Iron Man

Revision as of 11:50, 4 December 2022

Tony Stark in Iron Man v6 #1.

Iron Man is a male comic superhero who features in Marvel Comics.

Biography

Origin

Anthony Stark was the name of a male human who was the son of Howard Stark and his wife Maria Stark. (Iron Man v1 #28) He was actually the biological son of Amanda Armstrong and a man named Jude who she had an romantic liaison with during her years as a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. (International Iron Man v1 #6)

Whilst he was growing up, he regularly spoke to his fathers friend Eli Warren and received guidance from him. (Iron Man v5 #2)

In order to toughen his son, Howard sent Tony to boarding school at the age of seven, much to Maria's dismay. In the following years, Tony learned of discipline of body and strength of character as Howard intended, while spending his free time reading alone. At the age of thirteen, the stories of Arthurian legends opened Tony the doors to a new world of dedication to a cause greater than oneself, of chivalry, honor, and armored heroes. (Iron Man v1 #287)

When he was 17 years old, he came to meet Meredith McCall who was the daughter of his father's greatest rival Creighton McCall. The two came to fall in love over the summer despite it being forbidden by their parents. Upon their relationship being discovered, their respective father's moved to separate the pair. This saw Meredith being sent to live with her relatives whilst Tony was sent to Europe to continue his education with neither knowing about the fate of the other. (Iron Man v1 #28)

His school routine later saw him studying at Cambridge University in England, where he met another girl named Cassandra Gillespie. Unknown to Tony, Cassandra was also the daughter of a rival weapons manufacturer of Howard. (International Iron Man v1 #1) Their relationship and Tony's attendance to Cambridge were both cut short by Howard, who believed the recently-established relationship to be nothing but a way for the Gillespie's to get information on Howard through Tony. (International Iron Man v1 #2) Tony doubted Howard and even tried to run away with Cassandra, but she eventually admitted that while she had fallen in love with Tony, their relationship did start as a ploy of her mother. (International Iron Man v1 #3)

As a young student, Tony attended the 'Forward Thought Conference' at Oxford University headed by Dr. Derenik Zadian. During this time, he came to meet Bruce Banner where the two had a rivalry with one another but also a friendship that lasted for many years. (Indestructible Hulk Annual v1 #1)

Around this time, he came to meet Dr. Ted Slaght during a symposium where the physicist became a mentor to Stark. He taught him to value science and to guide the search for knowledge with an ethical compass. (Iron Man v1 #315) At a summit, he was noted to had met Maya Hansen and Sal Kennedy who became his close friends. (Iron Man v4 #2)

Around 10 years ago, he was in his final year at M.I.T. where he was in Regatta and met Sunset Bain. The two quickly embarked on a relationship where he was eager to show off to her. This included showing Stark Industries systems to her but in reality this was secretly through her manipulation of him. Afterwards, a number of corporate thefts occurred at his family's company which saw the loss of some new designs. It was then that Sunset Bain broke up with Tony Stark and left to found her own company namely Baintronics where many of the stolen designs came to find themselves in her product lines. (Iron Man v3 #19)

Tony's new life as a CEO provided him with new challenges. But as the company grew bigger, his job became less exciting, and Tony fell into self-indulgence once again. (Iron Man v1 #288)

Years ago, he met Bruce Banner again where initially he was dismissive of the man before the two came to bond over their love of science. Stark later came to be involved in the Gamma Bomb project that was overseen by General Thunderbolt Ross. (Original Sin v1 #3.1)

Iron Man

By this point, Anthony Stark was a famed weapons inventor for the U.S. military. One day, he had a military escort that became ambushed by enemy forces. In the chaos, Stark got hit by a booby-trap that left him injured with shrapnel embedded in him that was slowly heading towards his heart. He was found by forces belonging to the warlord Wong-Chu who took Stark hostage. With his limited time left, they forced him to build weapons for them and gave him an assistant in fellow captive Professor Yinsen. The two though worked together to undermine Wong-Chu where they used his resources to create the Iron Man Armor which also kept the shrapnel from reaching Stark's heart thus prolonging his life. (Tales of Suspense v1 #39)

James Rhodes, a pilot with the United States Marines, had been shot down by rockets while he was on a reconnaissance mission. Rhodes managed to land safely and was attempting to get his helicopter air-worthy when he encountered the wandering Iron Man. After Iron Man helped Rhodes fight off an attack by enemy forces, Rhodes allowed him to drain the helicopter's batteries to recharge his armor. The two continued to make their way back to American forces and stumbled upon a hidden rocket base. Stealing an enemy helicopter, they destroyed the site and flew to the nearest American base. (Iron Man v1 #144)

Back in the United States, Stark redesigned his chest plate, which contained a pacemaker-like device, reducing the chest plate's size and weight so he could wear it under his normal clothing. Required to wear the armor's chest plate at all times to keep his heart alive and beating, Stark decided to put the rest of the armor to regular use as well. After redesigning the entire armored suit to match the lighter chest plate, Stark made the existence of the suit public. He concealed the suit's true origin, as well as the fact that he himself had to wear the chest plate to live. Stark made it known that he would soon manufacture the suit, which he called "the human machine," for sale to be then public. (Iron Man v1 #244)

Together they attended a tennis match in Forest Hills, N.Y. that afternoon. Stark brought along his armor, which he was taking to a nearby laboratory for tests. Terrorists who threatened to kill everyone present with a bomb invaded the match. Joanna urged Stark to don the armor to stop the terrorists. Stark did so, captured the terrorists and saved the spectators by throwing himself atop the bomb. Iron Man thus publicly became a hero, and Stark had a new sense of purpose, having decided to combat evildoers as Iron Man. (Iron Man v1 #244)

Wishing to retain some degree of anonymity, Stark established the fiction that Iron Man was his paid bodyguard wearing a suit of armor that he had invented. Only his most trusted aides learned Stark, and Iron Man were one and the same. One of these early confidantes was "Happy" Hogan, whom Tony hired as his chauffeur. (Tales of Suspense v1 #45)

Later, he expanded the scope of his alter ego's activities to battle any force or person who threatened the security of America or the world. Stark was instrumental in the organization and armament of the original global intelligence and law-enforcement agency known as S.H.I.E.L.D.. As Iron Man, he became a founding member of "Earth's Mightiest Heroes", the team of superhuman champions known as the Avengers. (Avengers v1 #1)

In the wake of the Kree-Skrull War, Stark initiated a meeting in Wakanda with Professor X, Mister Fantastic, Black Bolt, Doctor Strange, and Namor to form a clandestine, unnamed group to devise strategy and policy regarding overarching menaces where they became the Illuminati. Stark's original goal was to create a governing body for all super heroes in the world to answer to. However, the different beliefs and philosophies, besides the fact that many heroes chose to conceal their real identities, made Stark's plan impractical. Despite this, the group agreed to share vital information and work together in secret. (New Avengers: Illuminati v1 #1)

Returning to the public, Stark attended a press conference where they were many questions about his disappearance. At the same time, Rumiko Fujikawa attempted to get back into Tony's life but he rebuffed her attempts due to her sleeping with Stone. In this time, he witnessed a dog having escaped its lease and on the road where it was going to be driven over by a robber in a getaway car. It was then that Stark decided to reveal that he was Iron Man where he donned the armor and stopped the vehicle thus revealing his secret identity to the world. He though had no regrets as he said that he did it for the dog's owner who was a small child who was grateful to be reunited with his pet. (Iron Man v3 #55)

Stark was then lobbied to serve as a consultant for the Defense Department where some in the government wanted him to take the post of Secretary of Defense. (Iron Man v3 #73)

Civil War

Stark returned to work at a hectic pace, often sleeping in his lab. A former classmate of his named Maya Hansen asked for help, a super-soldier project named Extremis had been given to a small terrorist group. (Iron Man v4 #1) Iron Man battled the augmented terrorist Mallen, but suffered massive injuries. (Iron Man v4 #4) Being forced to use Extremis on himself, Iron Man healed and found himself able to directly interface with technology, especially with his new armor. (Iron Man v4 #5) Going after Mallen again, the terrorist forced Tony's hand, and he had to kill him. (Iron Man v4 #6)

Around this time, Stark came to learn that in the political scene at Washington that senators were proposing the creation of a Superhuman Registration Act. The intention was to regulate the activities of superpowered beings and for them to reveal their identities. Tony Stark was called on a senate committee to discuss the proposed legislation where he looked to oppose its implementation. To help secure that, he secretly hired the services of Titanium Man who was told to target Stark in an assassination attempt that was to be ultimately thwarted. This was to prove a point and swing opinion away from the Registration Act with Spider-Man helping in the process. Stark then paid the Titanium Man for his services and it appeared that the proposed Act was not going to be implemented. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #531)

Later on, an incident emerged in Stamford, Connecticut when a group of amateur heroes among the New Warriors were engaged in a fight against the supervillain Nitro. This led to him detonating himself in the town killing over 600 people most of whom were children turning public opinion against superhumans. As a result, the Superhuman Registration Act was put into law where it came to divide the superhero community. (Civil War v1 #1)

Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.

In this time, S.H.I.E.L.D. was headed by Maria Hill though she believed that Tony Stark would serve the role better. (New Avengers v1 #25) Following the Civil War, Stark came to be appointed by the U.S. President as the new Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. (Civil War v1 #7) According to one account, Leonardo da Vinci had a role in the appointment of Tony Stark to this position where payment required his 'heart'. (S.H.I.E.L.D. v3 #9)

Iron Man would help in forming the Mighty Avengers, led by Carol Danvers. On their first mission, Stark unexpectedly underwent a bizarre metamorphosis, the end result being the creation of a new being all together, a fully nude cyborg woman of immense power. This being was a merging between Tony Stark and Ultron, Ultron having taken over Tony's extremis armor and overwritten his DNA to turn him into a clone of Janet Van Dyne with silver-metallic skin. (Mighty Avengers v1 #2) With Ultron in control of Tony's body, she went on a rampage, attempting to wipe out humanity, fighting the Sentry to a stalemate, and killing his wife, Lindy Lee. Stark was soon purged of Ultron with a virus created by Hank Pym and returned to normal. (Mighty Avengers v1 #6)

Iron Man and the other Illuminati were responsible for exiling Hulk from Earth, and were the people Hulk sought revenge on when he returned. Luckily, Stark saw this possibility as an eventuality, and was prepared to engage the Hulk with a brand new Hulk-Buster armor. (World War Hulk v1 #1) The battle between them destroyed most of New York City, and blows were thrown so powerful that no other hero could get close enough to help or act. Stark Tower collapsed on top of the two during the battle, and ultimately, Hulk took Tony captive to the Stadium with the rest of his captured heroes. Once all of Stark's sources (and comrades) were exhausted, he rendered the Hulk (who had been weakened from his fight with the Sentry) unconscious with orbiting military satellite lasers he helped install during his appointment as Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.. He had to draw money from numerous sources (most notably S.H.I.E.L.D. itself) to repair Avengers Tower and the several damaged buildings and structures of New York. (World War Hulk v1 #5)

Invincible Iron Man

Superior Iron Man

Inverted Tony Stark in Superior Iron Man v1 #1.

Later on, the Red Skull who had gained telepathy from Professor Xavier's brain which he used to mentally control and make him build special Stark Sentinels. By this time, the villain's body was destroyed in a confrontation with Magneto but his psychic essence allowed him to manifest as Onslaught. As the Red Onslaught, he set to create an Eternal Reich with Magneto calling aid from the Avengers and the Unity Squad. This saw Iron Man and the others join in confronting the villain from his camp at Genosha. Despite their numbers, they were unable to match the Red Onslaught who unleashed the Stark Sentinels as he used his enhanced powers to bring about World War Hate. Unable to fight the Stark Sentinels, the heroes orchestrated two plans where Magneto was to recruit villains to fight their foes whilst a spell was orchestrated by the Scarlet Witch to free Charles Xavier's essence trapped within the Red Skull. (Avengers & X-Men: AXIS v1 #2) The heroes and villains working together were able to delay the Red Onslaught long enough for the spell to be made seemingly depowering the Red Skull and leaving him unconscious where he was taken into custody. (Avengers & X-Men: AXIS v1 #3) Unknown to anyone, the spells effects caused an inversion of everyone's personalities at the scene. Stark himself saw all his inhibitions being removed leading to him setting up a base of operations in San Francisco where he began selling Extremis to the people. (Avengers & X-Men: AXIS v1 #4) He had tailor-made Extremis 3.0 as an app that purchasers could use to remodel their appearances per their will. However, they had to continually subscribe to the Extremis app in order to maintain the modifications. In the mean time, he began to drink alcohol again and engaged in constant parties which was met with disapproval over this change in personality. However, Stark decided to continue to indulge himself and came to craft a new Iron Man Armor that was Symbiote-infused whilst claiming that he had transformed San Francisco into a paradise overnight. (Superior Iron Man v1 #1) Operating from Alcatraz Island, he came to establish it Stark Island where he engaged in his indulgences. It was then he was confronted by Daredevil who was operating from the city and seeing the damage being caused by the commercial use of Extremis. Stark though came to easily defeat Daredevil who made another attempt on Iron Man when he was drunk following a party where the Man Without Fear tried to strip him of his technology. Despite that, Stark's newest armor consisted of symbiotic biological technology which he used to defeat the vigilante again. (Superior Iron Man v1 #2)

Time Runs Out

Civil War II

Stark Unlimited

Following his return, Tony rebranded his company as Stark Unlimited, a think tank that doubled as an ideas incubator for new suits, turning Iron Man into a collaborative project, which additionally returned to the idea of creating a specific armor depending on the situation. (Tony Stark: Iron Man v1 #1)

After disappearing from the public eyes for weeks, Stark fully embraced his identify as an artificial intelligence. Donning a recreation of his Model 1 Armor, Tony adopted the identity of Mark One and became the secretive leader of the A.I. Army, a counter-movement of artificial life forms such as robots and androids fighting against rising oppression. Tony helped the A.I. Army and other robots hide from prosecution through the Thirteenth Floor, a solid-light construct hideout. (Iron Man 2020 v2 #1) The A.I. Army's liberation efforts were regularly countered by Arno, who became the premier force of A.I. oppression. Tensions came to a head when Arno intended to globally broadcast a software patch to make any robot inflected with it subservient, forcing Tony to come directly to blows against his brother. (Iron Man 2020 v2 #2) During this confrontation, Arno revealed to Tony that he intended to band together humanity and robotkind in order to fight a non-existent looming threat called the Extinction Entity, a delusion caused by Arno's relapsing illness. Tony refused to believe Arno's claims, and the encounter ended with Tony plummeting to his death after managing to disable the broadcast. (Iron Man 2020 v2 #3) Before hitting the ground, Tony's consciousness was pulled from his body into the Thirteenth Floor by his ally A.I. Friday. He then came to terms with his existence and began to accept his identity that he was the real Tony Stark Stark. (Iron Man 2020 v2 #4) Meanwhile, his allies took his body to the Stark Unlimited HQ and used genetic material obtained from both of Tony's parents in combination with a bio-pod to fully restore his body, doing away with any artificial cell replacements. After downloading his consciousness back into his body, Tony took his allies to the Stark Space Station to stop Arno's new plan to mentally control humanity instead of robots. Using his new Virtual Armor, Tony overwhelmed his brother. (Iron Man 2020 v2 #5) Stark came to see that he could not convince Arno that the Extinction Entity was not real before he could enslave humanity. Thus, Tony used the Virtual Armor to submerge Arno into a virtual dream in which the Extinction Entity was real and he managed to defeat it, also turning the suit into a life support system to prolong Arno's life. With robot oppression waning, Tony managed to take control back of his life, and reclaimed the mantle of Iron Man. (Iron Man 2020 v2 #6)

With this power, he fought against Korvac in a cosmic battle as they became titanic figures larger than planets. In their fight, Korvac came to sacrifice worlds teeming with life to defeat Iron Man. This led to Stark sending both of them to a dead universe in order to contain the devastation fought between them. It was through Iron Man's planning was he able to defeat Korvac with the intention of trapping him in this dead reality. They were then confronted by the cosmic abstracts that decided to intervene to contain Korvac. They allowed Iron Man to retain his new cosmic powers where Stark intended to use it to change the Earth. (Iron Man v6 #15)

Overview

Personality and attributes

Due to his talents, he was sometimes referred to as the Master of Machines. (New Avengers v3 #2) He was also given the name of the Golden Avenger. (Tales of Suspense v1 #56) Another name given to him in his superhero guise was the Armored Avenger. (Deadpool Vol 3 #7) Following his resurrection, he came to question his existence and whether he was an artificial being leading to him taking the name Mark One for a time. (Iron Man 2020 v2 #1) When he gained the Power Cosmic, some came to refer to him as the Iron God. (Iron Man v6 #15)

The rich and handsome Anthony Stark was known as a glamorous playboy where he was constantly in the company of beautiful adoring women. (Tales of Suspense v1 #39)

A millionaire bachelor, he was both sophisticate and a scientist who was as much at home in a laboratory as he was among high society. Stark had been a fortunate person who had been envied by millions. (Tales of Suspense v1 #39)

It was said that Tony had worked hard to hide the fact how badly his parents deaths had affected him. (Iron Man v1 #315)

His first love was Meredith McCall who he met when he was 17 years old where she was the daughter of his father's greatest business rival. However, both of their parents opposed the relationship leading to them being forcibly separated from one another. The years apart along with his focus on his education helped numb the pain of the loss for Tony. (Iron Man v1 #28) One of his romantic interests was Sunset Bain who was called an 'older woman' though she was barely five years older than him. Even after she broke up with him, she was still attract his interest and drove him to distraction. (Iron Man v3 #19)

A friend of his fathers was noted scientist and businessman Eli Warren. (Iron Man v5 #2)

One of his mentors was Dr. Theodore Slaght who was one of the five most respected physicists in the world. It was said that he taught Tony to value science and to guide the search for knowledge with an ethical compass. (Iron Man v1 #315)

In college, Stark came to read the work of Professor Yinsen who was regarded as the greatest physicist of all. (Tales of Suspense v1 #39)

Powers and abilities

The Power Cosmic empowered Iron God in Iron Man v6 #14.

At school, his tests results had shown that he was genius. (Iron Man v1 #28) Reed Richards came to acknowledge that Tony Stark was the world's greatest multitasker. (Avengers v5 #43) Tony himself at one point considered himself the pre-eminent thinkers in the universe. (Iron Man v6 #15)

He once stepped on a booby-trap that resulted in a close explosion which embedded shrapnel near his heart that was impossible to operate with him being given a week to live. (Tales of Suspense v1 #39)

Whilst taken captive by Wong-Chu, Stark was forced to develop weapons for the tyrannical warlord under the belief that a surgeon would save Tony's life. However, both Stark and Yinsen used these resources to develop a mighty electronic body that would help them escape. This mighty electronic body as designed not only with weapons but also to save Tony Stark's life by keeping the shrapnel in him from reaching his heart. As a result, the pair created the Iron Man Armor that was a metallic suit of powered armour. It was built by advanced transistor technology that had been developed by Stark. (Tales of Suspense v1 #39)

Among his other creations included:

• Starkware : a webvoyager web-browser software developed jointly with Stark-Fujikawa that did everything navigator or internet explorer did but more efficiently with it being more dependable. It also had exclusive features that made it more easier and productive such as Helsman that kept pages in memory allowing one to switch between them. Another was Majordomo that was an intuitive assistant function that kept track of net searches but analysed favourite web-pages in order to download updates them. Finally, there was Portfolio that allowed most-used web pages active on your hard drive in an interactive array allowing one to work on them off-line with all the relevant hyperlinks and automatically updated pages to allow to work largely offline. (Iron Man v3 #4)
• Iron Spider :
• Negator Pack : (Iron Man v1 #225)
• Iron Sight :
• Q.U.I.L.L. Network : a personal array of microsatellites around Earth designed to watch for any threats from space with this being named after the Star-Lord Peter Quill. (Iron Man: Fatal Frontier Infinite Comic v1 #1)
• Code: Helios : a one-shot hard light sunlight beam weapon laced with UV radiation able to destroy entire towns and made to combat extremely dangerous threats. (Immortal Hulk v1 #7)
• Project A.R.K. : a device that harnessed a deceased Celestial's energies to create a wormhole to a pocket dimension which could be used evacuate the planet in case of another event-level attack. (Hulk v5 #1)

A type of weapon he developed was Adamantium nanoparticle shrapnel that burrowed into the skin of a target whereupon nano-programming forged it on an atomic level creating any shape wanted by the user. (Hulk v5 #1)

One of his facilities was the Stark Orbital situated in orbit around Earth which was used as a workshop where Tony Stark could operate without distraction and was where he designed the deep-space armors. (Iron Man: Fatal Frontier Infinite Comic v1 #1)

At one point, he came to gain the Power Cosmic which transformed him into a powerful cosmic being. With it, he had a link to the cosmos that showed him a multitude of realities and could travel to them. His cosmic awareness allowed him to know the history of an entire universe. (Iron Man v6 #15)

Notes

• Iron Man was created by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber, Don Heck and Jack Kirby where she made her first appearance in Tales of Suspense v1 #39 (March, 1963).
• Le once commented on the character, "I think I gave myself a dare. It was the height of the Cold War. The readers, the young readers, if there was one thing they hated, it was war, it was the military ... So I got a hero who represented that to the hundredth degree. He was a weapons manufacturer, he was providing weapons for the Army, he was rich, he was an industrialist ... I thought it would be fun to take the kind of character that nobody would like, none of our readers would like, and shove him down their throats and make them like him... And he became very popular."

Alternate Versions

• In Marvel Team-Up v3 #2 (2004), an alternate version of Iron Man who came to be known as the Iron Maniac originated from Earth-5012 in the Multiverse.

In other media

Television

• In Iron Man, Iron Man appeared in the setting of the 1990s animated television series where he was voiced by actor Robert Hays.
• In The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, Iron Man appeared in the 2010 animated television series where he was voiced by actor Eric Loomis.
• In Marvel Future Avengers, Iron Man appeared in the setting of the anime television series where he was voiced by Japanese actor Eiji Hanawa and English actor Mick Wingert in the dub.

Films

• In Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow, Tony Stark appeared in the setting of the animated film where he was voiced by actor Tom Kane.
• In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Iron Man made a number of appearances in the shared continuity setting:
  • In Iron Man, Tony Stark made his first live-action appearance in the 2008 film where he was portrayed by actor Robert Downey Jr.
  • In The Avengers, Tony Stark appeared in the setting of the live-action film where he was once again portrayed by actor Robert Downey Jr.
  • In Avengers: Endgame, Tony Stark appeared in the setting of the live-action film where he was once more portrayed by actor Robert Downey Jr

Video games

• In X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse, Iron Man appeared as an unlockable character in the video game where he was voiced again by actor John Cygan.
• In Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects, Iron Man appeared as a playable character in the setting of the fighting video game where he was voiced by actor David Kaye.
• In Marvel: Future Fight, Iron Man appeared in the setting of the mobile video game.
• In Marvel's Avengers, Iron Man appeared as a playable character in the setting of the video game where he was voiced by actor Nolan North.

Appearances

• Tales of Suspense v1: (1963)
• Iron Man v1:
• Avengers v1:
• Iron Man v3:
• Invincible Iron Man v1:
• Iron Man:
• New Avengers v1:
• Mighty Avengers v1:
• Guardians of the Galaxy:
• Original Sin v1:
• Superior Iron Man v1:
• All-New, All-Different Avengers v1:
• International Iron Man v1:
• Invincible Iron Man:
• Tony Stark: Iron Man v1:
• Avengers v8:
• Immortal Hulk v1:
• Iron Man:
• Hulk v5: (2021)

External Links

• Marvel Database Entry
• Comicvine Entry
• Wikipedia Entry

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