A billionaire industrialist who is captured by terrorists in Afghanistan. Ordered to build a missile for them, Stark uses his resources to build a suit of power armor and make his escape instead. Returning to America, Stark improves his armor and becomes the technologically advanced superhero Iron Man.

Universe

Earth-199999

Created by

Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby, Art Marcum, Matt Holloway

First appearance

Iron Man
(May 2, 2008)

HistoryEdit

I am Iron Man. The suit and I are one.

-- Tony Stark ^src

Early Life

Born to legendary innovator and weapons developer Howard Stark, Tony's early life was often dominated by the absence of his father whom he would later describe as 'cold' and 'calculating'. However from an early age he quickly stole the spotlight with his brilliant and unique mind. At age four he built his first circuit board, at age six his first engine, and at seventeen he graduated summa cum laude from MIT.

Then his parents were killed in a car accident. Howard Stark's lifelong friend and ally, Obadiah Stane, stepped in to fill the gap left by the legendary founder. At age twenty-one, Tony became the new CEO of Stark Industries. With the keys to the business empire, he ushered in a new era for his father's legacy, creating smarter weapons, advanced robotics, and satellite targeting. Tony Stark's influence changed the face of the weapons industry by "ensuring freedom and protecting America and her interests around the globe."

Captured in Afghanistan

When Stark traveled to Afghanistan to introduce his new missile design, the "Jericho", to the United States Air Force, his convoy was attacked by militants and he was knocked unconscious. He woke up to find that he had been badly injured by shrapnel, and had been captured by the militants, yet had survived thanks to his fellow captive, Dr. Yinsen. Yinsen had made a high powered electromagnet to hold the shrapnel in place, thus keeping him alive. Stark was ordered by their captors, a terrorist group calling themselves the Ten Rings, to build them a version of Stark Industries' Jericho missile, an extremely destructive, multi-warhead weapon. He grudgingly agreed, but instead used the time to build a powered suit of armor along with a miniature arc reactor to keep him alive.

During his escape, Dr. Yinsen was killed in an attempt to stall the guards long enough to buy Stark enough time to charge the suit. After the suit was powered up he broke out and destroyed all stock they had of Stark weapons, and used a rocket booster to get get clear of the scene. After crashing into the sand he abandoned his armor, and was traveling for some time before U.S. military helicopters found him and carried him to safety.

Becoming a Hero

Upon returning to the United States, Stark declared that Stark Industries would no longer manufacture weapons, a move which his business partner Obadiah Stane told him was blocked by the board members shortly after. He decided to recreate his armor suit with a vastly upgraded design featuring flight capability, and built a more powerful and reliable arc reactor, both to power his pacemaker and the suit. This experimental test model gave way to a more refined third generation suit, heavily armed, and painted in a vivid red and gold theme that would become his trademark through many more successive generations of his armor.

Faced with the realization that his weapons designs had fallen into the wrong hands, Stark donned the MK III suit and flew to Afghanistan to stop the Ten Rings. He stopped the group and destroyed their Stark weapon stock, while accidentally drawing the attention of the United States Air Force and his friend Lt. Colonel Jim Rhodes. They sent two F-22 jets after Stark to shoot him down, but Stark managed to escape them, and Rhodes covered up the incident after he found out that Stark was piloting the armor, stating that the altercation was a training exercise.

While he was working on improving the suit he discovered that Stane had been dealing under the table to both sides in the conflict. He sent his assistant Virginia "Pepper" Potts to hack into the Stark mainframe. While he was back at home Stane stunned him with a device that induced temporary paralysis, and then stole the arc reactor from Stark's chest. Stark went back to his lab after the paralyzing device wore off and tried to get the old reactor before he went into cardiac arrest. With the help of his personal A.I. computer, J.A.R.V.I.S., he was able to put the arc-reactor in his chest.

Battle against Stane

Using his first reactor, which was not designed to power his latest armor, Stark suited up once more and went to confront Stane. He battled with Stane atop Stark Industries and the surrounding streets, defeating him when the full-sized arc reactor that powered the lab was deliberately overloaded, under Stark's instruction, by Potts. Stark's reactor reactivated after having almost failed completely from the blast.

Aftermath

Afterwards, Stark's alter ego was dubbed "Iron Man" by the press. Stark held a press conference where his government contacts expected him to state that Iron Man was Stark's own bodyguard. However, after stumbling into a loaded question by one of the press reps, he ultimately made his identity as Iron Man public instead. Later that night, Stark came home and was greeted by Nick Fury, leader of S.H.I.E.L.D. (the Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement and Logistics Division), who told him about a plan called the Avenger Initiative.

Palladium Poisoning

Stark's design of the reactor in his chest required a heavy element such as palladium to keep it running. Unfortunately, palladium was continuously eroded by the neutron bombardment, and released deadly poisons into Tony's body. As he came to the realization that his demise was at hand, he began giving his things away to his trusted friends. Pepper took over as CEO of Stark Industries.

While Tony struggled with his illness, the son of Howard Stark's partner in building the original arc reactor, Ivan Vanko, was creating a mini arc reactor of his own. Using crude materials, Ivan was able to create a chest harness that fed the energy from the reactor into two electrical whips he could then use to cut through metal and electrify things with. He attacked Tony at the Monaco Grand Prix while Tony was driving the car he sponsored, and would have killed him if not for the intervention of Pepper and Happy. They rushed to him on the race track and delivered a portable suitcase armor, that Tony used to defeat Vanko.

When Stark threw a party at his Malibu mansion, his self-destructive tendencies again came to the fore. He had donned his Iron Man suit and proceeded to get drunk, then used the suits destructive capabilities to entertain his guests. James Rhodes found him destroying thrown objects above the crowd, and so therefore retrieved the old MK II prototype from the basement and confronted Stark. A fight broke out, Iron Man against Iron Man, and eventually Rhodes confiscated the MK II after telling Stark that he was no longer worthy to wear the suit. Stark watched his friend leave resigning himself to the thought that his friend might be right.

At his lowest ebb, Tony was approached by Director Fury at a doughnut shop. Still in his Iron Man armor he agreed to a meeting within and was surprised when they were joined by his own assistant, who Fury introduced as Natasha Romanoff, a spy who would proceed to keep tabs on him. Romanoff administered a temporary barrier to Tony's palladium poisoning, before Fury set him on a trail to find an element to replace the palladium.

After a lengthy search, Stark found the secret in his father's notes and a diorama of Stark Industries' main plant. Building a small particle accelerator in his garage, Tony was finally able to create a new element that met his needs, and in turn created a brand new suit to utilize the new power.

Armor Wars

His next task was to deal with his arch rival Justin Hammer, who had upstaged Stark Industries at the Stark Expo. Hammer had previously arranged the escape of Vanko and had been using him to engineer new technology to rival Stark's Iron Man suits. Stark was disturbed enough to learn that Hammer had created a small army of drones powered by arc reactors, but shocked when James Rhodes in the fully armed MK II suit lost control of it. Vanko had double-crossed Hammer and was using the drones and Rhodes' War Machine armor in an attempt on Stark's life.

Stark escaped from from the Expo, leading the drones and his helpless friend on a deadly chase. Eventually, outside assistance from Natasha Romanoff allowed Rhodes to regain control and together the two Iron Men were able to fight off the drones, and later Vanko in an armored suit of his own.

With his illness corrected, a new Iron Man armor in hand, and coming out once again on top, Tony returned to the life he enjoyed, acting as a consultant to Nick Fury's Avenger Initiative.

Forming the Team

Fury found himself pressured by his superiors to make a spot for Emil Blonsky (dubbed "The Abomination") on the roster due to his status as a war hero; with his villainous acts in Harlem being attributed to Bruce Banner. Fury, not wanting Blonsky anywhere near his team, left the matter to Agent Coulson and Agent Sitwell, who decided to send Stark to meet with and antagonize General Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross so that he would refuse to release Blonsky to S.H.I.E.L.D. The plan worked, with Stark enraging Ross to the point that the general tried to have him removed from the bar they were in. Stark responded by buying the building and having it demolished.

Months later, and fresh from switching Stark Tower onto a self-contained arc reactor power supply, Tony and Pepper were celebrating when Agent Coulson intruded with urgent business. Unable to dismiss the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, thanks to Pepper, Tony grudgingly looked over Coulson's information and became gravely concerned by the content. S.H.I.E.L.D. had lost the Tesseract and were pulling together powerful individuals from around the globe in a desperate bid to counter the threat that this posed. His concern deepening, Stark continued to digest the situation described in the S.H.I.E.L.D. files long after Coulson had left.

When Loki, the mastermind responsible for the theft, made a public appearance in Stuttgart, Tony suited up and flew into action. When he arrived he found Steve Rogers, in full Captain America regalia, already deeply embattled with the rogue Asgardian and beginning to fail. The combined firepower of Iron Man and a S.H.I.E.L.D. jet backing up Rogers was enough to get Loki to desist hostilities however, and Loki then allowed himself be escorted away. Loki's adoptive brother Thor had other plans, and intercepted the craft in a bid to extradite Loki back to Asgard before he could do any more harm. Tony attempted to stop him, but only succeeded in provoking a fight. Finally Rogers' intervention confused the dispute even further and only when all three had been blasted off their feet did the trio come to their senses enough to agree on a mutually beneficial course of action.

Once on board the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier, Tony set about discretely planting bugs to infiltrate the ship's systems over suspicions about S.H.I.E.L.D. intentions. There was more to the story than what he'd been told and he was determined to wring out all of Fury's secrets.

Tony's addition to a group of powerful people added a volatile element to the mix. His antagonistic swagger was only paused when he found a kindred spirit in Bruce Banner, a fellow scientist trapped by controls on his life that he could not fully master. Tensions mounted and the arguments flared. Tony's suspicions and electronic surveillance prompted a more traditional investigation from Rogers, and the resulting discovery that Director Fury had not been entirely truthful about the Tesseract only made matters worse.

Just when the disputes were threatening to boil out of control, the carrier was attacked in a surprise move by missing S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Clinton Barton. An explosion shut down one of the engines, prompting Stark and Rogers to put aside their differences and work together in an effort to save the ship. In the aftermath they learned that Loki was gone and that S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Phil Coulson had been killed, an event that forced them to look inward and consider their own actions.

Stark deduced that Loki had headed for New York City, and spurred by thoughts of retribution he donned his battered Iron Man armor and set off in pursuit. As predicted, he found the Asgardian in Stark Tower and offered him a warning, cataloguing each of the powerful individuals now arrayed against him. Loki responded by trying to control him, and when this failed he hurled Stark bodily out through a window. Having already abandoned his broken suit, Tony plummeted to the street below, but his forward planning saved him when the freshly constructed MK VII armor rocketed down after him and merged with him in free fall only moments before impact. Disaster averted, he rose back up to issue his final pronouncement before he opened fire: "And there's one other guy you pissed off! His name was 'Phil!'"

Avengers Assemble

While Stark had been busy dealing with Loki, the sorcerer's plan had come to fruition. A device with the Tesseract at its core on the roof had opened a dimensional rift in the sky above Manhattan. Through this rent poured the Chitauri, Loki's allies, swarming down over the city and raining destruction everywhere. Iron Man was unable to breach the energy field shielding Loki's device nor could he match the sheer numbers of the Chitauri. Descending back to the streets he joined with the others and presently six exceptional people stood together for the first time against the alien threat.

The battle was a long and gruelling affair. Iron Man dominated the skies in an air supremacy action against squads of Chitauri flyers. At one point he emulated the tale of Jonah and destroyed one of their leviathans from within. His most compelling action however, was his interception of a nuclear missile deployed to the area as a final solution. This he managed to divert and redirect into the rift where he released it on course for a Chitauri mother ship beyond. The destruction of the alien vessel also caused the remaining Chitauri in New York to literally collapse. His life support systems spent, and energy depleted, Tony collapsed into unconsciousness, unaware of the closing rift below him. Luckily his lifeless body fell through it before it collapsed entirely and the Hulk was then able to intercept him and break his fall.

With the Chitauri defeated and Loki safely removed to Asgard, the Avengers disbanded. The scientists, Stark and Banner, parted company from the group together, each with new scientific horizons to pursue.^[1]

Powers and AbilitiesEdit

Powers

Tony has no inherent powers, however the arc reactor in his chest provides a source of power with which he can power high-demand equipment, most notably his series of Iron Man armor suits. The arc reactor also saved Tony from Loki's mind control.

Abilities

Tony Stark is a genius inventor capable of conceiving and building technological advancements far ahead of cutting edge technology. Among his achievements are the redeveloped arc reactors that his father conceived, the J.A.R.V.I.S. artificial intelligence, his Iron Man armor suits, and various advanced weapons technologies.

Strength level

Without his armor Tony Stark possesses the normal strength of a normal human man his age, height, and build who engages in moderate regular exercise. The armor magnifies Stark's strength to superhuman levels, enough to lift a car with his third generation Iron Man suit and presumably more with subsequent armor and redesigned arc reactors.

Weaknesses

Without his Iron Man armor, Stark is vulnerable to attacks. The arc reactor in his chest is his biggest weakness however:

If it were to be removed, the electromagnet preventing shrapnel reaching his heart would fail.
The reactor requires rare material upgrades to function.
The early miniature arc reactors were powered by palladium core, which due to their toxic nature were slowly polluting his blood.

The Mark II armor froze up in high altitudes with a short cut-off power timing, putting Stark at a disadvantage in cold conditions.

ParaphernaliaEdit

Equipment

Iron Man armor, portable J.A.R.V.I.S. program, arc reactor.

NotesEdit

Iron Man (Tony Stark) was portrayed by Robert Downey Jr. in the film adaptations.

TriviaEdit

Tony Stark made a cameo appearance in The Incredible Hulk movie.
Tony Stark was portrayed by Robert Downey Jr. in Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2 and The Avengers. Downey will reprise the role in Iron Man 3.

LinksEdit

See: Iron Man on The Wiki

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Footnotes

↑ The Avengers (film)

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Wikia

Anthony Stark (Earth-199999)

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