Iron Man is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Co-created by writer and editor Stan Lee, developed by scripter Larry Lieber, and designed by artists Don Heck and Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in Tales of Suspense #39 in 1962 (cover dated March 1963) and received his own title with Iron Man #1 in 1968. Shortly after his creation, Iron Man became a founding member of the superhero team, the Avengers, alongside Thor, Ant-Man, the Wasp, and the Hulk. Iron Man stories, individually and with the Avengers, have been published consistently since the character's creation.
Following the success of the Fantastic Four in 1961 and the subsequent revival of American comic books featuring superheroes, Marvel Comics created new superhero characters. Stan Lee developed the initial concept for Iron Man.[1] He wanted to design a character who should be unpalatable to his generally anti-war readers but to make them like the character anyway.[2] Iron Man was created in the years after a permanent arms industry developed in the United States, and this was incorporated into the character's backstory.[3] The character was introduced as an active player in the Vietnam War. Lee described the national mood toward Vietnam during Iron Man's creation as "a time when most of us genuinely felt that the conflict in that tortured land really was a simple matter of good versus evil".
Iron Man's earliest stories were published in the monster-themed anthology series Tales of Suspense. Marvel premiered several superheroes this way in the 1960s as superhero comics became more popular than traditional science-fiction and horror comics.[9][12] Iron Man's first appearance, "Iron Man is Born!", appeared in Tales of Suspense #39, released in December 1962 with a March 1963 cover date.[12] Though the Iron Man armor was gray in its first appearance, Marvel changed it to gold because of issues with printing.[5] Lee initially delegated the writing duties to other creators at Marvel, but he felt their work was substandard; as with his other characters, Lee reclaimed control of Iron Man so he could write the stories himself.