I've read most of Iron Man (I got that cool DVD with most of the character comics Marvel put out a few years ago) and I say that the two Michelinie/Layton runs are easily the best the character ever had.

Best,
Hunter (Pedro Bouça)

Then Byrne’s old man thinks a man in a skin tight suit with wings looks gay - and somehow it’s Laytons fault.

In fairness to Byrne, I do understand what he's talking about. Bob Layton's men do have strangely glossy and effeminate faces. I thought his paragraph was consistent. I just thought it was tacky to call him out like that and also use the word "queers."

The 'ascot' line is just a sign of the times when Code-approved comics couldn't use the word 'ass' except. maybe, as a synonym for 'donkey'. It's no better or worse than a thousand similar examples of euphemising from the era, and certainly doesn't deserve singling out for special clumsiness.

Of course, today's comics (and movies, and novels) are by and large no less convention-ridden and artificial. nor no more intrinsically 'good' and 'natural', than are yesterday's, it's just that the current set of conventions are effectively invisible to most readers of brief tenure who have as yet had no extensive exposure to other sets. That works created in the past adhere to the conventions of the time rather than today's is inevitable and cannot count as a flaw; in twenty years from today a significant proportion of a new generation of young readers will similarly (incorrecttly) condemn even the hippest and most fashionable work of today as hokey, clumsy and dated.

Now, don’t get me wrong, pencilers were mostly not AS big of a deal when it came to the artwork of the David Michelinie and Bob Layton Iron Man run, as Layton was finishing everyone’s pencils, so in the end, they all looked more or less like Layton, whether they be John Romita Jr. or John Byrne, so however good of an artist Jerry Bingham was (and he was a good artist), the following pages are really a bit more Layton than Bingham.

Seeing this paragraph Brian wrote about how overpowering Layton's finishes are, and the mention of John Byrne's name as a Layton collaborator, makes me remember one of the tackiest quotes from John Byrne I ever read (and that's saying a lot):

"It's kind of difficult to put into words why I don't like Bob Laytons's inking. This is going to sound really silly, but I actually feel physically ill when I look at Bob's stuff. I really do. It's like everything is greasy and slimy. You know those things you can buy that hang from your rear view mirror that are made out of rubber and you touch them and they feel greasy. That's how Bob's stuff looks to me. And all his men are queer. They have these bouffant hairdos and heavy eye make-up and an upper lip with a little shadow in the corner which to me says lipstick. Even the Hulk. I will never forgive him for what he did to the Hulk's face in the annual that we did together. A lot of the other stuff I liked, but the Hulk's face, the Angel's face, the Angel, God!I remember my father looking at the stats of the finished inks and there's a shot of the Angel standing there with his hands on his hips saying hello to somebody and my father said, "Well this guy's queer." No, he didn't look queer in the pencils Dad. "(Comics Journal #57, interview)

They can add a lot to a scene.

Since then, pretty much any “new continuity” take on the characters (Heroes Reborn, Ultimate title and I believe Marvel Adventures) has made the two colleagues/acquaintances prior to the transformation of Banner.

Given how the comics nowadays also try to make everyone retroactively more connected than they originally were (the Wolverine:Origins syndrome), has the mainstream Marvel Universe through retcons tried to make Stark and Banner closer than previously revealed?

Ha ha, I have that issue. Great read.

curious, what’s the reason that tony never helped banner?

A mixture of Banner being on the run and Stark and Banner not exactly being friends. In fact, these issues are the first time the pair really talk.

Since then, pretty much any "new continuity" take on the characters (Heroes Reborn, Ultimate title and I believe Marvel Adventures) has made the two colleagues/acquaintances prior to the transformation of Banner.

It’s a play on the popular-at-the-time idiom (less popular nowadays) “colder than a well-digger’s ass.”

Wow, that explanation actually made the quote sound even worse than it did out of context. That's a really corny groaner of a joke.

Um yeah, that’s the one thing that stuck in my head “Well-digger’s ascot”… !??!

It's a play on the popular-at-the-time idiom (less popular nowadays) "colder than a well-digger's ass."

Tom Waits used the line in one of his earliest-penned songs, "Diamonds on My Windshield," which ultimately was released on his classic 1974 album, The Heart of Saturday Night.

Um yeah, that’s the one thing that stuck in my head “Well-digger’s ascot”… !??!

Can we post that to the Mailbag, Brian?

By David Michilinie standards, that's actually a good line. His dialogue has never been anything to write home about.