Iron Man #163
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeIron Man #163 is the opening move of one of Marvel's most ambitious long-form villain introductions: it marks the cameo debut of Obadiah Stane, the ruthless industrialist who would ultimately strip Tony Stark of his company, his armor, and his sobriety before donning the Iron Monger suit in issue #200. Writer Denny O'Neil planted Stane in the shadows here — glimpsed only by hand and voice — deploying him as a chess-master manipulator whose first strike is the Chessmen assault on Stark International, a narrative device that pays off across nearly forty issues. This issue also introduces Indries Moomji, who is secretly Stane's queen chess piece and whose manufactured romance with Stark becomes a key psychological weapon in his campaign to destroy Tony. As the opening chapter of O'Neil's celebrated early-1980s run, it set the structural template for serialized, slow-burn villainy that influenced how Marvel writers would architect multi-issue antagonist arcs for years afterward.
In "Knight's Errand," Iron Man races to New Mexico to confront Aloysious Lafferty, the man behind an attack on Stark Industries, after rescuing Indries Moomji from the wreckage. With the Chessmen's enigmatic master sending a deadly Knight to eliminate him, Iron Man faces a battle of wits and steel—though the confrontation yields no answers. Written by Dennis O'Neil and illustrated by Luke McDonnell, with inks by Steve Mitchell and colors by Bob Sharen, the issue's striking cover by Jim Starlin captures the tension of a hero stepping into a shadowy mystery.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
Denny O'Neil took over as writer on the long-running Iron Man title in 1982, editing a character he has described as personally alien to him — an affluent weapons manufacturer — yet finding a foothold through Tony Stark's alcoholism, a trait established by David Michelinie and Bob Layton in the 1979 'Demon in a Bottle' arc. O'Neil, who had himself entered recovery from alcoholism a decade earlier, saw the prior arc's comparatively quick resolution as insufficient and set out to write a far darker, more protracted relapse storyline — one that required a credible antagonist capable of engineering Stark's psychological collapse. Stane was that antagonist, and issue #163 was where O'Neil and artist Luke McDonnell quietly introduced him. The cover was provided by Jim Starlin — the seventh and final of his covers for the title in this period — while the interior pencils and inks were handled by the newly arrived McDonnell, with Steve Mitchell inking and Bob Sharen on colors, under editor Mark Gruenwald and editor-in-chief Jim Shooter.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First cameo appearance of Obadiah Stane (credited in the story only as 'the master'), seen partially — hand and voice only — orchestrating attacks on Stark International; his first full appearance comes in Iron Man #166.
- First team appearance of the Chessmen, Stane's chess-themed squad of enforcers, including individual members named the Knight, Bishop, Rook, and Pawn.
- First appearance of Indries Moomji, the romantic interest Tony rescues from a collapsed monorail who is secretly the Chessmen's Queen — a planted agent of Stane designed to emotionally compromise Stark.
- Written by Denny O'Neil (as Dennis O'Neil); interior art penciled by Luke McDonnell, inked by Steve Mitchell, colored by Bob Sharen, and lettered by Rick Parker; cover painted and signed by Jim Starlin (credited internally as 'JPS').
- Edited by Mark Gruenwald, with Jim Shooter as editor-in-chief and Mike Carlin as assistant editor; published with a cover date of October 1982 and an on-sale date of July 13, 1982.
- The story title is 'Knight's Errand,' in which Iron Man and James Rhodes pursue saboteurs in New Mexico while Stane's Chessmen begin their larger campaign against Stark International.
- Obadiah Stane would go on to become the Iron Monger, first donning that armor in Iron Man #200 (November 1985), and was later portrayed by Jeff Bridges in the 2008 Marvel Cinematic Universe film Iron Man.
- The issue was reprinted in Marvel Masterworks: The Invincible Iron Man Vol. 16 (2022), which collects Iron Man #158–170 and Annual #5 as part of an archival edition of O'Neil's complete early run.
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Reprints
Reprinted in Strange #168 (1983), Iron Man Epic Collection #10 (2013), Marvel Masterworks: The Invincible Iron Man #16 (2022), Iron Man : L'intégrale #1982-1983 (2025)
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