Tales of Suspense #40

 "Any girl who'd stand you up, darling, would have to be stark raving ma-a-ad!"

Only the second outing for Iron Man here, and second outings are always interesting. We've had the origin, so now we must solidify and settle on the title's status quo. Hence spending quite a bit of time on exposition at the start, clarifying who Tony Stark (who still doesn't quite look as he will) is and how he lives.

So we're reminded that he's a scientific genius, but very much on the cold warrior side, the Cuban Missile Crisis being mere weeks ago at this point. Hence the, er, 60mph roller skates for the US military.

We reminded that he's a millionaire playboy... but also that he must wear his iron breast plate 24/7. Yeah... I have some questions here. How does he wash his torso? We see him ducking out of swimming with one of his many ladies, as he can't ever be seen bare chested. This is... not great for his sex life, surely? I mean, his girlfriend Marion hugs him at the end, apparently without feeling the whopping great big iron breastplate.

Swiftly handwaving all that away, we have a nice little set piece with Iron Man dealing with some leopards and other big cats that have escaped from a circus... yeah, 1963. It was definitely another time. But he realises here that his drab iron suit will look scary to the public. Fortunately, Marion suggests a makeover- a gold paint job so that he looks like "a modern knight in shining armour". This is bonkers, but fun.

And then... yeah. A town that's built a wall around itself, predicting Dementia Donnie half a century early! A robot neanderthal with powers of mind control! Cartoon little green aliens in a flying saucer being behind it, because it's bound to be either them or communists! Said aliens conveniently resolving never to return! It's all such fun, and I love it. If this tone continues, it'll be fine by me.