“Man or Machine,” Iron Man ( created by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber, Don Heck and Jack Kirby. Good and red suit developed by Steve Ditko, owned by Marvel Comics), is a mixed media sculpture.  The background is plywood covered in computer circuitry. The hands are plaster covered in stainedglass. The face mask, chest piece, and stomach are treated plywood covered in stainedglass.   All glass covered piees were grouted with red sanded grout, then painted red.  The palms, chest, and eyes contain halogen lights that can be turned on for 5 mins at a time. The entire piece measures 24.25x40.5 in.

In 1963 on the pages of Tales of Suspense #39, Tony Stark is injured by a booby trap and captured.  Stark is ordered to build weapons, but Stark's injuries are dire and shrapnel is moving towards his heart. A fellow prisoner constructs a magnetic chest plate to keep the shrapnel from reaching Stark's heart. In secret, the two use the workshop to design and construct a suit of powered armor, which Stark uses to escape. In this moment, Iron Man is born.

In April 2006, Marvel hired Jon Favreau to direct the first movie in what would become Phase 1, Iron Man.  Robert Downey, Jr. was cast in the title role in September 2006, after growing out a goatee and working out to convince the filmmakers he was right for the part. And the rest is history.

“It was the height of the Cold War. The readers, the young readers, if there was one thing they hated, it was war, it was the military....So I got a hero who represented that to the hundredth degree. He was a weapons manufacturer, he was providing weapons for the Army, he was rich, he was an industrialist....I thought it would be fun to take the kind of character that nobody would like, none of our readers would like, and shove him down their throats and make them like him....” Stan Lee

Stan, job well done.