Geek Syndicate Issue 6 | Page 47

Geek Syndicate
comic – completing the circle), which was called I am Iron Man (written by Peter David, drawn by Sean Chen). The golden suit first appeared in Tales of Suspense issue 40. Stark visits a circus and in order to prevent a tragedy, he puts on the grey suit. The crowd don’t like what they see, so Tony vows to change the suit, with advice from his female companion, Marion. which incorporated a force field and solar power. The technology and storylines in the 1980s led to the development of a range of suits for various situations. Developments included the Space Armour and Stealth Armour factor, rather than the human (and superhuman) characters. The technology was the be all and end all of narratives. More specialist armours popped in the 1990s and 2000s, including a Mk II Space Armour, a Telepresence Armour (1993) which enabled him to walk after he was paralysed, Modular Armour (1994) with interchangeable parts, Thorbuster (2003) and more. At this point, it seemed, each new adventure required its own specialist armour. The Extremis Armour, introduced in 2006 was known as Model 30. The suit fused with Tony’s body, essentially turning him into a cyborg-like hybrid. A post-human who could control his tech with thought alone. It was a second skin, much lighter and responsive that all previous suits. In the real world, science has developed artificial limbs that can be controlled with thought. In the last few years, more specialist suits turn up in a variety of comics, perhaps most noticeably the Black and Gold armour from Iron Man number 1 in January 2013 as part of the new Marvel NOW! run.
Image © Marvel, 1987

The suit became the familiar red and gold colouring in issue 43. The new suit was designed by Steve Ditko and it was at this time, that the new, shiney suit became as much the focus as the hero inside. This was the Mark III. Stark needed a new suit to in order to defeat Dr Doll, who could control the gold armour through a replica figurine. The Mark III was sleeker, Multiple Armours - From the Armor Wars story line lighter and more effective, although the breastplate was still used to keep Tony alive. (both 1981), Recovery Armour The relationship between tech- – a nod back to the original nology and society is clearly a grey suit (1985) and the selfdominant theme throughout explanatory Hydro Armour the various series, and it is (1987). In 1988, issue 231 saw only natural that Iron Man’s the introduction of the Mark suits develop in line with the VIII suit which stark used to real world. battle Firepower in the Armor Wars arc. It is possible to conThe next major upgrade was sider that the technology of the Mark V (issue 85, 1976) these stories was the driving

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