"Watch his awesome approach! Listen to his ponderous footsteps as he lumbers closer…closer…for today you are destined to encounter - The Invincible Iron Man."

So goes the opening line of Iron Man is Born!, the lead story in Marvel’s Tales of Suspense no. 39 (1963), featuring the origin and first appearance of Tony "Iron Man" Stark. Plotted by Stan "The Man" Lee, scripted by Larry Lieber (Stan’s brother), and drawn by Don Heck, the adventure yarn describes Stark as a millionaire playboy (ala Bruce Wayne) who is "both a sophisticate and a scientist…as much at home in a laboratory as in high society." (Lee patterned Stark after Howard Hughes, sans the eccentricities).

Now Iron Man is gaining a new set of fans thanks to the 2008 release of the movie Iron Man and the recent release of Iron Man 2. According to MojoNews.com the second film soared to $128.1 million its opening week, compared to a $98.6 million opening of the first movie. The sequel also rocketed to fifth place among the highest-grossing opening weekends of all time, according to the website.

While the movie was updated to more current times, Iron Man is Born! is set during the Vietnam War, and Tony Stark is a weapons inventor specializing in miniature transistors. During a mission in a dense South Vietnam jungle, Stark, who has accompanied the American soldiers to ensure that his weapons function properly, trips on a small, concealed wire, setting off a booby-trap, the resultant explosion piercing his chest with shrapnel. Communist guerillas, led by the tyrannical Wong-Chu, capture the critically injured Stark with intentions of forcing him to build them a special weapon.

Ever the clever and cagey scientist, Stark, accompanied by a Vietnamese professor holding a grudge against Wong-Chu, builds a big, bulky, gray suit of iron (which was designed by Jack "The King" Kirby, cover artist for the issue). Instead of handing it over to Wong-Chu, Stark dons the battle suit himself, escapes, and uses the bullet-proof armor’s weaponry to defeat Wong-Chu and his goons. In addition to acting as battle gear, the armor keeps Tony alive as the shrapnel in his chest creeps ever closer to his heart.

A fun, tightly told, and even sympathetic tale (Stark assumes he is fated to spending the rest of his life in the armor, the professor is killed while buying time for Stark), Iron Man is Born! is only 13 pages in length, but it does a great job of quickly, concisely, and excitingly establishing Iron Man as a hero to be reckoned with. In Tales of Suspense no. 40, Iron Man’s gray armor gives way to gold, and issue no. 45 introduces Stark’s peppy secretary, Pepper Potts, and his loyal chauffeur, Happy Hogan.

In near mint condition, Tales of Suspense no. 39 is worth $3,500, no. 40 sells for $1,100, and no. 45 will fetch the seller $325. Another important issue in the Tales of Suspense series is no. 59 ($210), which begins the newly resurrected Captain America’s backup strip. (Captain America, a fellow member of the Avengers, debuted in 1941 in Captain America Comics no. 1 - worth $125,000 - and was revived for the Silver Age of Comics in 1964 in Avengers no. 4 - worth $2,250).

After a long stint in Tales of Suspense (ending with no. 99), Iron Man appeared in Iron Man and Submariner no. 1 (a one-shot issue from 1968, worth $100), and then got his own series, Iron Man (1968), which ran for 332 issues (plus 14 annuals). Iron Man no. 1 is worth $250 while issues late in the series can easily be found for as little as a buck apiece.

While not a major player when it comes to collecting high-dollar Iron Man comics, Craig "Mr. Silver Age" Shutt, a columnist for the Comics Buyer’s Guide, is considered an authority on the character, at least regarding the earlier material. "I own Tales of Suspense #39 only in reprints," Shut said, "but I have most of the Silver Age issues after about #51, having acquired them as cheap ($3 to $5 each) reading copies to fill in the holes around the few I held onto since I bought them off the spinner rack back in the day. They’re all in reading condition, meaning Good at best, I imagine. I don’t pay much attention to condition."

Regarding his favorite Iron Man storyline, Shutt cited "Tony testifying before Congress in Tales of Suspense nos. 84-86 and collapsing on the floor of the Senate. To revive him, the senators open his shirt, and the media see that he is wearing a chest plate, making them realize he’s infirm and also leading to rumors that he’s Iron Man. Happy had just learned Tony’s secret, so he takes the armor and flies (badly) around Washington to convince everyone that Tony isn’t Iron Man. But then the Mandarin attacks, teleporting ’Iron Man’ into a trap. It had a little bit of everything going for it, including great Gene Colan art."

While Shutt is indeed an Iron Man fan, he wasn’t necessarily sold on the character from the beginning. "My first experience with Iron Man was probably somewhere around Tales of Suspense #54," Shutt said, "in which Iron Man battles The Mandarin (which describes about half of the issues back then). I no doubt bought it at one of the three-plus drugstores on my regular comics-checking route. I usually rode my bike to them every week to look for new stuff."

Shutt continued: "I don’t know that I was that impressed, frankly. I didn’t much care for Marvel’s two-hero books, as the stories were so short and often had a cliffhanger that was quickly resolved in the next issue - but I didn’t always know if I’d see that next issue. So buying issues with two continued stories in them, as Tales of Suspense had, wasn’t a great buy for me. The Don Heck artwork also wasn’t a draw. It wasn’t until Gene Colan came on the book (and I got a little older) that I started to pay more attention."

Despite his initial misgivings with the Tales of Suspense format and the Don Heck art, Shutt quickly grew to like Iron Man. "As a kid," Shutt said, "I thought Iron Man was a cool super-hero because he didn’t really have superpowers, he just invented things to make himself powerful. He was the linchpin of the Marvel Universe and had his hand in everything, with the Avengers using his mansion and him funding all kinds of projects."