Iron Man (Tony Starks)

Anthony Edward Stark also known as Tony Starks and Iron Man is one of the major characters from the Marvel comics.

Tony Stark was the arrogant son of wealthy, weapon manufacturer Howard Stark. Tony cared only about himself, but he would have a change of heart after he was kidnapped by terrorists and gravely injured. Pressured to create a weapon of mass destruction, Stark instead created a suit of armor powerful enough for him to escape. Tony uses his vast resources and intellect to make the world a better place as the invincible Iron Man. Stark's super hero identity led him to become a founding member of the Avengers.

Personality
Tony Stark is, for the lack of a better word, complicated. During his early days of success, Stark was a man who only cared about fame and wealth. He had no sense of responsibility or humility, always rubbing his success in the faces of everyone he met. This all changed when he was captured by terrorists. After building the first Iron Man armor and escaping captivity, Stark had realized the kind of person he really was and engaged in a life of heroism to atone for his past mistakes.

Plagued by many vices, Stark is prone to womanizing, pride, and most of all -alcoholism- the latter being an addiction developed as a consequence of the abuse from his father and his social status. This lifetime of troubles has caused him to develop a cynical view of the world.

Despite this, Stark is devoted to truly make the world a better place. This desire has sometimes caused Stark to resort to morally questionable methods, as long as the end justifies them, including his crusade to safeguard his technology (leading him to confront heroes such as Stingray and the Captain), and the superhuman Civil War, during which Iron Man was hell bent on implementing the Superhuman Registration Act, because its failure would have led to a harsh response from the government. However, Iron Man has shown to be ridden by guilt over this type of course of action, which developed into self-hate. Tony Stark has been described as "man enough to do what needs to be done, even knowing full well what it will cost him." Stark's self-hating tendencies have also led to Stark being suicidal, and undervaluing his own life, specially in favor of others'.

According to Reed Richards, Tony Stark is "a future man trapped in the now. A prisoner raging against the slow crawl of human evolution." Stark's relationships, morality and ethics are highly adaptable and malleable to what he would consider the greater good of mankind's necessary survival and progress. Tony has also been described as "[A person who] really cares. He's been on the top and he's been on the bottom and he's done all 12 steps and a few more. He knows what it's like to have a habit that eats you from the inside, like worms. And he knows there's no easy answer, but every solution to every problem has to start somewhere. He's just trying to help."undefined

Tony has also been shown to loathe taking other people's lives, and resorting to killing people only as a extreme measure,undefined and explicitly stating he doesn't kill, and having claimed that's "not the way we work."undefined

Iron Man is a hero that relies on his intellect and technological resources to defeat foes and achieve victory. Stark invariably prides himself on being one of the most intelligent people of the Marvel Universe.

Abilities
Tony Stark's intellect allows him to constantly upgrade his armor designs. Stark recently had to inject himself with the Extremis techno-organic virus to save his life. The effects are that now the inner layers of the Iron Man suit can be stored in the hollows of his bones, and he can control the suit with his mind through direct brain impulses. He can also remotely connect to just about any communication device, including satellites and computers, across the world. Stark can even regenerate organs due to the enhancement. Extremis also allows Stark to interface with his armor in a faster and more efficient manner as well, thus dramatically increasing his response time. Without his armor Tony Stark is considered to be above peak human and has displayed superhuman capabilities such as super human reflexes, His speed, strength and agility without his armor is now considered to be at peak human levels.

Iron Man's abilities are constantly changing because of his constant technological upgrades on the armors.

The MARK platform initially increased the wears strength by 20X (the MARK I). With the advent of the MARK II, the wearers strength is increased by 200X (in the movie, “Iron Man”at 19% power, Tony Stark was still able to catch a 2 Ton vehicle hurling through the air when it was dropped by Obadiah Stane’s “Iron Monger” Battle Suit) While wearing the MARK VI armor, and at 400% power, Tony Stark was able to go toe to toe with Thor in hand to hand combat (in the “Marvel’s Avengers” movie). Every Platform since the MARK VI amplifies the wears strength by at least 500x at 100% power. So under optimal conditions, Tony Stark can lift/press more than 200Tons when wearing a sufficient charged set of armor.

The armor is very durable, capable of withstanding tremendous amounts of punishment. Tony Stark's armor has a muscularly aligned matrix of crystallized iron enhanced by magnetic fields over layers of other metals like titanium, which grants him endurance capable of withstanding high caliber bullets with ease. He can withstand rockets, torpedoes and such, although he does take damage.

The armor also enables Iron Man to fly at high speeds, exceeding the speed of a jet airplane, due to the rocket propelled boots that are placed on the bottom of the armor's boots.

Iron Man’s flight speed varies from a cruising velocity of about 540mph (the unfinished MARK 4 copy that was worn by Colonel Rhodes in “Iron Man 2” traveled 3 miles in less than 20 seconds when he piloted the mech-suit back to Edwards Air Force Base), to speeds over MACH 1.6 (in the MARK VI, Tony Stark made the trip from California to New York in less than 2hrs; a total of 2400 flight miles).

Iron Man's suit has many power sources, such as solar converters, electrical batteries and an on-board generator that uses beta particle absorption as a fuel source. The suit is also able to convert nearby energy sources, such as heat or kinetic energy into electricity, or even drain electrical energy directly into the batteries for recharge. Although the suit has some open holes to allow the wearer to breathe normal air, it can be sealed off, allowing the pilot of the suit to go underwater or into space by granting its own life support and limited air supply systems.

As mentioned, Tony Stark controls the suit mostly by movement as if the armor is his skin and through the Extremis upgrade(before it started to fail), essentially making the suit an extension of his own body. In addition to this however is an internal artificial intelligence operating system that provides strategies, background information on opponents, and on surroundings and the current status of the suit.

The Extremis upgrade gave him a healing factor and enhanced abilities and could expel the inner-most armor layer in his body then "will" the rest of the Extremis armor to attach to him

Stark also has equipped the suit with numerous weapons over the years, making the suit more powerful each time. The most often used weapons are the repulsor rays (magnetically channeled beams of super-heated plasma) that are fired from Iron Man's palms or gauntlets. Other weapons that are built into the armor include the uni-beam projector in its chest (controlling the full range of the electromagnetic spectrum from blinding searchlights to cutting lasers), pulse bolts that pick up kinetic energy along the way, so that they hit harder the further they have to travel, an electromagnetic pulse generator and energy shield, the generation of ultra-freons, the creating and manipulating of magnetic fields, sonic blasts, and a holographic generator to create decoys.

Tony Stark has also created many specialized models of the armor. Other models that are in his possession include a model for deep-sea diving, for stealth, space travel, etc. He has also enhanced the armor on a few occasions for unique circumstances. For example, Tony Stark has modified suits like the "Hulkbuster" heavy armor, composed of add-ons to his so-called modular armor, designed to enhance its strength and durability to allow it to take on the Incredible Hulk in combat. One time, when Stark had to face Thor, he made an armor modeled on the Destroyer and used a mystical power source.

While the Iron Man suit is very durable, high amounts of lighting or electricity can make the suit overload, as well as magnets, as this would happen to a regular machine.

Tony stark is effectively a genius, able to constantly create new and improved technologies and make upgrade after upgrade to his suit of cybernetic armor. Iron Man is able to harness his intelligence and ingenuity in order to allow him to defeat more powerful foes and escape their dangerous traps and machinations. Stark is also a powerful leader, able to command the loyalty and respect of others. Stark has been expertly trained by Captain America in hand-to-hand combat, making him a formidable opponent even without the power suit.

Trivia

 * Tony wouldn't cover up his secret identity by claiming Iron Man was his bodyguard until several issues after his first appearance. He initially claimed that Iron Man was simply a close friend of his, who happened to be close by whenever he needed to be in action. The first person to suggest Iron Man worked for Tony Stark was Gregor Shapanka when he found himself cornered by the Golden Avenger brief moments after attacking the Stark Industries vault, but Iron Man awkwardly rebuffed his claims. By Tales of Suspense#51, it appears Iron Man being Stark's bodyguard was a known fact when the Scarecrow mentions he heard that Stark kept Iron Man around for that purpose.
 * When the teenage Timeslide Tony Stark entered Franklin Richards's pocket universe, he was "reformatted" into an adult Tony Stark for the new world. When that Tony Stark came back to Earth-616, he remained an adult and had memories from all three incarnations of Stark. A scan of the original adult Tony Stark's grave determined the body was gone and strange readings were present. Whatever he technically was, physically or mentally, the post-Heroes Return Tony Stark considered himself to be the same man as the Iron Man who betrayed the Avengers in The Crossing.undefined
 * The identity of Iron Man was publicly revealed when Tony donned his suit to save a dog from being run over.undefined This was then later covered up by Stark claiming to have given up the suit with someone else now inside. He then proceeded to re-reveal his identity as part of his support towards the Superhuman Registration Act.undefined
 * As director of S.H.I.E.L.D. and an Avenger, Iron Man had Ultimate Clearance Level.