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Plot Summary/Details

I remember the basic plot of this one. There's a huge protest going outside of Stark Industries because of their military contracts. Stark/Iron Man is concerned that things may turn violent and cause people to get hurt. He has a trusted employee (I cannot remember the name, but I don't think it was Happy Hogan or any other major recurring character) stand guard across from the protestors to keep an eye on things.

I forget what Stark himself is up to during this time, but I do remember his goal was to keep things peaceful on all sides. The idea is the blue guy would be a deterrent to protestors from coming on site, but while also trying to avoid doing anything to exacerbate tensions. Sort of a one-man police line, if you will. The employee is issued a suit of armor similar to Iron Man's own armor. This armor is (IIRC) a uniform shade of medium to dark blue. It has many of the same powers, including repulsors in the gloves.

At first, things go well, but the person in the armor becomes increasingly "twitchy." I can't remember if it's out of a hatred for the protestors, or a fear he's not up to the task. Things turn tragic when he panics and blasts a protestor with a repulsor. The protestor is killed instantly (IIRC), and all hell starts to break loose.

Iron Man intervenes to stop his now rampaging blue-suited counterpart, taking advantage of a safety design he installed in the suit. Stark fires a repulsor blast at a spot in the blue armor's chest plate, which deactivates the suit.

The issue closes with Iron Man getting hit in the shellhead with a brick (and saying "OHHHHHH!") while the riot police announce they were moving in to put down the protest-turned-riot.

Timeframe/Publication Details

I'm positive the issue if from the 1970s, and probably from the earlier part of the decade. The protest story line would seem to reflect the real world Vietnam War-era protests of that time.

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Iron Man #43 - #46 ?

This sounds like the first version of the character "The Guardsman" (the armour has detrimental mental effects, and he loses control while stopping protestors)

The armour is usually green, but in earlier appearances it appears to be blue and green

enter image description here

The character that became Guardsman first appeared in Iron Man 31 Nov 1970, and became the Guardsman in issue 43 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guardsman_(comics) http://www.marveldirectory.com/individuals/g/guardsmani.htm

enter image description here

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  • The specific issue the OP described is IM #45, but you've definitely IDed the right character and story arc.
    – LogicDictates
    Commented Jul 29, 2021 at 10:27
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Iron Man v1 #152 (1982) The first appearance of the "Stealth Armor" (Iron Man Model 7 or Stealth Armor Mark 1) enter image description here

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    Does that involve protestors or a guard being given the armor?
    – FuzzyBoots
    Commented Jul 29, 2021 at 14:42
  • The text indicates that the armor was intended to be black, not blue. However, they did chose to use blue (rather than gray I guess) for highlighting, so it is in there I suppose.
    – T.E.D.
    Commented Jul 29, 2021 at 19:14

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