I have a soft spot for this armour mainly because it is the clear basis for almost every armour to follow it and of course introduces us to the classic red and gold look. I’m also quite partial to the horned helmet which has resurfaced a couple of time throughout the years. There is a very basic feel to the armour and I’m fairly certain it was the only one to have the ridges on the chest plate. The eyes holes are cool too because they are huge and you can see a fair bit of Stark’s eyes underneath, something that can be done with various degrees of success with later models.
Now this is where it gets confusing with the naming conventions for the armours, the Iron Manual lists this armour as the Model 2 armour as the Mark 2 armour was considered the same as the Mark 1 except with a different colour. Someone else refers to the armour as the Red & Gold armour.
I’m sticking with Mark 3 because that’s where this falls, I consider the golden armour a second stage. I have also seen the armour drawn with weird knucklebusters and a single line mouth – I’m going with the armour as it first appears in Tales of Suspense.
I wish Marvel would publish a good Iron Manual and sort out the armour history (the current Iron Manual is fairly limited and actually remarkably lame).
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