On January 17, 1961, President Dwight D. Eisenhower gave his farewell address. In it, he cautioned that Americans must guard against the “unwarranted influence” of the military-industrial complex as a threat to liberties and democracy. Yet two years later, Marvel Comics introduced Iron Man, a superhero that personified the military-industrial complex. In the comics, Tony Stark, an engineer and industrialist, uses his Iron Man suit to battle an assortment of villains, including many Communists. Iron Man not only echoed a cultural belief in might and technology, but also helped produce this confidence by giving readers an example of the power and necessity of the military-industrial complex. The disastrous Vietnam War proved otherwise, but for the real-life Tony Starks the war was a profit-churning boon.