Iron Man Poster #53 Early Armor Prototype by Patrick Zircher

Description

Crafted by Stan Lee and Don Heck, Iron Man was a character that was created on a dare. Lee was on a high after experiencing success with the Fantastic Four and felt so sure of himself that he could make a hit monthly series out of the most unlikely and unpopular of ideas. During a time when war was unpopular, Tony Stark was a dashing and brilliant weapons manufacturer with a gift for making better and more efficient ways of keeping the peace for the U.S. military. He was so proud of his inventions that he felt the need to witness the devastation caused by a handheld mortar no larger than a flashlight in Korea. Injured in action, he was revived as a prisoner of war. Urged by a mustache-twirling villain to make weapons for the enemy, Stark found that he was mortally injured, a piece of shrapnel lodged near his heart. Assisted by a fellow inmate (and coincidentally gifted engineer), Stark devised a method of fending off the Grim Reaper and gaining freedom all at once, a suit of armor that slowed the inevitable journey of the shrapnel and transformed him into a one-man army. After returning to the western world, Stark vowed to use his gifts to serve humanity as a modern day knight in shining armor. Armed with state of the art weaponry, he became Iron Man.

Near mint condition.