Iron Man: Everything You Need To Know, Part 2.

This is the second part of our continuing series on "Everything You Need To Know About Iron Man". If you haven't read Part 1 yet, you can check it out here.

More About Iron Man in the Comics

In September 1963, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby thought it might be a good idea to feature multiple Marvel heroes in one comic- so they put together The Mighty Thor, The Incredible Hulk, Ant Man, The Wasp together with Iron Man in what is now known as the very first publication of The Avengers.

As a founding member of The Avengers, Iron Man is involved with dealing with foes no single superhero can withstand. But in his own comic series, he has to deal with anything from Communist threats (with villains like The Black Widow, Crimson Dynamo and Titanium Man), threats to his company, Stark Industries (with villains like Obadiah Stane/Iron Monger and Justin Hammer), and more recently, threats to National Security.

In the comics, Stark has been portrayed as an arrogant billionaire playboy more than a level-headed businessman. He's also had to deal with issues like alcoholism on top of his deteriorating health.

He seems to be managing well, however- Stark Enterprises (which had gone through several name changes in the comic book series- Stark Industries, Stark International, Stark Innovations, Stark Solutions and just before this one, Stark/Fujikawa) has always been the leader in cutting-edge technologies, not just weapon systems- in fact, Stark constantly supplies governments and organizations like S.H.I.E.L.D., the Avengers and even the X-Men with the latest in armaments and gear.

For the longest time, however, and only until recently, the cover for Iron Man was that he was Tony Stark's bodyguard and corporate mascot. Occasionally, James Rhodes would don the Iron Man armor when both Stark and Iron Man would have to make an appearance together.

In a storyline from the 90's, Rhodes would see more time as Iron Man, and later wear a more heavily-armed version of the armor known as War Machine. He'd even go as far as running Stark's company while Tony takes time out due to his deteriorating health.

After some drama between him and Stark, Rhodey eventually goes solo, taking the power suit with him. In time, he and Stark would reconcile, and their friendship continues- with Stark as Iron Man, and Rhodey doing his own thing as War Machine.

When the Marvel Universe did a darker, grittier, modernized re-imagining of The Avengers in a totally separate comic book title, The Ultimates, Tony Stark was re-written as having a brain tumor, instead of having bits of shrapnel threatening to tear his heart apart.

Also, his identity as Iron Man is publicly known- one of the reasons why General Nick Fury asked him to join The Ultimates (or the re-written Avengers) in the first place: to give the superhero team some much-needed publicity and likability.

What Now For Iron Man?

I walked out of the cinema extremely satisfied. Not only was Iron Man a kick-ass movie, the clip they showed right after the credits looks very promising- not only are we expecting to see Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, but the producers let it slip that for the sequel, we might see The Avengers as well.

According to FirstShowing.net,

The buzz and performance of Iron Man so far has convinced Marvel to already start work on the sequel.

It seems that we might actually see the second Iron Man movie by April or May 2010. You can read the rest of the article here.

Cheers, everyone!