Iron Man Marvel Comics

The Ironman movie is finally coming to your theater screens on 2 may 2008. The movie stars Robert Downey Jnr as Stark (aka Ironman).

The movie is directed by Jon Favreau who has directed such films as Made (2001), Elf (2003)and Zathura (2005). Jon also has a TV series currently airing on cable TV called "Dinner for Five". Favreau is also listed as the executive producer.

In the film Tony Stark is a weapons designer who is in Afganistan, introducing and demonstrating a new missile, designed by himself.

Stark finds himself taken hostage when an air force unit he is traveling with find themselves under attack.

Though injured, Stark is ordered to assemble a missile for his captors and thus has access to a workshop.

Putting his genius creativity to work he designs himself a bulletproof set of "power armour". The armour finds itself equipped with a pacemaker and flamethrowers. Stark then uses this to free himself and then whilst back home catapults himself into the super hero known as Ironman.

As Ironman he goes onto face an enemy known as Ironmonger.

Anthony Stark was born in Long Island, New York.At 15 yrs old he enters the undergraduate electrical engineering program at MIT and graduates at the top of his class. At the age of 21, he inherits his father's company, Stark Industries, after his parents are killed in a car accident. One of the first things Stark does is to buy out the company that made the faulty brakes on his parents' car and corrects the mechanical problem.

While on a visit to Vietnam (later updated to the Gulf War) to see how his new mini-transistors could assist the American war effort, Stark is caught in a booby trap. Captured by a Vietnamese warlord named Wong Chu, and dying from a piece of shrapnel lodged in his heart from the booby trap, Stark is pressed into building weapons for Wong Chu, along with a fellow prisoner, the famed physicist Yin Sen (later called Ho Yinsen). However, Stark and Yin Sen use the workshop to secretly design and construct a suit of powered armor - an iron exoskeleton that gives Stark tremendous strength as well as other abilities - that will not only keep Stark's heart beating, but also allow him to escape. Yin Sen sacrifices himself to buy Stark time to charge the bulky suit of armor, and as Iron Man, Stark kills Wong Chu and his men. On the way back, Iron Man encounters a wounded American Air Force helicopter pilot, Jim Rhodes. Introducing himself as Stark's bodyguard, Iron Man and Rhodes manage to defend themselves against the pursuing North Vietnamese before making it back to American lines. On his return to the U.S., Stark continues to improve the armor, establishing a dual identity as the adventurer and superhero Iron Man. He also greatly expands his father's company, Stark Industries, eventually renaming it Stark International.

The cover for Iron Man is that he is Stark's bodyguard and corporate mascot. To that end, Iron Man fights threats to his company, Communist opponents such as the Black Widow, the Crimson Dynamo and the Titanium Man as well as independent villains like the Mandarin. Both the Widow and the Dynamo eventually defect to the United States, and even erstwhile villain Hawkeye, originally a pawn of the Widow, reforms and joins the Avengers. No one suspects Stark of being Iron Man as he cultivates an image as a rich playboy and industrialist. Two notable members of Stark's supporting cast at this point are his personal chauffeur Harold "Happy" Hogan and secretary Virginia "Pepper" Potts, to both of whom he eventually reveals his dual identity.

The comic took an anti-Communist stance in its early years, which was softened as opposition rose to the Vietnam War. This change evolved in a series of stories with Stark profoundly reconsidering his political opinions and the morality of manufacturing weapons for the military. Stark, however, has remained essentially conservative both in character and politics, despite his playboy image. He also often shows himself to be occasionally arrogant and willing to justify the means with the ends. This leads to personal conflicts with the people around him, both in his civilian and superhero identities.

Stark has a vast personal fortune, and is also known as a philanthropist. He donates the use of his boyhood manor as Avengers Mansion, and funds the Avengers' operations through the Maria Stark Foundation, a non-profit organization named after his late mother. The Foundation is not linked to any of Stark's businesses, and has continued to operate even when those businesses have failed. Stark also provides technology to other superheroes, including designing various replacement shields for Captain America, the Quinjets used by the Avengers, the image inducers used by the X-Men and Spider-Man's second armored costume.

Eventually, Stark's heart condition is discovered by the public and cured with an artificial heart transplant. However, Stark is also developing a serious dependency on alcohol. The first time it becomes a problem is when Stark discovers that the national security agency S.H.I.E.L.D. has been buying a controlling interest in his company in order to ensure Stark's continued weapons development for them. At the same time, Stark's business rival Justin Hammer hires several supervillains to attack Stark. At one point, the Iron Man armor is even taken over and used to murder a diplomat. Although Iron Man is not immediately under suspicion, Stark is forced to hand the armor over to the authorities. Eventually Stark and Rhodes, now his personal pilot and confidant, track down and defeat those responsible, although Hammer would return to bedevil Stark again. With the support of his then-girlfriend, Bethany Cabe, his friends and employees, Stark pulls through these crises and, for the moment, overcomes his dependency on alcohol.

The Iron Monger is an identity used by several fictional characters in the Marvel Comics universe, most of whom have been supervillains. The first and most notable person to use that identity was billionaire industrialist Obadiah Stane, who used the Iron Monger armor in the climax of a long-running conflict with his nemesis, Iron Man. Stane first appeared in Iron Man #163, and first appeared as the Iron Monger in Iron Man #200.

Obadiah Stane

Early years

Obadiah Stane was a ruthless individual who studied his adversaries to find weaknesses that he could exploit. Ever since he was a child, Stane enjoyed chess, and handled his life with the same kind of methodical logic that he used in the game. In addition, he was a strong believer in using psychological manipulation to his advantage. For instance, in a childhood chess match against another boy whose skill at least equalled his own, he killed the boy's dog so that his mind wasn't on the game. He won easily, and he continued to use similar forms of manipulation through his life. As a child he saw his father, a degenerate gambler who at that time was on a "lucky streak", accidentally shoot himself in the head playing a game of "Russian Roulette." This event shaped Obadiah Stane for years to come.