User blog:Edkaufman/how did Iron Man ever survive?

Rereading the old Tales of Suspense Issues, I couldn't help but wonder how in the world the Iron Man character ever survived his first few issues. Seriously, these have to have been some of the worst issues written in the history of Marvel, probably in the history of comics. Up until he faced the Crimson Dynamo (which was nothing more than his communist counterpart - how creative), Iron Man clashes with one silly villain after another (the actor? come on!), does circus tricks for children (juggling automobiles and crushing cannonballs to give the fragments to children to take home - for real?), makes ridiculous inventions for the US military (soldiers on skates??? I mean: SKATES?!?) and apparently has the worst track record for dating women in the history of mankind. So he goes out with two or three women per issue, but can't ever take his chestplate off? Considering Tony's character, how credible is it that none of these women ever gets to see his chest? In one of the earliest issues, Tony refuses to go swimming with one of his dates because he can't take the plate off - does that mean he can't take a shower either? That at least would explain why he never got any of these dates far enough for them to see his chest...

Of course, I realize not all comics in the sixties were great, but the early ToS issues are even worse than Ant-Man's stories in Tales to Astonish - and that's saying something. The difference is, Ant-Man was cancelled (thank god), but Iron Man survived. Now I'm not saying that Iron Man hasn't come a long way since then, but looking back on his first year, it seems almost unimaginable that he would go on to become one of Marvel's most important characters.