Ditko's Iron Man!

Iron Man is credited to Stan Lee and Don Heck. Heck along with Jack Kirby and later Gene Colan all had hefty runs on the character. But a crucial but brief tenure on the series was held down by Steve Ditko. Ditko debuted on the Tales of Suspense series under a Kirby cover when Shellhead confronted the weird menace of Mr. Doll. 

To combat Doll's strange voodoo-like curse, Iron Man adopted a new sleeker armor. Designed by Ditko, this red and gold armor became the standard look of the character for many decades with various small changes over time.

In the next issue Ditko drew a story in which Iron Man battles a deluded Angel. This battle is strangely even as clearly Marvel thought they might have a future star in the high-flying X-Man. 

 

Marvel was getting excellent at cross-promotion of its comics, using every series as a chance to suggest another character to a potential reader. Paul Reinman inked both issues of Tales of Suspense that featured Ditko's art. And just like that, Ditko was gone, but not forgotten. 

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