So by now you've probably got a pretty good idea of what the Iron Man of the comics is like. We've covered his origins, early days, his supporting cast and his principal personality traits and story types. But how does he fit into the Marvel Universe as a whole? In the films we've seen him interacting with his fellow Avengers, but the world of the comic books is infinitely more vast than that on screen (it helps that drawing costs a lot less than movie productions), populated by hundreds if not thousands of superheroes, villains, and all points in between. Well, with the nineties story Crash and Burn, we get to see exactly what part Tony Stark plays in the superhero community. By getting him to fight all of them. Following another corporate scandal - this time somebody nicks a load of Stark Industries records, burns them, and gets them implicated in fraud; you'd think he'd invest in some better security - Iron Man finds his affairs being investigated by everyone from Captain America to Spider-Man nemesis Venom, forcing him to come to blows with friend and foe alike. Oh and he also battles the Hulk, which apparently we're gonna see in the next Avengers movie... Amongst this cavalcade of some of Marvel's flagship characters interacting with him, we get another important element of the Iron Man character introduced as Tony designs a new suit of armour to help defend against an ongoing neurological disease that's affecting his brain. The suit in question would become the default Iron Man armour for most of the nineties, including the ill-fated animated series, so that's an important piece of the character's history filled in for you too.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
