The arch-nemesis in question was Obidiah Stane, the eeeeevil industrialist who took over (and renamed; the bastard!) Stark Industries in a buy out. Tony's raging alcoholism at the time didn't help matters, either.

Not only was the new armor a big deal, but the buildup to the new armor during the run up to issue #200 was fantastic. I recall a lot of scenes of Tony battling his demons, resisting stepping into the armor again, while being unable to resist using the technology to do good - usually in a really ridiculous mishmash of Iron Man armor components, and, like, spare Nomad costumes he found lying around the West Coast Avengers' mansion.

And it all culiminated in the crimson and silver armor, for my money the greatest version of Iron Man of all time...
Arm-Fall-Off-Boy | Homepage | 08.22.06 - 6:18 am | #

Arm-Fall-Off-Boy -- Personally, I liked the all-black, Stealth armor.

Mikester -- you realize with that last comment about Zero Hour you're essentially saying that comics that take place within continuity (aka the actual mainstream comics themselves) are irrevelent, right?

--m4
mojo_iv | Email | 08.22.06 - 7:11 am | #

I'm probably not the first to mention this, but wasn't the first Secret Wars series set-up with a 'universe-schedule' like what we're seeing with 52 -- where the ongoing Marvel Universe books took place -after- the events of Secret Wars?

Shooter was famous for making the publication trains running on time, so this makes sense. I take it that Secret Wars II, which I never read, having abandoned the Marvels by that time, was running 'Marvel-time' concurrently with the ongoing titles...

--Garrie
Garrie Burr | Email | 08.22.06 - 7:19 am | #

Iron Man #200 changed my young life--and the thrill I felt on seeing that new armor . . .

I'll also note that INVASION! had a guest artist, as well as Batman: Year 2. It's been done; it's not as aesthetically pleasing, but it's better than Joe Staton on Millenium, I suppose.
gorjus | Email | Homepage | 08.22.06 - 7:37 am | #

"you realize with that last comment about Zero Hour you're essentially saying that comics that take place within continuity (aka the actual mainstream comics themselves) are irrevelent, right?"

Quite the opposite, it seems to me. Monthly comics are (by design) very relevant, to the time that they are published. What they aren't are timeless.

An in-continuity story is meant to be enjoyed now, within the context of the other comics being published. An out-of-continuity mini-series or original graphic novel has a longer term goal.

< pimp >as I wrote about on my blog... < /pimp >
Steven | Email | Homepage | 08.22.06 - 7:52 am | #

I think it's hilarious that the guys at Marvel are comparing Civil War to Dark Knight and Watchmen. What next, Millar pointing out that Eightball and Acme Novelty Library only come out once every two years? That Thomas Pynchon only writes a novel a decade?
Cole Moore Odell | Email | Homepage | 08.22.06 - 9:01 am | #

Arm-Fall-Off Boy - That particular run of Iron Man is a bit of a forgotten...well, maybe not "gem," but it was a good read.

Mojo - Like Steven says, a crossover series is more of a "here 'n' now" thing, though folks seem to be acting as if Civil War is going to have lasting repercussions (which, like most crossovers, it won't). The goal of a crossover series like this is to get folks excited about the other superhero books the company publishes, and in this Civil War seems to be mostly succeeding.

Gorjus - Crisis on Infinite Earths had a few fill-in pages, too, which people seem to forget. Not many, sure, and they were by Jerry Ordway...who's gonna complain about fill-in work by Ordway?
Mikester | Homepage | 08.22.06 - 10:10 am | #

Anyone remember War of the Gods?

Quite possibly the most awful of DC's summer crossovers ever, but what one might forget if one is viewing it from the back issue racks is that, like Civil War, there were unexpected scheduling delays. But unlike Civil War, DC went full-steam ahead, releasing chapters of the crossover (which had a specific numbered order) willy-nilly, spoiling various plotlines in other books left and right and upside-down, which made what might have been a mediocre-to-bad crossover event into something so transcendently awful that it will probably stand for all time as the 'how not to' example...

That's probably the nightmare in the back of the heads of the Marvel execs here...
Jeff R. | Email | Homepage | 08.22.06 - 11:11 am | #

Bully?
Steven | Email | Homepage | 08.22.06 - 11:27 am | #

Jeff R. - Point taken! Just goes to show that if you're going to publish a crossover that's so dependent on timing, you'd better make sure everyone's on the same page (as it were) before you start pumping those issues out.

Steven - Oops, shouldn't write comments when I'm trying to get ready for work! Fixed now.
Mikester | Homepage | 08.22.06 - 11:54 am | #

Stealth armor was good. Space armor was cool, but for me (and this is what I love about talking comics; so much is a matter of opinion) that silver armor (if only because silver wasn't gold, and everyone knows IM's armor is supposed to be red and gold) will always be my favorite. Pulse blasts! Cloaking device! Shoulder pads! Okay, maybe that's pushing it...

Jeff R., War of the Gods was a trainwreck from beginning to end, but wretched as it was, I'd argue that Genesis was the rock bottom of DC crossovers.
Arm-Fall-Off-Boy | Homepage | 08.23.06 - 6:50 am | #

Your Michileen Martin link just goes to CBG.
Dorian | Email | Homepage | 08.23.06 - 11:08 am | #

Never mind, I see now that you meant to do that.
Dorian | Email | Homepage | 08.23.06 - 11:10 am | #