Tales of Suspense #39

A hero readers were supposed to dislike

After Fantastic Four took off in 1961, Marvel began turning its monster and science-fiction anthologies into launch pads for new superheroes. Tales of Suspense, which had started with a January 1959 cover date as a science-fiction anthology, became one of them. Issue #39, cover-dated March 1963, went on sale on December 10, 1962.

Stan Lee developed the concept as a dare to himself. He wanted a character his generally anti-war readers should find unpalatable, a wealthy weapons maker, and to make them like him anyway. The hero was set in Vietnam, at a time when, as Lee later put it, "most of us genuinely felt that the conflict in that tortured land really was a simple matter of good versus evil."

Lee modeled Tony Stark on the businessman Howard Hughes, borrowing his looks, his business image and his reputation as an arrogant playboy. Kirby and Heck added something of the actor Errol Flynn to the face. When first designing him, Lee wanted a modernized version of an Arthurian knight.

Four hands on one hero

Iron Man was a group effort. Lee plotted the 13-page lead story, "Iron Man Is Born!," and his brother Larry Lieber wrote the script. Don Heck penciled and inked the story. Jack Kirby penciled the cover, which Heck inked.

Kirby first drew the armor as what has been called a "round and clunky gray heap," and Heck reworked it with gadgets such as jets, drills and suction cups. The gray suit lasted exactly one issue: in #40, cover-dated April 1963, the armor turned gold, a change attributed to printing problems with the gray.

The rest of the issue was the anthology the title had always been: a two-page text story, "The Treasure"; "The Last Rocket!," drawn by Gene Colan; and "Gundar!," written by Lee and drawn by Steve Ditko.

"Iron Man Is Born!"

In the story, playboy industrialist and weapons designer Tony Stark triggers a booby trap while testing weapons in Vietnam. Shrapnel critically injures his heart, and he is captured by the communist commander Wong-Chu, who demands that Stark build him a weapon.

Stark instead builds a suit of armor that keeps his damaged heart beating, and uses it to escape and defeat his captor. The story also introduces Professor Yinsen, who dies in it. His heart injury made Iron Man an early example of a superhero with a physical vulnerability.

For its first five years the feature cast Iron Man as an American champion in Cold War allegories. As opposition to the war grew, Marvel moved him away from those politics, and when John Byrne took over the series in 1990 he rewrote the origin to remove the references to communism and Vietnam.

From anthology to Avenger to the movies

The red-and-gold armor that became the character's lasting look first appeared in Tales of Suspense #48, cover-dated December 1963, drawn by Steve Ditko. The Mandarin, his chief enemy, arrived in #50 in 1964. Iron Man was also a founding member of the Avengers in 1963.

Beginning with #59 in November 1964, Iron Man shared the book with Captain America. Tales of Suspense became Captain America with #100 in April 1968, and Iron Man got his own title with Iron Man #1 the following month.

In 2008 Robert Downey Jr. played Tony Stark in Iron Man, the first film of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, a portrayal that made the character one of Marvel's best-known heroes and drove collector demand for his first appearance.

The copies and the record

The issue's pale green cover background shows even small blemishes, so high-grade copies are scarce. The finest known copy is graded CGC 9.8 with white pages; as of April 2024 the census showed it as the only copy at that grade, with none higher. It was described as perhaps the best-centered copy its seller had seen. It sold at auction in April 2024 for $840,000, the record for the issue.

Before that, two different NM+ 9.6 copies each brought $262,900 at auction, one in 2012 and one in 2013.

The $840,000 record belongs to the single 9.8 copy. The highest published price for a 9.6 copy is the $262,900 paid in both 2012 and 2013.

The numbers

Print run

No print run verified. The title averaged 188,110 copies sold per issue in 1963, per the publisher's annual statement

CGC census, April 2024

1 copy at 9.8, none higher

Pages

36, including a 13-page Iron Man story and 10 pages of advertising

Cover price

12 cents

Timeline

1. Jan 1959

   Tales of Suspense launches as a science-fiction anthology.

2. Dec 10, 1962

   Tales of Suspense #39 goes on sale, cover-dated March 1963, introducing Iron Man.

3. Apr 1963

   Issue #40 changes the armor from gray to gold.

4. Dec 1963

   Issue #48, drawn by Steve Ditko, introduces the red-and-gold armor.

5. 1964

   The Mandarin first appears, in issue #50.

6. Nov 1964

   Iron Man begins sharing the title with Captain America in issue #59.

7. Apr 1968

   Tales of Suspense becomes Captain America with issue #100.

8. May 1968

   Iron Man #1 launches the character's own series.

9. 2008

   Iron Man, starring Robert Downey Jr., opens the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

10. 2012

    A CGC 9.6 copy sells for $262,900.

11. 2013

    A different CGC 9.6 copy also sells for $262,900.

12. Apr 2024

    The only CGC 9.8 copy sells at auction for $840,000, the record for the issue.

The world in 1962

• Feb 20, 1962

  John Glenn becomes the first American to orbit Earth.

• Oct 14, 1962

  The Cuban Missile Crisis begins when a U-2 photographs Soviet missiles in Cuba.

• Oct 28, 1962

  Khrushchev announces the removal of Soviet missiles from Cuba.

• Dec 2, 1962

  Senator Mike Mansfield, back from Vietnam, becomes the first American official to comment pessimistically on the war's progress.

• Dec 8, 1962

  A New York City newspaper strike begins; it lasts 114 days.

• Dec 14, 1962

  Mariner 2 flies by Venus, the first probe to send back data from another planet.

• Dec 24, 1962

  Cuba releases the last 1,113 Bay of Pigs prisoners in exchange for food.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, Tales of Suspense #39 is number 12 of 100 in the comics entries of the FLOAT 100. 92 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (9 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Stan Lee said he wanted to create a hero his anti-war readers should dislike, a weapons maker, and make them like him anyway.
• Tony Stark was modeled on Howard Hughes, with a dash of Errol Flynn in the face.
• The gray armor appears only in this issue; by the next issue it was gold, reportedly because the gray printed poorly.
• The red-and-gold armor that movie audiences know was first drawn by Steve Ditko, in late 1963.
• Iron Man shared Tales of Suspense with Captain America from 1964 until the title was renamed Captain America in 1968.
• Only one copy has been graded CGC 9.8, and it is the record holder at $840,000.