From the Mouths of the Marvels:

"As Tony Stark, I'm scheduled to drive in the 500-mile speedway classic which begins shortly. But helping the FBI clamp down on a spy ring this morning made me good and late!"

- - Iron Man, page 2

A fine rendering of auto-racing action from Dastardly Don Heck!

Iron Man from Tales of Suspense #45
September 1963 • 18 pages

Publication Date: June 11, 1963

Letters Page: No letters page was published in this issue

I: Feature Story: "The Icy Fingers of Jack Frost!"

Job Number: X-347

Pages: 18

Plot: Stan Lee
Script: Robert Bernstein (credited as R. Berns)
Pencils: Don Heck
Inks: Don Heck
Letters: Sam Rosen

First Appearance: Jack Frost/Professor Shapanka, Happy Hogan, Pepper Potts

Villain/Origin: Jack Frost

Guest Appearance: Happy Hogan, Pepper Potts

Iron Man Tech: Iron Man speed-skates, chestplate searchlight-beam/heat ray, miniature furnace

Synopsis: As Iron Man whizzes at high speeds down the highway on his jet-skates, he draws the attention of some traffic police, who find it impossible to chase him down on their motorcycles. He arrives at his sports car which is waiting for him further down the road, and he dresses down into his Tony Stark clothes. Tony arrives a little late to drive his car at the auto race at the speedway, but he climbs behind the wheel of "The Stark Special" and starts the race. In the middle of the race, however, he feels his heart clutch up on him; he spins out and crashes, and his car bursts into flame. Stark cannot move, but a bystander braves the flames to save him, and pulls him out of the wreckage. Stark, in obvious agony, begs the man to take him quickly to his hotel room and to not ask any questions. The man agrees and they take off in his car.

Finally at the hotel, Stark plugs his chest plate into the wall and regains the normal beat of his heart. He thinks about the man who rescued him and decides to offer him a reward for saving his life. The man, Happy Hogan, is a retired boxer who rips up Stark's reward check for fifty-thousand dollars because he doesn't think he deserves it for doing something any decent person would have done. Instead, Stark offers him a regular job as his chauffer/bodyguard, and Hogan eagerly accepts. They head over to Stark's research lab ("One of many that cover the world," he tells Hogan) where they meet his secretary, Pepper Potts. Immediately, the sparks fly between Potts and Hogan, with both of them being at each other's throats with bickering! But although they bicker, the heavyweight Hogan confesses an attraction to Pepper Potts, who rebuffs him saying she's saving herself to be the future Mrs. Tony Stark.

Stark excuses himself and goes to his private office to test out his Iron Man suit. He goes through checks on many of his new innovations for his suit, when suddenly an alarm bell goes off. As Iron Man, he heads immediately down to the basement where he discovers one of his employees, Professor Shapanka, trying to break into a money vault. Shapanka fires a gun at the oncoming metal hulk, but it is no use. Iron Man apprehends Shapanka and shoves him into the vault, closing it securely behind him. Later, Tony Stark comes down with armed guards, and explains that he's letting him go in part because of his brilliance as a scientist, but since he no longer trusts him as an employee, he is fired. As Shapanka insults Stark, his former boss makes a side comment warning him to leave now before he "gets cold feet". For some reason, the turn of phrase makes Shapanka laugh out loud, and he thanks Stark for helping him mentally "connect the dots" on a solution to his money problems. Thinking Shapanka is nuttier than a fruit cake, they let him leave.

Weeks later, Shapanka is back in his private laboratory, thinking about what Stark said about having "cold feet". This inspiration has led him to the finalization of his project to freeze living creatures in ice, then revive them at a later date, as alive as they were when they were first frozen. He develops a suit using his new technology that will keep his body tempurate down, but not freeze him, while simultaneously giving him special powers over cold. A week later, he coldly and calmly walks into a bank wearing his new "ice suit" and encases armed guards and customers inside blocks of ice. He robs the bank vault and then saunters outside, icing up the policemen - and the bullets they are shooting at him! The newspaper headlines scream out about the new threat of "Jack Frost". Enjoying his newfound power and fame, Shapanka decides to make his next move against Tony Stark.

Covered in ice, the newly anointed "Jack Frost" enters Stark's HQ, drawing fire from armed guards. Pepper Potts warns Stark that Frost is trying to break in, so he runs into his ffice and dresses up as Iron Man. Happy rushes in to help, and picks up the rifle of a guard who has been frozen in ice. As he races inside Stark's office to check on his boss, he is frozen solid by Jack Frost. Tony, now fully in his Iron Man armor, recognizes Jack Frost's voice as Shapanka's, and opens up a trap door beneath his feet. Jack Frost grabs hold of the side of the trap door and uses his ice powers to climb out, but Iron Man uses the heat ray in his chest plate to melt Jack Frost. He manages to stall the icy villain long enough to deploy a miniature transistorized furnace from his utility belt. Placed on the ground, it emanates a heat wave that melts all of the ice he has generated, as well as debilitate his powers to generate more cold. Thus defeated, Jack Frost is arrested, and Happy Hogan wonders if he's given up prize-fighting for the wrong vocation!

--synopsis by Gormuu

Issues Reprinted
Iron Man from
Tales of Suspense #39-50

Click on cover image to learn more about each issue.

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