In Drawing Crazy Patterns, I spotlight at least five scenes/moments from within comic book stories that fit under a specific theme (basically, stuff that happens frequently in comics). Note that these lists are inherently not exhaustive. They are a list of five examples (occasionally I'll be nice and toss in a sixth). So no instance is "missing" if it is not listed. It's just not one of the five examples that I chose.
Today, we look at the number of times that Iron Man's foes are basically just Iron Man...but bigger!
TITANIUM MAN
The first armored bad guy to fight Iron Man was the Soviet operative known as the Crimson Dynamo in Tales of Suspense #46 (by Stan Lee, Robert Bernstein and Don Heck), but his armor really wasn't all that much bigger than Iron Man's...
However, in Tales of Suspense #69 (by Lee, Heck and Vince Colletta), we then met ANOTHER Soviet operative, known as the Titanium Man, and his whole deal was that his armor was bigger than Iron Man's...
Bigger was definitely not better, though.
M.O.D.O.K.
During Iron Man's "nose on his armor" phase in the 1970s, Mike Friedrich introduced the "War of the Super Villains" arc, as villains were pitted against each other for supremacy. In Iron Man #74 (by Friedrich, Arvell Jones, Keith Pollard and Dick Ayers), Iron Man gets caught up in the middle of a battle between M.O.D.O.K. and the Mad Thinker and M.O.D.O.K. is rocking a giant armor that makes his head look normal, proportionally!
IRON MONGER
A big arc in Denny O'Neil's Iron Man run was that Obidiah Stane, a business rival of Tony Stark's, puts Tony out of business. In Iron Man #200 (by O'Neil, Mark Bright, Ian Akin and Brian Garvey), Stane developed his own suit of armor. He did not plan to wear it, but when Tony Stark returned as Iron Man in a new suit of armor, Stane was forced to put it on...
It did not end well for Stane (he literally killed himself in front of Tony). Stane and Iron Monger were later used in the Iron Man movie, with the featured image for this piece being a piece of concept art by Adi Granov for the film.
FIREPOWER
During Armor Wars, Tony Stark begun eliminating any suit of armor that was based on his technology. The last one, though, was a suit of armor by Stark rival, Edwin Cord, that was used to create Firepower, a walking army of weapons. In Iron Man #230 (by Bob Layton, David Michelinie and Mark Bright), Firepower is too much for Tony when it turns out that it cannot be "negated" like the other armors that Tony was able to shut down...
Ultimately, Tony had to just fake Iron Man's death in battle with Firepower. Tony returned in a new Iron Man armor and defeated Firepower.
DETROIT STEEL
Justine and Sasha Hammer were another company trying to outdo Tony Stark, with their "Detroit Steel" suit of armor and their armored drones.
In Invincible Iron Man #32 (by Matt Fraction, Salvador Larocca and Frank D'Armata), the two business rivals finally pitted their armors against each other...
Iron Man's turned out to be better.
If anyone has a suggestion for a future Drawing Crazy Patterns, drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com!