A.I.M.

"I've a proposal I'm putting together with myself. It's a privately funded think tank called, Advanced Idea Mechanics."

- Aldrich Killian to Tony Stark

A.I.M. (Advanced Idea Mechanics) is a scientific research and development agency led by Aldrich Killian and funded in part by grants from the government of the United States of America.

History
Advanced Idea Mechanics was founded by Aldrich Killian possibly sometime before 1999. In its early days, A.I.M. was used by Killian as a ThinkTank to invent new ideas. After trying to recruit Tony Stark into A.I.M. and failing, Killian instead employed Maya Hansen where the two created Extremis, a project developed to regrow limbs and heal people on command.

Over the years and the progress of Extremis, Killian's goals eventually changed. He instead intended to use subjects who recieved the Extremis Treatment as soldiers, employing everyone exposed to Extremis as personal assassins. Killian at some point hired failed British actor, Trevor Slattery, and paid him to act as the Mandarin, the supposed leader of the terrorist group called the Ten Rings, and to claim responsibilities for bombings across America which were actually just failed Extremis experiments in which the subject would explode from their body rejecting the treatment.

To his new end, Killian intended to have the "Mandarin" kill President Matthew Ellis of the United States and replace him with Vice President Rodriguez who was willing to do as Killian demanded in exchange for Extremis to heal his daughter. With the "Mandarin" in one hand and the President in the other, Killian intended to take control over the and sell his Extremis soldiers to the United States Armed Forces, making billions.

The plan was however thwarted by James Rhodes and Tony Stark, the latter of whom defeated all Extremis Soldiers, while Pepper Potts killed Killian.

It is unclear whether or not A.I.M. is still functioning without Killian or has been shut down.

Trivia

 * In the comics, A.I.M., originally known as Them, was formed as a branch of HYDRA by Wolfgang von Strucker, and were responsibles for the creation of the Cosmic Cube.

Behind the Scenes

 * In the non-canon video game Iron Man, A.I.M. is a secret weapons and intelligence agency. They were former clients of Stark Industries who built an army based on Stark technology, with some of it being sold clandestinely by Obadiah Stane. When Tony Stark started searching for stolen Stark technology using the Iron Man armor, he faced A.I.M. and their nuclear depots in Russia, facing their own version of Iron Man, the Titanium Man and the twisted Controller. After Iron Man frustrated every attempt of A.I.M. to get nuclear energy, they decided to launch a massive attack on Stark Industries, kidnapping Tony Stark's secretary Pepper Potts. After Mrs. Potts was saved, A.I.M. decided to deploy a Proton Cannon in charge of the Melter with the intention to attack civilian targets, but they where stopped again by the armored hero.


 * In the non-canon video game Iron Man 2, A.I.M. worked with Kearson DeWitt in collaboration with Roxxon to perfect the Ultimo Program.


 * In the non-canon video game Iron Man 3 - The Official Game, A.I.M. is the employer of most of the villains.