Marvel Masterworks: The Invincible Iron Man, Vol. 5

Marvel Masterworks: The Invincible Iron Man

by Archie Goodwin, George Tuska (Artist), Johnny Craig (Artist)

Collects Iron Man (1968) #2-13.

Step back from the big screen and jump into the tales that made Marvel's Iron Avenger one of the world's most-famous super heroes! It's a new era for comics' most of sophisticated scientist/socialite, Tony Stark, as Archie Goodwin, Johnny Craig and the iron man of IRON MAN illustrators, George Tuska, take you on an amazing set of adventures! Just to warm you up, we've got Happy Hogan transformed into the Freak, one of Iron Man's earliest enemies back to settle a score, a wild adventure into the far-flung future and a good, old-fashioned bash-'em-up with the Crusher teamed with a twisted-metal duel with the buzzsaw blades of the Gladiator. And now, the main course! Iron Man's oldest and evilest of enemies, the Mandarin, returns and pushes the Golden Gladiator to the breaking point. First, he pits Iron Man against the Incredible Hulk in a battle of the titans that only one will walk away from, and then he tears him down with his discovery that Tony Stark is Iron Man! It's an all-time Iron Man classic that's so great that for good measure, we're also bringing you the carnage of the Controller, a threat so awesome that it brings Iron Man together with Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. to stop it!

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Comic Book, Science Fiction, Graphic Novels

272 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 19, 2008

About the author

Archie Goodwin was an American comic book writer, editor, and artist. He worked on a number of comic strips in addition to comic books, and is best known for his Warren and Marvel Comics work. For Warren he was chief writer and editor of landmark horror anthology titles Creepy and Eerie, and for Marvel he set up the creator-owned Epic Comics as well as adapting Star Wars into both comics and newspaper strips. He is regularly cited as the "best-loved comic book editor, ever."

Reviews

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first Iron Man comic stories. He fights the Big M, and the Mandarin. The stories are quite decent even though it relies a lot on fights, it is a product of its time. He has a SHIELD agent watching over his factories. There's also a potential love interest. The Mandarin looks nothing like he does now, though his plan to ruin Stark is very clever and even gets SHIELD to believe him. A good read.

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

Volume 4 is still rating as the best for me. This one was really too corny for my tastes. My opinion on Archie Goodwin as a writer remains neutral. I was never a big fan of George Tuska, but he's not too bad here. I do like Johnny Craig, though. The continuity is pretty good, although it seems like Nick Fury must have been too busy with the Yellow Claw to make the appearances he does here. One thread that takes you through all the stories is the Vincent Sandhurst story, and that one ends up being the cheesiest of all, as we get an old fashioned megalomaniac who drains everyone's mental energies. Their helmets seem to have inspired Man-E-Faces and the Super Powers version of Orion. Some pathos is achieved through Mei-Ling, but nothing here is up to snuff with what was going on in Amazing Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, The Mighty Thor, or Steranko's S.H.I.E.L.D.

[Jdetrick · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have a lot of respect for Archie Goodwin, but his stories here don't really work for me. It feels like he's writing an anthology, as these stories feel mostly unconnected to each other.

[Little Timmy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Marvel Masterworks volumes are fantastic reprints of the early years of Marvel comics. A fantastic resource to allow these hard to find issues to be read by everyone. Very recommended to everyone and Highly recommended to any comic fan.

Merged review:

The Marvel Masterworks volumes are fantastic reprints of the early years of Marvel comics. A fantastic resource to allow these hard to find issues to be read by everyone. Very recommended to everyone and Highly recommended to any comic fan.