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z FACTFILE < REAL NAME 2 Anthony Starte

OCCUPATtON Businessman and philanttvop*st. nero and leader of the Avengers BASE

Starte Tower fAvengers ToweO. Manhattan. New York

HEIOHT 6 ft 1 łn WEIGHT 225 IbS EYES B!ue HAIR Black

FIRST APREARANCE

Taies ofSuspsnse §39 (March 1963)

Iron

Prodigcus mv«itivenoss and Dusness acumen Standard Iron Mon armor providos surx*txman strength and tkrabikry. Jet-booł powered flght. rejMitsor boams n gaunttełs. and choat-mountod unł-neam. Amxx‘s undoriayer is now utnrporatod Into Sł«k's body. Mting hm oonlrol Iron Mon rwnoteły.

ALLIES Avł*f Jam**; Hhodes (War    SHELD.

Wgirw Potts. Bcthany Cabe.

Edwin Jorv«

FOES . i .iti Star Justin Hammer, Madame Masquo. Trtarium Man. Spymaster. Mandahn.

InjyrecJ m Vielnam. Starki frst Iroo Man armor savos hrs life and holps him oscape ęapture. From that day cc. he coiid not survrvc without II.

Iron Mon—torporate nut stoi, hoJy\>u.ud, or jnnoreJ Super Hero?

In ihe nick ol time. the first Iron Man armor saved Tony Slarks life.

Billionairc industri.ilist and philanthropist Tony Stark is perhaps clu^- most influential superpowered individual on the planet. While Professok X has the respeet of the Earths mutant community. Stark’s work as Iron Man. his long-tcrm membership of the AvhNt;rRS, and position as head of Stark International arguably gives him even wider authority.

FORGING THE IRON MAN

The son of a wealthy industriali.st.Tony Stark s parents died in a car crash when he was young. leasing Inni their business conglonicrate. Stark Industries.'Taking ovcr the company when he was 21, in retrospect sonie ofTonys early business dccisions were ethically circuinspect. An engineering prodigy, many ofTonys early inventions were designed for use by the US military and it was his dealings with the army that ultimately led him to create liis Iron Man armor.

Deeeloping mini-transistors for use on the battlefield,Tony travelled to Vietnam to see them in use on the ground.Thc trial ended badiy when an exploding bomb left a piece of shrapnel dangcrously close to his heart and Tony was capturcd by the North Vietnamese warlord.

Wong-Chu.

Told that the shrapnel would only be removed if he devcloped a weapon for the North Vietnamese,Tony respondcd with typical tenacity.Teaming with a tellów prisoner, Nobel prize-winning physicist Ho Yinsen.lbny dcveloped an iron suit that would protect his heart as well as allow him to fight the warlord and his men and escape.

SOCIAL CONSCIENCE

In the following years.Tony donned this armor many times. Claiming the Iron Man was Im bodyguard and corporate emblem. at first he simply uscd it to fight communists and threats to his business empire. With the advent ofnew technologics and ideas the armor evolved, becoming increasingly, at times dangerously. sopli ist i catcd.

Ovcr the yearsTonys own worki vicw also began to evolve: he halted sales to the military. rccognizing that they caused morę harm than good, and established a number of charitable foundations. I Ic

bccame a founder member of the Ayengfrs, allowing the team to use his mansion as their base and providing fmancial backing via the Maria Stark foundation—a non-profit-making organizadon named for his mother.

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