| Iron Munro | |
|---|---|
 Arn Munro, artist Brian Murray. | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | DC Comics |
| First appearance | Young All-Stars #1 (June 1987) |
| Created by | Roy Thomas (writer) Dann Thomas (co-plotter) Michael Bair (artist) Brian Murray (artist) |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Arnold Raymond "Iron" Munro |
| Species | Metahuman |
| Team affiliations | Young All-Stars All-Star Squadron Freedom Fighters Supermen of America |
| Notable aliases | Arn Munro |
| Abilities | Super strength and speed Invulnerability Able to make great leaps Longevity Enhanced reflexes |
Iron Munro (Arn Munro) is asuperhero character appearing inAmerican comic books published byDC Comics.Roy Thomas created the character in 1987 forYoung All-Stars. He largely served to replaceSuperman in stories set duringWorld War II after theCrisis on Infinite Earths storyline eliminated continuities in which Superman was active in this period.
Following the cancellation of Thomas' World War II-set comicAll-Star Squadron, a follow-up series was created following a new team, theYoung All-Stars. Iron Munro was one of several new characters Thomas created as analogues for popular superheroes written out of the continuity, with comparable powers and appearance to Superman's. He was inspired by two 1930spulp fiction characters who in turn prefigured Superman:John W. Campbell's science fiction heroAarn Munro, who appeared in comics as "Iron Munro", andHugo Danner, the protagonist ofPhilip Wylie's 1930 novelGladiator, who had powers similar to Superman's and is sometimes seen as an inspiration.
Young All-Stars did not achieve the popularity ofAll-Star Squadron, which had featured better known characters from theGolden Age of Comic Books, and the series was cancelled in 1989 due to low sales. Iron Munro continued to make occasional appearances in DC Comics.
From 1981 to 1987,Roy Thomas wroteDC Comics' popular seriesAll-Star Squadron, set onEarth-Two, a parallel universe based on the company's characters of the 1940sGolden Age of Comic Books.All-Star Squadron depicts a team of Earth-Two versions of characters likeSuperman,Batman, andWonder Woman fighting in World War II. In 1985, DC launched theCrisis on Infinite Earths crossover storyline, which ultimately eliminated the company'sMultiverse of parallel worlds in favor of a new unified continuity. This removed Superman and others from the World War II setting, and DC cancelledAll-Star Squadron in 1987.[1]
DC charged Thomas with writing a follow-up series with new characters. He createdYoung All-Stars, featuring a new team of World War II-era superheroes. His concept was that the "displaced energy" of the removed superheroes generated analogs to replace them; as such, most of the new cast stood in for the heroes written out of the continuities. Iron Munro replaced Superman with similar powers and appearance; Flying Fox,Fury, andNeptune Perkins replaced Batman, Wonder Woman, andAquaman respectively.[1][2]
Thomas' Iron Munro was inspired by two characters from 1930spulp fiction. His name comes from Aarn Munro, the hero ofJohn W. Campbell's 1934 science fiction novelThe Mightiest Machine and some subsequent works. Campbell's character had incredible strength and agility from growing up on a high-gravity planet (Jupiter), the same explanation for Superman's powers in early stories.[3] Notably, this is an inversion ofEdgar Rice Burroughs' earlier characterJohn Carter, an earthling whose strength increased on the smaller planet of Mars.[4] Aarn Munro appeared inShadow Comics as "Iron Munro" in the 1940s.[5] Additionally, Iron Munro is based onHugo Danner, the protagonist ofPhilip Wylie's 1930 novelGladiator. Often viewed as a precursor to and possible inspiration for Superman, Hugo Danner likewise had otherworldly strength, speed, and impervious skin.[6] In a nod to Superman's debt toGladiator, Thomas made Iron Munro the son of Hugo Danner.[7]
Loosely following Philip Wylie's novelGladiator, the comics establish that in 1894, scientist Abednego Danner injected his pregnant wife with an experimental serum. Their son Hugo was born with super-human strength, speed, and nigh-invulnerability. Hugo's powers led him through a number of adventures, but set him apart from mortal humans, bringing him grief. Eventually, Hugo staged his own death in the Yucatán Peninsula and went into hiding. He briefly returned to Colorado and had a one-night stand with his high school sweetheart, Anna Blake, who became pregnant. When Hugo disappeared for good, Blake married a young businessman named John Munro, who never realized the child she bore was not his own. Their son, Arnold, began exhibiting superhuman powers of strength and invulnerability at age ten. Remembering Hugo's troubles, Anna made her son promise to keep his abilities a secret until he turned eighteen.[8][9]
As a baseball player at his high school in Indian Creek, Colorado, Munro earned the nickname "Iron". He was a senior there when, in April 1942, he saved the superheroesTNT andDan the Dyna-Mite from a burning car crash. TNT died but he managed to bring Dyna-Mite to a nearby hospital. Subsequently, Munro and other new "Young All-Stars" aided theAll-Star Squadron in defeatingAxis Amerika.Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Munro and the others to join the Squadron, about which Munro was reluctant, but he accompanied them on a cross-countryWar Bond promotion.[10]
Soon thereafter, Arn received a mysterious diary written by Hugo Danner, his father.[11] He learned about his father's troubled life as one of the 20th century's firstmetahumans.[12] This led the young hero on a quest to learn of his father's fate. After having read his father's diary, Arn turned to the government's secret Project M, demanding to know the location of the "Dinosaur Island" mentioned in his father's diary. There he met Georgia Challenger, who led him instead to Maple White Land in South America. Surprisingly they found Arn's father, Hugo Danner, who had spawned a new band of "offspring", the Sons of Dawn.[13] Danner used his father's formula to bestow powers on these Sons of Dawn and mentioned that the creators of the villainÜbermensch had also stolen that formula.[9]
Arn was forced to oppose his father when Danner ordered the Sons of Dawn to attack a Brazilian city.[14] The combined might of the All-Star Squadron defeated the Sons of Dawn and Danner was killed.[15]
During the war, Iron Munro also met his future wife, the Squadron member known asPhantom Lady, Sandra Knight. Before the two of them were married, Sandra conceived a child (which she never revealed to him). She confided only in theAtom, Al Pratt, who helped her give the child up for adoption. The hospital mistakenly listed Al as the father on the child's birth certificate. The child was named Walter Pratt and later became the father ofKate Spencer (the current vigilanteManhunter).[16]
After the war, both Arn and Sandra started working for the U.S. Government as members of theO.S.S. offshoot calledArgent. Arn took the code name "Gladiator One". The couple eventually married and on numerous missions came up against his WWII Nazi nemesis,Baron Blitzkrieg (calling himself simplyThe Baron and working for the Soviets). When the couple bore a second child, it was kidnapped by the Baron when Sandra was on a mission in Communist Poland. The child was assumed killed at the time.[17]
The couple gradually grew apart and sometime in the 1960s, Phantom Lady disappeared while on a covert mission for Argent. Though Munro later discovered she was alive, the two were never reunited.[8]
Munro settled in Florida with his friend, Roy Lincoln (theHuman Bomb). There he eventually met the young hero Grant Emerson (Damage). Munro helped Emerson search for the identity of his biological parents. For a time, it appeared that Grant might be Arn and Sandra's lost child. Eventually they learned that Damage was actually the son of the Atom, Al Pratt, and his wife.[17]
Iron Munro continues to serve as an adventurer and apparently benefits from extended youth. During the massive war betweenImperiex andBrainiac 13, theJustice Society'sSand recruited an army of All-Stars, which Arn joined.[18] Afterwards, he joined the Human Bomb and Damage in theFreedom Fighters.[volume & issue needed] This group was doomed and Arn lost his good friend Roy when several of the Freedom Fighters were killed by the Society of Super-Villains.[19]
Sandra Knight later learned that the child she gave up for adoption, Walter Pratt, had become a homicidal maniac. Pratt died when he was cut in half midstream in teleportation.[20] Sandra met Spencer,[16] and months later brought Arn to Kate for an introduction to her and Ramsey, his great-grandson.[15]
Iron Munro became part of a network calledSupermen of America after Superman learned that he cannot be everywhere at once. Along with other heroes, likeSteel,Super-Chief,Supergirl, andSuperboy, he has a signal watch that can be used for summons in emergencies. Iron Munro also works closely with the rehabilitated villainLivewire andS.T.A.R. Labs employeeSerling Roquette. Livewire is accepted into the team.[21]
Munro is endowed with superhuman strength and speed, is invulnerable to the point where small firearms will only bruise him, can leap almost an eighth of a mile, has enhanced reflexes, and ages at a slower rate than an ordinary human, hence why despite being in his nineties, he still looks to be in his thirties.[22]