Iron Man/Characters

A sheet for the characters in the Iron Man comics. Needs more work.

Anthony "Tony" Stark/Iron Man
The son of billionaire industrialist Howard Stark, Tony is a brilliant inventor in his own right. Following an incident that left him with a piece of shrapnel in his chest, Tony designed an electromagnetic harness to keep himself alive, and eventually, a suit of armour that could be powered by it. He is a major name in the Marvelverse, and a founding member of the Avengers.


 * The Alcoholic: Has struggled with drinking ever since the infamous "Demon in a Bottle" storyline.
 * The Atoner
 * Badass: Goes without saying.
 * Badass Beard: Sometimes.
 * Badass Bookworm
 * Badass Moustache: Always.
 * Brought Down to Badass: Any time he loses the armour, he typically manages to still accquit himself well.
 * The Casanova
 * Chivalrous Pervert
 * Gadgeteer Genius
 * Good Is Not Nice
 * Guile Hero: Frequently.
 * Honest Corporate Executive
 * Jerk with a Heart of Gold
 * Knight Templar: Depending on the Writer and the arc, Iron Man certainly can slide into this, notable examples including "Armour Wars" and "Civil War" among others.
 * Powered Armour: The most famous example in comics.
 * Power Palms: The repulsor rays in his hands are perhaps his most iconic weapons.
 * Rocket Boots
 * Really Gets Around
 * Rich Idiot With No Day Job: This used to be his public identity.
 * Science Hero
 * Secret Identity: In the early days, Tony claimed that Iron Man was his bodyguard. These days the secret is out in the open.
 * There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Early on he used military grade weapons to battle street level crime. This philosophy still plays a large role in how Tony goes into battle.
 * Took a Level in Jerkass: Fluctuates a lot (see Depending on the Writer).

Virginia "Pepper" Potts/Rescue
Tony's secretary, assitant, and longtime friend. She eventually gains a suit of armour (and a heart implant) of her own as the heroine Rescue.


 * Action Girl: After becoming Rescue.
 * Heroes Want Redheads
 * Love Triangle: With Tony and the late Happy Hogan.
 * Powered Armour
 * Sexy Secretary
 * Took a Level in Badass: Took a massive level in badass since the sixties.
 * UST: With Tony since the sixties.

Happy Hogan

 * Alliterative Name

James "Rhodie" Rhodes/War Machine
Tony's closest friend in current continuity, and pilot of the War Machine armour.


 * Badass
 * Badass Beard: Depending on the artist.
 * Black Best Friend
 * Gatling Good: One of the trademarks of his armour is the massive gatling gun on its shoulder.
 * Powered Armour

The Mandarin
Tony's most perrenial foe and one of the rare Iron Man villains to survive in continuity from the sixties until the present day, The Mandarin is a descendant of Chinese/Mongol royalty who feels that he was cheated out of his birthright by the rise of the Communist Party. A martial arts master, The Mandarin's trademark weapons are his ten rings, crafted from alien technologies that he discovered and salvaged.


 * Arch Enemy: Since the 1960s, when he was one of the view supervillains of note in the Iron Man comics.. No supervillain has had a greater, or more lasting impact on Stark's life than The Mandarin has.
 * Aristocrats Are Evil
 * Awesomeness By Analysis: Can kung-fu Iron Man's armour to bits by attacking the seams and other weakpoints. He also tends to psychoanalyse his opponents.
 * Back from the Dead/Faking the Dead: Has done both on occasion.
 * Badass
 * Badass Beard
 * Badass Long Hair: Sometimes.
 * Badass Moustache: Started as a badass Fu Manchu and evolved from there.
 * Beard of Evil
 * Big Bad: Frequently.
 * Breakout Villain
 * Captain Ersatz: Of Fu Manchu arguably.
 * Captain Ethnic: Early on.
 * Charles Atlas Superpower: Can keep up with Iron Man despite having no (official) superpowers beyond his mastery of his chi, going so far as to shatter the hero's armour with his bare hands.
 * The Chessmaster: Likes to get the ball rolling on his plans months in advance.
 * Diabolical Mastermind
 * Evil Genius
 * Foil: Tony Stark is a modern day capitalist who seeks to bring profit to all, and has a definite futurist bent. The Mandarin is an old-school feudalist and imperialist, who longs to see the days of aristocratic autocracy brought back. They are political and ideological opposites in every way.
 * Freudian Excuse: He's the descendant of kings, but grew up in poverty, and was left homeless after his aunt squandered what money they had. This dichotomy has enraged him ever since.
 * Good Hair, Evil Hair: The Fu Manchu moustache and goatee are something of a tipoff as to his evil.
 * I Have Many Names: Gene Khan, Tem Borjigin, Zhang Tong.
 * Mad Scientist: At times he borders on this trope.
 * Paid Harem: Has maintained one on various occasions.
 * Ring of Power: Ten of them, each with a different power.
 * An Ice Person: The little finger of his left hand emits waves of cold.
 * Casting a Shadow: The little finger of his right hand can create zones of absolute darkness. Likely a form of darkforce.
 * Disintegrator Ray: Fired from the ring finger of his right hand. Needs a twenty-minute charge-up time.
 * Gravity Master: The thumb on his left hand.
 * Make Me Wanna Shout/Selective Magnetism: Right hand index finger. It can emit sonic blasts and magnetic pulses.
 * Master of Illusion: The ring finger of his left hand generates illusions.
 * Mind Over Matter: The middle finger of his right hand.
 * Playing with Fire: The index finger of his left hand emits flames and infrared radiaton.
 * Reality Warper: Right hand thumb, though with a very limited area effect.
 * Shock and Awe: The middle finger of his left hand fires electric blasts. Also an example of Psycho Electro.
 * Manipulative Bastard
 * Sinister Scimitar: Favours a similarly curved Chinese sword anyway.
 * Take Over the World: Has been his goal since his introduction, though the methods have certainly varied.
 * Unholy Matrimony: With Justine Hammer.
 * Yellow Peril: A classic Yellow Peril villain, though he's long since evolved beyond the worst of it.

Temugin
The Mandarin's son, and a capable supervillain in his own right, Temugin first confronted Iron Man in revenge for his father's (apparent) death. He has since gone on to become an agent of the Atlas Foundation.


 * Avenging the Villain: His original goal.
 * Awesomeness By Analysis: Destroys Iron Man's armour by attacking its weak points.
 * Bald of Evil
 * Charles Atlas Superpower: Like his father, Temugin is able to shatter Iron Man's armour with blows from his chi-enhanced fists.
 * The Dragon: To Mister Lao of the Atlas Foundation, succeeding Jimmy Woo as the Foundation's nominal leader.
 * Meaningful Name: Temugin is the birth name of Genghis Khan.
 * Overlord, Jr..
 * Political Officer: Lao used Temugin to keep an eye on the Atlas Foundation's ostensible leader, Jimmy Woo, because he felt that Woo was too soft (and heroic).
 * Take Up My Sword: Briefly possessed his father's rings, which were sent to him after the latter's death, along with a note urging him to take vengeance for The Mandarin.

Crimson Dynamo
The first Crimson Dynamo was a Soviet scientist named Anton Vanko, who invented a suit that allowed him to discharge electricity. Following Vanko's defection to the United States, twelve other people have donned the red armour to tackle Iron Man.


 * Arch Enemy: The only character(s) other than The Mandarin to even be in the running.
 * Badass: All of them.
 * Badass Bookworm: Anton Vanko (Dynamo I), who actually invented the suit.
 * Four-Star Badass: Valentin Shalatov (Dynamo VI), a Colonel-General in the Soviet Army.
 * Color-Coded for Your Convenience: All the Dynamos have piloted red armours.
 * Dirty Commies: The first five Dynamos were Soviet agents, including Dmitri Bukharin, the most famous Dynamo.
 * Evil Counterpart: The first and most famous of them. As a power-armoured foe with ties to the USSR, the Dynamos have always served as strong counterpoints to the capitalistic Stark.
 * Heel Face Turn: Anton Vanko and Dmitri Bukharin.
 * Legacy Character: Twelve men and one woman have worn the Crimson Dynamo armour.
 * Make the Bear Angry Again: The goal of Dynamo VI, who seeks a return of Stalinist Communism in the Kremlin.
 * Powered Armour
 * Psycho Electro: Anton Vanko's version of the armour.
 * Red Scare: Created when fear of the Soviet Union was at its height, and most of Iron Man's enemies were Communists.
 * Renegade Russian: Every Dynamo since the sixth (Valentin Shalatov). Shalatov himself deserves special mention, given his goal of returning Russia to a Stalinist style government.
 * Soviet Superscience

Bruno Horgan/The Melter
A recurring low-level threat, with the power to melt all forms of iron (and later all forms of metal) into slag. A founding member of The Masters of Evil.


 * C-List Fodder
 * Dropped a Bridge on Him: Shot in the back by Scourge.
 * Hired Guns: Frequently operated as a mercenary for other, better supervillains.

The Titanium Man
Another Soviet agent, the original Titanium Man, Boris Bullski, conceived of defeating Iron Man on national television in order to score a propaganda victory against the United States. After his defeat, Bullski (and those who have since donned his armour) became a genuine enemy of Stark's.


 * Alliterative Name: Boris Bullski.
 * Badass
 * Badass Abnormal: Boris Bullski was a highly-trained KGB operative and secret agent before he underwent the surgeries to make him a giant, or gained the Titanium Man armour.
 * Bigger Is Better: Averted. The reason the Titanium Man armour is so large is because Bullski lacked the components needed for miniaturisation.
 * Dirty Commies
 * Evil Knockoff: The Titanium Man armour was built specifically to ape Iron Man's.
 * Genius Bruiser: Bullski was an effective manipulator and spy. He was also over seven feet tall, thanks to the medical treatments he required to fit into his gigantic armour.
 * Husky Russkie: Bullski was big even before he had himself surgically modified. Now he looks like a man with gigantism.
 * Legacy Character: There have been three Titanium Men, though Bullski (who is still active) remains the best known.
 * Powered Armour
 * Eye Beams
 * Power Palms
 * Rocket Boots
 * Red Baron: "Boris the Merciless".
 * Red Scare: Particularly in his first appearance, when Bullski's Titanium Man actually represented the USSR in a match with Iron Man, who represented the West; he wasn't so much a character as he was a symbol of Soviet dictatorship.
 * Renegade Russian: Bullski since the fall of the USSR. In his anger, he actually blames Iron Man for his nation's collapse.
 * The Rival: Bullski became Titanium Man solely to rival Iron Man. Since then the conflict has become very personal for him.
 * Rival Turned Evil: Bullski was always pretty nasty, but it was only after his first encounter with Iron Man ended in defeat that he became a genuine supervillain.
 * Soviet Superscience
 * Super Strength: Even without the armour, Bullski can lift one and a half tonnes. With the armour on, he can heft over seventy-five.

Whiplash I/Blacklash/Mark Scarlotti
A former employee of Starks, Mark Scarlotti became the costumed criminal mercenary known as Whiplash in an attempt at getting rich quickly. Following a string of defeats, Scarlotti began working for Justin Hammer, who renamed him Blacklash. The Whiplash identity has since been used by several other villains.


 * Badass: He's a bit of a joke to some, but at the end of the day, Blacklash was a going concern in the Iron Man comics from 1968 until the early 2000s, repeatedly taking on Stark's military grade arsenal with little more than his whip.
 * Badass Cape
 * Badass Normal: Scarlotti has no superpowers, no fancy technology, and no enhanced reflexes.
 * Bulletproof Vest: Scarlotti goes this one better--his entire costume is woven with high-quality kevlar, making him more or less bulletproof. Not that it'll stop most of the weapons in Iron Man's arsenal.
 * Chronic Villainy: Scarlotti repeatedly tries to quit supervillainy, only to be drawn back in.
 * The Dragon: To Justin Hammer in the 80s.
 * High Collar of Doom
 * Hired Guns: A costumed mercenary, having worked for the Maggia, Hammer, and anyone else who would pay.
 * Legacy Character: Scarlotti has been succeeded in the Whiplash identity by Leann Foreman, an unnamed woman with a BDSM kink, and Anton Vanko (though only the unnamed one seems to have been directly aping him). The anonymous woman's male partner adopted the Blacklash identity for good measure.
 * Mood Swinger: Diagnosed as manic-depressive (what we would now call bipolar disorder).
 * Only in It For the Money: Once he began operating as a merc, this became Scarlotti's primary motivation.
 * Professional Killer: Often employed by Hammer as an assassin.
 * Villainous Valour: It's been noted that fighting Iron Man with a whip, however special, takes serious testicular fortitude.
 * Whip It Good: Wielded a mechanical whip of his own design. Hammer later upgraded his technology to equip him with two cybernetically controlled titanium whips.

Justin Hammer
A corporate rival of Tony's, Hammer was also the secret financier behind numerous attempts on Tony and Iron Man's lives.


 * Corrupt Corporate Executive
 * Evil Counterpart: To Tony, rather than Iron Man.
 * Evil Old Folks
 * The Man Behind the Man: To numerous supervillains during the eighties.
 * Non-Action Big Bad: Hammer was many things, but a fighter wasn't one of them.
 * Man of Wealth and Taste
 * Villain Team-Up: With MODOK, among others.

Justine Hammer
Hammer's daughter, Justine is the current head of his corporation, and a former costumed supervillainess.


 * Avenging the Villain
 * Corrupt Corporate Executive
 * Daddy's Little Villain
 * Lady in Red
 * Manipulative Bastard: Her manipulation of Detroit Steel in particular is quite something.
 * Theme Naming: Named for her father.
 * Took a Level in Badass: Since becoming the head of Hammer's company.
 * Unholy Matrimony: With The Mandarin.

Sasha Hammer
Justine's daughter by The Mandarin, Sasha has a rocky relationship with her mother, and is the lover of Ezekial Stane.


 * Berserk Button: Tony saying anything negative about Zeke.
 * Cyborg: Let Zeke turn her into one.
 * Daddy's Little Villain
 * Dark Action Girl
 * Unholy Matrimony: With Ezekial.
 * Yandere
 * Younger Villain vs. Older Hero

Obadiah Stane/Iron Monger I
The leader of another one of Tony's rival companies, Obadiah orchestrated Stark's return to alcoholism, before attempting to buy him out.


 * Bald of Evil
 * The Chessmaster
 * Chess Motifs
 * Corrupt Corporate Executive
 * Driven to Suicide: Blew his own head off rather than let Iron Man arrest him.
 * Evil Counterpart: One of many.
 * Evil Knockoff: The Iron Monger armour is specifically based on Stark's designs.
 * The Man Behind the Man: To the Chessmen.
 * Parental Abandonment: His mother left him and his father committed suicide while playing Russian Roulette.
 * Powered Armour: As the Iron Monger.
 * Power Palms

Ezekial "Zeke" Stane/Iron Monger II
Obadiah's son, Zeke is an international anarchocapitalist terrorist, with no particular agenda, a burning hatred for Tony Stark, and a penchant for improving on others designs and internalising machinery.


 * Avenging the Villain: Blames Tony for Obadiah's suicide.
 * Bald of Evil
 * Cyborg: Courtesy of numerous modifications made to himself.
 * Evil Counterpart: Zeke's creator has described him as a second Tony Stark, younger, sharper, and ever more obsessed with the future, and playing open source anarchist to Stark's closed source capitalist.
 * Evil Genius
 * Healing Factor: Engineered one into his own genetic code.
 * Mad Scientist
 * The Man Behind the Man: To The Order in his first appearance.
 * Terrorists Without a Cause: Zeke's an open source ideological terrorist, with a credo of "change" and not much else. He sells not only his technology, but his designs themselves to anybody who will buy.
 * Transhuman: Views himself this way.
 * Western Terrorists
 * Unholy Matrimony: With Sasha Hammer.
 * Younger Villain vs. Older Hero

Whiplash IV/Anton Vanko
A young Russian who saw his hometown destroyed by an out-of-control Iron Man armour, and vowed revenge, Anton Vanko donned a suit of armour equipped with two laser whips.


 * Canon Immigrant: Heavily based on Ivan Vanko, the Crimson Dynamo/Whiplash blend from the second Iron Man film.
 * Cool Mask: His armour doesn't have a helmet; instead his face is covered by a single plate.
 * Name's the Same: Shares his name and ethnicity with the original Crimson Dynamo.
 * Powered Armour
 * Renegade Russian: Though one with no connections to the old Soviet Union or Communism.
 * Revenge
 * Revenge Before Reason: Continues gunning for Stark, even after he learns that Iron Man wasn't responsible for the attack on his village.
 * Revenge by Proxy: Tries to kill Pepper to hurt Stark.
 * Whip It Good: Has a pair of laserwhips that deploy from his wrists.
 * Younger Villain vs. Older Hero: He's quite a few years younger than Stark.