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	Real name: Anthony "Tony" Stark  Occupation: Inventor, Industrialist  Identity: Secret  Legal status: Citizen of the United States with no criminal record  Place of birth: Long Island, New York Marital Status: Single Known Relatives: Howard (father, deceased), Maria (mother, deceased), Morgan (cousin) Group affiliation: Avengers  Base of operations: Seattle, Washington  First appearance: TALES OF SUSPENSE #39  History: Anthony Stark, son of industrialist Howard Stark, demonstrated his mechanical aptitude and inventive genius at a very early age, enrolling in college electrical engineering program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology at the age of 15. When he was 21, he inherited his father's business, Stark Industries, and within a few years turned it into a multimillion-dollar industry complex whose chief contracts were for weaponry and munitions for the U.S. government. Stark was sent to Vietnam to supervise a field test for one of his tranistorized
weapons. While he was there Stark trip on a booby trap and a piece of shrapnel was lodged in his chest. The gravely injured Stark was taken captive by the Communist leader Wong-Chu, and was informed that within a week the shrapnel would penetrate his heart and kill them. Wong-Chu offered Stark at deal: if he built the Communist a powerful weapon, want to allow Stark to undergo an operation to save his life. Stark agreed, hoping to gain time and access to tools.  Stark was given access to a small laboratory in communist territory with another captive, the renowned Oriental physicist Professor Ho Yinsen. With the incense help Stark designed and built an electrically powered suit of armor and equipped with heavy offensive weaponry. The armor also contained pacemaker like device which enables Stark's heart to keep beating after the shrapnel entered it.  Donning the suit, Stark connected it to its power source, an electrical generator. Lying on a table Stark was helpless until the suit was fully charged. His captor, Wong-Chu, sensed something was amiss and came to investigate with armed men. Realizing he was sacrificing his life, Professor Ho Yinsen went out to confront Wong-Chu, to give Stark the extra time he needed to charge the armored suit fully. As the Iron Man Stark avenged Yinsens death and scattered Wong Chu's guerilla troops. Then, still clad in his armor, which was necessary to keep his heart beating, stark made his way to the jungle, trying to escape communist territory.
	James Rhodes, a pilot in the United States Marines who was stationed in South East Asia, had been shot down in the jungle nearby Communist rockets while he was on a reconnaissance mission. Rhodes managed to land safely and was attempting to get his helicopter air worthy when he encountered Iron Man. After Iron Man help Rhodes fight off an attack by communist forces, Rhodes allowed him to drain helicopters batteries to recharge his armor. The to attract to the jungle together, finally discovering a hidden Communist rocket base. Stealing an enemy helicopter, they destroyed the base and flew to the nearest American base.  Back in the United States, Stark redesigned his chest plate, which contained a pacemaker like device, reducing the chest plates size and wait so he could wear it under his normal clothing. Required to wear the armor is just played at all times to keep his heart beating, Stark decided to put to rest of the armor to regular use as well. After redesigning the entire armored suit to match the letter chest plate, Starks made the existence of the suit public. He concealed the suits true origin, as well as the fact that he himself had to wear the chest plate to live. Stark made it known that he would soon manufacture the arts suit, which he called "the human machine," for sale for the public.

Soon afterward, Stark donned one of his battle suits in order to prevent thieves from stealing parts of the other copies of it. This experience made him realize that the suit was too dangerous to me made available to the public. The next day Stark revealed what had happened to him in Southeast Asia to Joanna Nivena, who was then his fiancée. Together they attended a tennis match in Forest Hills, N.Y. that afternoon. Stark brought along his armor, which he was taken to nearby laboratory for tests. The match was invaded by terrorists who threaten to kill everyone present with a bomb. Joanna urge Stark to don the armor to stop terrorist. Stark did sell, captured the terrorist, and save the spectators when the bomb went off by throwing himself atop the bomb. Iron Man thus publicly became a hero, and Stark had a new sense of purpose, having decided to combat evildoers as Iron Man.

Wishing to retain some degree of anonymity, Stark established the fiction that Iron Man was his paid bodyguard wearing a suit of armor that he had invented. Only his most trusted aides learned Stark and Iron Man were one and the same.

Over the years Stark constantly refined and modified the design of his armor. From all balky, transistorized Iron suit, Iron man eventually bald are relatively lightweight, integrated circuit, magnetically polarized suit with more human looking articulated musculature. Stark's natural genius at theoretical mechanics has enabled him keep his suit of armor at the state of the art. Stark eventually underwent heart transplant so that he was no longer obligated to wear his metallic chest plate.
 

Stark eventually decided for moral reasons no longer to manufacture are meant and devote his company to other areas of technology. The first time Stark battled with alcoholism was during the company change from Stark Industries to Stark International and was threatened with a hostile takeover at the same time personal problems threatened to overwhelm him. Although he managed to recover, he succumbed a second time to alcoholism months later. This time, he was attacked by industrialist Obadiah Stane, who managed to wrest control of Stark's company and drive Stark to virtual poverty. During this time, Rhodes, who had remained Stark's staunch friend and employee after leaving the

military, took on the Iron Man identity in Stark's stead.

Eventually, Stark regained his sobriety and began his recovery from alcoholism.. He joined with his friends Rhodes and Marley Erwin and his sister Clytemnestra Erwin to form a successful company, Circuits Maximus, in California. During its brief existence, Circuits Maximus became a prestigious and successful firm.

While the armor was in his custody, James Rhodes became increasingly enamored of being Iron Man, and, upon Stark's return to sobriety, feared that Stark would ask for it back. However, Rhodes had began to experience severe headaches caused by the fact that the armor's cybernetic helmet had never been properly adjusted to Rhodes' brain patterns. As a result, Rhodes' mind became addled and began to manifest hostility toward Stark. In the meantime, Stark had constructed a simple suit of armor based on his original design with no intention of donning it until he felt in control of his alcoholism. When Rhodes began acting irrationally, however, Stark felt obligated to put on this crude suit of armor to prevent Rhodes from doing harm. Stark managed to subdue Rhodes and made necessary recalibrations on the armor. For a brief time both Stark and Rhodes used their respective suits of armor as active "Iron Men," although Stark did so reluctantly.

Unfortunately, Obadiah Stane grew alarmed at Stark's steps toward recovery. He bombed Circuits Maximus, injuring Rhodes and killing Marley Erwin. Desiring vengeance, Stark donned an untested armor design and sought out Stane. Stane himself put on a suit of armor his engineers had built using Stark's plans and met Iron Man in battle as the Iron Monger. Losing the battle against Stark, Stane committed suicide. Stark managed to reclaim control of his company, although he decided not to claim ownership of the company formally known as Stark International. Rather, he founded a new technological design and manufacturing company, Stark Enterprises,

based in Silicon Valley in Southern California. Stark Enterprises quickly became a highly successful and innovative company.

Stark decided that although one is never truly cured of alcoholism, he could also not deny the responsibilities of being Iron Man. He resumed his career as Iron Man and joined the formative west coast division of the Avengers.
 

Later, Stark learned that the corporate espionage agent Spymaster had stolen the plans for many of the secret technological innovations Stark had created for his Iron Man armor. Spymaster had turned the plans over to Stark's most powerful and antagonistic business rival, Justin Hammer, who in turn made the plans available to many criminals for incorporation into their own weaponry. Outraged, Stark resolved to deprive these criminals of his secrets,

battling many criminals and other individuals (such as the United States' Guardsmen) who wore battle suits utilizing his technology and placing a device on them that would render their circuits inoperable. In the course of these battled, Stark accidentally killed the Gremlin who was using the Titanium Man armor. The government branded Iron Man an outlaw and sent an armored soldier, Firepower, to apprehend him. Stark ultimately faked his death, claiming that Iron Man was a renegade Stark employee. When he resumed his Iron Man identity with a new and more sophisticated armor, he claimed it was a new employee as Iron Man.
 

At one point, Stark was shot by Kathy Dare, an old girlfriend who was insane with rage of jealousy. Stark was left severely injured, paralyzed from the waist down. He could, however, fully function while in the Iron Man armor, and he remained increasingly dependant on the armor to the concern of his friends and teammates. Ultimately, a microchip device was implanted in his spine to enable him to walk again. However, his body later rejected the implant, and Stark's body was put in a cryogenic freeze. Stark legally died, and Rhodes took over running Stark's business and Iron Man identity. Stark recovered, however, and took on the mantle of Iron Man

once again. Rhodes became disgruntled. He left Stark Enterprises to become a hero of his own design, War Machine, although Stark and Rhodes later repaired their friendship.

Subsequent activities led Iron Man to develop more ruthless tendencies. When involved with the Avengers in the interstellar Kree-Shi'ar War, Stark was among their number advocating vigilante justice against the Kree leader, the Supreme Intelligence. He soon helped disband the Avengers' west coast branch in order to set up the team Force Works under his own auspices, driving his teammates with the intent of being a proactive strike force. Stark was believed to have become a traitor to the Avengers, as he secretly murdered the Avengers' nanny Marilla, Avengers' associate Yellowjacket II, and even a Force Works public relations manager. He was actually under the mental influence of the time traveler Immortus, who hoped to push Stark's xenophobia to the point of madness in order to preoccupy Immortus' enemies, the Avengers. The Avengers sought help from a younger version of Stark native to an alternate timeline, and the two Starks fought, mortally wounding each other. Before he passed away, Tony Stark tried to redeem himself by providing plans for a pacemaker chest plate that would save the life of his younger self and would pave the way for him to be the next Iron Man.

The new Iron Man later sacrificed himself to the psychic menace known as Onslaught and was shunted to a pocket universe. Upon re-emerging from this dimension, Iron Man was reborn into an idealized version of Stark as he appeared before Immortus' manipulations, although he nevertheless contained the composite memories of both versions of Stark. Finding Stark Enterprises

had been bought by the Fujikawa Corporation, Tony Stark set up a new business for himself, Stark Solutions, a technological consulting firm set up from a new base of operations in his Seattle home. He reassumed the Iron Man identity, and was on hand to reassemble the Avengers as well.

Once, Stark's archenemy Mandarin manipulated events to allow knowledge of Iron Man's secret identity become known to the world. However, after an encounter with the villain Controller, Stark used global mind-control technology to erase all knowledge of his dual identity, then shared this secret anew with several of his closest associates. About the same time, he discovered that close proximity to the electrical fields generated by his armor was ruining his health, although he quickly modified the armor to correct this.

At one point, Madame Menace manipulated events so that Tony Stark would unlock the programming of the robot and his former Avenger teammate, Jocasta, so that she would become the basis for Menance' new weapons systems. Recognizing Jocasta, however, Stark helped Jocasta to awaken, and Jocasta managed to turn the tables on Madame Menace, seemingly sacrificing herself yet again. In reality, Jocasta managed to survive by downloading her intelligence into Iron Man's computerized armor, where she reasserted herself. Jocasta's intelligence was placed within Tony Stark's computerized mansion, and she would help him with daily operation of his mansion as well as to procure information as needed.

Unfortunately, the armor Stark had created began to experience problems. Having downloading the consciousness of the robot Jocasta at one point, Stark was unaware that the armor had been affected by protocols programmed by Jocasta's creator Ultron. The personality of Ultron may have emerged, but the armor was struck by lightening, with the side effect of allowing the armor to become sentient. Stark was originally unnerved by the situation, but gradually wanted to accept the armor and guide it in its intelligence. The armor grew amoral, however, killing Iron Man's enemy Whiplash and trying to abandon Stark on a deserted island. Stark battled the armor single-handedly, but the battle affected his heart. Ultimately, the armor sacrificed itself by taking vital components of itself to provide a pacemaker-like chest plate for Stark. In respect, Stark buried the armor before returning home. He returned to a previous design of his armor for a brief period before implementing another sophistacted upgrade.
 

Stark was later contacted by the Sons of Yinsen, a quasi-religious cult founded in remembrance of Yinsen, the physicist that helped Stark create the original Iron Man armor. Unknown to Stark, the Sons of Yinsen had revived the once-sentient armor, which was contacted via remote by the head of Ultron, disembodied after his most

recent encounter of the Avengers and in the company of the robot Antigone. The head attached itself onto the armor and took control of the Sons of Yinsen and the flying city that they inhabited. Stark and one of the Sons of Yinsen, in an Iron Man armor, confronted Ultron in his plans to use the cult to wipe out humanity, but it took Jocasta, once more downloaded into the armor by Stark, to defeat Ultron. Stark and his ally managed escape the floating city, which Ultron rigged to explode after his defeat, but failed to find a trace of Jocasta.

Height: 6 ft. 1 in.
Weight: 185 lbs.
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Black

Strength level: Without his armor Tony Stark possesses the normal strength of a normal human man his age, height, and build who engages in moderate regular exercise. His armor magnifies Stark strength to superhuman levels, enabling him to lift (press) roughly 85 times.

Known superhuman powers: None - His Armour is his power

Other abilities: Tony Stark is a genius who is a responsible for numerous major discoveries, inventions, and other achievements in various areas of technology.

Weapons and paraphernalia: Iron Man wears a sophisticated suit a body armor containing various offensive weaponry. - Iron Man also has specialized armours, including - STEALTH ARMOUR, HYDRO ARMOUR and HULK BUSTING ARMOUR