvel Milestone! The first character (in my reading order, anyway) who's graduating from a feature in an anthology title to his own series. Iron Man's solo series debut occurred more or less concurrently with Sub-Mariner's graduation to his own series, while Captain and America were able to expand to fill their re-titled Suspense and Astonish, respectively. (Of course, Thor had already subsumed Journey into Mystery, but that was a re-titling with a little less obvious change otherwise, since Thor and Tales of Asgard had already been filling Journey for months.) Long story short, this marks the moment in the late 60s when Marvel, buoyed by the company's success and freed from the limitations of some distribution politics to widen their line markedly. Hooray, expansion! There's no way this will ever become a bad thing, right?
I really enjoy Gene Colan's art here. It's good over in Daredevil too, but there's a sort of grown-up moodiness to his work on Iron Man that really suits the corporate espionage, international thriller vibe that the series grows into during this collection.
This collection is somewhat back-loaded with big introductions. Aside from the (possibly alien, possibly magic?) giant robot Ultimo, the only other new big names I can think of are Whiplash and Whitney Frost, who both appear within the last handful of chapters. Aside from them, we have the returns of the Mandarin and the Titanium Man, visiting villain Grey Gargoyle, and the always-fun Maggia and AIM organizations. Happy and Pepper sort of drift off by the end, and I wonder if this is the beginning of the supporting cast going in a different direction. We'll see when we get started with the next set, I suppose!
And here we've reached a Mighty Marvel Milestone! The first character (in my reading order, anyway) who's graduating from a feature in an anthology title to his own series. Iron Man's solo series debut occurred more or less concurrently with Sub-Mariner's graduation to his own series, while Captain and America were able to expand to fill their re-titled Suspense and Astonish, respectively. (Of course, Thor had already subsumed Journey into Mystery, but that was a re-titling with a little less obvious change otherwise, since Thor and Tales of Asgard had already been filling Journey for months.) Long story short, this marks the moment in the late 60s when Marvel, buoyed by the company's success and freed from the limitations of some distribution politics to widen their line markedly. Hooray, expansion! There's no way this will ever become a bad thing, right?
I really enjoy Gene Colan's art here. It's good over in Daredevil too, but there's a sort of grown-up moodiness to his work on Iron Man that really suits the corporate espionage, international thriller vibe that the series grows into during this collection.
This collection is somewhat back-loaded with big introductions. Aside from the (possibly alien, possibly magic?) giant robot Ultimo, the only other new big names I can think of are Whiplash and Whitney Frost, who both appear within the last handful of chapters. Aside from them, we have the returns of the Mandarin and the Titanium Man, visiting villain Grey Gargoyle, and the always-fun Maggia and AIM organizations. Happy and Pepper sort of drift off by the end, and I wonder if this is the beginning of the supporting cast going in a different direction. We'll see when we get started with the next set, I suppose!
April 7, 2017
I actually really enjoyed this volume of Invincible Iron Man, it worked so well as a graphic novel. I can't imagine having to wait a month for each twelve page story back in the late sixties as the entire volume concentrates on Tony Stark being faced with having to reveal his secret identity or lose his government contracts. Plus there's lots of love-triangle romance between Tony, Pepper and Happy until Pepper finally makes a choice! And on top of this there's some intriguing revelations about the new leader of the Maggia, which hopefully continue when volume three eventually gets released. Great fun and a worthy read.
February 17, 2024
3.5 I love Colan's art but the "Marvel method" meant he had to do a lot of the plotting and it's clear he struggled at times. One story is nothing but Titanium Man and Iron Man both flying to DC (Tony for a hearing, Titanium Man to kill him), though the next story is all-out action. In one scene the public learns Tony wears his heart-sustaining chestplate but conveniently it's not his Iron Man chestplate to his ID stays secret (no, it didn't make much sense).
Things pick up steam near the end as Colan and Lee really get their rhythm and SHIELD agent Jasper Sitwell joins the cast. It picks up more when Archie Goodwin becomes scripter, though Colan leaves right after.
Overall fun, but YMMV. One particular note: when Iron Man battles the Black Knight with a friend's life on the line he doesn't hesitate to send the villain falling to his death, and no "he's over the lake, he might survive" hand-waving either.
Things pick up steam near the end as Colan and Lee really get their rhythm and SHIELD agent Jasper Sitwell joins the cast. It picks up more when Archie Goodwin becomes scripter, though Colan leaves right after.
Overall fun, but YMMV. One particular note: when Iron Man battles the Black Knight with a friend's life on the line he doesn't hesitate to send the villain falling to his death, and no "he's over the lake, he might survive" hand-waving either.
March 18, 2021
As enjoyable as it is to watch Gene Colan find his footing with the Armored Avenger, early Iron Man stories are incredibly repetitive: a threat emerges, Tony Stark has to figure out how to armor up without giving away his identity, the armor takes a thrashing during the battle and jeopardizes Tony’s weakened heart, yet he somehow overcomes... wash, rinse, repeat. There’s a dearth of good Iron Man stories until at least the late 70’s, and most of the best have come out in the last 20 years.
July 23, 2024
This was an improvement over the first book, but not by a whole lot. Gene Colan provides some amazing artwork and further proves to me he is one of my favorite comic artists, but largely while the writing improves I still found the stories a bit repetitive and lacking at times.
April 4, 2026
These were actually pretty good issues helped mainly by Gene Colan with his realist art and the fast pace of the series at this point in Marvel. Mainly action focused with Jasper Sitwell acting as comedic relief. 1966-1968. 8/10
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July 21, 2017Continue from page 186. super fun. must finish
March 21, 2020
It got better as he moved to his own book but those early Suspense issues was sometimes brutal.
October 2, 2020
Excellent installment of Stan Lee and his crew for the invincible shell head superhero...
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews