Machine Man #2
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeMachine Man (Vol. 2) #2 is the debut issue of Arno Stark — the mercenary Iron Man of the alternate future Earth-8410 — making it the foundational first appearance of a character who would recur across four decades of Marvel storytelling, from Amazing Spider-Man Annual #20 through the 2020 Iron Man event. The issue also introduces Doctor Cyclobe, a Baintronics operative who threads through the rest of the miniseries as an antagonist. More broadly, the issue is the second chapter of what became one of the most creatively ambitious Machine Man stories ever told: a cyberpunk dystopia set in the then-distant year 2020, years before that aesthetic became a Marvel publishing pillar. The combination of Tom DeFalco's corporate-noir plotting and Barry Windsor-Smith's lushly finished artwork gave the miniseries a visual identity far removed from standard early-1980s Marvel production.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
The four-issue miniseries that houses this issue was assembled under editor-in-chief Jim Shooter and edited by Larry Hama, reviving a character whose original Jack Kirby-launched series had been cancelled after 19 issues in 1981. Tom DeFalco scripted all four issues, while Herb Trimpe supplied breakdowns for issues #1–3 and Barry Windsor-Smith provided finished art for those same issues — as well as full pencils, inks, and colors for the concluding issue #4, and colors across the entire run. Windsor-Smith's heavy finishes so thoroughly transformed Trimpe's layouts that the visual result reads as essentially Windsor-Smith's own work. The on-sale date for issue #2 was July 24, 1984, with a cover date of November 1984.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance of Arno Stark / Iron Man 2020 (Earth-8410), created by Tom DeFalco and Herb Trimpe — a mercenary hired by Sunset Bain to destroy Machine Man and the Midnight Wreckers.
- First appearance of Doctor Cyclobe, a Baintronics scientist and recurring antagonist who serves as an intelligence asset for Sunset Bain throughout the miniseries.
- Story titled 'If This Be Sanctuary?!' — Machine Man and the Midnight Wreckers are ambushed while attempting to flee Baintronics' reach; Sunset Bain, Jocasta, and Iron Man 2020 all appear.
- Written by Tom DeFalco; pencil breakdowns by Herb Trimpe; finished art, inks, and colors by Barry Windsor-Smith; cover by Barry Windsor-Smith; lettered by Diana Albers.
- Part of a four-issue limited series (Oct. 1984–Jan. 1985) set entirely in the alternate future of Earth-8410, a corporation-dominated dystopia designated as the year 2020.
- The complete miniseries was reprinted as a 96-page trade paperback in 1988 with new cover art by Windsor-Smith, then again in 1994 as two double-size books titled Machine Man 2020.
- Arno Stark went on to appear in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #20 (1986), Death's Head #10, Avengers West Coast #61, a 1994 solo one-shot, and was collected alongside those appearances in the 2013 Iron Man 2020 TPB.
- The issue was also partially reprinted in the UK in The Transformers (Marvel UK) series in late 1985, and the full miniseries appeared in the French Un Récit Complet Marvel #12 (1986).
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Reprints
Reprinted in The Transformers #31 (1985), The Transformers #32 (1985), The Transformers #33 (1985), The Transformers #34 (1985), Un Récit Complet Marvel #12 (1986), Machine Man #[nn] (1988), Marvels universum #1/1990 (1990), Machine Man 2020 #1 (1994), Iron Man 2020 #[nn] (2013), True Believers: Iron Man 2020 - Arno Stark #1 (2020)
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