Previously
This is the part 14 in my continuing insane effort to try to read EVERY MARVEL COMIC EVER PUBLISHED and write about them. You can see previous posts using the tag "complete-marvel-run". I covered Iron Man v1 in the very first post two years ago and v2 in the Heroes Reborn post. This entry will focus on Iron Man stories from the late 90s up to around 2009.
Comics
Annuals
Iron Man v1 annuals #3-14 (12 issues)
When I started these posts I was too lazy to read the annuals along the way, which was a mistake that I have to rectify starting here. As is typical of annuals from that era though, there is not much to not. Annuals 1 and 2 were reprint issues so I skipped those.
Iron Man/Captain America '98
This was a one-time crossover annual where the plot involved Tony using Mentallo to remove knowledge of his secret identity from people worldwide (essentially cleaning up liberal mistakes from IM v1). Steve does not approve, but they kind of get over it by the end.
Iron Man v3 (1998 to 2004)
Iron Man v3 #1-89, #1/2, 2 annuals (92 issues)
- After coming back from Heroes Reborn, Tony is mysteriously an adult again. Instead of trying to take over his old company, he starts a new freelance consulting company.
- The first 25 issues of this volume are written by Kurt Busiek.
- Issue #4: One of the new products revealed by Tony's company is WebVoyager, a web browser! This was 1998, so Firefox and Chrome were yet to be introduced and Internet Explorer was king. This feels like it would be a totally mundane thing these days, but at the time the internet was just about to explode, so a new web browser must have seemed very "cutting edge"!
Iron Man v3 #4: Stark Solutions introduces a new web browser
Iron Man v3 #4: WebVoyager's features are ahead of its time!
- Issue #55: Tony reveals his secret identity to the world by rescuing a puppy about to be run over while at a press conference
- Issues #73-78: Tony finds out that someone inside the DoD has been ripping off his old weapons patents for US gov use. To counter this, Tony gets himself a nomination to become secretary of defense under GW Bush (sliding timeline, etc). The Senate committee almost rejects his nomination, but that is reversed after he saves the capitol from an attack. During this arc, he refuses to declare if he is either a Republican or Democrat.
Iron Man v3 #74: Is Tony Stark a Republican?
Iron Man v3 #78: Tony Stark confirmed as GWB's secretary of defense
- This volume ends with the "Disassembled" arc leading into Avengers Disassembled. At the end of it, Tony decides to make Iron Man's identity secret again (apparently it was that easy!)
Iron Man v4 (2005 to 2009)
This volume was renamed a couple of times but retained the numbering, so I'll just cover them all here for simplicity.
Iron Man v4 #1-16
- Issues #1-6: Extremis story arc, adapted in Iron Man 3. When I saw the movie, I had already read the comics, but barely remembered the details. These 6 issues are the only Iron Man issues Warren Ellis has ever written.
- Issues #7-12: Tony's Extremis-powered brain has been hacked, leading to a rogue Iron Man used for assassinations. This leads Tony to support superhero registration leading to Civil War.
Invincible Iron Man v1 #17-28 (12 issues)
- Mostly covers the Civil War / Initiative era. At the end of this volume, Tony is appointed SHIELD director (Nick Fury had left the position after Secret War) and the title changes again.
Iron Man: Director of SHIELD #29-35, 1 annual (8 issues)
- Tony assumes directorship of SHIELD and almost immediately has to deal with World War Hulk.
- After WWH, there's more Extremis nonsense via a plot by the Mandarin. Stark, Duggan, and Hill are almost charged with terrorism.
- The volume ends with a 3-part Secret Invasion tie-in starring War Machine
Progress Bar
Total issues covered in this post: 141.
Total number of titles/volumes covered in this post: 6, counting the v4 title changes separately.
Total issues covered so far: 4,689 + 141 = 4,830
Current total (released) according to the reference reading order: 34,964 (+68 since the previous post.)
Progress: 13.81% (13.43% last post)
Progress for this post is around twice as much as the last one. I think we are on track to finish at around 16-17% at end of year?
Up Next
We'll cover some newer comics in the next post, most likely X-Men books!