Editing Iron Man (section)

===Early years===
Iron Man's earliest stories were published in the monster-themed [[Comics anthology|anthology]] series ''[[Tales of Suspense]]''. Marvel premiered several superheroes this way in the 1960s as superhero comics became more popular than traditional science-fiction and horror comics.{{Sfn|Howe|2012|p=43}}{{Sfn|Patton|2015|pp=5–6}} Iron Man's first appearance, "Iron Man is Born!", appeared in ''Tales of Suspense'' #39, released in December 1962 with a March 1963 [[cover date]].{{Sfn|Patton|2015|pp=5–6}} Though the Iron Man armor was gray in its first appearance, Marvel changed it to gold because of issues with printing.{{Sfn|Gilbert|2008|p=91}} Lee initially delegated the writing duties to other creators at Marvel, but he felt their work was substandard; as with his other characters, Lee reclaimed control of Iron Man so he could write the stories himself.{{Sfn|Howe|2012|p=45}}

Once Marvel's distributor allowed the company more monthly releases, ''[[The Avengers (comic book)|The Avengers]]'' (1963) was developed as a new comic book series.{{Sfn|Gilbert|2008|p=94}} Iron Man was one of the five characters who formed [[Avengers (comics)|the titular superhero team]].{{Sfn|Friedenthal|2021|pp=30–31}} By 1965, the difficulty of maintaining continuity between ''The Avengers'' and the members' solo titles prompted Lee to temporarily write the original cast out of ''The Avengers'', including Iron Man.{{Sfn|Howe|2012|p=56}}

Heck continued as the primary Iron Man artist until 1965, as Kirby had obligations to other Marvel properties.{{Sfn|Howe|2012|p=43}}{{Sfn|Patton|2015|p=7}} As part of a shuffling to match artists with the characters they were most suited for, [[Steve Ditko]] briefly became the artist for Iron Man.{{Sfn|Howe|2012|p=50}} He was responsible for only three issues in late 1963, but in this time he redesigned Iron Man's suit from fully gold to the red and gold color scheme that became the character's primary image.{{Sfn|Patton|2015|p=8}} Iron Man's recurring nemesis, the [[Mandarin (character)|Mandarin]], first appeared shortly after in ''Tales of Suspense'' #50 (1964).{{Sfn|Gilbert|2008|p=99}} By this time, the science-fiction and horror stories were phased out from ''Tales of Suspense'', and the series ran only Iron Man and [[Captain America]] stories.{{Sfn|Patton|2015|pp=5–6}} [[Gene Colan]] became the artist for Iron Man in January 1966, bringing with him an [[expressionist]] style.{{Sfn|Patton|2015|p=8}}

For the first five years of publication, Iron Man represented the United States in [[Cold War]] allegories.{{Sfn|Mills|2013|p=123}}{{Sfn|Alaniz|2015|p=52}} Growing opposition to the [[Opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War|American involvement in Vietnam]] prompted a shift in Iron Man's characterization, which was part of a larger push by Marvel in the late 1960s to be more apolitical.{{Sfn|Mills|2013|p=123}}{{Sfn|Wright|2001|pp=222–223}} Over the years, the [[letters to the editor]] column in several issues saw extensive political debate.{{Sfn|Henebry|2015|p=110}} Lee shifted the stories' focus to espionage and domestic crime, incorporating Marvel's fictional intelligence agency [[S.H.I.E.L.D.]] He also incorporated the villains of other Marvel heroes, avoiding Iron Man's primarily communist rogues' gallery and rewriting some of Iron Man's communist villains to have personal motivations independent of their communist allegiances.{{Sfn|Henebry|2015|pp=99–101}}

Iron Man was one of several characters whom Marvel gave a full-length dedicated series in 1968.{{Sfn|Howe|2012|p=89}} Marvel combined the final issues of ''Tales of Suspense'' and the [[Sub-Mariner]]'s ''[[Tales to Astonish]]'' into a [[one-shot (comics)|one-shot]] special, ''[[Iron Man and Sub-Mariner]]''.{{Sfn|Gilbert|2008|p=130}} ''[[Iron Man (comic book)|Iron Man]]'' then began its run under writer [[Archie Goodwin (comics)|Archie Goodwin]].{{Sfn|Henebry|2015|p=101}} Goodwin reintroduced political themes slowly over the following years, with a focus on domestic issues like racial conflict and environmentalism rather than geopolitics.{{Sfn|Henebry|2015|pp=102–105}} [[George Tuska]] started illustrating the character in ''Iron Man'' #5 (1968) and intermittently served as artist for much of the 1970s.{{Sfn|Cassell|2011|p=24}}{{Sfn|Vohlidka|2015|p=121}} In total, he drew over one hundred issues for the character.{{Sfn|Cassell|2011|p=28}}