Old School Comics Review: Arno Stark, Iron Man 2020

The year of my daughter’s birth saw the publication of the interesting one-shot Iron Man 2020 by Walt Simonson and Bob Wiacek. That’d be 26 years before the year carried by the character’s name, but what you may not know that this Iron Man, Arno Stark, actually debuted in print a full decade earlier. It was a fun time back then — imagining a possible relative of Tony Stark taking up the mantle of the Golden Avenger (but why would he use the year in his name like below? When it turned to 2021 would he add that?). Alas, as time went on, we knew the character would have to be relegated to another world of the multiverse. Or worse. More on that later. In his original appearances, it is never explicitly revealed if Arno is related to Tony Stark; although the character’s debut in 1984 takes place in the year 2020, in Marvel chronology it is not the first story about this particular Shellhead. IM 2020’s first appearance actually takes place in the year 2015 in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #20 (it’s literally is mentioned in the first narration bubble below). Arno, head of Stark Industries, has been named Time magazine’s “Man of the Year” (the title of the Spidey Annual, by the way) in part b...