Ironman

                                 
nthony "Tony" Stark was born to Howard Anthony Stark and Maria Collins Carbonell Stark, owners of the prominent US firm, Stark Industries. As a boy, Tony was fascinated with building and controlling machines. At the age of 15 Tony entered the undergraduate electrical engineering program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and graduated with two master’s degrees by age 19. Tony went to work for Stark Industries, but showed more interest in living a reckless playboy lifestyle than using his engineering skills. At the age of 21, Tony inherited Stark Enterprises when his parents were killed in a car accident secretly orchestrated by rival corporation Republic Oil (later ROXXON). Still lacking in business acumen, Tony promoted secretary Virginia "Pepper" Potts to be his executive assistant and left the majority of his workload on her so that he could avoid what he saw as a burden.


Tony personally attended a field test of his military hardware at one of his international plants; however, soon after his arrival Stark’s party was attacked by a gang of terrorists led by the Sin-Cong revolutionary Wong Chu. During the skirmish, a land mine went off and lodged a piece of shrapnel near Tony’s heart. Taken back to Wong-Chu’s camp, Tony shared a cell with Professor Ho Yinsen, a world-famous physicist. Wong-Chu demanded that the two scientists develop advanced weaponry for his forces. Knowing that he could not live long with the shrapnel so close to his heart, Tony proposed that he and Yinsen devote their gifts to creating one of the battlesuits he had been developing, equipped with a magnetic field generator to prevent the shrapnel from reaching his heart. The armor they created became the first true Iron Man armor and was equipped with crude magnetic weaponry for defense. While the armor’s battery was being powered, some of Wong-Chu’s men attempted to break in on the proceedings. Yinsen went to create a diversion and was shot to death by Wong-Chu’s men. When the battery had finished charging, Tony went into battle as Iron Man and tore Wong-Chu’s camp apart. He eventually returned to the USA with the aid of US Marine James "Rhodey" Rhodes. Tony offered Rhodey a job with his company should he ever need one.


When the alien Skrull’s Queen Veranke led an invasion of Earth, Earth’s defenses were disabled through a virus which ran through Tony’s Extremis-based powers, taking out all Stark-based technology. Although the heroes of Earth routed the Skrulls, it was “reformed” criminal Norman Osborn who slew Veranke and took the credit. Tony Stark was vilified for the failure of his technology to stop the Skrull invasion. S.H.I.E.L.D. was dismantled and Osborn put in charge of the replacement agency H.A.M.M.E.R. 


Osborn demanded Stark surrender the Superhuman Registration Database containing the secret identities of many heroes. Stark refused and loaded the database’s only copy into his brain. Evading capture by Osborn, Tony gradually wiped his mind. Tony was aided by Maria Hill, whom he sent to retrieve a hard drive containing a backup copy of his mind, and Pepper Hogan, whom he left in charge of Stark Industries and gifted with a suit of armor called Rescue, operated by an artificial intelligence named J.A.R.V.I.S. As Tony’s mind deteriorated he was finally assaulted in Dubai by the Iron Patriot-armored Osborn. By then Stark was virtually brain-dead and, as their battle was being televised, Osborn was forced to bring him in alive or risk being exposed for murdering a helpless man. Transferred to the custody of Dr. Donald Blake — actually Stark’s old friend Thor — Tony left directions which enabled his friends to restore his mind and awaken him from his coma. Iron Man returned to action in time to help in Osborn’s ultimate defeat.