Iron Man: Difference between revisions

[[File:The-Heroic-Age-Marvel-Comics-Iron-Man-Bio-3_5002.png|frame|"I am Iron Man. The suit and I are one."]]

 

 

 

 

 

Until the end of ''[[Crisis Crossover|Secret Invasion]]'', there was a second title, ''Iron Man: Director of S.H.I.E.L.D'' -- a politics and espionage-based book, dealing with Stark's role as head of the international security organization. The last few issues were handed to Iron Man's ally War Machine, who has now been granted his own solo series, called "Iron Man 2.0", which is his third (after the 1994 and 2009 ongoing series).

As of the dawn of the Heroic Age, Stark is rebuilding his financial empire from scratch. His vehicle to make this happen? Using technology provided by [[Immortal Iron Fist|Danny Rand]] combined with his own repulsor technology has formed one of the most astounding sources of clean energy ever seen. He's offering for investors to get in on the ground floor or be flattened by him in five to ten years. And the best part? His new company won't be financed by manufacture of a ''single weapon''.

 

 

 

* [[Action Girl]]: Love interest Bethany Cabe is a professional bodyguard and troubleshooter.

** His assistant Maria Hill fits too, and Pepper is on her way, having just found an armor made for her.

** Madame Masque, one of his villains, is a [[Dark Action Girl]].

* [[The Adjectival Superhero]]: Most instances of the comic follows the tradition, viz. ''The Invincible Iron Man''.

** An exception is the AI in the ''Hypervelocity'' miniseries, which saved his life and later sacrificed itself so a nuclear bomb wouldn't be detonated.

** The film subverted this in a passing moment where Stark was testing out a suit prototype just prior to the model Stark used as the actual Iron Man suit. Jarvis, [[Comic Book Time|now a sophisticated AI]] that usually minds Tony's mansion and is uploaded into whatever suit Tony uses to help control it, exhibits more common sense than Stark in the safety of testing the suit in its current condition. Ultimately Stark flew it even whilst "terabytes of calculations" still went undone that would certainly make the prototype more reliable. The suit prototype failed and Stark ultimately punched a hole through his mansion [[Crosses the Line Twice|in a crash landing]] (as one of the trailers actually showed). For the rest of the film, however, Jarvis performed flawlessly as Tony's aid in the suit.

* [[Amoral Attorney]]: As the head of Stark Enterprises' legal department, Bert Hindel was assigned by Tony to protect his technology by legal means after it was stolen by Spymaster and then resold by Justin Hammer during the ''Armor Wars'' arc. Unfortunately, Hindel completely fumbled the ball, forcing Tony to resort to attacking everyone who was using his stolen tech and forcibly deactivating it. Tony fired Hindel for his poor performance... and then when he was shot and nearly killed by [[Yandere|Kathy Dare]], Hindel reappeared as her defense attorney. He tried to portray her as an innocent victim reacting to Tony's [[Blatant Lies|drunken abuse]], with the hope of parlaying the trial into a lucrative book deal. Unfortunately, he [[Epic Fail|screwed up once again]] when Tony's new lawyer introduced testimony from Dare's psychiatrist, and Dare ended up being confined in a mental institution.

** The anime version has concluded and managed to pick up ''every. single. cliché of the genre''.

* [[Anime Theme Song]]: Averted in the Japanese animé adaptation.

* [[Anti-Hero]]: Usually [[Sliding Scale of Anti-Heroes|Type II]], including going by the manner Matt Fraction is currently writing him, as he is is here portrayed as a very idealistic philanthropist who, [[Reed Richards Is Useless|unlike the other Marvel supergeniuses]], is actually attempting to let the world population benefit from his revolutionary inventions; and [[Warren Ellis]] gave him an [[The Atoner]] angle regarding the previous (inherited from his father) weaponry-dealing phase (during which he could easily be argued to have been a villain). However, many others think that he has slipped to type IV or V at times (such as during the ''Armor Wars'', or more controversially in ''Civil War''), and to some even a [[Villain Protagonist]]. It should be noted that he actively tried to legally fight the superpower registration legislation before congress, and everything he did during the infighting was due to the government having much more extreme plans otherwise (massive Sentinel-manufacturing among other things). The part that actually pushed him into in [[Villain Protagonist]] territory was Paul Jenkins going off-track by establishing that Stark planned to start a war with Atlantis as a [[I Did What I Had to Do|necessary evil]] outside distraction/"threat" to unite both factions against, which could potentially kill millions of civilians. [[Hand Wave|Nobody has referred to it since]], which may be just as well.

** [[War Machine (Comic Book)|Jim Rhodes]] was traditionally a Type III idealistic soldier, but was a Type IV, during his "Sometimes the world needs a war machine" [[Blood Knight|phase]].

* [[Badass Bookworm]]: Tony Stark is the ''exemplar'' of this.

* [[Badass Mustache]]: Tony is notably one of the few mainstream heroes in comics that regularly sports a mustache.

* [[Badass Normal]]: Out of their armor, both Stark and Rhodes can handle almost any threat until they can suit up.

** Happy in the second movie. The guy has no special training (Agent Romanov), no special suit (Stark, Rhodes, Ivan) and can only box and he is still capable of taking out a trained security guard. Also, at the beginning, he decided to run Ivan over in a car while Ivan was wearing his prototype suit which was fully capable of slicing clean through metal.

* [[Beard of Sorrow]]: Tony grew this when he was a alcoholic bum living on the streets of New York.

* [[Beleaguered Bureaucrat]]: Tony Stark during his Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. period had some serious aspects of this. Especially during Knauf's run.

* [[Black Best Friend]]: James "Rhodey" Rhodes, aka War Machine (and occasionally Iron Man).

* [[The Blacksmith]]: Tony Stark ''is'' one. Some of his more iconic moments in visual media (such as the movie, or the awesome second season intro for the 90's cartoon) show him doing some literal blacksmithing; pounding out molten iron with hammers and pouring it into molds. [[Fan Service|Shirtless, of course.]]

* [[Break Out the Museum Piece]]: On various occasions, Stark has had to don his older armor despite the fact that all of Tony's old armors were destroyed. ''Several times''.

* [[Brilliant but Lazy]]: Somewhat. He can create multiple, formidable armors and a life support system ahead of the current time, which he made with extremely limited resources. While he actually does things with this, he can't be asked to sit through a ceremony made for a friend and ally without falling asleep during the history recap.

* [[Butt Monkey]]: Tony during the mid-1980s, when he spiraled downward into a status of a homeless drunk. He got better, but not before a long parade of indignities.

** And again in the Post-''Civil War'' Marvel Universe, where Tony Stark became the [[Designated Villain]].

* [[Comic Book Time]]: Stark was injured during a walk in the jungles of Vietnam <ref> This has been updated many many times in the past, most recently to having taken place in Afghanistan</ref>, when he was already a millionaire industrialist and genius inventor. In the modern day, he's still in his 30s, 40s at most.

* [[Contagious Powers]]: Rhodey and now Pepper have gotten their own armored alter-egos. Justified in that building high-tech armor is what Stark ''does''.

* [[Curb Stomp Battle]]: If Tony's on the receiving end of one, chances are good that in the next issue he'll deliver one right back with an upgraded armor. The battles with Firepower at the end of the ''Armor Wars'' arc, and with Mallen in the ''Extremis'' arc are textbook examples.

* [[Dating Catwoman]]: Madame Masque

* [[Did Not Do the Research]]: Iron Man came out when transistors were the hot new thing, so the writers attributed every single thing his suit could do (including ''rollerskates'') to the "Power of Transistors!"

** Suicide is relatively rare in Iron Man comics; however, two examples, one of either trope here, stand out: When Obadiah Stane has made his final move and is facing checkmate, he chooses to cheat Tony out of his victory and calmly repulsors his own head off. Adversely, when Kathy Dare - crazy stalker lady who shot Tony - attended his 'funeral', she ended up taking a gun to herself, weeping for herself and for Tony.

* [[Embarrassing Middle Name]]: Anthony Edward Stark. Not much embarrassing, but he prefers not to make it well-known.

* [[Enemy Mine]]: Every once in a while, Iron Man will need to team up with a villain or rival in order to overcome a greater situation.

** Dr. Doom in the time-travel episodes.

** When the Mandarin found himself opposing the Makulan dragons he'd helped unleash, he was forced to team up with Iron Man to stop them.

** The ''[[What If]]'' issue "What If Iron Man Lost the Armor Wars?" had an outlaw Tony Stark teaming up with some of his armored foes to get back at Justin Hammer, who'd caused his downfall [[For Want of a Nail|because Ant-Man couldn't stop the "pest control" in the TransCorp computers]].

* [[Estrogen Brigade Bait]]: Apparently, there was a time when the only reason Marvel got letters from females was Tony Stark's existence.

* [[Everything Sensor]]: Tony's various armors have various sensor functions installed.

* [[Flying Brick]]/[[Lightning Bruiser]]

* [[Flying Firepower]]: when he's not brawling, he hangs back and uses energy blasts to drop his targets.

* [[Friendship Moment]]: In ''Iron Man'' (vol. 1) #184, James Rhodes and two other guys were working on creating their own tech company, they were getting ready to leave for California. [[The Alcoholic|Tony Stark]] came up asking for a job. In the past few months he had [[Humiliation Conga|lost his company, lost access to his money, gave up being Iron Man and is homeless.]] Not only that but he had only spent a week being sober. Tony was afraid that he would be rejected for what happened. [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|But Rhodey and the others promptly accepted him.]]

* [[Gadgeteer Genius]]: Tony Stark, obviously, but also Ivan Vanko. Especially in the case of the latter, as he's working from a dingy little workshop in St. Petersburg, with resources nowhere the quality or quantity of Stark's. And he still manages to make a weapon that beats the crap out of Iron Man.

* [[Gender Bender]]: The problem with having a techno-organic supercomputer inside you is that someone might find a way to hijack it. Namely, a psycho [[Killer Robot]] with a severe [[Oedipus Rex|complex]] that centers on one of your teammates. Tony was ''not'' amused when he woke up after being changed back to normal.

* [[George Jetson Job Security]] / [[Ultimate Job Security]]: Both tropes are very much averted. Tony won't fire anyone without good cause, but he ''will'' let the axe fall if he feels a major employee's performance isn't up to snuff. After the Armor Wars storyline, he fired the head of his legal department for repeatedly screwing up Tony's legal attempts to protect his technology. Another time, he immediately drop kicks an executive for making a very profitable technology sale to [[Doctor Doom]], a big time international crime no-no.

** Pepper's doing this, too. She briefly had her own set of armor that she had to give up to help save Tony. As soon as he's recovered, she's on his case to rebuild it.

* [[Hand Blast]]: Iron Man's stock weapon are his palm-fired repulsor beams.

* [[Heart Light]]: Iron Man's power source resembles one of these.

* [[Heart Trauma]]: Also part of his origin story.

* [[Heroes Want Redheads]]: Pepper Potts, Black Widow, Bethany Cabe. If it's a significant Iron Man love interest, chances are it's a redhead.

* [[Honest Corporate Executive]]: In his more sympathetic portrayals.

* [[Humongous Mecha]]: Some of the non-canon stories have Tony piloting these, while the Hulkbuster armors (especially the most recent ones) verge on this trope.

** Rhodey does have the War Machine Satellite, which can turn into a giant mecha.

** Although Tony didn't design it, his company built Red Ronin, the piloted giant robot built to fight ''[[Godzilla]].'' Marvel no longer has the license for Godzilla, but Red Ronin still shows up from time to time.

** Then Extremis let him store most of the undersheath in the hollow parts of his bone where the marrow is normally found. Calling on the rest of the suit when in need.

*** {{spoiler|AND NOW STORES THE WHOLE THING IN HIS BODY! THE WHOLE #@#* $* $* SUIT! Justified by now having a new power source that makes even Extremis look obsolete, in fact, the newness is heavily modified from dormant Extremis tech that survived the Disassembly purge.}}

* [[Insufferable Genius]]: Especially in recent years.

* [[Jet Pack]]: The thrusters and repulsors of the armor allow Iron Man to fly really long distances.

** More like Jet Boots. The main verniers are on his feet. His back generally carries flaps for air stability and braking.

* [[Knight Templar]]: When Tony's technology was stolen by Spymaster and then resold by Justin Hammer, Tony became determined to get it back and prevent it from hurting anyone... no matter what the cost. This led to the ''Armor Wars'' story arc, and Tony eventually even [[Lampshaded]] the fact that he was verging on this trope.

* [[Let's You and Him Fight]]: Subverted in an issue where a rogue Tony ends up fighting War Machine (they've done this a couple times, mind you). It's staged to look realistic so Rhodey's superiors are happy.

* [[MacGyvering]]: An arguable case considering that Tony Stark is a version of Angus MacGyver who happens to ''wear'' a complete high tech tool kit with him.

* [[Made of Iron]]: Well, ''duh''.

**** Literal as of the dawn of the Heroic Age. {{spoiler|Stark now contains the ENTIRE SUIT INSIDE HIS BODY. No not just the undersheath, not just some systems and such EVERYTHING!}} Sadly, there are only sweet sweet visuals of the suit itself. No info on what it can REALLY do. Oh and {{spoiler|the whole issue basically reveals that this whole new armor makes Extremis Armor look like Nintendo 64 compared to Playstation 3.}}

* [[Mad Scientist]]: The Mandarin, the Controller, and the Ghost.

* [[Magic Versus Science]]: Stark is smarter than the average [[Flat Earth Atheist]], acknowledging that [[Doctor Strange]] and other magical characters are doing ''something'' beyond his understanding, but he finds magic and its defiance of physical laws, even those of a superhero universe, profoundly irritating and uncomfortable. This has had some negative consequences recently, as {{spoiler|his taking a sample of [[The Mighty Thor|Thor]]'s DNA in an attempt to figure out how his "godly" powers work resulted years later in ''Civil War'''s Thor clone, who ended up killing one of Tony's friends on the other side of the war.}}

* [[Magnetic Weapons]]: The repulsor rays in the gauntlets are pure magnetic force beams. Instead of propelling a projectile, they create a variable push (from "slam a Mook against a wall" to "blow a hole in a mountain").

** Or "incinerate the head of an [[Ax Crazy]] [[Super Tough]] terrorist who previously nearly [[Curb Stomp Battle|killed Iron Man with his bare hands]]".

* [[Manipulative Bitch]]: Sunset Bain. Big time. Often opposes Tony Stark in his day-to-day business but also opposed him as Iron Man although she always manages to get other people to dirty their hands in her stead. She even manipulated Stark into working for her several times.

** When Tony was much younger, Sunset managed to start her company by seducing him into bed and then stealing all his secrets.

* [[Millionaire Playboy]]

* [[Mid-Season Upgrade]]: In the Movies. Tony has gone through three suits of armor each film. He pretty much upgrades after every fight he's in.

* [[Oh Crap]]: If you're a regular mook without superpowers of your own, seeing Iron Man arrive on the scene is often cause for this.

** Tony has a few of these moments himself, for example when he's on the receiving end of a [[Curb Stomp Battle]] (or is about to receive one, if he's just run out of weapons).

* [[Parental Abandonment]]: Tony took over Stark Enterprises at 21 when his parents were killed in a car crash.

* [[Phlebotinum Dependence]]: The electromagnet.

* [[Power Crystal]]: On the chest and palms, function as Repulsor Beam emitters.

** [[Power Glows]]

* [[Really Gets Around]]: Just in case you missed it in the [[Memetic Sex God]] entry "[http://i41.tinypic.com/14yb76.jpg Every time you kiss Iron Man, you taste Galactus.]"

** Within the first episode of the animé adaptation, he's already flirted with two women, both main characters, the first within the first five minutes of the show.

* [[Shoot the Dog]]: Tony as Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.

* [[Shoulder Cannon]]: War Machine

** In part three of "Iron Man vs. Whiplash", Tony hides out at a Swiss hotel, when the receptionist says he looks familiar he claims to be Robert Downey Jr.

* [[Sidekick Graduations Stick]]: Of a sort. Rhodey got his start replacing Tony in the Iron Man suit. Tony eventually came back, but Rhodey continued being a superhero as War Machine. Eventually, Pepper gets a suit of her own as well.

* [[Spandex, Latex, or Leather]]: None, powered armor!

* [[Strawman Political]]: In the past five years, [[Author Tract|due to several authors' personal soapboxes regarding the US]], Tony Stark has basically been turned into a caricature of every fascist stereotype ever known in a super-powered suit. He forced everyone with superpowers, super-intelligence, or whoever even used superpower gadgetry to conscript with the government into a superhero army in the name of national security. He hired supervillains to "arrest" ones that didn't agree and imprisoned the rest without trial. In a concentration camp located in a dimension which could nearly pass for Hell. And he's got a Nazi scientist for hire performing experiments on the corpses of young boys so he can create his own personal superpowered army. And according to [[Word of God]], he's entirely in the moral right and the greatest hero the universe has ever known. Not surprisingly, there's a lot of Discontinuity surrounding Iron Man.

** It would seem that the official stance on Iron Man has changed significantly. As a result of "World's Most Wanted" and "Stark Disassembled", he does not remember any of the actions from the time he was modified with Extremis until the current day. He even reacted with horror when he discovered that the Civil War had occurred. He still maintains that he was sure that he was doing the right thing (even if he can't remember doing it), but no one agrees with him in the least.

* [[What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?]]: the new anime, produced by [[Madhouse]].

* [[When All You Have Is a Hammer]]: War Machine. In his case, it's "When all you have is an electric minigun, a missile box and a crapload of other guns".

* [[Yandere]]: Madame Masque {{spoiler|as she sees Pepper as a "rival" to Tony's affection that she's willing to torture her while beating and making Tony beg for mercy in order to "win" his love back. She also does this when she threatens Tony with a pistol on his left temple when she would agree to run away with him and live together if he rejects Pepper. Too bad it didn't work though...}}

* [[Yellow Peril]]: His archnemesis, the Mandarin.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Marvel Comics Series]]

[[Category:Better Than It Sounds/Comic Books]]

[[Category:Marvel Comics Characters]]

[[Category:Trope Overdosed]]