Every day in April we will reveal the greatest stories ever told starring a particular character or written/drawn by a particular creator (and throughout the month, you'll get daily chances to vote for NEXT week's lists). These lists are voted on by YOU, the reader!

Here is the list of characters/creators featured so far (along with the rules on how to vote).

Today's list is the Greatest Iron Man Stories Ever Told!

Enjoy!

10. "The Beginning of the End" Iron Man Volume 1 #17-23



Written by Archie Goodwin with art by George Tuska and Johnny Craig, this story introduced Madame Masque, who turned out to be an old Iron Man supporting character/villain named Whitney Frost. The real highlights, though, were the introduction of two notable tropes that later Iron Man stories used. First, via a Life Model Decoy of Tony Stark, Tony Stark had his fortune stolen for the first time. Second, we had the first fill-in Iron Man, as Tony enlists the help of a boxer friend of Happy Hogan's named Eddie March. Like other replacement Iron Men to come, Eddie March's tenure was short-lived.

9. "Iron Man Is Born!" Tales of Suspense #39



Written by Larry Lieber (from a Stan Lee plot) and drawn by Don Heck, it is only due to Marvel having so many great origin stories that this origin is not remembered even more fondly than it already is (and it already has been adapted seamlessly to film, which is a real rarity for superhero origins). Anyhow, you know the drill, munitions maker Tony Stark is in Vietnam and gets caught in an explosion and captured by the bad guys and forced to work for him. Only the genius of one of his fellow captive scientists prevents Tony from dying, but now Tony needs a machine to keep his heart pumping. Secretly, Tony and the other scientist build a suit of armor which Tony uses to escape (the other scientist, an old man, sacrifices himself for Tony). Tony avenges his fallen friend and now that he has a fancy suit of armor, becomes a superhero.

8. "The Five Nightmares" Invincible Iron Man #1-7



In an attempt to avenge the death of his father, Ezekiel Stane adapts Stark technology into weapons of mass destruction, forcing Tony Stark into a race around the world to avoid stopping a man who is basically a younger and faster version of himself, only without any regard for human life! This storyline brings Pepper Potts back into the Iron Man universe in a big way. The beginning of Matt Fraction and Salvador Larroca's long run on Iron Man.

7. "Deliverance" Iron Man #182



Denny O'Neil, Luke McDonnell and Steve Mitchell had been having Tony Stark spiraling for some time, even giving up the Iron Man armor to his friend James Rhodes a year earlier. Finally, Tony Stark hits rock bottom on a cold, sad night when his drinking buddy dies in child birth. A rough story that began a long comeback for Tony.

6. "World's Most Wanted" Invincible Iron Man #8-19



Now that Norman Osborn has taken control of SHIELD, Tony Stark has failed. He does not want to compound his failure, though, by giving Osborn access to the files from the Superhero Registration Act (including the secret identities of all registered superheroes). Tony erases all the existing files on the Act. However, due to his Extremis powers, Tony has the files in his brain. Osborn knows this, so he begins to hunt Tony across the globe. The only way to get rid of the files is for Tony to become brain dead, which he does to himself slowly but surely. It is a powerful arc by Matt Fraction and Salvador Larroca that has a nice prominent role in it for Pepper Potts.

The top five is on the next page!

5. "Extremis" Iron Man Volume 4 #1-6



Warren Ellis and Adi Granov revolutionized both Iron Man's visuals (vis a vis Granov), his origin and the very concept of "Iron Man," as Tony is forced to use an experimental technology that literally turns him more into a machine than a man. The look and feel of these issues were instrumental in the first Iron Man film.

4. "Iron Monger" Iron Man #190-200



This arc could theoretically go back as far as Iron Man #160, but that seems like a stretch for the rules of this feature, so I figured I'd go with the trade paperback plus a couple of issues beforehand. The concept of the story is that Obadiah Stane has stolen Tony Stark's company. Tony felt into a pit of despair and self-pity but has finally fought his way back to sobriety. James Rhodes has taken over as Iron Man in Tony's absence and Tony is fine with that. However, the suit was not MEANT to be worn by someone else for this long, so Rhodey is beginning to crack up a bit. Tony is forced to return to the role of Iron Man, first in an an obsolete armor and later in a brand-new look just in time to take on Stane for one last battle, under Stane's new identity, the Iron Monger! Denny O'Neil is the writer. Luke McDonnell began the story as penciler (with inks by inking team Ian Akin and Brian Garvey) but the arc is filled with different pencilers, from Rick Buckler to Sal Buscema to Herb Trimpe to finally M.D. Bright, who took over as the regular artist with issue #200 (and stayed on the title for quite a while).

3. "Doomquest" Iron Man #149-150



It is fascinating to note that Doctor Doom and Iron Man, the two most famous men in armor in Marvel Comics, had barely interacted before this story. In any event, David Michelinie, Bob Layton and John Romita Jr. quickly corrected the miscarriage of justice by giving us this fanciful action-packed story where Doom and Iron Man are accidentally transported back in time to the days of Camelot. Iron Man finds himself fighting along side King Arthur while Doom ends up with Morgan Le Fay (who promised to help him in his quest to save his mother's soul from Hell). After their battle, the two adversaries realize that they must join forces if they are ever to return to their own time. Layton and Michelinie returned to the story exactly a hundred issues later for a sequel.

2. "Armor Wars" Iron Man #225-232



The highlight of Bob Layton and David Michelinie's return to Iron Man, Armor Wars finds Tony Stark irate that his armor has been used to power a bad guy's armor. He decides then that NOone can have armor that uses his technology, even past uses that he had authorized (under the theory that he cannot trust anyone to keep his technology from a third party). This naturally puts him into conflict with friend and foe alike. His old pal Steve Rogers is especially angry at Tony when Tony's attempts to shut down the Guardsmen at the supervillain prison The Vault results in a major prison break. Similarly, Iron Man's actions lead to the Avengers expelling him from the team. Tony Stark also publicly "fires" Iron Man (he has provided a fake identity to provide to authorities trying to hunt Iron Man down). How far will Tony take his war? What will he do when the world believes Iron Man dead? Will he just let that become the truth? M.D. Bright finished out his run as Iron Man's layout artist with this arc (Barry Windsor Smith drew the epilogue).

1. "Demon in a Bottle" Iron Man #120-128



This storyline is now best known for the way that it has Tony Stark confront his alcoholism. However, that is really only the end of the storyline. In fact, when this story was originally collected, it was called the rather generic "The Power of Iron Man," not "Demon in a Bottle" (this was when collecting comic book storylines in a trade paperback was still quite novel, so the generic title made a lot of sense). The story begins with the introduction of one of David Michelinie and Bob Layton's best new characters, the villainous Justin Hammer, who is sort of a super-villain franchiser. He provides the outfits and the bad guys give a cut of their take to him. He confronts Iron Man by first causing his armor to kill someone, making Tony Stark go on the run as a murderer. During this time, Tony learns hand to hand combat from Captain America himself, since he has to be on the run as himself. Tony eventually stops Hammer's plot, but the stress of the affair leads him to a drinking binge that forces him to confront his alcoholism, along with the help of is girlfriend, Bethany Cabe. These were a great series of stories, even forgetting the excellent addition of alocholism to Tony's characterization, which has been a major aspect of the character ever since. John Romita Jr. did a great job on layouts while Layton's finishes dominated the visual appearance of the book.

That's the list! Agree? Disagree? Let us know!

Also, as a note, when Iron Man 3 comes out, I'll treat you all to the top TWENTY-FIVE vote-getters!