Ironman

Ghostface Killah's first solo album is credited to him alone, but he does not stand alone on the cover. Raekwon and Cappadonna share the front with him, in face and in name, so the sleeve reads almost as a trio record. The original US release on Razor Sharp and Epic Street credits design and illustration to Ron Croudy and photography to Michael Lavine, with additional portraits by Sophia Chang, credited on the sleeve as "Ill Portraits".

The shared cover reflects how the album was made. It came a year after Raekwon's Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, on which Ghostface had been the essential second voice, and Ironman returned the favour, with Raekwon and Cappadonna rapping on many of its tracks. Putting three faces on the front was honest packaging for a Wu-Tang record built on chemistry, and it sold the Ghostface, Raekwon and Cappadonna partnership as a unit. The title came from the Marvel hero Iron Man, one of several comic-book aliases Ghostface used, and the illustrated design gives the sleeve a little of that comic-book feel.

Lavine, a New York portrait photographer best known for his early photographs of Nirvana, also shot The Notorious B.I.G.'s Life After Death the following year and returned for Ghostface's Supreme Clientele in 2000. Ironman debuted at number two on the Billboard 200. The album was released on 29 October 1996.