WHO'S..HOW'S..IRONMAN
Anthony Edward Stark, the son of wealthy industrialist and
head of Stark Industries, Howard Stark,
and Maria Stark,
is born on Long Island. A boy genius, he enters MIT at the age of 15
to study electrical engineering and later
receives Master's degrees in electrical engineering and physics. After his
parents are killed in a plane accident, he inherits his father's company.
Tony Stark is injured by a booby trap and captured by the
enemy led by Wong-Chu, who then orders him to design weapons. However,
Stark's injuries are dire and shrapnel is moving towards his heart. His fellow
prisoner, Ho Yinsen, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist whose
work Stark had greatly admired during college, constructs a magnetic chest
plate to keep the shrapnel from reaching Stark's heart, keeping him alive. In
secret, Stark and Yinsen use the workshop to design and construct a suit of powered armor, which Stark uses to escape. But
during the escape attempt, Yinsen sacrifices his life to save Stark's by
distracting the enemy as Stark recharges. Stark takes revenge on his kidnappers
and heads back to rejoin the American forces, on his way meeting a wounded
American Marine fighter pilot, James
"Rhodey" Rhodes.
Back home, Stark discovers that the shrapnel fragment lodged
in his chest cannot be removed without killing him, and he is forced to wear
the armor's chestplate beneath his clothes to act as a regulator for his heart.
He must recharge the chestplate every day or else risk the shrapnel killing
him. The cover for Iron Man is that he is Stark's bodyguard and
corporate mascot. To that end, Iron Man fights threats to his company, such
as Communist opponents Black Widow, the Crimson
Dynamo and the Titanium Man,
as well as independent villains like the Mandarin,
who eventually becomes his greatest enemy. No one suspects Stark of being Iron
Man as he cultivates an image as a rich playboy and industrialist. Two notable
members of Stark's supporting cast at this point are his personal
chauffeur Harold "Happy" Hogan and
secretary Virginia "Pepper" Potts, to both of
whom he eventually reveals his dual identity. Meanwhile, James Rhodes finds his
own niche as Stark's personal pilot, revealing himself to be a man of
extraordinary skill and daring.
The comic took an anti-Communist stance in its early years,
which was softened as opposition rose to the Vietnam War. This
change evolved in a series of stories with Stark profoundly reconsidering his
political opinions and the morality of manufacturing weapons for the military.
Stark, however, shows himself to be occasionally arrogant and willing to let
the ends justify the means. This leads to personal conflicts with the people
around him, both in his civilian and superhero identities. Stark uses his
personal fortune not only to outfit his own armor, but also to develop weapons
for S.H.I.E.L.D. and other technologies such
as the Quinjets used
by the Avengers, and the image inducers used by the X-Men.
Eventually, Stark's heart condition is discovered by the
public and treated with an artificial heart transplant. Later on, Stark expands
on his armor designs and begins to build his arsenal of specialized armors for
particular situations such as for stealth andspace travel. However,
Stark develops a serious dependency on alcohol. The
first time it becomes a problem is when Stark discovers that the national
security agency S.H.I.E.L.D. has been buying a controlling
interest in his company in order to ensure Stark's continued weapons
development for them. At the same time, Stark's business rival Justin Hammer hires
several supervillains to attack Stark. At one point, the Iron Man armor is
even taken over and used to murder a diplomat. Although Iron Man is not
immediately under suspicion, Stark is forced to hand the armor over to the
authorities. Eventually Stark and Rhodes, who is now his personal pilot and
confidant, track down and defeat those responsible, although Hammer would
return to bedevil Stark again.[31] With
the support of his then-girlfriend, Bethany Cabe,
his friends and his employees, Stark pulls through these crises and overcomes
his dependency on alcohol. These events were collected and published as Demon in a
Bottle. Even as he recovers from this harrowing personal
trial, Stark's life is further complicated when he has a confrontation
with Doctor Doom that
is interrupted by an opportunistic enemy sending them back in time to the time
of King Arthur. Once
there, Iron Man thwarts Doom's attempt to solicit the aid of Morgan Le Fay, and the Latverian ruler
swears deadly vengeance - to be eventually indulged sometime after the truce
needed for both to return to their own time. This incident was collected
and published as Doomquest.
Sometime later, a ruthless rival, Obadiah Stane,
manipulates Stark emotionally into a serious relapse. As a result, Stark loses
control of Stark International to Stane, becomes a homeless alcohol-abusing
vagrant and gives up his armored identity to Rhodes, who becomes the new Iron
Man for a lengthy period of time. Eventually, Stark recovers and joins a new
startup, Circuits Maximus. Stark concentrates on new technological designs,
including building a new set of armor as part of his recuperative therapy.
Rhodes continues to act as Iron Man but steadily grows more aggressive and
paranoid, due to the armor not having been calibrated properly for his use.
Eventually Rhodes goes on a rampage, and Stark has to don a replica of his
original armor to stop him. Fully recovered, Stark confronts Stane who has
himself designed a version of armor based around designs seized along with
Stark International, dubbing himself 'Iron Monger'. Defeated in battle, Stane
rather than give Stark the satisfaction of taking him to trial, commits
suicide. Shortly thereafter, Stark regains his personal fortune, but decides
against repurchasing Stark International until much later; he instead creates Stark
Enterprises, headquartered in Los Angeles.
Late 1980s and 1990s
In an attempt to stop other people from misusing his
designs, Stark goes about disabling other armored heroes and villains who
are using suits based on the Iron Man technology, the designs of which were
stolen by his enemy Spymaster. His quest to destroy all instances
of the stolen technology severely hurts his reputation as Iron Man. After
attacking and disabling a series of minor villains such as Stilt-Man,
he attacks and defeats the government operative known as Stingray.
The situation worsens when Stark realizes that Stingray's armor does not
incorporate any of his designs. He publicly "fires" Iron Man while
covertly pursuing his agenda. He uses the cover story of wanting to help
disable the rogue Iron Man to infiltrate and disable the armor of the S.H.I.E.L.D.
operatives known as the Mandroids, and disabling the armor of the Guardsmen, in the process allowing some of the
villains that they guard to escape. This leads the United States government to
declare Iron Man a danger and an outlaw. Iron Man then travels to Russia where
he inadvertently causes the death of the Soviet Titanium Man during a fight. Returning to
the U.S., he faces an enemy commissioned by the government named Firepower. Unable to defeat him head on, Stark
fakes Iron Man's demise, intending to retire the suit permanently. When Firepower
goes rogue, Stark creates a new suit, claiming that a new person is in the
armor.
Stark's health continues to deteriorate, and he discovers
the armor's cybernetic interface is causing
irreversible damage to his nervous
system. His condition is aggravated by a failed attempt on his life
by a mentally unbalanced former lover which injures his spine, paralyzing him.
Stark has a nerve chip implanted into his spine to regain his mobility. Still,
Stark's nervous system continues its slide towards failure, and he constructs a
"skin" made up of artificial nerve circuitry to assist it. Stark begins
to pilot a remote-controlled Iron Man armor, but when faced with the Masters of
Silence, the telepresence suit proves inadequate. Stark
then designs a more heavily armed version of the suit to wear, the
"Variable Threat Response Battle Suit", which becomes known as
the War Machine
armor. Ultimately, the damage to his nervous system becomes too
extensive. Faking his death, Stark places himself in suspended animation to heal as Rhodes
takes over both the running of Stark Enterprises and the mantle of Iron Man,
but using the War Machine armor. Stark ultimately makes a full recovery by
using a chip to reprogram himself and resumes the Iron Man identity. When
Rhodes learns that Stark has manipulated his friends by faking his own death,
he becomes enraged and the two friends part ways, Rhodes continuing as War
Machine in a solo career.
The story arc "The Crossing" reveals Iron Man as a
traitor among the Avengers' ranks, due to years of manipulation by the
time-traveling dictator Kang the Conqueror. Stark, as a sleeper agent
in Kang's thrall, kills Marilla, the nanny of Crystal and Quicksilver's daughter Luna, as well
as Rita DeMara, the female Yellowjacket, then Amanda Chaney, an ally
of the Avengers (the miniseries Avengers
Forever later retcons these events as the work of a
disguised Immortus,
not Kang, and that the mental control had gone back only a few months).
Needing help to defeat both Stark and the ostensible Kang,
the team travels back in time to recruit a teenaged Anthony Stark from an
alternate timeline to assist them. The young Stark steals an Iron Man suit in
order to aid the Avengers against his older self. The sight of his younger self
shocks the older Stark enough for him to regain momentary control of his
actions, and he sacrifices his life to stop Kang. The young Stark later builds
his own suit to become the new Iron Man, and, remaining in the present day,
gains legal control of "his" company.
During the battle with the creature called Onslaught, the teenaged Stark dies, along with
many other superheroes. However, Franklin
Richards preserves these "dead" heroes in the "Heroes Reborn"
pocket universe, in which Anthony Stark is once again an adult hero; Franklin
recreates the heroes in the pocket universe in the forms he is most familiar
with rather than what they are at the present. The reborn adult Stark, upon
returning to the normal Marvel Universe, merges with the original Stark, who
had died during "The Crossing", but was resurrected by Franklin
Richards. This new Anthony Stark possesses the memories of both the original
and teenage Anthony Starks, and thus considers himself to be essentially both
of them. With the aid of the law firm Nelson & Murdock, he successfully
regains his fortune and, with Stark Enterprises having been sold to the
Fujikawa Corporation following Stark's death, sets up a new company, Stark
Solutions. He returns from the pocket universe with a restored and healthy
heart. After the Avengers reform, Stark demands a hearing be convened to look
into his actions just prior to the Onslaught incident. Cleared of wrongdoing,
he rejoins the Avengers.
2000s
At one point, Stark's armor becomes sentient despite
fail-safes to prevent its increasingly sophisticated computer systems from
doing so. Initially, Stark welcomes this "living" armor for its
improved tactical abilities. However, the armor begins to grow more aggressive,
killing indiscriminately and eventually desiring to replace Stark altogether.
In the final confrontation on a desert island, Stark suffers another heart
attack. The armor sacrifices its own existence to save its creator's life,
giving up essential components to give Stark a new, artificial heart. This new
heart solves Stark's health problems, but it does not have an internal power
supply, so Stark becomes once again dependent on periodic recharging. The
sentient armor incident so disturbs Stark that he temporarily returns to using
an unsophisticated early model version of his armor to avoid a repeat incident.
He dabbles with using liquid metal circuitry known as S.K.I.N. that forms into
a protective shell around his body, but eventually returns to more conventional
hard metal armors.
During this time, Stark engages in a romance with Rumiko
Fujikawa (first appearance in Iron Man (vol.
3) #4), a wealthy heiress and daughter of the man who had taken over his
company during the "Heroes Reborn" period. Her relationship with
Stark endures many highs and lows, including an infidelity with Stark's rival,
Tiberius Stone, in part because the fun-loving Rumiko believes that Stark is
too serious and dull. Their relationship ends with Rumiko's death at the hands
of an Iron Man impostor in Iron Man (vol. 3) #87.
In Iron Man (vol. 3) #55 (July 2002), Stark
publicly reveals his dual identity as Iron Man, not realizing that by doing so,
he has invalidated the agreements protecting his armor from government
duplication, since those contracts state that the Iron Man armor would be used
by an employee of Tony Stark, not by Stark himself. When he
discovers that the United States military is again using
his technology, Stark accepts a Presidential appointment
as Secretary of Defense instead
of confronting them as he did before. In this way, he hopes to monitor and
direct how his designs are used.
In the "Avengers Disassembled" storyline,
Stark is forced to resign after launching into a tirade against the Latverian ambassador
at the United Nations, being manipulated by the
mentally imbalanced Scarlet Witch, who destroys the Avengers
Mansion and kills several members. Stark publicly stands down as Iron Man, but
actually continues using the costume. He joins the Avengers in stopping the
breakout in progress from the Raft and
even saves Captain America from falling. Tony
changes the Avengers base to Stark Tower[37] The Ghost, the Living Laser and Spymaster reappear and shift Iron Man from
standard superhero stories to dealing with politics and industrialism.[38]
New Avengers: Illuminati #1 (June 2006) reveals that years before, Stark had
started participating with a group of leaders including the Black Panther, Professor X, Mister
Fantastic,Black Bolt, Doctor
Strange, and Namor. The goal of the group (dubbed the Illuminati by Marvel) was to strategize
overarching menaces, in which the Black Panther rejects a membership offer.
Stark's goal is to create a governing body for all superheroes in the world,
but the beliefs of its members instead force them all to share vital
information.
“Civil War"
In the Civil War storyline, after the actions
of inexperienced superheroes The New
Warriors result in the destruction of several city blocks,
including the elementary school, in Stamford, Connecticut, there is an outcry
across America against super-humans. Learning of the Government's proposed
plans, Tony Stark suggests a new plan to instigate a Superhuman Registration Act. The Act would
force every super-powered individual in the U.S. to register their identity
with the government and act as licensed agents. The Act would force
inexperienced super-humans to receive training in how to use and control their
abilities, something in which Tony strongly believes. Since his struggle with
alcoholism, Stark has carried a tremendous burden of guilt after nearly killing
an innocent bystander while piloting the armor drunk. Reed Richards of
the Fantastic Four and Dr. Henry
"Hank" Pym both agree with Stark's proposal; unfortunately, not
everyone does. After Captain America is ordered to bring in
anyone who refuses to register, he goes rogue and gives those opposed to
registration a figurehead to rally behind, leading to a destructive "superhero civil war". The War ends
when Captain America surrenders to prevent further collateral damage and
civilian casualties, although he had defeated Stark by defusing his armor.
Stark is appointed the new director of S.H.I.E.L.D.,[ and he
organizes a new government-sanctioned group of Avengers, while the New Avengers team, under
the de facto leadership of Luke Cage, continues to defy the Super-Human
Registration Act and operate underground. Shortly afterwards, Captain America
is assassinated while in custody, leaving Stark with a great amount of guilt
and misgivings about the cost of his victory. He then states that "it
wasn't worth it".
Tony Stark served as one of the pallbearers at the memorial
service for Captain America, along with Ben Grimm, Ms. Marvel, Rick Jones, T'Challa
and Sam Wilson.
“Secret Invasion"
In the "Secret
Invasion" storyline, after Tony Stark survives an encounter
with Ultron taking
over his body, he is confronted in the hospital by Spider-Woman, holding the corpse of aSkrull posing
as Elektra. Becoming keenly aware of the upcoming
invasion of the Skrulls, Tony gathers the Illuminati and reveals the corpse to
them, declaring that they are at war. After Black Bolt reveals
himself as a Skrull and is killed by Namor, a squadron of
Skrulls attack, forcing Tony to evacuate the other Illuminati members and
destroy the area, killing all the Skrulls. Realizing that they are incapable of
trusting each other, the members all separate to form individual plans for the
oncoming invasion.
Stark is discredited and publicly vilified after his
inability to anticipate or prevent a secret
infiltration and invasion of Earth by the shape-shifting
alien Skrull race,
and by the Skrull disabling of his StarkTech technology, which had a virtual
monopoly on worldwide defense. After the invasion, the U.S. government removes
him as head of S.H.I.E.L.D. and disbands the Avengers,
handing control of the Initiative over to Norman Osborn.
"Dark
Reign"
With his Extremis powers failing, Stark uploads a virus to
destroy all records of the Registration Act, thus preventing Osborn from
learning the identities of his fellow heroes and anything that Osborn could
possibly exploit, including repulsor generators. The only copy of that database
remaining is in Stark's brain, which he is trying to delete bit by bit while on
the run in one of his extra armors. As Norman Osborn has him hunted as a
fugitive, Stark travels worldwide on his quest to wipe out his mental database,
going so far as to inflict brain damage on
himself in order to ensure that the relevant information is wiped as a suicide
attempt could damage the wrong parts of his brain while leaving Osborn with
enough material to salvage the right information. When Osborn personally
catches up to the debilitated Stark and beats him savagely, Pepper Potts broadcasts
the beatings worldwide, costing Osborn credibility and giving Stark public
sympathy. Stark goes into a vegetative state, having previously granted Donald Blake (alter ego of the
Norse-god superhero Thor) power of attorney. A holographic message stored in
Pepper's armor reveals that Stark had developed a means of 'rebooting' his mind
from his current state prior to his destruction of the database, with Blake and
Bucky resolving to use it to restore him to normal despite Stark's offer in the
message to stay in his current state if it would make things easier and
Pepper's own uncertainty about the fact that Tony can come back when so many
others cannot. Meanwhile, in Stark's subconscious, he is trapped in a scenario
where figments of his own mind are preventing him from moving on and returning
to the waking world. When the procedure fails to work, Bucky calls in Doctor
Strange, who attempts to and succeeds in restoring Stark back to consciousness.
However, it turns out the backup Stark created was made prior to the Civil War,
and as such he does not remember anything that took place during the event,
although he still concludes after reviewing his past actions that he would not
have done anything differently. His brain damage means that he is now dependent
on an arc reactor to sustain his body's autonomous functions such as breathing,
blinking and a heartbeat due to the brain damage he sustained rendering it
impossible for him to do those himself.]
2010s
"Siege"
In the "Siege"
storyline, Tony Stark is seen under the care of Dr. Donald Blake and Maria Hill.
When the two spot the attack on Asgard, Blake tells Maria to run away with
Stark. Hill leaves Stark to assist Blake, now as Thor, after his ambush by Osborn and
his attack dog the Sentry. Hill rescues Thor and brings him
back to Broxton to recuperate. When Osborn declares martial law and
unleashes Daken and
the Sentry on Broxton to root out Thor and Hill, Thor reveals himself to defend
the town. Hill returns to Tony Stark's hiding place to move him to a safer
location and are joined soon after by Speed of
the Young Avengers, who holds a certain indestructible
suitcase that Edwin Jarvis had given Captain America earlier.
Hill orders Speed to surrender when Stark stops her and asks Speed to give him
the case. While Osborn is battling the New Avengers, Stark appears in a variant
of his MK III armor and proceeds to disable Osborn's Iron Patriot armor. Osborn
orders the Sentry to annihilate Asgard, rather than allow the Avengers to have
it, which the Sentry does, practically leveling the city before the horrified
eyes of Thor. After Asgard falls, literally, Stark stands alongside his fellow
heroes, as the now armor-free Osborn exclaims they are all doomed and he 'was
saving them from him' pointing up towards a Void-possessed Sentry hovering over
them. As the Void tears apart the teams, Loki gives them the power to
fight back through the Norn Stones. When the Void kills Loki, Thor's
rage-fueled blows rattle the creature. Tony then tells Thor to get the Void
away from Asgard, which he does. Tony then drops the commandeered H.A.M.M.E.R.
Helicarrier 'as a bullet', subduing the Void. When Robert Reynolds begs to be
killed, Thor denies the request, but is forced to when the Void resurfaces.
Sometime later, the Super-Human Registration Act is repealed and Tony is given
back his company and armory. As a symbol for their heroics and their new unity,
Thor places a remaining Asgardian tower on Stark Tower where the Watchtower
once stood. Tony later attends a private funeral for Robert Reynolds.
"Heroic Age"
In the 2010-2011 "Stark: Resilient" storyline,
Tony builds a new armor, the Bleeding Edge, with the help of Mister Fantastic.
This new armor fully utilizes the repulsor tech battery embedded in his chest
to power Tony's entire body and mind thus allowing him access to extremis once
more. Furthermore, the battery operates as his "heart" and is
predominantly the only thing keeping him alive. Later, Tony announces that
he will form a new company, Stark Resilient. He states that he will stop
developing weapons, instead, he plans to use his repulsor technology to give
free energy to the world. However, Justine and Sasha Hammer create their own
armored hero, Detroit Steel, to take Stark's place as the Army's leading
weapons-builder. Stark's plan consists of building two repulsor-powered cars.
However, the Hammers try to foil his efforts. The first car is destroyed by
sabotage, while Detroit Steel attacks Stark Resilient's facilities while Tony
tests the second car. Through a legal maneuver, Tony is able to get the Hammers
to stop their attacks and releases a successful commercial about his new car.
Fear Itself
In the 2011 Fear Itself storyline, Earth is
attacked by the Serpent, an evil Asgardian who is later revealed to be
Thor's uncle. In Paris, Iron Man fights Grey Gargoyle,
who has become Mokk, Breaker of Faith and one of the Serpent's Worthy. Mokk
leaves Iron Man unconscious and transforms Detroit Steel into stone. When Iron
Man awakens, he sees that Mokk has turned all the people in Paris into stone
and left. To defeat the Serpent's army, Tony drinks a bottle of wine - thus
'sacrificing' his soberiety - to gain an audience with Odin, who allows Tony to
enter the realm of Svartalfheim. There, Tony and the dwarves of Svartalfheim
work to build weapons the Avengers can use against the Worthy. Tony upgrades
his armor with uru-infused enchantments and delivers the finished weapons to
the Avengers, who use them for the final battle against the Serpent's forces.
Iron Man watches as Thor kills the Serpent, but dies in the process. After the
battle is over, Tony melts down the weapons he created and repairs Captain
America's shield, which had been damaged in the battle, and gives it back to
Captain America, telling him that the shield is now stronger.During a
subsequent argument with Odin about the gods' lack of involvement in the recent
crisis, Odin gives Tony a brief opportunity to see the vastness of the universe
the way he sees it, before, as thanks for Tony's role in the recent crisis, he
restores all the people that the Grey Gargoyle killed during his rampage.
Return of the Mandarin
After "Fear Itself", Stark is subpoenaed by the
U.S. government after evidence of him using the Iron Man armor while
intoxicated surfaces. Mandarin and Zeke Stane upgrade some of Iron Man's old
enemies and send them to commit acts of terrorism across the world, intending
to discredit Iron Man. General Bruce Babbage forces Stark to wear a tech
governor, a device that allows Babbage to deactivate Stark's armor whenever he
wants. To fight back, Tony undergoes a surgical procedure that expels the
Bleeding Edge technology out of his body and replaces his repulsor node with a
new model, forcing Babbage to remove the tech governor off his chest. He
announces his retirement as Iron Man, faking Rhodey's death and giving him a
new armor so that he becomes the new Iron Man
In the Volume 5 series, Tony Stark has hit a technological
ceiling. After the death of Dr. Maya Hansen and destroying all of the Extremis
Ver. 2 kits (which were being sold to the black market) Tony decides that the
Earth is not safe without him learning more from what's in the final frontier.
He takes his new suit, enhanced with an artificial intelligence named
P.E.P.P.E.R. and joins Peter Quill and The Guardians of the Galaxy.
Enjoy it bros!
