Iron Man's Armor Was Originally Way Goofier Than You Think

While Tony Stark's Iron Man suits of armor are consistently technical wonders throughout Robert Downey Jr.'s run in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, his comic book counterpart's first suits had much more humble, and silly, origins. Sure, MCU Tony built his primitive Mark-I armor in a cave with a box of scraps, but at least he didn't have to plug it into a wall between uses like he's charging his phone the way comic book Tony does. Still, Tony's dependency on finding an outlet between acts of heroism in the comics isn't even the silliest thing about the earliest iterations of Iron Man's suits.

In 1963's "Tales of Suspense" #40, which features the second-ever appearance of Iron Man, we get a look at how Tony gets his suits around town. Since this is before the world knows Tony Stark is Iron Man, he maintains his secret identity by hiding his armor in an unassuming attaché case. However, the case contains a "secret, X-ray proof compartment containing all the parts for [his] Iron Man uniform in collapsible form!" 

This early suit is kept in a shrunken state thanks to Tony's mastery of "microscopic transistors" and unfurls in multiple parts, looking like they're made of cotton. Tony then has to haphazardly slap the pieces of the suit together, which somehow hardens into the armor we're more used to seeing today. The issue specifies that it takes "exactly one minute" for Tony to make his transformation, a far cry from the near-instant suiting up we see in the movies.

Although this early suit is almost comical compared to the tech we've seen Stark use in the movies, elements from the very first Iron Man comics can still be found in the MCU. In "Iron Man 2," Tony has Happy carry around a briefcase containing an emergency suit, though one way more advanced than in the early comics. "Iron Man 3" sees Tony's suit assembling itself one independent piece at a time, much like his segmented comic suit. And Tony's ability to keep this suit on him at all times via the use of physics-shifting technology is a crude, early precursor to the nanotech suits we see Stark and his fellow Avengers wear in later MCU movies.

Nowadays, seemingly every MCU hero can conjure their suits out of nowhere with just the push of a button, but "Tales of Suspense" #40 was one of the earliest examples of a Marvel hero constantly being ready for battle by having a miniaturized version of their costume on them. Even Ant-Man's shrinking abilities were a fresh idea at the time, with the character having just debuted the previous year in "Tales to Astonish" #27.

Tony Stark's early attempts at an Iron Man suit may not impress by today's standards, but they did lay the foundation for countless upgrades over the years. And while the suit may no longer need an extension cord, the influence of its earliest models' designs can still be seen today.