He reads about the upcoming fight between Thundra and the Thing in a newspaper.
He enters the mysterious, expanded black bubble, only to return moments later in shambles saying he spent three weeks within the sphere.
In South Vietnam, Anthony Stark is badly wounded to the chest and taken to the Red Guerilla tyrant named Wong-Chu who promises to get his injury treated after he creates a weapon for him. Assisted by Professor Yinsen, Stark builds an armor that can keep his heart beating despite the shrapnel near the organ. After Yinsen sacrifices himself to allow enough time for the armor to power up, Iron Man avenges him by defeating Wong-Chu.
Tony Stark adjusts to his new life with a chest plate that he can't show in public and must recharge regularly. Getting a comment that Iron Man scares people, he paints his armor all gold to make it more appealing to the public. Iron Man later repels an alien invasion in Granville by destroying their robot called Gargantus.
Tony Stark intercepts a message from the Teen Brigade asking for help to locate the Hulk. After meeting the teenagers, Iron Man joins forces with Thor, Ant-Man and the Wasp to track down the green menace. When the others have located the Hulk and try to stop him, Thor arrives with Loki who confesses that this was all a trap for his foster brother. After they capture the God of Mischief, the four heroes and the Hulk decide to form a team called the Avengers.
Tony's negligence to recharge his chest plate causes him to have an accident on a race track. A stranger pulls him out of the car right before it explodes so he rewards the man by hiring him as a chauffeur and bodyguard. Soon, Tony takes Happy Hogan to his research plant where he introduces him to Pepper Potts, his secretary.
Stark Industries is attacked by the Crimson Dynamo, the first armored foe that Iron Man has to face. After battling the saboteur, Iron Man manages to convince Professor Vanko that the Soviet leader intends to eliminate him after his mission so the scientist accepts to work for Tony Stark as top researcher.
With the formation of the Avengers, Tony Stark has allowed the team to hold their meetings in his mansion. The Avengers meet an alien invader called the Space Phantom who uses his ability to borrow the body of any mortal to put the Avengers against each other, paving the way for his people to invade the Earth. The threat is over when the alien trying to take the immortal Thor's body and ends up in limbo himself. The Hulk announces to them that he is leaving the team.
After an excruciating defeat against Mr. Doll, Stark realizes that his iron armor is too bulky so he decides to redesign a much lighter one that will be less of a strain on his heart. He equips his new red and gold suit with more offensive and defensive gadgets. With that new suit, he finally defeats Mister Doll.
The Avengers discover the body of the legendary Captain America adrift in the sea and take him aboard their sub. After waking up, Cap tells them what happened during the last minutes of his life twenty years ago. The Avengers are turned into statues in New York Harbor and brought back to normal by an alien captured by Captain America and Rick Jones. They agree to help the D'Bari recover his spaceship at the bottom of the ocean. After they resist an attack from Namor, Captain America accepts to join the Avengers.
Sent to China by military high-command, Iron Man meets the Mandarin for the first time at the villain's castle. When the Avengers proves more than a match despite his special rings, the Mandarin attacks with his karate skills, but Iron Man defeats him anyway.
Tony Stark has to deal with two Soviet spies who came to the United States to sabotage his factories and recover Professor Vanko. Iron Man confronts the Crimson Dynamo imposter who dies at the hands of Vanko while the Black Widow escapes. One month after, she steals Stark's prototype anti-gravity device and uses it to sabotage his factories. She fights Iron Man with his own invention but Stark had also discovered a way to nullify the device. While Iron Man saves the life of her allies, the Black Widow escapes again.
Still on the trail of the Hulk, the Avengers find clues of his presence in New Mexico. But their former teammate is now in New York City and has defeated the Fantastic Four. They travel back home where they face the Hulk. Soon, the Fantastic Four have regrouped and join them in the fight, but since they never fought side-by-side, they only get in each other's way. Realizing this, they decide to collaborate and finally manage to defeat the Hulk who disappears into the Hudson River.
Baron Zemo assembles a team composed of the Black Knight, the Melter, the Radioactive Man and himself to battle their respective nemesis in the Avengers. But the heroes defeat the Masters of Evil by switching enemies to destabilize them. The villains are arrested but Baron Zemo manages to escape.
Iron Man travels to Viet-Nam to investigate the disappearance of Stark's observer missiles and confronts the Mandarin who manages to entrap the armored Avenger in steel cables. Using bluff, Iron Man gets enough time to break free from his bonds and tear apart the Mandarin's interceptor ray machine. After sending the previous missiles back on course, the hero flies back to the Pentagon to announce his success.
Due to his heart condition, Tony Stark decides to quit being a hero and ignores a call from the Avengers. He is forced back into his Iron Man armor when Happy ends up in a hospital with a bad injury and the Unicorn kidnaps Pepper. After defeating the villain, Stark is relieved that Happy's condition is no longer critical.
Stark Industries is once more attacked, but this time, by a man called Hawkeye whose mission is to defeat Iron Man. The villain wins the first round and Iron Man goes after him. He intercepts him near a pier, and when Hawkeye appears unconscious, the hero lets his guard down and is hit by a blast arrow. The archer disappears in a boat with a woman who looks familiar to him, unaware that she is the Black Widow.
After a sudden heart failure, Tony Stark realizes that he cannot remove his armor lest he might die. Iron Man is forced to tell Happy and Pepper that Stark is out of town.
The Avengers are asked by the Pentagon to deal with the threat of Kang the Conqueror who came from the future to claim Earth for himself. After explaining his origin, Kang is attacked by the Avengers but he easily confines the male members of the team inside his ship. They are freed by the Teen Brigade and the Wasp soon arrives with a weapon with which Giant-Man destroys Kang's suit which controls his weapons. Defeated when Thor uses his hammer to hurl radiation back at him, the Conqueror is forced to flee in his ship.
The Avengers meet Wonder Man for the first time as he helps them fight the Masters of Evil. Then the Avengers discover this is all a set up to lure them to South America where they all get captured by the villains. Ultimately, Wonder Man redeems himself and sacrifices his life when he saves the heroes from Zemo who is about to kill them.
When everybody is growing suspicious that Iron Man is behind his boss's disappearance and the police catch him taking money and papers from Stark's safe, the Golden Avenger is forced to escape. Later, when Hawkeye breaks into Stark's factory and takes Pepper hostage, Iron Man chases him away.
When Immortus captures Rick Jones, each Avenger must confront a legendary figure to free him and Iron Man beats Merlin the magician. Before all his champions are defeated, Immortus leaves with Captain America. Meanwhile, the Masters of Evil attack the Avengers and gain the upper hand until Cap returns victorious with Rick. The Enchantress casts a spell to bring her team back to the moment before they met Immortus, so for anybody else, it is as if nothing ever happened.
Led by Thor's hammer which has detected evil impulses in the Balkans, the Avengers engage in a fight against the X-Men. Professor X explains that Earth would be in peril if their foe Lucifer was to be slain and convinces them that they will handle the situation.
After one month of Stark's absence, Happy and Pepper give their resignation to Iron Man who soon becomes subject of an investigation. Later, Happy finds Tony at his estate, and when Pepper arrives, he tells them that the doctor ordered absolute rest and tries to clear Iron Man of all suspicions. As they leave, the estate is razed by a mysterious ray and everyone is convinced that Stark was killed in the blast. Discovering that the Mandarin was responsible, Iron Man tracks him down in Asia. The hero is captured by the villain who tells him about his origin and about his plan to trigger a new world war. Iron Man breaks free and intercepts the Chinese missile.
Stark finally upgrades the master transistor in his chest piece and no longer needs to wear the whole armor. Then he shows up at the plant, putting an end to the allegations of his death. Seeing how Happy cares for Pepper, he announces to them both that he secretly got engaged to a Boston debutante while vacationing on a yacht, which also justifies why he has not reported earlier.
A convicted scientist calling himself Doctor Strange used a device to take control of the golden hero so he would break him out of his cell so now Iron Man is forced to go after him and bring him back.
Iron Man intercepts the Actor who came to Stark Industries to steal plans for a new weapon and learned his secret identity in the process. Fortunately, the Red Barbarian kills the Actor for not delivering what he promised.
Iron Man escapes from Kala, Queen of the Netherworld, who has captured Tony Stark to force him to devise a way for her army to conquer the surface world.
Hatap meets Tony Stark and forces him to go back to the past with him to defeat Cleopatra but instead, Iron Man helps the queen get rid of her enemy.
Iron Man stops the Melter, one of Stark's former competitor who started destroying his tanks and war materials using a devices that can melt any metal.
Iron Man deals with the Angel who was bombarded by radiation over one of Tony Stark's installation and turned evil.
Learning that Thor is rampaging through New York, Iron Man, Giant-Man and the Wasp try to calm him down, but he just wants to be left alone.
Iron Man seeks help to locate the Hulk but gets no real results from the other super-heroes. Rick Jones informs the Avengers that he found his friend back in New Mexico. They confront the Hulk in the desert to reason with him but it turns into a fight and the monster chooses to escape. Days after, he has found an ally in the Sub-Mariner and they challenge the Avengers to battle them at Gibraltar. When the Hulk apparently deserts in the middle of the fight, Namor plays it safe and swims away.
Assisted by trained crows, a contortionist calling himself the Scarecrow robs blueprints from Tony Stark and tries to sell them back to him. When he steals Tony's suitcase of money as well and offers the blueprints to Cubans, Iron Man sinks their boat.
In New Mexico, the Avengers are attacked by the Lava Men who have been pushing an ever-growing rock outside of their subterranean domain. They learn that trying to make it explode would destroy both their races. When the Hulk suddenly appears and engages battle, the Avengers solve all their problems by tricking him into smashing the rock at a vulnerable spot, causing it to implode.
Tony confronts protests against his Lakani island factory and, in his Iron Man identity, prevents a bomb attack by radicals.
He is involved in a conflict between convicts and an alien android.
Tony builds the jetpack for Falcon.
After an Avengers meeting, Cap stays at Tony's mansion to teach Iron Man some judo holds.
Iron Man is suspended for a week from the Avengers for failing to answer their call. Despite this punishment, he jumps into action when he hears that Thor is attacking the Avengers. After Iron Man snaps him out of the Enchantress's spell, the Avengers defeat the new Masters of Evil whom Thor sends into a space warp.
Iron Man, Giant-Man and the Wasp offer their help to Thor who seems to fly to battle, but the Asgardian prefers to handle his personal matter by himself.
After testing his armor's underwater capabilities, Iron Man easily captures Kraven the Hunter who has just smuggled himself back in America near Stark's factory. The Chameleon impersonates Captain America and convinces Iron Man to attack the real one. The villain is captured when Giant-Man and the Wasp expose the impostor.
Spider-Man leaves the unconscious Electro to Iron Man's care in one of Stark's power plants.
Tony gets warned by a fake Nick Fury about the Espionage Elite and has to deal with the first actions of said group. He later meets the impostor and is knocked out.
Tony is under control of the Espionage Elite but is able to slip away and change into Iron Man, defeating them. After the battle he finds the heavily injured Japser Sitwell and swears revenge on the fleeing Spymaster.
As the Avengers are about to investigate the sinking of entire city blocks into the ground, the Fantastic Four inform them that this is the Mole Man's doing so they prefer to handle the situation themselves.
Still bend on revenge on the Spymaster he examines the Zodiac Key for clues. After being attacked by Zodiac, he and Nick Fury are captured.
The Black Widow calls Stark to announce that she taken Happy and Pepper hostage and orders him to send Iron Man to meet her near a railroad loading station. Arriving there, he realizes that Hawkeye is with her and they engage in battle. Hit by a corrosive arrow, Iron Man races against time before his armor melts away, but when the Black Widow is injured, Hawkeye chooses to leave with her.
Iron Man is transported to another realm when Nick touches the Zodiac Key. There he has to fight Spymaster on behalf of a mysterious brotherhood.
After returning from the other realm, Iron Man unsuccessfully chases Spymaster. Back in his life as millionaire playboy, the city is attacked by Ramrod. In the midst of the fight, Tony has a strong heart attack.
On the verge of a blackout after his heart attack, Tony is able to reach his office where he asks Kevin for help. After his recovery he frees Marianne and defeats the alien invaders.
Tony Stark hires an ex-convict and has to deal with the
After mocking Giant-Man who brought them a warning sent by his ants, worldwide tremors make the Avengers realize their mistake. After a failed attack from the Mole Man's minions, they dig their way to the villain's lair where they find that he has associated himself with the Red Ghost. The team destroys the Mole Man's equipment and Iron Man seals off the villains' access tunnels to the surface world.
The Avengers are attending a fake charity event at Count Nefaria's castle where they are put in stasis. As they leave, the confused Avengers are attacked by the US Armed Forces and have to retreat to their HQ where they learn that they supposedly threatened to take over the government. Suspecting that Nefaria is behind this, they go back to his castle where they free the Teen Brigade, defeat the Count and force a confession that clears their names, but the Wasp has been hit by a stray bullet in the fight.
At the hospital, the Avengers learn that the Wasp is in critical condition and only one specialist may save her. But Dr. Svenson had agreed to help an alien race hiding in the North Pole and the Avengers find themselves caught in the middle of an interplanetary war. When the Yirbek locate their foe on Earth, the Avengers force the Kallusians to send them back to the hospital with the doctor and to take their conflict elsewhere. Svenson's operation on Janet is successful.
Iron Man listens as T'Challa tells of his origin.
Iron Man is called by the UN to protect an experimental weather control station with Thor and Goliath from a seeming attack by the Silver Surfer, whom Iron Man has to fight, and his allies.
Tony Stark, who is in charge of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Special Weaponry Section, greets Colonel Nick Fury and announces that he's to become their next director.
When Rick Jones is pulled into an aircraft by an attractor beam, the Avengers follow after it and are attacked by the Masters of Evil. To avoid injuring citizens, Thor uses his hammer to teleport his teammates and the mortal villains in a neutral place where they easily capture them. A bit later, the Wasp suggests they all take a leave of absence to take some vacation and both Giant-Man and Iron Man agree. Before they leave, they decide to accept Hawkeye, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch as their replacement in the team.
During a test run of his one-man submarine for Senator Byrd, Iron Man is attacked by Attuma who plans to conquer the surface world with his army. Thanks in part to his new armor's gadgets and longer air supply, he is able to defeat the invader. But since Byrd would never believe what really happened, he is forced to lie and tell him that the test failed, which exacerbates further Stark's relation with the senator.
After Happy's decision to quit his job, Iron Man goes to Ireland to convince him to come back to Stark's employment. For a short while, he experiences life-like dreams where he must face old foes, unaware that this was caused by the Master of Dreams.
Tony Stark's repeated reports on alien appearances cause the press and the national authorities to doubt his stability. Then Iron Man defeats real aliens who came to colonize Earth and Stark gets proof that he was right.
While Tony Stark attends Reed Richards and Sue Storm's wedding at Baxter Building, he realizes that the Fantastic Four are attacked by several of their old foes so he changes to Iron Man to lend a hand. He confronts the Mad Thinker and his Awesome Android. While the battle rages on, Richards uses a machine that transports all their enemies back to the recent past with no memory of what occurred. Finally, Reed and Sue are wed in front of all their family and friends.
Tony Stark and Nick Fury elaborate a plan to neutralize the Betatron Bomb that Hydra launched in orbit. Stark is about to show him his new machine, the Braino-Saur, but Fury is captured by Hydra. Since his machine is S.H.I.E.L.D.'s only hope to neutralize Hydra's bomb, Stark supervises the Braino-Saur's blast-off. After boarding the Helicarrier, he pilots the Braino-Saur and delicately disarms the Betatron Bomb.
When S.H.I.E.L.D.'s headquarters are invaded by Mentallo and the Fixer, Tony Stark uses a Neutralizer machine which disintegrates the H-Bomb Fury was tied to, allowing S.H.I.E.L.D.'s assault squad to capture the two villains.
Tony Stark gets a telegram from the Titanium Man who challenges Iron Man to a broadcasted fight. After a few days of work on a Reverser device for his chest plate, he accepts to fight the Communist's champion. Arrived at the hotel, he sees Countess Stephanie de la Spiroza, but since he has to prepare his armor, he refuses to have a drink with his old flame. As the battle begins, Iron Man realizes that the Communists have set up a mine field and that the Titanium Man's power and sophisticated weapons clearly outmatch him, At the end of the round, he flies to his lab where he finds out that the Countess has stolen his Reverser device. Then he charges Happy to recover it . During the second round, Happy rushes to Iron Man to hand him the device but a strong blast from Titanium Man critically injures him. Before passing out, Happy realizes out loud that Pepper actually loves him and that Tony Stark is Iron Man. Iron Man equips his armor with the device, and empowered by his determination to make him pay for Happy's sacrifice, he strikes back at his opponent and defeats him. Senator Byrd congratulates him for his victory but when he hears that Happy is still alive, Iron Man immediately leaves. Tony arrives at the hospital where the doctors are rather pessimistic about Happy's condition. Questioned by Pepper about his absence during the fight, Tony comes up with a lousy excuse and realizes that she now despises him.
