Iron Man

Iron Man (real name: Anthony Edward "Tony" Stark) is the head of Stark Industries, a superhero, and a founding member of the Avengers.

History

Anthony Edward "Tony" Stark was born on Long Island, New York. As a child, he inherited his family's business, Stark Industries, when his parents were killed in a car crash. While conducting a weapons test in a war zone for the U.S. military, Stark triggered a booby trap that left his heart critically injured by shrapnel. Captured by the communist warlord Wong-Chu, Stark was ordered to build a weapon of mass destruction. Instead, he constructed a suit of armor to keep himself alive and used it to escape—thus becoming Iron Man.

After returning to the United States, Stark maintained the guise that Iron Man was merely his personal bodyguard while secretly operating as a superhero. When called upon to stop the Hulk and discovering that Loki was manipulating events, Iron Man joined forces with the Hulk, Thor, Ant-Man, and Wasp to defeat the god of mischief. Their teamwork led to the creation of the superhero team known as the Avengers. In time, Tony Stark publicly revealed that he and Iron Man were one and the same.

Characteristics

Iron Man, the alter ego of Tony Stark, was a brilliant businessman and entrepreneur driven by a desire to innovate and advance technology—both for society’s benefit and his own. Though one of many Marvel heroes with a genius-level intellect, Stark stood apart through his focus on practical, societal applications of science. A true futurist, he dedicated himself to anticipating problems before they arose, a philosophy that would later inspire his formation of the Avengers.

Appearances

• "Both Alike In Dignity..." (No Lines)

Production Background

Following the success of the Fantastic Four in 1961 and the subsequent revival of American comic books featuring superheroes, Marvel Comics created new superhero characters. Stan Lee developed the initial concept for Iron Man. He wanted to design a character who should be unpalatable to his generally anti-war readers but to make them like the character anyway. Iron Man was created in the years after a permanent arms industry developed in the United States, and this was incorporated into the character's backstory. The character was introduced as an active player in the Vietnam War. Lee described the national mood toward Vietnam during Iron Man's creation as "a time when most of us genuinely felt that the conflict in that tortured land really was a simple matter of good versus evil".

Larry Lieber developed Iron Man's origin and wrote the first Iron Man story, while Jack Kirby and Don Heck were responsible for the initial design. Lee modeled Iron Man after businessman Howard Hughes, invoking his physical appearance, his image as a businessman, and his reputation as an arrogant playboy. Kirby and Heck then incorporated elements of the actor Errol Flynn's physical appearance in the design. When first designing the character, Lee wanted to create a modernized Arthurian knight. The Iron Man character was created at a time when comic book characters were first depicted struggling with real-life problems, and his heart injury was an early example of a superhero with a physical disability.

Iron Man's first appearance, "Iron Man is Born!", appeared in Tales of Suspense #39, released in December 1962 with a March 1963 cover date.

See Also

• Iron Man at Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia