This is the first appearance of the character least likely to launch the most successful movie franchise of all time. Iron Man.
Exactly.
Nobody had seen him before this, and although by now the beats of his origin story are quite familiar, it was by far the most innovative of the Marvel heroes to date.
No radiation. No cosmic rays. Just science.
Tony Stark, a munitions inventor, has developed super-powered magnets that have military uses. The U.S. Army is using them in South Vietnam, and Tony Stark goes to the site to ensure his products are working in action. Going into a war zone just to make sure stuff works right? Now that’s a hands-on executive!
And a handful of ridiculous coincidences.
Meanwhile, a local thug named Wong-Chu is gaining power in the region. Everything about Wong Chu is wrong, from the yellow skin tone to the primitive speech patterns to his being called “the red guerrilla tyrant.”
The U.S. military, for whatever reason, is incapable of protecting Stark and he falls into Wong-Chu’s hands after accidentally tripping what is essentially the 1960s version of an IED. Shrapnel goes into his heart and he needs surgery or will die in a matter of days.
He’s actually looking pretty chipper there, though.
Note the “betray your country” line. The foundation of Iron Man versus Captain America begins here–with Tony’s willingness to sacrifice principles in the name of his own goals. Granted, the goal here is saving his own life, but at the same time if anything had gone wrong, Chu would have had a powerful weapon to use against the U.S.A.
You know what happens next: Captured and held hostage, Tony Stark makes a suit of bulletproof, super-strong armor, that also keeps a bullet fragment from puncturing his own heart.
And he makes short work of Wong Chu.
And it’s not just brawn, it’s tech…
He escapes and blows up Wong Chu’s base.
And right there at the bottom, we’re told that Iron Man will be a mainstay in the Tales of Suspense anthology series.
Note that the U.S. entry into the Vietnam war was not for another year. Perhaps it was Stark’s meddling that caused the whole thing?