Booze, Boobs and Robot Boots No. 1: Tales of Suspense 39

What's happening? Tony Stark is a rich weapons inventor who has created a tiny transistor that makes small things operate like big things (Garyfied Air has placed an order for 25). If that doesn't really make sense, it's OK, since that's a running theme here (also a running theme? Racism!).

As weapon inventors were wont to do in the 60s, Tony Stark travels with Americans and South Korean troops to help them use the "midget" transistors during the war. (This is done by making mortars flashlight-sized, obviously.) Stark is injured and placed under the care of Warlord Wong-chu, who tries to convince Stark to invent a weapon for him. Instead, Stark invents a Iron Man suit and breaks out, presumably to lead the live of a vagabond in North Korea for the rest of his days.

ETC: After kicking some ass, Tony (who reminds everyone in earshot his reason for being there is in case his weapons mess up during the battle and he can do emergency repairs, I assume this is how we do things today -- place expensively trained R&D personnel in harm's way) trips a booby trap and blows up all of his pals. Moments later, a North Korean troop discovers the injured (but strangely not dead) Tony and says this:

Yankee civilian still alive! Him maybe important official of government! I bring him to Wong-chu! Maybe get reward!

Yeah. Now we're all equally uncomfortable. Thanks, Stan Lee and Larry Lieber!

MVP: Clearly, it's Professor Yinsen, the Greatest Physicist of All Time, who is dressed as a kung fu master and helps Tony build the Iron suit. He also sacrifices his own life so that Tony may escape. He does this by staging a fruitless escape attempt. Wong-chu falls for this by killing Yinsen and then sends his troops to find Stark while he goes and wrestles the prisoners (yeah, see below).

MIA: Looking over the first page, we see Tony inventing some stuff, we see women swooning in his presence (and one broad even says he's the best looking thing this side of Rock Hudson! Ouch! Like Tony's Walt-Disney-esque mustache didn't make him a little bit suspect from the first panel). I would say Booze since he's not really drinking yet.

WTF: Wong-chu likes to challenge his prisoners to wrestling matches! He wins all of them, of course, until Tony (disguised much like FF's The Thing usually is) challenges Wong-chu. You can probably guess who won. Midget transistors, indeed.