Simply the Best: Invincible

  Yeah, I've gone on about anniversary issue covers before, but those were the kind with every square inch of real estate bursting with supervillains and supporting cast members.  An equally appealing (and much less crowded) brand of anniversary cover is the Iconic Solo Pose cover, where the star of the title appears in his or her full heroic glory.  After all, accomplishing one hundred consecutive issues is no place for a whining or defeated superhero (we get plenty of that in between anniversary issues), so this is the ideal setting to show them in tip-top form.

A favorite of this Iconic Solo Pose variety is Iron-Man #100 (1977):

Stuff to like:

1.  Prior to this, I don't think any 100th issue cover had been quite this literal.  The giant stone "100" works great as its own (rather obvious) statement, but it also works well as a symbolically primitive counterweight to the high-tech vibe of Iron-Man's armor.

2. Iron-Man covers tend to focus on the armor's more dazzling flight and repulsor ray capabilities, but this cover is a rare display of the raw, brute strength the armor affords Tony Stark. 

3. Although one of my pet peeves is "painted on" superhero costumes (with every possible muscle showing), I'm willing to give the great Jim Starlin a pass with this cover.  Sure, it's unlikely that an iron torso piece would conform to every contour of Stark's musculature (and weren't those chest nodules located higher than nipple-level?), but come on...extravagantly-muscled torsos have always been Starlin's calling card.  To deny The Starlin his torso shot just wouldn't be right.

4. The steely (no pun intended) determination of those eyes is impossible to overlook.  In fact, despite the rather shrimpy size of the head, it's the stare that gives the entire cover an edgy emotional spark.  Quite a trick for a guy wearing an expressionless metal helmet.

5.  Borrowing a trick from the great Jack Kirby, the black-dotted "Kirby Krackle" effect framing the scene makes an already powerful cover literally burst with added energy.

6. Now, if only the word "Invincible" was properly centered above the ever-cool Iron-Man logo (love those rivets)...and if today's comics could also be 30¢...then all would truly be right with the world.

Comments

[Kyle]

Great cover indeed, Mark. I also love the simple but effective sparkling of the background/side lighting reflecting off Stark's armor. Really makes that golden armor shine! (Rather than just being a "painted on" yellow suit.) I also always liked those joint/connectors that stand out only slightly at the connection of the red torso and the yellow arm pieces. I always thought that effect gave it more the look of armor (almost like an old deep sea diving suit) rather than just a tank top over yellow tights.

[suedenim]

Iron Man sort of has a "two wrongs make a right" excuse for the "muscled" armor, in that the whole thing supposedly fits into a secret compartment in a briefcase and/or the chest piece can be worn inconspicuously under a dress shirt! If that's the case, you can sort of buy that it'd have to made of some extremely thin high-tech wonder metal.

[Wes C]

I've never had much of a problem with the painted on look either. With all the crazy things in comics - unstable molecules and Pym particles and so on I'm willing to give Tony a pass.

That said, I really like the look of his armor when John Romita JR came back to the tittle in the early 90's - it had a very pleasing solidity to it.

BTW- Good luck with the Iron Man armor design contest. I tried a few designs but it they always came out looking more like Titanium Man and Darkhawk's love child than a proper Iron Man suit.

[Mark Engblom]

" I also love the simple but effective sparkling of the background/side lighting reflecting off Stark's armor. Really makes that golden armor shine!"

Good observation. I also get a kick out of "old school" (i.e. "pre-computer") coloring effects used to indicate lighting, metal, rock (like the use of stipple-effect Zip-A-Tone on the 100 rocks), the little "starburst" glinting effects, etc. Back before you could just run a "lens flare" Photoshop effect for armor shine, you actually had to work a bit to achieve the illusion of shiny metal. Not that I prefer the old methods over modern coloring technology (I'm not THAT much a slave to nostalgia), but at the same time I admire the ingenuity and creativity of doing those effects "on the cheap".

"I also always liked those joint/connectors that stand out only slightly at the connection of the red torso and the yellow arm pieces. I always thought that effect gave it more the look of armor (almost like an old deep sea diving suit) rather than just a tank top over yellow tights."

Yeah, those pieces where some of the elements that communicated a heavy, metallic suit over it being just another costume. I always liked those hip-pods as well.

[Mark Engblom]

"Iron Man sort of has a "two wrongs make a right" excuse for the "muscled" armor, in that the whole thing supposedly fits into a secret compartment in a briefcase and/or the chest piece can be worn inconspicuously under a dress shirt! If that's the case, you can sort of buy that it'd have to made of some extremely thin high-tech wonder metal."

Good point...there's always that aspect to consider. That's the line the creators have always had to walk with Iron-Man: conveying incredible strength when fully armored-up, yet at the same time conveying Stark's ingenuity through the armor's portability...which probably explains why his original super-bulky armor had an incredibly short shelf life before the more familair red and yellow streamlined armor showed up.

[Mark Engblom]

"I've never had much of a problem with the painted on look either. With all the crazy things in comics - unstable molecules and Pym particles and so on I'm willing to give Tony a pass."

Well, yeah....me too most of the time. But I really respect artists that can convey at least a hint of the "clothing" aspect of a costume without having to render the costume like it's spray-painted bare skin. I feel the suggestion of mass and dynamic action poses do more to convey "power" than the "anatomy lesson" minutia many artist and fans obsess over.

"That said, I really like the look of his armor when John Romita JR came back to the tittle in the early 90's - it had a very pleasing solidity to it."

My favorite Iron-Man artists remain George Tuska (essentially the ""70's Iron-Man artist") and Bob Layton (the "80's Iron-Man artist"), both for different reasons. Tuska more for the dynamic action poses, and Layton for making the armor look better than it ever has (his metallic rendering effects are impeccable).

"BTW- Good luck with the Iron Man armor design contest. I tried a few designs but it they always came out looking more like Titanium Man and Darkhawk's love child than a proper Iron Man suit."

Thanks, Wes. I'm not sure when the winners will be announced (I never heard a peep from the Project Rooftop gang when I sent my submission), so who knows what'll happen there. I look forward to seeing the other armor designs...too bad you didn't submit one (though if you weren't happy with them, I understand why you held off).

[Wes C]

In general I prefer the hint of clothing look to the spray painted look too. I can make an exception for Iron Man for some reason.

That's something I've always appreciated about Byrne's Fantastic Four - the fact that the uniforms looked more like jumpsuits than skintight spandex.

I think the 70's were the worst offenders about that - Putting People like Reed Richards, The Miracle Man and The Purple Man in those types of costumes and giving them giving them overdeveloped body builder physiques just looks goofy.

To me Toth's people always looked so good because they looked solid but not overly developed.

And yeah, Layton's version is the one I see in my head whenever I think of Shellhead.

[Hube]

Great cover, great story inside, too! I'm with Mark -- I LOVE 'ol George Tuska's action poses. He made IM look TOUGH; always very muscular, great use of panel angles, and he had a natural simplicity to his art that was neither too cartoony or too realistic. I think his signature pose was when he'd have IM curled up in an almost-fetal position, bent arms at his side with fists clenched ... he'd usually be smashing through something in this pose, or into a bad guy. Just glance around some 1970s Tuska issues... you'll see this pose time and again.

And, I love Layton for making the armor look like ARMOR. But for me, Layton has always been best on IM as an inker, not a penciler. His work on Romita Jr. and later Mark Bright was phenomenal.

BTW, did I ever tell you, Mark, that I once had lunch with David Michelinie? It was about 10 years ago. Talk about one cool, laid back guy. He lives pretty darn close to me right here in the First State!

[Mark Engblom]

"BTW, did I ever tell you, Mark, that I once had lunch with David Michelinie? It was about 10 years ago. Talk about one cool, laid back guy. He lives pretty darn close to me right here in the First State!"

Hey, that's great, Hube! Did he pretty much leave comics? I haven't heard from him in awhile.

Yeah, regarding Tuska, that pose you described readily comes to mind...but the visual device that sticks out the most to me is when he'd draw many character's hands with the fingers stuck together and rolling down at an angle with the thumb out to the side. It's hard to describe verbally, but if you're a Tuska fan, you probably know what I'm talking about.

[Hube]

Mark: I know exactly what you're talking re: Tuska and those hands! Also, another classic Tuska panel would be a scene with just the hero's head, a close-up of his fist, and the villain's head (being rocked by the hero's punch). He used that ad nauseum in not just Iron Man, but in whatever titled he drew.

Michelinie hasn't done much comics related, although he and Layton will have a couple Iron Man stories coming out shortly to coincide w/the movie. One is the third and final installment of their "Iron Man/Doc Doom" time travel yarn, and then they were to do an "Iron Man: The End" story.

[Brian]

Hube, that's cool you got to meet Michelinie-- between his work on The Avengers, Spider-Man and Iron Man, he kind of defined "Marvel" for me for awhile (along with Byrne). And he and Layton-- who corresponds with fans on his website-- have always seemed approachable and appreciative of fans, which is cool. I'm looking forward to their new IM work.

Oh, forgive my ignorance, but which state calls itself the "First State"? Virginia? Delaware? New Hampshire?

[Brian]

Also, I assume you know about this, right? Looks pretty cool!

[Hube]

Brian: The First State = Delaware.

I hadn't heard of that IM story you linked to ... I've been on a hiatus of buying Marvel comics for a few months now. But I'll prob check it out.

And you're right -- Bob and David have always been great to IM fans. When I ran Advanced Iron they always hooked us up with art and other tidbits.

[Brian]

Hube, I thought it might be Delaware, as my creaky old memory told me they were the first ones to ratify the Constitution, yes? It's always nice to know where people are actually from-- sometimes, the "blogosphere" feels like its own country. (:

[Hube]

You got it, Bri -- Delaware was the first to ratify the Constitution! That's our big "claim to fame," as it were. There's really nothing else TO claim!! ;-)