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Quote1 I'm not a difficult man to figure out. There's only really two things you need to know about me. One, I'm very rich. And like all the very rich, I want to be richer. Two, I bore easily. And being very rich and very bored makes me something else. Incredibly dangerous. Quote2
Arno Stark[src]

History

Arno Stark bought out his predecessor Tony's company after it appeared he had died. After being hired on a mercenary mission to raise money, he found that he enjoyed the work. He employed a number of other armored personnel, whom he called the Iron Bots.

He was set to unveil a new time displacement device, but he had to undertake munitions jobs to help finance the project. One of these was a large-scale nuke nicknamed the Planet Buster. Terrorists found the plant where the bomb was located and attempted to detonate it. Cynthia Stark and Arno Jr. were visiting the plant during the attack. Arno suited up and killed the terrorists, but learned a retinal scan was needed to disarm the bomb. Arno went back in time to try and gain the scan from the lead man as a child, but was stopped by Spider-Man. Ironically this caused the man to grow up with an intense hatred of corporations. The bomb exploded, killing Arno's wife and child as well as many employees.[2]

Some time later, Arno was hired by one of an elite group of rich game players called the Dicemen, and duped into fighting the time travelling bounty hunter Death's Head. When the pair realised they had been lied to, they teamed up to go after their mutual employer, but he had already been eliminated by his own organisation, though he had left the balance of their fees behind. Death's Head gave Arno, who had been plagued by self doubt, some confidence boosting advice before leaving.[3]

At one point, outside of time, Immortus summoned a Legion of the Unliving to Limbo, including Iron Man 2020. Arno faced the original Iron Man. Although his armor was superior, Arno could not match Tony's skill and was outwitted.[4]

Arno was later hired by Sunset Bain to destroy the rebuilt Machine Man and the Midnight Wreckers.[5] He failed and was humiliated by the automaton.[6] However it seemed he and his Iron Bots battled the Wreckers and Machine Man on multiple occasions.

Later, he took a request by Marcus Amalgamated to rescue the owner's daughter from kidnappers. He was concerned that events in the Middle East and Russia would impact his company due to rising oil prices, and also wanted to take advantage of a new technology Marcus promised him if he rescued Micki. However, it was a ploy. Micki was actually fleeing her father's company with data on a destructive new computer virus and the kidnappers were hired by Marcus. Arno confronted Marcus and was able to defeat him by infecting both their armors with the virus.[7]

Arno finally decided to be a hero. Unknown to him, Marcus's advisor Howard was actually the elderly Tony Stark, pleased with his nephew's new direction.

Arno was briefly summoned by the Time-Keepers as part of their forces opposing the team of Avengers summoned from various realities by Rick Jones.[8]

Arno Stark was then pulled from his own reality by X-51 of Earth-9997 to be a member of his Heralds, a group of super-humans from alternate realities. He had gathered them to warn alternate realities of the danger of the Celestials who reproduced by impregnating worlds and manipulating the DNA of the planets' dominant species into being unwilling antibodies. Each member of the Heralds were promised their fondest wish upon completion of their mission. As payment for his agreement to join the Heralds, Stark wished to be given the opportunity to be a hero on his own terms without living in his uncle's shadow. He was teamed-up with Wolverine of Earth-811, Bloodstorm of Earth-1298, Deathlok of Earth-7484, Spider-Girl of Earth-1122, Killraven of Earth-691, and Hyperion of Earth-1121. The team was split into groups of two with Bloodstorm and Iron Man traveling to Earth-2010, a reality where everyone on Earth is a vampire.

There they seeked out that world's version of Reed Richards to deliver their warning of Celestial prorogation. Learning that Reed (and most of the superhero population) had fallen victim to vampirism, their information came too little too late to the damned of this world. However, their information gave Reed the resolve to drop a bomb into his Earth's core that would destroy the entire planet and wipe out all the vampires before they could take their curse to the stars.

Returning to Earth-9997, each pair of the group having varying degrees of success with warning their realities, they arrived to find that the Watcher of Earth-9997 was being judged by his alternate reality counterparts. After a brief battle against the collective of Watchers, they were beaten when X-51 had them all teleported to the surface of their own Earths, making them guilty of the same crimes that Watcher-9997 was guilty of.

With their missions completed, X-51 took all the Heralds to Earth to grant them their wishes. There, Arno met the Guardians of the Galaxy who had traveled back in time from Earth-691 because they had found an ancient book that told of a point in the 21st century when all of humanity was mutated. As their Earth had been conquered by the Badoon, they sought to learn the secret in order to win their war in their own reality. Unknown to them, this was a manipulation planned by Mephisto to create another divergent reality. Upon hearing of the Guardians' plight, X-51 suggested that Arno accompany them back to their own time, as in his own reality he created a bomb that caused massive mutations on his own world. Arno agreed and left with the Guardians back to their own reality.

It is unknown if Arno succeeded in aiding the Guardians in their quest, however since he was never seen on Earth-691, it can be presumed that the Guardians' trip to Earth-9997 created a divergence from their home reality, and whatever Arno may or may not have done for the Guardians happened in a reality different from that of Earth-691.

However, for unknown reasons he was briefly imprisoned by the Time Variance Authority. He was seen by She-Hulk when the Two-Gun Kid was released. It is entirely possible that he was plucked from reality from the TVA en route to his mission, thereby preserving Earth-691. However, the true reason why Arno was in the custody of the TVA and the fate of his mission with the Guardians remain unrevealed at this time.[9]

At some point in his life, Iron Man was recruited by Kang to be a part of his Chronos Corps.[10]

Arno was later affected by a technologic version of the zombie virus which invaded his universe, and it caused him to mutate into one of them, being later devoured by his own armor.[11]

Attributes

Power Grid[14]
:Category:Power Grid/Fighting Skills/Some Training:Category:Power Grid/Energy Projection/Multiple Types:Category:Power Grid/Durability/Superhuman:Category:Power Grid/Speed/Supersonic:Category:Power Grid/Strength/Superhuman (75-100 ton):Category:Power Grid/Intelligence/Genius

Abilities

  • Genius-Level Intellect: Arno is an inventive genius, particularly in weapons, computers and flight technology.[12]

Paraphernalia

Equipment

  • Iron Man 2020 Armor: His own futuristic version of the Iron Man armor called experimental tractor clamps.
    • Superhuman Strength: Depending on the energy source the armor grants him strength from Class 25 to Class 100.[12]
    • Superhuman Durability: The armor grants Arno superhuman levels of durability.[12]
    • Energy Projection: The armor allows Arno to shoot powerful energy blasts from his fingers, palms and chest.[12]
    • Arsenal: The armor is equipped with various weapons like electro-magnetic force fields, magnetic tractor clamps, fletchettes and bladed shuriken-like distruptor weapons.[12]
    • Flight: The armor allows Arno to fly.[12]

Weapons

Extendable high caliber pistol. Flying Star Blade, a controllable edged projectile

Transportation

Custom-built Stealth jet with a hanger designed for armor storage.

Notes

  • Arno Stark's exact relationship to Tony Stark has been reported several different ways.
    • In Avengers: West Coast #61, Arno referred to Tony as his great-uncle (meaning Tony was his grandparent's brother), although this version of Arno may have been a Space Phantom.
    • In Paradise X: Heralds #3, Iron Man 2020 simply called him Uncle Tony. Both references are suspect since Tony Stark had no known siblings at the time of these issues' release.
    • In What If...? #53 (spinning off of events from Amazing Spider-Man Annual #20), Arno is identified as the son of Tony's cousin, Morgan Stark, making him and Tony first cousins, one generation removed. Unfortunately, that story inaccurately identifies Tony and Morgan as brothers, and so Tony is called Arno's "uncle" again.
    • Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z #1 has Morgan as Tony's cousin and Arno as Mogan's son.

See Also

Links and References

References

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