Justin Hammer

"I wanna make Iron Man look like an antique."

- Justin Hammer

Justin Hammer is a business rival of Tony Stark and the CEO of Hammer Industries.

Meeting with the Senator
Justin Hammer is a defense contractor and an old time business rival of Tony Stark. When Senator Stern brought Stark to the tribunal in order to force him to give the government his Iron Man suit technology, Hammer was the expert called to prove that Stark's monopoly on his armor was dangerous for the US. Hammer showed many attempts made by America's enemies to replicate Iron Man's armor which all of them failed; however Hammer was then humiliated by Stark himself, who shows Hammer's men attempting to do the same. After his public humiliation, Hammer's Army contract with the U.S. was suspended.

Working With Vanko
Later Justin Hammer met Tony Stark again in Monaco, where both of them were supporting one of the cars involved in the race. Hammer was with Christine Everhart, a journalist who was flirting with him for having some scoops and an interview, but she was told by Stark that Hammer lost his contract with the Government and so she left him for Stark. When Whiplash was arrested, Hammer had him freed out of prison but took him to his personal secret storage, in which the two of them forged an alliance. Hammer told Vanko that he had to build for him many armors so advanced that Iron Man's would become old news. Vanko told him that building armors wasn't the best choice, and convinced him that drones were better. Hammer believed him, but he didn't realize that Vanko was making them for his own purposes.

When James Rhodes obtained one of Stark's armors and gave it to the Air Force, Hammer was summoned by General Meade to improve it. Hammer weaponized the armor with the best of the weapons produced by Hammer Industries, creating War Machine, who would introduce the Hammer Drones at the Stark Expo. Disappointed for having the drones not working at the Expo (as Vanko said, lying), Hammer had two guards keep an eye on him for not keeping to their arrangement. At the Expo, after a brief and goofy introduction, he presented his drones and the War Machine armor, but the demonstration was interrupted by Iron Man, who has discovered that Hammer was working with Vanko. Vanko remotely took control of the drones and of War Machine's armor, starting a massive attack on the Expo. Hammer tried to have his technicians regain control of the drones, but was halted by Pepper Potts and Natasha Romanoff, the latter of whom forced him to reveal Vanko's location. Pepper in turn called the police and had him arrested for his complicity with Vanko. As he was taken away, Hammer assured her that this was no problem for him.

Life in Prison
"Look at this guy. What is so special about him? I mean, I had an army of robots. What's he got? He's got some dumb accent. His name's Trevor. What is that? It's like if and had a baby."

- Justin Hammer talking about Trevor Slattery

After his arrest, Hammer was sent to Seagate Prison. He had apparently developed a relationship with a much younger man. While being interviewed for the documentary, Hammer stated that he resented Trevor Slattery and felt that he should be more recognized. During the interview, his partner made a gesture to him which he dismissed. At the same time, he was reading a Forbes magazine with Pepper Potts featured on the cover.

Trivia

 * In the comics, Justin Hammer is much older and more cynical than his movie counterpart, and his hatred of Tony Stark is much more apparent.