The Invincible Iron Man was the creation of Marvel Comics legends Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. With the help of story artists Don Heck and Larry Lieber in 1963, Iron Man became one of Marvel Comics premier comic titles and characters. ORIGINS
Iron Man is the alter ego of billionaire industrialist-inventor and playboy, Anthony Edward Stark. As a child prodigy,Tony’s abilities as a genius and inventor was evident at a very young age and was oftentimes accelerated in school. After college Tony took over the R&D Division of his father’s company, munitions manufacturer Stark Industries .He began to design a line of non-lethal weaponry much to the disappointment of his father, Howard Stark. Stark often resents his son’s innocent and naïve outlook in life compared to his ruthless and cutthroat business ethics. After his parents were killed in an automobile accident, Tony Stark took over as CEO of Stark Industries and begins to hard sell the military with his ‘safe and smart’ arsenal, to the extent of going to the war zones just to prove that his inventions can make a change. While in South East Asia, Stark’s convoy was ambushed by “revolutionary freedom fighters” with Stark’s own vehicle running over an anti-armor landmine.
Tony Stark regains consciousness in the base camp of the warlord, Wong Chu with a shrapnel buried deeply in his chest. Wong Chu promised Stark that his injuries will only be treated when Tony builds him a Weapon of Mass Destruction. Stark knew Wong Chu is lying and he has only very little time left, but he agrees anyway so he can access the camp’s workshop and put a radical idea he’s had since college into gear. Half way through his work, Wong Chu threw in another of his hostages to help Stark built the weapon faster, renowned Chinese nano-physicist Professor Yin Sen. Tony then revealed to Dr. Sen his real invention-a solar charged,transistor powered,armored exo-suit.
THE GRAY IRON MAN
Stark had this dream for the modern infantry man- clad in an armored battlesuit that can survive in any hostile environment, flight capable and equipped with a wide variety of non-lethal smart weapons.The only difference with this particular armor was the chest plate.The chest plate also serves as an amplified pacemaker to keep his damaged heart functioning when the shrapnel reaches the critical part.It took Tony every ounce of life left in him to finish a six foot eight inch, eight hundred pound, iron plated refrigerator walking on two legs. Professor Yin Sen assisted Tony donning the armor for the first time and slowly charge its power cells. But when an impatient Wong Chu attempted to break into the lab, Professor Yen Sin pretends to escape and lured the guards away from the workshop. This sacrifice costs Yin Sen his life, thus enabling Stark to completely charge the armor to full power and escape. Stark then later returned to avenge Professor Yen Sin’s death and defeat Wong Chu. Thus Iron Man was born.
HIS ALLIES.HIS FOES.HIS DOWNFALL.HIS TRIUMPH
After defeating the tyrant Wong Chu, Iron Man finds himself trekking through the Southeast Asian jungle trying to get back to friendly territory. He stumbles upon a downed Marine Sea Stallion helicopter and its lone survivor, Marine Lieutenant James Ruppert ‘Rhodey’ Rhodes. Shot down, pinned by enemy fire, wounded and seriously pissed off ,Rhodey empties a clip into Stark before soon to be "Golden Avenger" disarms him and identified himself as an American.Using the chopper’s batteries to recharge his own power source,Iron Man and Rhodes repels the enemy attack after enemy attack and together they finally made their way back to Rhodey’s unit. Here Stark offers Rhodes a job with Stark International after his tour of duty ends.
Back home, Stark refines and improves the Iron Man armor until finally he settled with the familiar streamlined red and gold suit of today. He still needs to wear the chest piece all the time to keep his damaged heart functioning. Iron Man’s adventures eventually led to the assembly of what will be known as Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, The Avengers. Among his most trusted allies were Captain America, The Mighty Thor, Giant Man, Hawkeye, Quicksilver,The Black Panther,The Scarlet Witch, Black Widow, The Vision, Wonder Man, and The Incredible Hulk among others. He also maintained good relations with other superheroes like Spider-Man, Daredevil, The Fantastic Four and The X-Men. Eventually when the threat to national security became a major concern,Tony Stark was instrumental with the creation of Supreme Headquarters for Intelligence, Espionage and Law Enforcement Directorate or SHIELD ,recommending and installing Colonel Nick Fury as its Director of Operations.
As Iron Man gained allies, the same went with his foes. His rogue’s gallery includes
The Spymaster, The Unicorn, The Melter, Backlash, Blizzard, The Living Laser,Stilt-Man,The Beetle,The Controller, Titanium Man, The Crimson Dynamo,Firepower, M.O.D.O.K., Madame Masque and the Maggia Organization, the giant alien cyborg, Ultimo but his deadliest nemesis that Shell Head always considered the toughest was The Mandarin. His powers come from ten mystically powered alien rings that can control and manipulate the elements even at the molecular level, Iron Man acknowledges and respects the kind of power the Mandarin wields which between them was always a battle between science and magic.
Like any other man,Tony Stark is susceptible to the stress on living a dual identity,one too many government investigations and senate hearings, his turbulent love life and staving off the numerous attempts by rival corporations and even the U.S.Government,from taking over Stark International.This also forced Stark to seek refuge from the bottle. At first he was in total denial of his alcoholism but after getting help from friends especially Jim Rhodes, Bethany Cabe and Captain America, Tony seemed to be on the road to recovery until his fortune was frozen and manipulated by Obadiah Stane.
Stane took away Stark International and drove Tony deeper into severe alcoholic depression.Leaving Jim Rhodes to continue in his stead as Iron Man, Tony lived the life of a homeless ,drunken bum until Captain America found him and set him straight. Tony joins a couple of friends to establish Circuits Maximus, a technological think tank and solutions company. Eventually Stark got over his alcoholism and creates a new Iron Man Armor. After the death of one of his partners by Obadiah Stane’s hand, Stark brings the fight to Stane’s doorstep. Stane,now aware of Tony’s dual identity, discovers some of Tony’s Iron Man blueprints and builds an armor for himself, The Iron Monger -a dreadnaught of an armor. Fortunately, his lack of experience in controlling, manipulating and fighting with such a high tech battle armor swung the tide of the battle in Iron Man’s favor. Obadiah Stane kills himself with a replusor blast to the head rather than to face prosecution.
After exposing Stane’s illegal activities and the connections he had in his pocket that led up to the upper echelons of the U.S. government, most of them were involved with the ‘witchhunt’ on Tony Stark, Stark and Stane’s fortune and assets were released to him and Stark International is once again his company. Tired of the events his life went through over the past months, Tony Stark moves to California and reinvents his company, now known as Stark Enterprises.
TONY STARK : THE MAN BEHIND THE IRON ARMOR
Tony Stark is a billionaire genius whose patents for his inventions alone is a fortune by itself. Stark is also a perennial ladies man and an alcoholic. His alcoholism could be traced back to his father, a mean drunk who would force young Tony to drink down hard liquor. Tony would do this as a way to win his father’s affection and approval, which in the end he never got. Like his Iron Man Armor, Stark went through a lot of phases and changes. From billionaire to homeless drunk. From friend to foe. From living to dead. Tony Stark’s strength and perennial weakness was his conscience and ethics. Whenever the use of one of his inventions was corrupted, regardless how minor Stark would always take full responsibility for acts that he believed he could have somehow prevented .This would drive Stark to try set things right regardless the costs or the ways which he would justify with the means. His actions usually would place him in conflict with his friends, the government mainly, Colonel Nick Fury of SHIELD and occasionally his fellow superheroes, The Avengers. In the end, Tony would mend broken fences with apologies, bribes, blackmail and even threats – the way his father ruled the munitions industry when he was still alive. In the events of Civil War which Stark is head of the pro- The Superhuman Registration Act forces, Tony Stark remained a member of the Illuminati and was given the position as the new Director of SHIELD. Following the aftermath of Civil War, Stark begins to question his own ethics and was the hardest one to suffer from the death of Steve Rogers-Captain America.
