IRON MAN

 

IRON MAN

Real Name: Anthony Edward Stark

First Appearance: Tales of Suspense (Vol. 1) #39, March 1963

Powers: Anthony "Tony" Stark is typically a baseline human with a genius-level intellect who displayed his mechanical aptitude and inventive genius at a very early age, eventually earning Ph.D.'s in physics, mechanical engineering and electrical engineering. A gifted businessman, engineer, and inventor, he is responsible for numerous discoveries, inventions, and other achievements in various areas of technological sciences.

He suffered a chest wound in a combat zone, sending metal shrapnel towards his heart. Working with transistor technology, he created a type of pacemaker in a chest plate that kept his heart beating after the shrapnel reached it and used magnetic fields to prevent the shrapnel from getting any deeper. The Iron Man Mark I armor was constructed around this chest plate, using transistors for various functions including increasing his strength, giving him superhuman leaping ability, air pressure jets to hold him in a hovering position off the ground, magnetic fields to repel or attract metal objects, a high powered Buzzsaw, flamethrower, suction cups, uni-directional radio antenna, etc. Built like a clunky refrigerator, Stark partially rebuilt his armor once returning to the States. The chest plate was slimmed down so that it would fit unnoticeably under a normal business suit, and the rest of the armor was reconstructed out of accordion-like components which break down to be stored inside an attaché case. He added other features to the suit like short-range boot jets, rocket-powered roller skates, and a protonic Monobeam generator on his chest plate that doubled as a searchlight. It could sense electrical energy output in his vicinity, and produce an electrical charge over the surface of the armor. The suit's power supply could now draw upon electrical energy from wall outlets using a universal adaptor plug, and feed off of solar energy to bolster Stark's energy reserves. It also had retractable seals allowing him to operate in the presence of smoke or hazardous gases, or underwater for brief periods.

The suit still handled like a clunky refrigerator, though, and so Stark redesigned the armor to be slimmer and more lightweight by the Mark II to reduce strain in moving the suit itself. The Mark II was the first to introduce retractable metal sleeves and leggings, which popped out of the boots and gloves as he was armoring up and were held in place by applied magnetism to increase the durability of the armor. It also employed the first palm-mounted repulsor ray, initially a band that slid over his glove before being incorporated directly into the palm in the Mark III. It acted as a force weapon, using a laser-guidance beam to carry pulsed particle beam charges to his opponents. He also began employing another feature which would be used occasionally in all future armors: magnetic grapplers in his boots and gloves which allowed Iron Man to cling to metal objects and climb surfaces like Spider-Man. The Monobeam in his chest was upgraded into an Ultra Beam for the Mark II, and later a Vario-Beam for the Mark III and IV, useful for illumination, flashes of light, magnetic fields, electrical shocks, or to disperse different forms of energy. The Mark IV armor made major enhancements to Iron Man's power levels and strength, pushing him into the Class 10 range, with the potential to divert additional power from his suit to reach the Class 70-85 range for the first time. It also included temperature controls for the outer armor, allowing him to heat up the suit enough to melt through solid ice on contact, and imaging systems letting him project the appearance of multiple Iron Men to confuse his opponents.

By the time he reached the Mark V suit, the Classic Red and Gold Armor, a number of changes had been made. The original armor was powered only by transistors, and frequently ran low on power. Stark added a thermocouple which absorbed excess heat and electricity directed at the armor's surface, and the entire suit dropped the use of transistors and hand-manipulated controls in favor of integrated micro-circuitry which receives his commands cybernetically from the helmet. He now maintained the entire armor's structural integrity through powerful magnetic fields, which could be extended outwards to create a full-body force field. His peak strength level held steady at Class 85, pushed up by processing additional energy sources for the armor, or by diverting power from other systems. His chest beam had become a Uni-Beam capable of producing a searchlight, blinding flare, focused laser, black light beam, heat beam, magnetic tractor/repulsor beam, and so forth. The boot jets were now capable of propelling him faster than the speed of sound.

For a brief time, Stark remodeled the suit as a Depolarizing Armor, making his identity changes ultra-efficient. By simply triggering a stud on his watchband and assuming a pre-established pose, Tony's armor would "grow" out of his paper-thin chest plate, assembling itself over his entire body before polarizing to its rigid and durable state, reducing his switch from Tony Stark to Iron Man to a simple gesture and a matter of seconds. Unfortunately, these changes made the suit far more vulnerable to damage, and so after a few weeks he returned to the traditional Mark V.

Upon designing the Mark VI or "Silver Centurion" armor, Stark had standardized nearly all the above features for virtually all of his armors to come. The Silver Centurion was equipped with an anti-gravity field and back-mounted thruster in addition to his standard boot jets. It included a new weapons system, pulse bolts, which were plasma torpedoes that drew upon static charge as they flew, building in intensity the farther they traveled away from Iron Man. These became his standard tertiary weapon in all future armors, after the repulsors and uni-beam. The Mark VI also used a disruptor beam, able to neutralize and disable energy and energy projection of various kinds. Also referred to as the Hologram Armor, the Mark VI had a chameleon effect allowing its outer surface to blend in with its surroundings, combined with a radar reflector that made him virtually invisible to visual or electronic detection. In emergencies, the armor could generate a small force field around its pieces, protecting them from being stolen, and the boots and gloves retained residual power to give him short-range flight and limited repulsor rays even when not wearing the rest of the armor.

When the Mark VII armor went back to the Red and Gold design, it removed the thrusters and anti-gravity field in favor of the standard boot jets' design alone. This suit was a general upgrade of all systems, with the additions of a laser absorption grid in the left gauntlet, appropriated from one of Edwin Cord's Raiders, which was a circle of energy acts as an arm-mounted shield, and an electromagnetic pulse generator for his uni-beam, adopted from Force's armor. Also, it adopted a beta particle generator as a new and more advanced power supply, and a highly-advanced computer-targeting system for his repulsors.

During the Mark VII's tenure, Stark began experimenting with tele-presence technology, allowing him to cybernetically control a suit of armor remotely using only his thoughts. After being shot through the spine, Stark was paralyzed from the neck down and could only move while inside his armor and employing the tele-presence system. Stark bought out a research company experimenting in a bio-chip that could restore his mobility. He went under the knife and the chip seemed to be successful for months. It was eventually revealed to all be a plot by his enemies Kearson DeWitt and the Marrs Twins, though -- the bio-chip was actually a virus, interweaving a signal beacon into Stark's nervous system, enabling DeWitt and his team of scientists to tap into Stark's body remotely and take command of his every action. Only by encasing himself in a tele-presence armor could Stark override their control, as his still-free brain forced the armor to fight against his body's insistent movements to operate how he wanted it to. He eventually managed to defeat his attackers and destroy their machinery, but at a high price: the intense stress laced on his nervous system had caused a degenerative nerve disorder to take effect, killing Tony Stark in a matter of months. In order to finish old business before he passed, Stark designed the Mark VIII, Variable Threat Response Battle Suit, sometimes reverse-coded as the War Machine Mark I. Virtually identical to the below Mark II description, Stark's version of the suit had no uni-beam and a stationary Gatling gun and micro-rocket launcher on his shoulders. Tony Stark then "died", going into suspended animation as his scientists worked to find a cure for him.

Tony Stark has suffered numerous health problems in the past: A damaged heart (repaired via surgery); a spinal injury due to a bullet wound which cost him the use of his legs, extensive neural damage, and alcoholism brought about by depression. Stark was eventually revived and completely rewrote his own nervous system from the ground up. His new artificially constructed nervous system responded to cybernetic commands from his own consciousness, and he was now equipped with a neural jack on the side of his neck which let him plug directly into computer systems. Initially too atrophied to command a suit of armor himself, Stark designed the Iron Man Mark IX, or Remote Armor. The NTU-150 (Neuromimetic Tele-presence Unit) was not designed as a suit of armor or an android with an artificial skeletal structure -- its movements were controlled entirely by manipulating the magnetic force field which maintained its integrity. The interior of the armor was used to store an arsenal of retractable weapon systems in addition to the standard complement, giving Iron Man access to pulsor beams, a flamethrower, mini-missile launcher, tasers, coherent beam weapons, and tear gas jets. The cyberpresence helmet Stark used to interface with the Mark IX jacked directly into his skull, enhancing his audio, visual, and tactile sensations with the armor's own sensors, giving Iron Man the mental processing power of a computer and ranged electromagnetic, infra- and ultra-sonic senses.

As he regained his mobility, Stark adopted a new, wearable suit: The Iron Man Mark X Modular Armor. Working from a new principle, Iron Man streamlined his armor so that it personally contained only the basics. Instead, it was outfitted with a selection of circuitry links enabling him to slap on a variable selection of weapons and paraphernalia to fit any given situation. Extra armaments could be attached to his forearms, while a series of circuit links around his waist could act as a "utility belt" of sorts. Among the more interesting modules he used for this armor would be a tactile hologram system (allowing him to alter not only the appearance of the armor but its feel as well to disguise himself as a normal unarmored man) and of course the Hulkbuster Armor, actually a set of exoskeleton modules designed to increase his strength and durability for direct combat with the Hulk.

Next came the Iron Man Mark XI suit, most prominent for its use during the Crossing storyline. The Mark XI dropped the modular system and returned to a singular integrated system of weapons. The armor's gauntlets were seriously tricked out, with fusion-powered repulsors mounted on both the palms and the wrists, in addition to heat beams, magnetic beams, acid, cryonics, sonic bursts, electro-pulses, pressure beams, and lightspeed lasers. The gauntlets could also be launched as free-flying guided projectiles, separate from the armor itself. Magneti-brakes incorporated into the armor allowed Stark to place himself at rest with the rotation of the planet, launching himself across the sky at roughly 1000 mps. This suit also introduced a new feature which would remain with all future versions, an inertia-canceling force field which absorbs impact and stops projectiles on contact to prevent ricochets.

Tony Stark actually died in the Mark XI suit, being replaced by a 19-year-old counterpart of himself. After this counterpart passed into the Franklinverse and was reincarnated as an adult Stark, then returned to the main Marvel Universe, the resultant Tony Stark was a combination of the minds of the original, Teen Tony, and Heroes Reborn Stark, but with the original Tony Stark in command, and the other two just residual memories. This reincarnation also removed Stark's cybernetic nervous system. His new armor, the Mark XII, was more of a back to basics approach, with few dramatic changes. A new feature allowed him to select his repulsors for Penetrative, Concussive or Decelerative blasts. During the Mark XII's tenure, Stark discovered his armors had inadequate shielding protecting him from the suit's own energy output, which was placing strain on his health. By quickly redesigning the shielding, Stark was unable to compress the new, more heavily padded armor into an attaché case anymore, so he improvised. The suit now collapsed into a self-propelled flying module, summoned by a signal from his watch, which traveled to his position and then opened up, forming the Iron Man armor around Stark without any additional action on his part.

The Mark XII became sentient and went haywire, scaring Iron Man into not designing a new armor for a time -- instead he simply relied on older models like the Mark V. When he finally got to work again, he created the Iron Man Mark XIII, or SKIN Armor. SKIN stands for Synth-Kinetic Interfacing Nanofluid, a liquid metal capable of being applied over an object to give it the durability of secondary adamantium while allowing it to retain flexibility and full range of motion. The SKIN Armor was composed of several large and bulky components which, when activated, released SKIN over Stark's body as a skin suit that covered the empty areas on his body without armor, and protected him from harm. The SKIN Armor used an energy absorber which could directly process any energy projected at it and re-channel it through his uni-beam. A modification on previous tools, the left gauntlet could project a laser disk shield which could also focus into a monomolecular edged laser blade. The return of chameleon circuitry enabled Iron Man to become completely invisible provided that he wasn't flying or fighting at the time. Finally, the Mark XIII stored a collection of "smart bombs" which could be used as long-range sensor drones, remote detonated explosives, or a new twist on an old trick. Smart bombs could each project a holographic duplicate of Iron Man around themselves, and were equipped with low powered repulsor rays, making them not only confusing but functional in battle as limited substitute Iron Men.

The next clear change in armor was the Mark XIV, following the discontinuation of SKIN technology for the armor. This suit was another back to basics approach, dropping most of the new tricks learned by the SKIN Armor. Most of the basic features from previous versions remain, including:

• Class 90 superhuman strength, with enhancement potential to exceed Class 100+.
• Enormous durability thanks to polarized magnetic force fields interwoven and reinforcing his metallic armor.
• Multiple redundant power sources including a self-regenerating beta particle supply, a thermocouple to absorb ambient heat, flame and electricity for power, solar absorption grids, variable adapters to plug into electrical sources, and so on.
• Primary weapon repulsor rays, acting as laser beam-guided pulsed particle emissions, adjustable for concussive, penetrating, or decelerating effects.
• Secondary weapon uni-beam, a chest emitter capable of acting as a searchlight, flash beacon, coherent laser beam, heat beam, magnetic repulsor or tractor beam, or electromagnetic pulse emitter.
• Tertiary weapon pulse bolts, concentrated particle charges fired from his gauntlets which built in intensity the farther they flew.
• Environmental adaptability for space flight, underwater travel, thermal/coolant systems for extreme temperate climates or atmospheric re-entry, radiation shields, etc.
• Scanning systems including telescopics, audio enhancers, infrared, ultraviolet, seismic, MRI, radar, sonar, SMO, wide-band electromagnetic frequencies, radio & microwave signal receivers, satellite up-link, etc.
• Inertia canceling force field which dampens the impact of projectiles and prevents ricochets, can also electrify, magnetize, or superheat the armor's outer skin.
• Liquid fuel boot rockets capable of supersonic atmospheric flight and orbital velocities.

The Mark XIV could once again be fitted into an attaché case, but maintained the modified XII's ability to "armor up" around him with a cybernetic command, and the briefcase could be summoned by a remote signal beacon in his watch. He added new tracking systems like an ionized particle mist that could be sprayed from the gauntlets, scattering millions of microscopic particles over a given area. Iron Man's sensors could track any and all of these particles, including ones which happened to stick to specific people or other targets when they were released.

Stark continued working on the suit, adding newer and better features faster than he could miniaturize the components efficiently. As a result, the suit lost its compactibility during this furious series of upgrades. Stark became forced to tote Iron Man Mark XV around in a crate as fully-formed armor, and needed to put on a special neuro-interface undersheath bodysuit underneath the armor before suiting up (to increase his reflexes by linking his brain to the armor's micro-circuitry more effectively). Among the various new additions to the suit were miniaturized bomb pellets fired in a flurry from his wrist-cuffs, "screamers" which produced concentrated sonic assaults, and remodeled flight boots relying on repulsor technology instead of rocket fuel. His force field projectors were now better equipped as well, able to trap his opponents in a containment bubble or instantaneously expand around his teammates to protect them all from extinction-level weapon assaults. Also, new "gravity grip" projectors produce an artificial gravity field that plant him firmly on the ground he's standing on, making it virtually impossible for any impact or force this side of the Hulk to move him. The suit has also been refitted with a cloaking device, enabling him to become invisible to detection. An artificially intelligent on-board computer system is capable of running projections or scenarios for him, compiling data, or running the suit by remote -- verbal commands enable him to assemble the armor from a distance as a flying attack drone, using repulsor hover units to move around, and targeting arrays guiding coherent beam weapons and machine guns that fire explosive bullets.

Soon after, Iron Man underwent bio-genetic enhancement thanks to the Extremis formula, a biological recompiler that rewrote his physiology and grew new organs and pathways to increase his natural abilities. Tony developed increased overall stamina and healing powers, allowing him to completely regenerate the heel of his foot in a matter of hours. His mind was substantially enhanced as well. Tony had wireless reception and transmission abilities hardwired into his brain -- he could monitor nearby electronic systems and computers, mentally scan local databases for blueprints, historical data, city water and power locations, receive and process information from orbital satellites, and transmit his voice across cellular networks simply by thinking of it. He could monitor and exert influence over all forms of electronic systems simply by thinking about it, and could multi-task dozens of ways at once -- he could simultaneously operate over twenty Iron Man armors, carry on multiple cellular conversations at once, and so on. Stark now operated the Iron Man armor like an extension of his body. He contained the suit's undersheath inside hollowed out areas of his bones and could summon it at will, making the undersuit flow out through slots in his skin and assemble over his body.

The Extremis Armor itself, Mark XVI was once again miniaturized to fit inside an attaché case, and Stark could mentally assemble it around him as well, using vectored repulsor fields. It now acts completely as an extension of his brain's functions, making him more connected to the suit than ever before. Iron Man could run, move, and otherwise react at speeds greater than 300 mph. He possessed a firm, baseline Class 100 strength level without any need to redistribute power to achieve that level, and could amplify his strength from outside sources if necessary. Precision interface systems allowed Iron Man to generate an electrical charge to stop a man's heart in battle, then restart it with another surge, effectively killing his opponent on command and then bringing him back to life. It included new stealth technology to become invisible to the naked eye, as well as a specific enhancement used during Civil War to block Spider-Man's spider-sense or trigger fall positives in combat. The integrated data transfer between Stark's mind, the Extremis enhancements, and the armor itself now created an entire virtual environment for him inside the suit. With the Extremis armor, Tony was often depicted floating in a black void with many screens in front of him, representing the various POVs he had available, including real-time observations, video playback, data and technical readout screens, extrapolated satellite imaging of the battlefield or other locations, and so on.

Eventually, Extremis crashed after the Skrulls introduced a virus in the Stark Dataspine, taking the latest armors and technology off-line. Stark was also forced to purge all memory from his brain, since Norman Osborn was hunting the Superhuman Registration Act super-hero identities Stark had stored in his biological hard drive via Extremis. In order to recover from literal brain death, Tony directed his friends to recover a back-up copy of his mind made when Extremis was first introduced into his system. It was incorporated into his physiology along with a repulsor arc electromagnetic generator in his chest. Stark's entire body, its conscious and autonomic functions, were now a "program" being run by the RepulsorTech generator -- without it, he would not only revert to brain death, his body wouldn't even remember to breath. With the repulsor power source in his chest, however, Tony retained a post-human physiology. Extremis was still gone, and so he could no longer mentally communicate with machines, but the super-efficient metabolism and bio-output provided by the RepulsorTech gave him near-superhuman strength, speed, endurance, reaction time, and phenomenally increased brainpower and intelligence. He also now possesses an electromagnetic sense of his environment, allowing Tony to "feel" energy output of various kinds in his surroundings. When he met Sasha Hammer, he could immediately detect the subdermal Enhancile upgrades she had been surgically implanted with.

Stark's next suit, the Mark XVII "Bleeding Edge" tech armor, was developed thanks to Stark's new superhuman intelligence, the assistance of Reed Richards, and Tony's own observations of Iron Lad's 31st century neuro-kinetic armor. The Iron Man is now a part of Tony's body even more so than with Extremis. It exists as neuro-kinetic nanofibers stored within his cells, adding only 25 lbs. of mass to his overall weight. On mental command, the nano-mass flows out to create a secondary skin and musculature, hardening into a near-indestructible suit of living armor. He maintains Class 100 strength and superhuman speed and reaction time, as well as multi-dimensional visual capabilities, projecting a virtual array of screens and viewpoints onto his retina. Newly refined repulsor lenses are scattered over his body and double as "eyeballs", allowing him to see in 360 degrees at all times. The nano-constructive properties of the suit enable Stark to create new weapons and devices out of the suit's skin at will, letting him adapt his capabilities to each adventure, creating boxing gloves, laser blades, or heavy caliber particle beam cannons that take up most of his suit's mass to formulate. The suit also has self-repair protocols: Even if the entire armor is blasted off his body, Tony can regenerate a new suit in a matter of minutes. It can also be manifested as less than an entire armor, letting him create gloves or boots or even just a single repulsor lens over his eye to increase his vision telescopically. Because the repulsor arc reactor is a virtually infinite energy source, the Iron Man armor also has a virtually limitless power supply. While under the influence of the Mandarin, however, Stark was forced to expel this armor's nano-materials from his body permanently.

Instead of restoring the nano-armor, Tony decided to return to the principles of the Modular Armor with a new, inter-changeable suit and suit components scheme. He reasoned that while the fluid nature of the nano-armor gave him one armor generally prepared for any situation, sometimes circumstances required specifically-tailored, goal-oriented armors perfect for one situation, but not others. The black-and-gold Mark XVIII acted as a basic armor for him to tinker with, equipped with a standard array of features but also designed with modular components to be swapped out, amped up, or replaced on the fly. He adopted The Armory, basically a flying Winnebago filled with useful components governed by an A.I. and robotic servos to help him customize the suit in the field. All past standard equipment features were available, as well as later-year features such a remote-piloting armors as single or multiple drones. New and updated specialty suits from this era included Stealth, Space, and Hulkbuster Armors, Heavy Duty (an extreme War Machine / firepower design), and an anti-magic Cold Iron Man. Even the basic armor was adaptable as a full suit assembled around him mechanically, a more-collapsible version to store in a briefcase, or an ULTRA-collapsible fluid smart-metal that flowed from an inert liquid state around him in seconds to form a functional Iron Man armor. The arc reactor in his chest remained the primary power source for all armors.

During his inversion, Tony Stark threw away any traces of caution or humility in his work, leading to the Mark XIX Endo-Sym Armor. Using the "building blocks" of the Venom symbiote as a starting point, Stark created an armor made of psionically-controlled liquid smart metal while also restoring his previous Extremis enhancements. Extremis 3.0 once again gives Stark mildly superhuman strength and reflexes (and likely other aspects like his former healing factor) as well as the mental ability to access electronic data and control at least some electronic systems remotely. His eyes can project a holographic Head's-Up Display for him to review files or scans called up from his own system or other sources. The armor can flow like mercury through the air, then solidify around him as micro-circuitry armor based on his designs. Because his connection to the armor is now psionic, Stark can summon the suit even when blocked off from all wireless and electronic signals. Stark's ego has pushed him to leave his face exposed in public more often, so the armor produces a secondary, transparent layer of graphite over his exposed face, making it bulletproof even at extreme close range.