MARVEL STUDIOS FOUNDING CHAIRMAN DAVID MAISEL PLAYED A MAJOR PART IN BRINGING IRON MAN AND THE AVENGERS TO A MASS AUDIENCE. NOW HE’S OFFERING THE ORIGINAL ART FOR THE PAGE THAT BEGAN IT ALL.
By Jesse Hughey | September 17, 2026
Gene Colan and Johnny Craig’s original art for the opening splash page of Iron Man No. 1 from May 1968 marks a historic moment for Marvel Comics, the beginning of the title series of what is now one of the most popular heroes in all of pop culture and arguably the heart, damaged though it may be, of the Avengers franchise.
The original art for the page is a featured lot in Heritage’s September 25–27 Comic Art Signature® Auction, part of a four-day event along with the overlapping September 24–26 Comic Books Signature® Auction — and its consignor has been behind a few historic moments for Marvel himself. David Maisel is the founding chairman of Marvel Studios and was crucial in the development of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and its launch in 2008 with Iron Man.
This historic opening splash page from the first issue of Iron Man’s ongoing series is available in Heritage’s September 25–27 Comic Art Signature® Auction.
Colan’s incredible work on the page captures the power and charm of the character and the energy Maisel had in mind for the enormous project of transferring the magic of the comic book to the big screen. “Gene created two things,” Maisel says. “He made the suit expressive and almost limber, and he was very cinematic in his art, and almost foreseeing the MCU at some point in time, almost 40 years later. The combination of it being the historic first page of the first issue, the big art of a Page 1 splash, the fun ‘What a way to start out in your own mag,’ and Gene’s art was something I couldn’t say no to.”
The decision to kick off the MCU with a character of middling popularity raised some eyebrows at the time, but Maisel was confident the story of a fascinating and complicated character like Tony Stark, a billionaire playboy inventor with no superhuman powers of his own, would resonate with a wider audience. Warner Bros. had owned the rights to the character for many years, Maisel says, and still held them when he began thinking about an Iron Man movie and connecting it to a larger Marvel universe. Fortunately for his project, they let the rights expire.
“I think they saw a suit of armor, but they didn’t see the man inside the suit, Tony Stark,” Maisel says. “The story of this complicated man — changing his life, falling in love with his longtime aide, the coolness of his suit of armor — seemed like the perfect way to kick off the universe.”
Making Iron Man first was also largely driven by Maisel’s own longtime love of the character, he says.
“I think as a kid, like with most kids, it was the combination of his cool suit of armor, the fact that it was a real man who built it with his brain,” Maisel says. “But he was human outside of the suit. I thought that duality was cool. And his exciting life — he was a businessman, inventor, playboy. I think that attracted a lot of young men.”
Maisel describes Colan’s Iron Man No. 1 opening page as one of the character’s four historically most important comic pages (of which only three are known to have survived), along with the cover and first page of Tales of Suspense No. 39, the March 1963 issue that introduced the character, and the cover to Iron Man No. 1. The Iron Man No. 1 cover has been held by the same owner for decades; the whereabouts of the original art for the cover of Tales of Suspense No. 39 are unknown, if it still exists; and Page 1 of Tales of Suspense No. 39 sold July 10 for $3.875 million at Heritage Auctions’ Comic Art Signature® Auction, setting a new auction record price for original comic book art.
The creation of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Maisel says, could be seen as a relay, from Stan Lee creating the characters to his own leg of the race, the creation of Marvel Studios. Viewed that way, Page 1 of Iron Man 1 could be considered a symbolic baton. He can’t wait to find out who will pick it up next.
