In the latest Comic Book Legends Revealed, discover the bizarre origins of the second Armor Wars storyline in the pages of Iron Man’s comic.
Welcome to Comic Book Legends Revealed! This is the eight hundred and twenty-sixth installment where we examine three comic book legends and determine whether they are true or false. As usual, there will be three posts, one for each of the three legends. Click here for the first part of this installment’s legends.
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COMIC LEGEND:
When John Byrne took over writing Iron Man, he had to write a story named “Armor Wars II.”
STATUS:
True
At the end of 1986, David Michelinie and Bob Layton, who had had a successful run on Iron Man from 1978-1982, returned to the series for a second stint on the title, taking over from writer Denny O’Neil, who had taken over from them back in 1982.
About a year into their return, they were a bit irked that Marvel hadn’t promoted it more. As I noted in an old Comic Book Legends Revealed, Michelinie explained how this lack of promotion indirectly led to Armor Wars. He revealed:
A couple of years ago, a group of Merry (and hungry) Marvel Madmen adjourned to one of New York’s finest Italian eateries for an intense brainstorming session (Actually, we were there to stuff our faces, but we had to talk a LITTLE business so we could justify putting the trip on the Mighty Marvel Expense Account!). Present were (then-)assistant editor Howard Mackie, (then-)editor in chief Jim Shooter, (then-)writer David Michelinie and (now-)artist Bob Layton. Between forkfuls of twirled vermicelli, Bob expressed dissatisfaction over the lack of publicity we’d been getting on Iron Man. We both felt we were doing some noteworthy stories (along with then-penciler, Mark Bright), but we weren’t getting any press on them. Wasn’t there some way we could wheedle a house ad? A plug in Marvel Age? A full page in the New York Times Literary Supplement? Slurping up a final stand of impeccably prepared angel hair, Jim answered that quality wasn’t enough – quality was the STANDARD at Marvel. No, to be noticed, we’d have to do something special. “You need an EVENT. Give us something to push,” he smacked, “and we’ll push it!”
That event, of course, was Armor Wars, a storyline where Tony Stark decides that he wants to make sure that he is the only one who has control over his armor technology because he doesn’t want it falling into the hands of villains who might kill people with his tech. So he sets out to remove his technology from the various armors around the Marvel Universe (hence “Armor Wars”)…
The problem is that for this to work, he couldn’t just target the villains, he also had to target the HEROES, since he felt he couldn’t trust that their tech might also be compromised, so he had to shut down people like the awesome underwater superhero, Stingray…
This led to a lot of bad press for Iron Man as he was, you know, breaking a ton of laws. When he went to shut down the armors for the Guardsman, the guys who guard the supervillain prison known as the Vault, he inadvertently let a bunch of prisoners escape and he had to defeat his old friend, Steve Rogers, during the fight (Rogers was known as The Captain at the time)…
Ultimately, the way out of it for Tony Stark was, once he had succeeded, to then “kill off” Iron Man…
He then introduced the “new” Iron Man, complete with a brand-new design (and a return to the classic red and gold look)…
Michelinie and Layton remained on the series for the next couple of years, but eventually, Michelinie (who was writing Amazing Spider-Man solo at the time and wanting to do some other stuff), left the series. John Romita Jr.’s first regular assignment at Marvel had been on Michelinie and Layton’s first Iron Man run and now the superstar artist was returning (initially with inker Harry Candelario), as Layton would take over sole writing duties on the series and the first thing he would do as a solo writer was to set up…Armor Wars 2!
The first Layton/Romita issue was Iron Man #256…
In that issue, Tony (who had a chip implanted in his back to allow him to walk after he had been shot by a crazed stalker a couple of years earlier, a story I wrote about a while back here), noted that he was feeling a lot of pain but then suddenly felt totally fine in his back…
That, of course, was the set up for Armor Wars II. But wait, then LAYTON also decided to leave the series for an opportunity at the then-new Valiant Comics (where Layton would eventually become Editor-in-Chief). So the book was without a writer right before a major story was about to begin!
In stepped John Byrne, who had recently returned to Marvel Comics following a stint at DC Comics, and Byrne was told that his first arc on the series had to be called Armor Wars II. After all, it had already been announced! Byrne wanted to know if they expected him to follow the original plan for Armor Wars II and he was told that no, he could do whatever he wanted, so long as it was called Armor Wars II (with the implicit note in that being that presumably he would make it so that it DID make sense as a title for the story).
Byrne agreed and he and Romita Jr (and inker Bob Wiacek) had a really fun run on the book…
Byrne’s approach was that the evil Marrs Corporation (from his then-new Namor run. A few years back, I wrote about the surprisingly incestual pop culture influence on these characters) was controlling Tony through that chip, so the “Armor War” was that they were controlling his armor by way of controlling him…
Years later, Layton and Michelinie were given a chance to do an “Iron Man Forever” miniseries that let them do their own take on Armor Wars 2, but that didn’t work right away, so it was eventually published instead as Iron Man #258.1 through 258.4 (why use the main series’ numbering when the story was out of continuity? No idea).
Dave Ross was the artist on this run…
We saw Layton’s initial plan (well, a variation on it), which was that the chip went rogue, creating an evil artificial intelligence duplicate of Tony Stark and that was the villain of Armor Wars 2….
I like both versions of Armor Wars 2 myself.
CHECK OUT A MOVIE LEGENDS REVEALED!
In the latest Movie Legends Revealed – Was Yaphet Kotto not allowed to promote his own appearance as the villain in the James Bond film, Live and Let Die?
PART THREE SOON!
Check back soon for part 3 of this installment’s legends!
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