IRON MAN (TONY STARK)

Born to Howard and Maria Stark, the heads of the powerful business conglomerate Stark Industries, Tony Stark grew to be an imaginative and brilliant inventor, but his alcoholic father proved to be a poor role model. When his parents were killed in a car accident because of a faulty break, Tony became the new head of Stark Industries. The first thing he did was buy the company that built his parents' car and fix the flaw.

Tony was a charming playboy and socialite, but grew restless. He finally decided to inspect some of his overseas factories personally. While there, rebels attacked his party, and Tony set off a booby trap running away. A piece of shrapnel was lodged in his chest, dangerously close to his heart.

The rebel leader Wong-Chu, a servant of the powerful villain the Mandarin, capture Tony. Wong-Chu had Stark collaborate with another captive, Ho Yinsen, to develop new weapons for him. Stark and Yinsen instead devised a means to keep Stark alive by constructing a chestplate that would keep his heart beating.

The chestplate was but one part of a suit of armor they hoped would enable them to escape Wong-Chu. But just as Yinsen was charging up the armor for Tony, Wong-Chu's men arrived. Yinsen sacrificed his life so that Tony would have enough time to fully charge. Tony Stark was now Iron Man.

After defeating Wong-Chu, Iron Man encountered an American Air Force pilot named James Rhodes, whose helicopter had crashed in the jungle. Iron Man and Rhodes helped each other escape; as Stark, Tony offered Rhodes a place in his company.

Back in the United States, Tony continued to suit up as Iron Man. There was little joy to be had in his playboy lifestyle, now that he had to wear his chestplate at all times to keep himself alive. Tony told the public that Iron Man was his bodyguard, to explain his constant presence around Stark Industries. Tony's most trusted friends at Stark Industries were his chauffeur, Harold "Happy" Hogan, and his secretary Patricia "Pepper" Potts. Pepper was attracted to Tony, but eventually married Happy instead. In time, Tony shared his double identity with both of them.

Later important staff of Tony's included secretary Bambi Arbogast; physical therapist Veronica Benning; security chiefs Bethany Cabe and Vic Martinelli; scientists Kevin O'Brien, Cly and Morley Erwin, Abe Zimmer, and Erica Soundheim; pilot and bodyguard James Rhodes; lawyer Felix Alvarez; public relations heads Artie Pithings and Marcy Pearson; and the holographic life-forms PLATO, HOMER, and Friday.


As Iron Man, he became a founding member of the Avengers alonside Ant-Man, Thor, Hulk and the Wasp. Not only did he provide considerable might to the Avengers as Iron Man; as Tony Stark, he funded the team through the Maria Stark Foundation and provided his family's mansion in Manhattan to serve as Avengers Mansion. His faithful butler, Edwin Jarvis, has also become an indispensable ally of the Avengers.


Iron Man served as the Avengers' leader on several occasions, but friction developed among his teammates who sometimes considered him to be a little more than a mercenary, talking a paycheck from Tony Stark. As Tony Stark, he became romantically involved with his teammate, the Wasp, but eventually realized he couldn't keep the truth from her. He revealed to the Wasp that he was Iron Man, which ended their romantic relationship.

In addition to his work as Iron Man and his funding of the Avengers, Tony has also supplied the Guardsmen armor used for law enforcement and helped develop S.H.I.E.L.D., providing the super-spy agency with most of their technology, including the Mandroid armor and the Hellicarrier. Tony's foes as Iron Man have come to include the Mandarin, Madame Masque, Advanced Idea Mechanics (AIM), the Controller, Modecai Midas, Firebrand, the Crimson Dynamo, the Black Widow, the Ghost, the Titanium Man, the Melter, the Unicorn, and Spymaster.

Tony eventually had a successful heart transplant, ending his heart problems for the time being. He continued to find success both as Iron Man and as Stark, and renovated his company to Stark International, but privately, he found himself succumbing to alcoholism. Finally, he passed the armor to James Rhodes, asking him to continue as Iron Man while he slowly sank into the gutter, no longer caring about his career or his identity as Iron Man, as his company fell into the hands of his rival, Obadiah Stane.

At his lowest ebb, Tony befriended a pregnant homeless woman named Gretl Anders. Stranded outdoors in the snow, Tony had to deliver her child; Gretl died in childbirth, but Tony kept her son alive. When he awoke in a hospital, Tony found that he had finally overcome his bleak outlook on life and was able to move ahead again. After Stane injured Rhodes, Tony designed a new suit of armor, using it first to bring down Stane. Stane fought Tony in his own armored identity, the Iron Monger, but when his defeat became imminent, Stane killed himself to avoid the humiliation.

Tony built a new company, Stark Enterprises, and gradually regained all that he had lost. However, he nearly lost everything again after discovering that his enemy, Justin Hammer, had sold stolen Stark technology to armored criminals across the globe. Unable to deal with them through legal means, Iron Man went rogue to bring down all the men involved. Still maintaining his secret identity, Tony claimed that the Iron Man responsible was the rogue. In the course of his actions, Tony took arms against the American government itself, no longer convinced that he could trust anyone with his armor's designs, and even struck down Captain America from behind, nearly destroying their friendship. He also killed the Titanium Man (Gremlin) when he accidentally set him on fire while trying to break free of his grasp. The government unleashed a powerful armored operative named Firepower to bring Iron Man down, and Tony faked his death to end the crisis. When Tony resumed his activities as Iron Man, he claimed that a new man had assumed the role.

After being shot by his insane lover Kathy Dare, Tony was paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair. He was only truly mobile and free while in his Iron Man armor. He sought out an experimental chip to regain his ability to walk, but the attempt resulted in permanent damage to his nervous system. Finally, he faked his death and had himself placed in a cryogenic chamber so that his scientists could repair the damage. Rhodes again became Iron Man, but was furious when he discovered Tony had faked his death.

In addition to Rhodes, the Iron Man armor has also been worn by "Happy" Hogan, Michael O'Brien, Eddie March, Bethany Cabe, and Iron Man's former enemy, Force, all with Stark's blessing. On one occasion, all six of these people donned suits of Iron Man armor at the same time to help Tony battle the robot Ultimo. Over time, Tony's ideologies set him against his fellow Avengers, and he formed the team Force Works to do the work he felt the Avengers were unwilling to do. But at the same time, Tony was manipulated by Immortus, who had Tony assassinate several of his friends. Tony finally sacrificed his life to thwart Immortus' plans.

But Tony's remarkable life was not yet over. Franklin Richards restored Tony to life on the duplicate Earth called Counter-Earth, and he returned from there with the rest of Earth's heroes presumed lost in Onslaught. While Tony was away, Stark Enterprises became the property of a Japanese company, Fujikawa, and was renamed Stark-Fujikawa. Tony wound up falling in love with Rumiko Fujikawa, granddaughter of Kenjiro Fujikawa, the head of the company. Kenjiro finally granted Tony a 49% interest in the company, while he held 49% himself; the remaining 2% went to Rumiko.

Tony's heart problems recurred after his enemy Whiplash injured him. At the same time, one of Ultron's personalities assumed control of his armor; becoming sentient. Tony tried to encourage the armor to become a hero, but it had no regard for human life and slew Whiplash. When Tony's heart problems became severe, the armor tore out its own artificial heart and placed it within Tony's chest to save his life. The armor then "died".

Later, Tony revealed his double identity to the world, and many of the people who were deceived by him for years demanded he be brought to account for his actions. He also found his inventions in jeopardy when Sonny Burch of the U.S. Department of Defense began stealing the patents of his armor's devices. Burch took advantage of the fact that the patents had been sealed because Iron Man was considered to be "testing" the equipment, but now that it was know than Stark was Iron Man, they were no longer protected. To protect his inventions and better serve the Department of Defense, Tony campaigned to be appointed Secretary of Defense and won. He has pledged to serve American soldiers by making their equipment safer and developing effective non-lethal weaponry.

Avengers Disassembled: Tony 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. Following this, the Scarlet Witch causes the destruction of the Avengers mansion and the death of several Avengers; Stark claims publicly that he will stand down as Iron Man. The "new" Iron Man remains Stark; however, the catastrophic events that preceded this, combined with Stark's assertion, convinces the public that Iron Man and Stark are now different people. Stark leaves the wreckage of Avengers Mansion as it is, and unveils Stark Tower, a state-of-the-art office building that becomes headquarters for the New Avengers team, of which he is a member.

Illuminati: At one point it is revealed that years before, in the wake of the Kree-Skrull War, Stark initiates a meeting at the palace of the Black Panther in Wakanda with Professor X, Mister Fantastic, Black Bolt, Doctor Strange, and Namor to form a clandestine group dubbed the "Illuminati" to devise strategy and policy regarding overarching menaces (Black Panther rejects membership and derides the other heroes for joining). Stark's original goal is to create a governing body for all superheroes in the world to answer to. However, the different beliefs and philosophies, besides the fact that many heroes choose to conceal their real identities, makes Stark's plan impractical. Despite this, the group agrees to share vital information.

Civil War: Learning of the government's plans to instigate a Superhuman Registration Act that would force super-powered individuals to reveal their identities to the government and register as licensed agents, Tony Stark at first seeks to defeat the proposal. His opinion of the Act later changes when he sees it as a means to achieve the goals of the Illuminati. Of his fellow Illuminati members, only Reed Richards, of the Fantastic Four agrees with Stark, who becomes the figurehead of the Registration Act. Many super powered individuals opposed to registration rally behind Captain America, leading to a destructive "superhero civil war" that ends with Captain America standing down to prevent further collateral damage. 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 Superhuman Registration Act and operate underground). Shortly afterward, Captain America is assassinated while in custody, leading Stark to great guilt and misgivings.


Secret Invasion: 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 a Skrull posing as Elektra. Becoming keenly aware of the upcoming invasion of the Skrulls, Tony gathers the Illuminati and reveals the corpse to them, declaring they're 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 they're incapable of trusting each other, the members all separate to form individual plans for the oncoming invasion. Tony becomes 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. 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 Barnes 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 never ending loop where machines attack when he attempts to dig for something before the scenario resets.

To Be Continued...