Marvel Masterworks: The Invincible Iron Man Vol. 18

One of the darkest eras in Tony Stark's long history continues as Iron Man battles Iron Man!

Dennis O’Neil and Luke McDonnell’s rich storytelling in the latest Marvel Masterworks is a compelling exploration of what makes a man and what makes a hero. Brought to his knees by the bottle and by Obadiah Stane, Tony Stark continues his struggle to regain control of his life. Meanwhile James “Rhodey” Rhodes fights to rebuild the empire Stark lost, but the Iron Man armor may drive him mad first. The tension between these headstrong heroes builds until it explodes in a historic war of Iron Men. Only one man can wear the red-and-gold. Who will it be? This volume also features the never-before-reprinted solo saga of Iron Man’s compatriot Jack of Hearts, revealing his mysterious origins in a cosmic quest.

COLLECTING: THE INVINCIBLE IRON MAN (1968) #183-192 & ANNUAL (1970) #7, MARVEL TEAM-UP (1972) #134 and JACK OF HEARTS (1984) #1-4

With a writing resume stretching across the romance, sword-and-sorcery, and Western genres, Denny O’Neil wrote four years of Iron Man — including some of the title’s most sweeping changes. His additional Marvel work includes runs on Amazing Spider-Man, Daredevil and Power Man and Iron Fist, as well as the one-shot X-Men: Heroes for Hope. At DC, his groundbreaking Green Lantern/Green Arrow run earned him four Shazam Awards. He also wrote and often revamped such mainstays as Batman (where he co-created Ra’s al Ghul), Flash, Superman and Wonder Woman, as well as adaptations of classic pulp heroes Doc Savage, Justice, Inc. and The Shadow. During the 1980s, he oversaw the groundbreaking death of Robin (Jason Todd). He has written multiple Batman graphic novels and novelizations, as well as The DC Comics Guide to Writing Comics.

Bill Mantlo began his Marvel career on Deadly Hands of Kung Fu, in which he introduced White Tiger, one of the industry’s earliest Hispanic super heroes. Eventually writing stories for almost every Marvel title, he did some of his most fondly remembered work on Incredible Hulk and Spectacular Spider-Man. He also launched Cloak and Dagger in a pair of miniseries and guided Alpha Flight through some of its most harrowing ordeals. Mantlo excelled at integrating licensed properties into the Marvel Universe, as demonstrated by Micronauts and Rom: Spaceknight, both of which he wrote from start to finish. At DC, he wrote the Invasion miniseries for one of the company’s biggest crossover events.

Bob Harras edited several titles as Ralph Macchio’s assistant, mostly tie-ins such as Micronauts, Rom, Saga of Crystar and U.S. 1. He subsequently became chief editor of the X-Men titles and wrote for multiple series, including a three-year run on Avengers. Graduating to editor in chief, he oversaw well-received runs of Captain America, Daredevil, Deadpool and other titles, as well as the controversial second Clone Saga in the 1990s’ Spider-Man titles. Harras has since worked as contributing editor at WildStorm and collected editions editor for DC Comics. He began a decade-long stint as DC’s editor in chief in 2010.

Luke McDonnell penciled a long stint on Iron Man, encompassing the controversial storyline in which Tony Stark ceded the Iron Man armor to his friend James Rhodes. McDonnell’s work also appeared in Daredevil, Spectacular Spider-Man, What If? and elsewhere. At DC, he penciled most of John Ostrander’s Suicide Squad and its spinoff miniseries Deadshot, as well as a Justice League of America stint during its “Detroit JLA” phase. Eclipso, Green Lantern: Mosaic and Secret Origins are only a few of the other titles benefiting from his work. 

From his start on Canadian hero Captain Canuck, George Freeman moved to U.S. art on Avengers at Marvel and Green Lantern at DC, among others. He was one of four artists on John Ostrander’s Wasteland horror anthology. In 1991, he returned to Canada to co-found Winnipeg-based coloring and inking studio Digital Chameleon.

A creative stalwart that put his all into his work on long-running series like Ghost Rider and Defenders, Don Perlin plied his talents in virtually every discipline in the comic-book field — penciling, inking, creating new characters and sometimes editing and writing. A student of Burne Hogarth’s, Perlin launched his career in 1951, drawing horror comics for various publishers and also penciling Will Eisner’s The Spirit. After serving in the Army, Perlin returned to comics with Harvey in the late ’50s as well as Charlton in the ’60s. In 1973, he began his long association with Marvel, finishing John Buscema’s art on Thor and inking several titles. He took over Werewolf by Night from Mike Ploog, penciling and inking the book for much of the next two years. He also penciled and inked the supernatural adventures of Johnny Blaze in Ghost Rider, his name becoming very closely identified with Marvel’s monster biker. In the ’80s, he drew Defenders for a long run before turning his attention to Marvel’s adaptation of Hasbro’s Transformers. His early ’90s work on Valiant’s Solar, Man of the Atom and Bloodshot was extremely popular, after which Perlin went into semiretirement.