Iron Man

"A few years ago, I almost lost her, so I trashed all my suits. Then we had to mop up HYDRA. Then Ultron, my fault. And then... and then... and then... I never stopped. 'Cause the truth is, I don't wanna stop."

- Tony Stark

Anthony Edward Stark, called Tony by most, is an eccentric genius, billionaire, playboy and philanthropist. He is also the armored superhero known as Iron Man. Fresh off from defeating enemies all over the world, Stark reluctantly agreed to serve as a consultant to Nick Fury's peacekeeping intelligence agency S.H.I.E.L.D. Stark joined the Avengers and helped defeat the Chitauri and Loki during the Battle of New York. Due to the battle, he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, leading him to create the Iron Legion. After the Battle on the Norco, the final event of Aldrich Killian's War, he destroyed all of his armors with the Clean Slate Protocol.

However, when the Avengers were officially reassembled, Stark created new armors to fight the remnants of HYDRA. Once the threat had been ended, Stark, with the help of Bruce Banner, built Ultron as a peace-keeping A.I. to protect the world, but it defected and chose to destroy humanity instead. Through the work of the Avengers, Ultron was defeated. After the war, however, Stark retired from the team, still haunted by his role in the chaos the A.I. created.

The guilt of creating Ultron and causing so much destruction and loss of life eventually convinced Stark to sign with Thaddeus Ross and create the Sokovia Accords. However, Stark's strong support of the accords lead to a disagreement with Captain America, who very much opposed the plans. When Rogers proceeded further to disobey orders by protecting Winter Soldier, Stark led the man-hunt for his old ally, igniting the Avengers Civil War.

Youth
"I never got to say goodbye to my father. There's questions I would've asked him. I would've asked him how he felt about what his company did, if he was conflicted, if he ever had doubts. Or maybe he was every inch of man we remember from the newsreels."

- Tony Stark

Anthony Edward "Tony" Stark was born on Friday, May 29, 1970 to Howard and Maria Stark. Howard hired a butler named Edwin Jarvis before Tony was born. Jarvis became a good friend to Tony as he grew older. He watched over Tony throughout all of his childhood. Tony's early life was often dominated by the absence of his father who he would later describe as 'cold' and 'calculating'. Growing up Tony had issues with his father, who Tony has said never told his son that he loved him, or even that he liked him. Since Tony was so young, Howard never was able to tell him his plans for him.

Tony's father would constantly talk about his friend Captain America, so that he could inspire Tony to do great things in life, which highly annoyed young Tony Stark. When he was four years old, he made his first circuit board. When he was almost seven he built a V8 motorbike engine. At sixteen, he won the 4th Annual M.I.T. Robot Design Award. When Tony was seventeen he graduated at the top of his class. He also met James "Rhodey" Rhodes, and they became best friends.

One thing about Tony's childhood that annoyed him was his nanny that cared for him until he was 14.

While he was in high school, Stark hacked into the Pentagon on a dare by some friends.

New CEO of Stark Industries
One Christmas, as Tony was 21, Howard and Maria prepared to go away for a few days and leave him alone, although his father remained highly skeptical about how responsible Tony would be while they were gone. Sadly, they died in a car crash in Long Island. Stark became For a few months Obadiah Stane, a family friend, took over the company since Tony was too young to be CEO of the family's company, Stark Industries. Around this time, Tony's family butler, Edwin Jarvis, died. A few months later, he inherited Stark Industries, becoming the youngest CEO of a Company in history. After building a custom mansion, Tony made an A.I. system that helped out in the house. He named the system "Just a Rather Very Intelligent System", shortened J.A.R.V.I.S., after his butler.

Eventually, James Rhodes joined the United States Air Force and became the liaison between Stark Industries and the United States Armed Forces.

Tony made Stark Industries thrive into becoming one of the most advanced companies in the world, making technology that seemed futuristic to most.

Creating Demons
"A famous man once said, ‘we create our own demons’. Who said that? What does it even mean? It doesn’t matter; I said it because he said it, so now he was famous and then basically getting said by two well-known guys. I don’t…argh. Let me start again."

- Tony Stark

On New Year's Eve in 1999, Stark, with his scientist paramour Maya Hansen, attended a science conference in Bern, Switzerland. There he met a scientist named Ho Yinsen and he arrogantly avoided a gifted but crippled scientist, Aldrich Killian, who wanted Stark's backing in his endeavor Advanced Idea Mechanics. Stark purposely told Killian to meet him on the rooftop of the building with the intention of not turning up. This lead Killian to wait all night while Stark slept with Maya in her room.

Testing Weapons in Arizona
"I hate when people tell me my place. Which reminds me, Celeste, Eloise, let's go see my place!"

- Tony Stark

Stark and Rhodes went to a weapon demonstration at the. Pepper Potts gave the weapon's specifics to the generals while Stark and Rhodes went to a night club. Stark enjoyed the company of two girls while Rhodes tried to convince him not to go to Afghanistan. He was then attacked by a man whose girlfriend he previously seduced, but Rhodes easily defeated the attacker. Later, Stark, Rhodes, and the girls went to Stark's Mansion.

Final Day of Freedom
"You've been called the Da Vinci of our time. What do you say to that?" "Absolutely ridiculous. I don't paint." "And what do you say to your other nickname, the Merchant of Death?" "That's not bad."

- Christine Everhart and Tony Stark

After a presentation of Stark's successful past, James Rhodes was given the honor of presenting the Apogee Award to him at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. When Obadiah Stane gave Rhodes a signal saying that Stark was not there to receive it, Stane took the award in Stark's honor. Shortly after the award ceremony, Rhodes brought Stark the award while he was gambling in the casino inside of Caesars Palace. Rhodes got very angry at him for not being present for the award. Right when Stark was about to leave the hotel, Christine Everhart tried to interview him for. Stark deflected her questions with some swift quips and the two ended up spending the night together at Tony's ocean front house. In the morning Stark began working on one of his cars. His assistant Pepper Potts reminded him about his trip to Afghanistan. He got to the plane three hours late. He and Rhodes soon got drunk and had a small party on the plane. Stark presented his newest weapon, the Jericho missile, to the military spectators and demonstrated its capability. After the successful presentation Stark had a drink and got into a convoy vehicle to leave.

Kidnapping
"You got a family?" "Yes, and I will see them when I leave here. And you, Stark?" "No." "So you're a man who has everything, and nothing."

- Tony Stark and Ho Yinsen

During his business trip to Afghanistan to demonstrate Stark Industries' newest weapon, the Jericho missile, Stark's convoy was attacked by insurgents. While soldiers were dying around him, he attempted to find cover and call for help when one of his own company's bombs landed near him and exploded. The blast caused him to lose consciousness and embedded several pieces of shrapnel in his chest, several fragments dangerously close to his heart. He woke up some time later with an electromagnet attached to his chest. Hooked up to a car battery, the electromagnet kept the shrapnel from entering his heart and killing him. Stark had been captured by the terrorist group, the Ten Rings, which offered his release if he built a Jericho missile for them.

Knowing they would never keep up their end, Stark and fellow captive Ho Yinsen instead made a plan to escape. In order to improve Stark's condition, he and Yinsen created a miniature Arc Reactor, a smaller version of the power source previously invented by his father, Howard Stark, and Anton Vanko, which they embedded into his chest to supply energy to the electromagnet protecting his heart. Together, they secretly began building an armored suit to help them escape. Soon the pair enacted their escape plan; however, the booby-trapped door the pair had rigged with an explosive was set off. Yinsen realized that they did not have enough time to power the suit before the terrorists arrived. He took a gun and held back the terrorists, but was mortally wounded. With his last words, Yinsen reassured Stark that it would be all right to leave him behind and urged him not to waste his life. Angered by Yinsen's death, Stark stepped outside; the suit protected him from the onslaught of bullets, and he used the suit's flame-throwers to kill several terrorists, destroy their stockpile of Stark Industries produced weapons, and escape, though his suit was destroyed as he crashed in the desert. Upon being picked up by the Air Force and returned to the United States, Stark met with Pepper Potts; he asked to first be given a burger, then called a press meeting. At the meeting, Stark finished his burger and declared that his company would, for the foreseeable future, no longer manufacture weapons. This move shocked the press, many declaring that he must be suffering from PTSD. His father's friend and business partner, Obadiah Stane, told him that this move was blocked by the board members shortly after, worried that the decision would ruin the company.

Marks II and III
"Test complete. Preparing to power down and begin diagnostics..." "Uh, yeah, tell you what. Do a weather and ATC check, start listening in on ground control." "Sir, there are still terabytes of calculations required before an actual flight is..." "J.A.R.V.I.S., sometimes you gotta run before you can walk."

- J.A.R.V.I.S. and Tony Stark

In the months that followed, Stark retreated from public view, focusing on improving the design of his new armored suit, refining its size, movement, and flight capability. He asked Pepper Potts to help him take his old Arc Reactor out and to put in a stronger one that would be used to power his suits. He eventually perfected the flight power after much trial and error, taking the silver Mark II suit for its first test flight, despite J.A.R.V.I.S.' warnings that there had not been enough tests. He soared high in the sky over the city and shouted in delight at his success. However when he pushed the suit to see how high he could fly, he learned the suit can freeze, which disabled its power. Stark fell from the sky and was just able to restart the suit moments before he would have hit the ground. He flew back to his mansion, and promptly fell though the ceiling, destroying his piano and sports car. During his first public appearance since his return to the United States, Stark met Phil Coulson, an agent of the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division; they arranged a meeting to discuss the events of his kidnapping. Stark however was too distracted by seeing Pepper. He danced with her and almost kissed her before he went to get them both a drink. While ordering the drinks, Stark was accosted by Christine Everhart, who showed him pictures of Stark Industries weapons in the hands of terrorist groups, including the Jericho missiles he refused to build for them. He also discovered that Obadiah Stane had been supplying weapons to both the U.S. troops and the terrorists, as well as being the one to shut him out of the board while he recovered. Faced with the realization of what his company had done, Stark donned his suit and flew to Afghanistan, liberating Gulmira, Ho Yinsen's home village, from the Ten Rings. While destroying their weapon stockpiles, he accidentally drew the attention of the United States Air Force and his friend and company military liaison, Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes.

Two F-22 Raptors were ordered to take out the unknown target, and during the confrontation, Stark called Rhodes and revealed his identity to him in an attempt to have the attack called off. However, while trying to evade the attack, one of the Raptors lost its left wing when it accidentally collided with Stark. The pilot ejected shortly afterwards, but his parachute jammed. Stark dived down to help the pilot release his parachute before escaping.

Duel of Los Angeles
"You had a great idea, Tony, but my suit is more advanced in every way!" "How'd you solve the icing problem?" "Icing problem?" "Might want to look into it."

- Obadiah Stane and Tony Stark

Determined to make amends for his mistakes, Stark sent Pepper Potts to find Stark Industries shipping records, so that he could track down the illicit shipments and destroy them. While hacking into the system, she discovered that it was Obadiah Stane who hired the Ten Rings to kill Stark in Afghanistan, but they had reneged on the deal when they realized who the target was. She also discovered that Stane had recovered Stark's original armor prototype and had reverse-engineered his own version. However, his team of scientists, not possessing Stark's genius, could not reverse engineer a miniature Arc Reactor to power the new suit. Stane, realizing Potts' discovery, stole the Arc Reactor from Stark's chest to power his new suit, leaving Stark to die. Using his first reactor, which was not designed to power his latest armor, Stark battled with Stane atop Stark Industries Headquarters and the surrounding streets. Stark tricked Stane by forcing him to fly high enough so his suit would freeze and caused Stane's suit to fall from the sky. Stane survived and continued to attack him. Stark eventually killed him when the full-sized Arc Reactor that powered the laboratory was deliberately overloaded by Potts, electrocuting Stane and causing him to fall into the Arc Reactor and explode.

Meeting with Coulson
"I think I know how to fight." "Not yet you don't. You hit like an inventor. Fighting isn't like science or technology. You are supposed to cheat." "Yeah. I know. I've watched professional wrestling. Rhodey thinks you're trying to recruit me." "Something like that. You've created something amazing. Something that may well change the world. But the armor's creation was only the first step. Now comes the real battle. That is if you're willing." "I am."

- Tony Stark and Phil Coulson

After fighting Obadiah Stane, James Rhodes tried to get Stark into an ambulance to see if he had any internal injuries. The ambulance was a fake one sent by S.H.I.E.L.D. to retrieve him. Now that they could finally get to talk to Stark, Phil Coulson talked to him after they dropped him off at a small theater. Coulson viewed Stark's fighting strategy from his fight with Iron Monger on a projector screen. He told him he needed to become a real fighter and that he would be trained by skilled S.H.I.E.L.D. agents.

I Am Iron Man
"I'm just not the hero type. Clearly. With this laundry list of character defects, all the mistakes I've made, largely public." "Just stick to the cards, man." "Yeah, okay. The truth is... I am Iron Man."

- Tony Stark and James Rhodes

The next morning, news had spread of Tony Stark's alter ego, which was dubbed "Iron Man" by the press. Stark held a press conference where S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Phil Coulson gave him a fabricated cover story and advised him to state that Iron Man was his bodyguard. However, during the course of the conference, in a moment of self clarity, Stark instead announced to the public that he himself was Iron Man.

Meeting Fury
"You think you're the only superhero in the world? Mr. Stark, you've become part of a bigger universe. You just don't know it yet." "Who the hell are you?" "Nick Fury. Director of S.H.I.E.L.D." "Ah." "I'm here to talk to you about the Avengers Initiative."

- Nick Fury and Tony Stark

One night, Stark arrived home and was greeted by a visitor standing by the window. He revealed himself as Nick Fury, director of S.H.I.E.L.D., and assured him that he was not the only 'superhero' in the world, intending to discuss with Stark about the Avengers Initiative. However, Stark had no interest in the Initiative.

Aden
"Back already? What're you listening to?" "Just a little recording I made in Yemen. Nick Fury wants to ask me out... he's just trying to be smooth about it. But who's the smoothest guy you know, Potts?"

- Pepper Potts and Tony Stark

When Nick Fury sent a team of United States Navy SEALs to board a ship controlled by the Ten Rings in the port of Aden, Iron Man suddenly appeared and attacked the terrorists. Though the SEALs were outnumbered by the terrorists, Iron Man had no problems with killing all the terrorists and saving the SEALs. Later, back in his house, Stark talked with Pepper Potts about his latest action.

Partnership with Gorani Insurance
"There's a problem with this tire." "Oh, what's wrong?" "Your phone number isn't written on it. You'll have to write it down somewhere else, or enter it into my phone, or―" "―or we could wait until fate brings us back together."

- Tony Stark and Evetta Gorani

When Stark went to Germany to a meeting with the representatives of Gorani Insurance, a company that was financially backing most of his foreign factories, to talk about the new rates, he encountered a roadblock in the. The policemen then told him that some thieves had stolen paintings worth over 100 million dollars. Later, he encountered a girl with a small problem ― a flat car tire. He helped her to change the tire but when he asked her for her phone number, she said he would have to wait until fate brought them back together. After the girl left, Stark saw a vehicle in the forest that matched the description of the van that the thieves used in their robbery. He decided to check and saw the whole gang. Though he did not bring his entire Iron Man Armor, he had the left glove and used it to defeat and capture all of the thieves.Stark then called the police, who arrested the criminals, and then he took the paintings back to the museum, but did not take any reward for returning the paintings. He then rushed to arrive on time to his meeting.

Later, when he arrived at his postponed meeting, he was reunited with the girl he met in the autobahns, and discovered that she was Evetta Gorani, the vice president of Gorani Insurance, who was eventually going to take the mantle of president from her father, Michael. Michael told Stark that the museum that owned the stolen paintings was insured by Gorani Insurance. When he asked Evetta again for her phone number, she said they would "negotiate" after the meeting.

Dealing with a Public Identity
Tony Stark continued to help ensuring peace in the world while also removing Ten Rings terrorists, including saving a United Nations peacekeeping mission that was under attack. Stark also helped General Thaddeus Ross in saving the pilot of the Aerodynamic Marvel that crashed in the Congo. Senator Stern also expressed his concerns of the Iron Man suit as a topic in national security.

Trying to have a serious relationship after the revelation that he is Iron Man, Stark started a relationship with Lina, a beautiful girl. Soon she was blackmailed by the Ten Ring whom wanted her to obtain the blueprints from the Iron Man Armor, kidnapping her son to ensure her compliance. She tried to obtain the blueprints but J.A.R.V.I.S. stopped her, as she managed to escape Stark located her and after she explained the situation Stark went to rescue her son succesfully.

Starting the Expo
"Oh, it is good to be back!"

- Tony Stark at Stark Expo

Six months after revealing his identity to the world and helping maintain world peace, Stark appeared as Iron Man at the grand opening of the Stark Expo in Flushing Meadows, New York City, continuing the legacy his father, Howard Stark, had started.

Unfortunately, Stark's life was not as good as it appeared. Stark was facing a double threat. The first (and possibly worst of the two) was in the form of his own heart: the Arc Reactor Palladium core was poisoning him, causing him a slow painful death due to overuse of the Iron Man armor.

Meeting with Senator Stern
"My priority is to get the Iron Man weapon turned over to the people of the United States of America." "Well, you can forget it. I am Iron Man. The suit and I are one. To turn over the Iron Man suit would be to turn over myself, which is tantamount to indentured servitude or prostitution, depending on what state you're in. You can't have it." "Look, I'm no expert..." "In prostitution? Of course not you're a senator, come on!"

- Senator Stern and Tony Stark

The second threat was from a senate committee hearing, led by Senator Stern, demanding that Stark release the technology of the Iron Man armor for military application. Stark refused, believing that it was not in the best interest of the American people for the military to possess it and that they would use it as a weapon that could very well be used against America.

Senator Stern tried to turn Stark's best friend, Lt. Colonel James Rhodes, against him in an effort to force him. Competitor Justin Hammer tried to plead his case in the matter; Stark took this opportunity to embarrass both Hammer and Stern with a collection of video footage of Hammer and others around the world attempting to recreate the technology. Stark arrogantly stated that it would be years before anyone would be able to successfully recreate the tech.

Making Pepper CEO
"I appoint you new CEO of Stark Industries, effectively immediately."

- Tony Stark

Stark returned to his home where he and J.A.R.V.I.S. tried to find a solution in finding a new power source for the Arc Reactor. While at his home he was visited by James Rhodes, who came to berate Stark about the military's wish to take his suits. However, Rhodes realized how unwell Stark was and assisted him by changing the Arc Reactor Palladium core. Rhodes tried to convince Stark that he did not have to do his journey alone. Uncertain of his chances of survival, Stark appointed his former personal assistant Pepper Potts CEO of Stark Industries, replacing her with Natalie Rushman.

Duel of Monaco
"What's the point of owning a race car if you can't drive it?"

- Tony Stark

Stark traveled to Monaco with Pepper Potts and Happy Hogan. There Stark and Potts encountered Justin Hammer, who smugly tried to show off that he was being interviewed by Christine Everhart; Stark quickly made it clear of his own romantic history with Everhart. Stark excused himself to check his blood toxicity level in the bathroom. Growing increasingly despondent and thrill-seeking as a consequence of what he believed to be his impending death, Stark raced at the Monaco Grand Prix, where Ivan Vanko, who had constructed an Arc Reactor of his own, along with whip-like energy weapons, attacked him. With the aid of Pepper and Happy Hogan, who handed him his portable briefcase armor, Stark donned the Mark V armor and defeated Vanko.

Afterward, Stark paid a visit to Vanko in a French prison to learn how he acquired the technology. During the conversation, Vanko revealed that he was the son of Anton Vanko, who collaborated with Howard Stark on the first Arc Reactor but was deported back to the Soviet Union and died in poverty. Ivan Vanko blamed the Stark family for his family's fate, and sought revenge. Vanko also mentioned that was he fully aware of Tony's current heart poisoning, saying that it was a terrible way to die.

Stark's Birthday Party
"You don't deserve to wear one of these! Shut it down!"

- James Rhodes

Stark went home with Pepper to celebrate his upcoming birthday. On route home, Stark attempted to tell Pepper the truth behind his current series of reckless acts. Wanting to escape from all his current problems, he tried to convince her to take a detour to Venice, Italy; unfortunately, media pressure of the recent incident in Monaco with Whiplash had everyone on edge demanding that Stark turn over the technology immediately. Vanko escaped prison thanks to Justin Hammer who intended to use Vanko's knowledge of Stark's technology to create his own army of armored warriors to discredit Iron Man. Stark threw what he believed would be his last birthday party and got drunk while wearing the Iron Man armor and indulged in dangerous activities, such as using the uni-beam to destroy a watermelon, forcing his friend, Rhodes, to intervene. Rhodes donned Stark's Mark II armor and after almost destroying Tony Stark's Mansion in the resulting fight, delivered the armor to the military.

Rediscovering the Element
"What do you want from me?" "What do we want from you? Uh-uh. What do you want from me? You have become a problem, a problem I have to deal with. Contrary to your belief, you are not the center of my universe. I have bigger problems than you in the southwest region to deal with."

- Tony Stark and Nick Fury

The next day, Nick Fury, director of S.H.I.E.L.D., approached Stark at Randy's Donuts, revealing Natalie as undercover agent Natasha Romanoff and that Howard Stark was one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s founders. Romanoff gave Stark an injection which slowed down the poison in his veins. Fury then gave him some of Howard's old material to aid in finding a cure for the palladium poisoning. Inside Howard's trunk, Tony found several items, including the notebook with the drawings of a "hypercube" and two Captain America comic books. A hidden message in the diorama of the 1974 Stark Expo proved to be a diagram of a new element's atomic structure. With the aid of his A.I. J.A.R.V.I.S., Stark synthesized the new element and cured himself. Afterward, Ivan Vanko contacted Tony, revealing he was still alive and still set on revenge. Stark donned the Mark VI armor and flew off to the Expo.

Battle at Stark Expo
"Now, the true history of Stark name will be written. What your father did to my family over 40 years, I will do to you in 40 minutes." "Sounds good. Let's get together and hash it out."

- Ivan Vanko and Tony Stark

At the Stark Expo, Justin Hammer unveiled his military drones, captained by James Rhodes in a heavily weaponized version of the Mark II armor known as the War Machine armor. Stark as Iron Man arrived to warn Rhodes, but Ivan Vanko seized control of both the drones and Rhodey's armor, setting them to attack Iron Man. Pepper Potts had Hammer arrested while Stark's bodyguard Happy Hogan and Agent Natasha Romanoff raced to Hammer Industries Headquarters. Vanko had left, but Romanoff turned over control of the Mark II armor to Rhodes. Eliminating the other drones, Stark and Rhodes were confronted by Vanko in his new, more powerful suit of armor. He was defeated when Stark and Rhodes fired repulsor rays at each other, triggering an explosion beside Vanko. Too injured to continue the fight, Vanko ignited his and his drones' self-destruct bombs, killing himself. Stark raced to save Pepper amid a series of explosions. Pepper quit her position as CEO, and she and Stark kissed. Rhodes departed with the Mark II armor without serious objection from Stark.

Not a Suitable Candidate
At a debriefing, while showing news footage of another superhuman event, Nick Fury informed Stark that while Iron Man was a suitable candidate for the "Avengers Initiative", Stark himself was not. S.H.I.E.L.D. wanted Stark in a consultant position, but Stark said that Fury could not afford his help. Stark thought about the position for a moment and he agreed on the condition that Senator Stern present himself and Rhodes with their medals for bravery. A couple of hours later, Stark got his wish and took the job as consultant. He took great pleasure in Senator Stern's annoyance at being forced to give him a medal.

The Consultant
"Ahh... the smell of stale beer... and defeat. You know, I hate to say 'I told you so,' but that Super-Soldier project WAS put on ice for a reason. I've always felt that hardware was much more reliable."

- Tony Stark to Thaddeus Ross

Keeping with his job as consultant for S.H.I.E.L.D., Stark was tasked with preventing General Thaddeus Ross from releasing Emil Blonsky onto the Avengers Initiative, ordered by the World Security Council. Stark arrived at a bar where he found a drunken Ross. The two exchanged insults before Stark told him that a team was being made. Stark annoyed Ross so much that the latter tried to have him removed from the bar, which Stark bought and arranged to be demolished. The task was complete with Ross refusing to release Blonsky from his custody.

Making the New War Machine Armor
"Nevertheless, you, James Rhodes, are never wearing the Mark II armor again...because I made this for you instead."

- Tony Stark

Some time later, Stark retrieved the War Machine armor and stripped it of the Hammer Industries weapons and turned it back into the Mark II. When James Rhodes arrived, Stark informed him he would never wear that armor again because he made him a new one with better technology and weaponry.

Initiation
"Mr. Stark, we need to talk." "You have reached the life model decoy of Tony Stark. Please leave a message." "This is urgent." "Then leave it urgently."

- Phil Coulson and Tony Stark

After Loki infiltrated the Joint Dark Energy Mission Facility and stole the Tesseract, Nick Fury decided it was time to re-establish the Avengers Initiative. Agent Phil Coulson traveled to the newly built Stark Tower where Stark and Pepper Potts were celebrating the successful creation of a new, clean energy source. Stark was informed of Coulson's presence at Stark Tower by J.A.R.V.I.S. to which he informed him that he had "reached the Life Model Decoy of Tony Stark" and refused to see him. Coulson entered the building anyway and informed Stark that the Initiative was now active, and they needed him to come in, handing Stark holographic screens with information about Captain America, Thor, Bruce Banner and Loki.

Capturing Loki
"You don't know what you're dealing with." "Shakespeare in the park. Doth Mother know you weareth her drapes?"

- Thor and Iron Man

Stark suited up in his Mark VI armor and traveled to Stuttgart, Germany where he found his old acquaintance, Natasha Romanoff in a Quinjet overlooking the newly unfrozen Captain America in the middle of a battle with the hostile god, Loki.

Stark jetted right in and blasted Loki with his repulsors and stood tall next to Captain America, forcing Loki to surrender. Escorting Loki onto the Quinjet, the team headed back to S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Helicarrier. Stark commented on Rogers' fighting skills and subtly mocked him. The Quinjet was then surrounded by a storm and attacked by Thor, who broke in and grabbed Loki before he flew away. Stark immediately pursued them. While Thor threatened Loki atop a mountain, Stark blasted straight into him, hurling him onto the forest floor. Stark refused to let Thor get close to Loki, and the two began to battle.

During the fight, Thor summoned lightning to his hammer, Mjølnir, and electrocuted Stark, only for J.A.R.V.I.S. to inform him that his suit was at 400% capacity, allowing him to blast Thor off his feet. The armor took a beating during the battle as Thor easily began to crush one of the gauntlets with his bare hands. The fight was broken up by Captain America who, after matching Mjølnir with his shield, managed to stop Thor.

Traveling in the Helicarrier
"It's good to meet you, Doctor Banner. Your work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled. And I'm a huge fan of how you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster."

- Iron Man

They took Loki back to the Helicarrier where Stark met Bruce Banner and discussed the Tesseract but not before Stark planted a hacking device and allowed J.A.R.V.I.S. to begin searching S.H.I.E.L.D.'s database to find out its secrets. Stark talked with Banner, telling him that he should see the Hulk's existence as a gift, rather than a curse. He also tried once to annoy Banner by poking him with a prod, only to get no response other than pain. Stark wondered if Banner used jazz or marijuana to keep his cool, to which Steve Rogers found less than funny.

He then explained to Rogers that he was working on the bigger mystery - why call them in now, not earlier? Nick Fury was "the" spy, whose secrets would have their own secrets; if he didn't bring Stark in on the Tesseract energy project, that can only mean S.H.I.E.L.D. is working on something other than clean energy. Captain America left, unsure whether Stark was right or not.

Attack on the Helicarrier
"Cap, hit the lever." "I need a minute here!" "Lever. Now!"

- Captain America and Iron Man

Stark and Bruce Banner learned that S.H.I.E.L.D. was trying to harness the Tesseract's powers to create weapons of mass destruction and Captain America found out that S.H.I.E.L.D. was using HYDRA technology to learn how to harness it. During a huge argument between Nick Fury, Natasha Romanoff, Rogers, Banner and Thor, Loki's troops led by a brainwashed Clint Barton caused an explosion on the Helicarrier in order to free Loki. Stark suited up as Iron Man and began to fix the ship from the outside with the aid of Rogers.

Upon fixing the ship and fighting off some of Loki's troops, the duo learned that Banner had transformed into Hulk and escaped from the ship, as well as Thor being ejected from the Helicarrier by Loki who escaped and murdered Agent Phil Coulson. Nick Fury informed the two that the Avengers Initiative was started so that the isolated individuals could become something more and that Coulson died still believing this.

Visiting the site of Coulson's murder, Stark began talking with Rogers about how Loki made it personal to draw them in. While rambling on about the theatrics that Loki has pulled off, Stark grew closer to finding out where the God of Mischief would set off the portal to bring the alien army forth. Eventually, he remembered something that he built out of his own ego - Stark Tower - which would be a perfect power source to open the portal. Stark left the Helicarrier with Captain America, Black Widow, and Hawkeye - now freed of Loki's mind control.

Battle of New York
"What have I to fear?" "The Avengers. It's what we call ourselves, sort of like a team. 'Earth's Mightiest Heroes' type thing." "Yes, I've met them." "Yeah. Takes us a while to get any traction, I'll give you that one. But, let's do a head count here: Your brother, the demigod; a super soldier, a living legend who kind of lives up to the legend; a man with breath-taking anger management issues; a couple of master assassins, and you, big fella, you've managed to piss off every single one of them."

- Loki and Tony Stark

Stark, Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanoff and Clint Barton (now free from Loki's mind control) traveled to Stark Tower where Stark found Loki had installed a device powered by the Tesseract. Stark ordered J.A.R.V.I.S. to cut the power in the tower, only learn the portal device was already self-sustaining. He arrived before the rest of the Avengers, needing to replace his damaged armor with the new Mark VII suit. Falling to convince Dr. Selvig to shut down the device, Stark blasted it; however the barrier around the device bounced the blast back, knocking out Selvig. Loki watched in amusement from the balcony of Stark's penthouse.

Seeing that there was nothing else he could do to stop the invasion, Stark landed and had the Mark VI removed; he threatened Loki with the promise that the Avengers would take him out no matter how long it took them, to buy time to pit on two metal bracelets. However, when it seemed Loki would brainwash him next, it turned out the Arc Reactor was blocking the scepter from Tony's heart. Making a performance joke, Stark was thrown out of the window by Loki, calling for the Mark VII; it was rocket-propelled to him, and formed the suit around him right before he could hit the ground. Stark flew back up to Loki and blasted him backwards in the name of Agent Coulson. Stark was however confronted by Loki's device which opened a portal into space where Loki's army of Chitauri flew into New York City and began their war against Earth. Stark fought off the Chitauri and tried to call James Rhodes, who told Stark that he was too busy fighting soldiers working for the Ten Rings, but would come to help as soon as possible. Stark was joined by his teammates as they begin to battle the alien menace. Stark began to chase after a Leviathan, a giant alien serpent and the warship to dozens of Chitauri. When he was notified of Banner's arrival on the field, Stark led the serpent towards him so that Banner would transform into Hulk and defeat it. Stark landed on the ground alongside his fellow heroes, Captain America, Thor, Hulk, Hawkeye and Black Widow. The team were then confronted by hundreds of Chitauri who flew in through the portal as well as several more Leviathans. Rogers gave out orders and instructed Stark to take to the skies and take out more Chitauri. Stark even took out a Leviathan by flying head-first into its mouth and launching missiles from the inside.

Stark asked Thor if he had ever seen , saying he reminded him of it. Thor asked him how he can joke around during a war, but was then eaten by a Leviathan. Out of rage, Thor used Mjølnir to get out of the Leviathan. After a long battle, the team were still outnumbered and learned that Natasha had found a way to close the portal. Stark hindered this as Fury has instructed him that the World Security Council had sent a missile to blow up Manhattan. Stark intercepted the missile and flew it up through the portal and blew up the Chitauri Command Center, losing power in the process and falling unconscious back through the portal just before it closed. As Stark fell back to earth, he was caught by Hulk who landed with him back on the ground.

Rogers and Thor ran over to Stark who appeared to be dead, only for Hulk to scream in his face, waking him up. The team reformed and made sure that Loki surrendered, taking him into S.H.I.E.L.D. custody.

A few hours later, Stark and the rest of the Avengers went to the Shawarma Palace where they ate silently. They were soon interrupted by War Machine, who arrived too late to aid in the battle. The next day, the Avengers met in Central Park and made sure Loki was taken back to Asgard by Thor along with the Tesseract. The team then disbanded and went their separate ways; with Banner, Stark drove away in his Acura 2012 Stark Industries Super Car. Stark was later with Pepper Potts in Stark Tower ready to rebuild after the damage that was done.

The Iron Legion
"Iron Man's not enough. Not even with a War Machine watching his back. For what's coming, we're gonna need an Iron Legion."

- Tony Stark to James Rhodes

After the battle, Stark invited James Rhodes to his workshop in Malibu. Seeing that not even the combined powers of Iron Man and War Machine would be enough to protect the Earth from the next threat from the Nine Realms, Stark showed Rhodes several Iron Man armors that could be remotely controlled. He called them the "Iron Legion".

The Melter
"You just saw what I can do. But we live in a cynical world. You might think I got lucky. So in the next few days, I'll hold another demonstration. After that, the Melter technology goes on sale to the highest bidder. If you have what it takes to be a buyer, you'll hear from me. If you don't, you might want to consider if you are really as important as you think you are... or if your just yesterday's news like Stark."

- The Melter to reporters after defeating Iron Man

Sometime shortly after the Battle of New York, Stark was presenting how he could now charge his armor from solar energy at Stark Tower, when he was suddenly attacked by a villain called the Melter. The Melter quickly defeated Iron Man and announced he was going to sell his designs in a few days.

Two days later, Melter attacked again and defeated War Machine. This made Stark and Rhodey unite to confront Melter together and they defeated him and put him in the custody of the United States Armed Forces.

Nightmares
"And I guess 72 hours is a long time between siestas. Didn't think it could get any worse, then I had to go and turn on the TV. That's when he happened."

- Tony Stark

Six months after the Battle of New York; Stark tested the Mark XLII, which was built so that he could summon various pieces of the armor when needed. Right after testing the new armor, Sark went to go watch television, only to see that the Mandarin had made another attack against the United States. Meanwhile, James Rhodes had his suit repainted by the American government who had now renamed him Iron Patriot.

Stark met with Rhodes at a bar and diner where he mocked the Iron Patriot name, being told that it tested well with focus groups; the government felt that "War Machine" was too violent a name, which would send the wrong message to children. Two kids asked him to sign a drawn picture of him diverting the nuclear missile to the portal. The picture depicted Stark's near-death experience in the Battle of New York which lead him to have an anxiety attack. He immediately put on his suit to test for any faults in his physiology, only to be told nothing was wrong. Stark then left to return home and resume work on his suits. As Christmas was nearing, Stark decided to show Pepper Potts his love for her by buying a large stuffed bunny as her gift. Unfortunately, it was too big to fit through the door, so he would need to have a wall taken down to get it inside. Decided to test his new remote-control unit, Stark had his Mark XLII armor sit on the sofa and wait for Pepper to come home. Once Pepper was home, Stark lied that he was breaking in the armor. His ruse fell apart when she attempted to open the armor to kiss him; she went down to Stark's workshop for a crowbar, only to find him. Stark managed to quell Pepper's anger by explaining that he's been feeling like an amateur in the big leagues since New York; he's just a man in a suit against gods, aliens and portals to other worlds. He then admits that probably the only reason he has snapped is because she moved in with him, for which he is greatly thankful.

However, he's also been plagued by nightmares about these hostile forces attacking what he loves most - her. Because of this, he spends most of his time, even when she's asleep, building more and more Iron Men to help protect her. Pepper comforts him, understanding why he's been so distant from her. She then leaves to wash up for bed; however, Pepper turns around and offers to have sex in the shower to cheer him up. Stark agreed, hoping not only to lighten his mood, but try closing the gap forming between them.

Later that night, Stark attempted to have a good night's sleep, but had visions of himself going against the Chitauri, causing him to go into distress. Pepper tried to wake him until his armor appeared, coming to Tony's aid, seeing Pepper as a threat. Stark awoke and deactivated the armor, apologizing to a terrified Pepper who left him alone in bed.

Threatening the Mandarin
"My name is Tony Stark and I'm not afraid of you. I know you're a coward so I've decided that you just died, pal. I'm going to come and get the body. There's no politics here; it's just good old-fashioned revenge. There's no Pentagon, it's just you and me."

- Tony Stark message to the Mandarin

Meanwhile, a string of bombings by the terrorist known as the Mandarin left intelligence agencies bewildered at the lack of forensic evidence. Stark's former bodyguard, now head of security, Happy Hogan was caught in on such blast. Stark visited him at the hospital, ensuring that the nurses kept Happy's favorite program on TV and to make sure they all wore ID tags as Happy was a stickler for those. Mobbed by the press once he left, Stark was asked if he would kill the Mandarin. He then issued a public threat to the Mandarin, giving away his address so they can face off. This resulted in numerous news choppers flying around Stark's home, waiting to catch Iron Man Vs the Mandarin on film.

Destruction of Tony Stark's Mansion
The next day, Stark ended up fighting with Potts' over leaving the house for their safety, since he was dumb enough to give his address; she began packing regardless of his choice. Stark spent his time in the workshop, creating a database on the Mandarin and recreated the explosion that left Happy in a coma. Viewing the holograph of Happy, Stark found he was pointing at a dogtag near the center of the explosion; using this as a clue, he looked for records of similar explosions of 3000 degrees. Ruling out the Mandarin attacks, Stark found one in Rose Hill, Tennessee.

To Stark's surprise, the doorbell rang; J.A.R.V.I.S. informed him that there was only so much he could do since Stark had given the press his address. Donning the Mark XLII, Stark confronted his visitor, only to find Maya Hansen instead of the Mandarin. He initially mistook her comments about needing to get him alone as an offer for sex; he turned her down, explaining that he's happily in a committed relationship with Pepper. At that moment, Pepper dropped luggage from the second floor. Stark quickly asked Maya if their one-night stand resulted in a child; after teasing him, she explained that this wasn't the case. Pepper and Maya met, while Stark continued arguing about staying to confront the Mandarin.

However, Maya turned their attention to the television, which showed a missile heading right a the house. It landed, knocking them away. Stark signaled his armor onto Potts, protecting her. Once Pepper had gotten Maya to safety, Stark summoned the armor back to himself, fending off the several helicopters surrounding him. After being outgunned, Stark was pulled into the ocean while his home demolished over him, barely escaping. He lost consciousness from the strain and left J.A.R.V.I.S.in charge of the suit.

Back to Basics
"Pepper, it's me. I've got a lot of apologies to make and not a lot of time. So first off, I'm so sorry I put you in harm's way. That was selfish and stupid and it won't happen again."

- Tony Stark to Pepper Potts

Stark found himself in Rose Hill, Tennessee after J.A.R.V.I.S. followed his initial flight plan to find the Mandarin. Unfortunately, since the Mark XLII was still a prototype, it lacked a link to the Arc Reactor to sustain its power; this left Stark in the cold, with nothing but his genius to help him now. Lacking the power to return to California, the world at large believed him to be dead. Stark sent a private call, hoping for Potts to hear. Apologizing for putting her in harm's way, Stark stated that he could not return home yet. Stark broke into a work-shop belonging to 10-year old Harley Keener (and his family). He got along well with Harley, who reminded Stark of a younger version of himself - a child genius; Harley had recommended using retro-reflection panels to create a stealth armor and also disliked that a hero with a cool name like War Machine was given the lamer moniker of Iron Patriot. Stark gave Harley a flash grenade from his suit, recognizing the signs of a kid who has been bullied.

Stark enlisted Harley's help in finding the truth behind the terrorist bombings. Lead to the site, Stark realized something was amiss as there was no ash-imprint of the soldier who died. However, when Harley started asking him about New York and the Avengers, Stark started having another panic attack. At this point, Stark admitted that he should have been on medication to deal with his post-tramatic stress.

Seeking information, Stark set up a meeting with the mother of recently killed (Extremis-infected) soldier Chad Davis. Once being handed valuable information regarding her son's death, Stark was attacked by Ellen Brandt and Eric Savin. Tony's fight with Brandt lead into a restaurant; he bought himself time to set up a bomb by igniting some fuel to block Brandt's way to the kitchen. Stark put Davis' dogtag in the microwave and exposed some gas, fleeing outside and hiding behind an ice machine. An explosion then erupted, sending Brandt into the power lines, killing her. Savin held Harley hostage, but Stark reminded the kid about his flash grenade; this allowed Stark to blast Savin unconscious with a spare repulser. Stealing Savin's keys, Stark commandeered his car, taking off with the file from Mrs. Davis.

Stark befriended a tech helping broadcast a pageant, using their satellite connection to hack into A.I.M., which the file reports was responsible for Chad Davis' death. Seeing footage of the Extremis experiments, Stark realized that all the explosions were accidents that came from patients' bodies not being able to accept the drug. Therefore, the Mandarin wasn't actually planning out the explosions in advance, he was just claiming to have been behind the accidents, passing them off as intentional terrorism.

Finding Killian
"My name is Trevor, Trevor Slattery." "What are you? What're you a decoy? You're a double, right?" "What? Like an understudy? No, absolutely not."

- Trevor Slattery and Tony Stark

With Harley's assistance, Stark tracked down the Mandarin's location in Miami - as the suit was recharging, Harley suggested that Stark build his own gadgets if he had to defend himself. Infiltrating the Mandarin's home, Stark discovered that the Mandarin was not really a terrorist, rather a drunken British actor named Trevor Slattery employed by Aldrich Killian to act as a threat to America, covering up Killian's test-subjects/Extremis program. Stark was however knocked unconscious by Savin who took Stark to Killian.

Being held in captivity, he learned Maya Hansen was working for Killian; she had used the formula he had written down in a drunken daze after their night together to better stabilize Extremis. Stark laughed at her for following a drunken equation from him for all these years, chiding her for "losing her soul"; he gets to wake up to Pepper, a woman who still had a sense of right and wrong. Killian arrived and explained the reasons behind A.I.M. and how he was grateful to Stark for teaching him that he needed to rule the chaos from behind the scenes. Stark then discovered that Killian had captured Pepper Potts and was currently infecting her with Extremis; with Pepper's life in danger of ending up like the failures, Stark would be forced to help improve Extremis for her sake. When Maya Hansen tried to help him, Stark witnessed Killian casually murder her. Stark was left guarded by two henchmen, once he learned the correct time, Stark worked out that the suit would be charged by now and offered the henchmen a chance to escape, believing that it would arrive in seconds, however this led to an awkward period of Stark awaiting his suit which took longer than he expected to arrive. The reason being that the doors to the barn they were being kept in were chained shut.

Summoning his Mark XLII all the way from Harley's House, Stark escaped captivity and defeated several guards, despite only getting a hand and leg part of the suit for the duration of the fight. Harley freed the rest by destroying the lock with a powdery substance, knowing that Stark was in need of his armor. Once the guards were all knocked out, the rest of the suit arrived and Stark made his way through the facility. He greeted J.A.R.V.I.S., while seeing the Iron Patriot Armor fly off.

Saving the Air Force One Crew
"Easy. See? Eleven more to go."

- Tony Stark

Stark reunited with Rhodes, who revealed that Savin had taken control of the Iron Patriot Armor, intending to launch an attack on President Matthew Ellis aboard Air Force One. Remotely controlling his armor, Stark sent it aboard the plane and killed Savin by blasting a hole through his chest. The armor then exited the plane and saved the surviving passengers and crew, but was unable to rescue Ellis from Killian, who had already removed him from the plane in the Iron Patriot armor.

Battle on the Norco
"It's Christmas. Take 'em to church."

- Tony Stark's orders to J.A.R.V.I.S.

Stark and Rhodes traced Killian to an impounded oil tanker called the Norco where he intended to kill Ellis on live television. Sneaking in, they were attacked by several Extremis Soldiers. Stark fired his gun at the soldiers, but was unable to stop them. Rhodey proved himself to be the superior marksman which annoyed Stark. Outnumbered, Stark summoned the Iron Legion to their aid (controlled by J.A.R.V.I.S.) except the Mark XLII, which was running late after trying to save the president in Air Force One. Stark wore the Mark XXXIII suit and flew into battle. Stark found Pepper under wreckage when Aldrich Killian unexpectedly attacked him and began burning through his suit, forcing Stark to cut off Killian's arm and eject from the suit before he summoned another. Coming to Pepper's aid once again, Stark was unable to reach her and watched as she fell into a pit of fire to a certain death. Aldrich Killian then appeared and mocked Stark, Stark then engaged in a fight with Killian.

As Killian proved his Extremis abilities could cut through the armor with relative ease, Stark again exited his suit to avoid defeat and then donning another which suffered the same fate. Standing over a platform, Stark, now armor-less due to his other suits being preoccupied with Tony's command to destroy Killian's Extremis soldiers, awaited the Mark XLII but was deflated when it simply crashed and disassembled once again. While Killian spoke of Stark not deserving Potts and that he was close to making her perfect, Stark said he was right but that she already was perfect and sent the Mark XLII onto Killian, trapping him. Stark then ordered J.A.R.V.I.S. to let it self-destruct while he escaped. Jumping into another suit, Stark escaped the explosion and crashed to the ground. Suddenly, Aldrich emerged from the flames with most of his tissue layers destroyed seemingly beyond Extremis's ability of reconstruction and still intent on Tony's death. Stark was powerless and at the mercy of Killian while Killian began to call himself the real Mandarin, saying that he was from the start. During this proclamation, Pepper, still alive due to the Extremis in her system completing its transition in her body, struck Killian to the ground with a large metal pipe. Stark was left almost speechless and in amazement at her return.

An Iron Man suit flew downward in an attack position, prompting Stark to try and tell Jarvis to disengage the suit, only to find that the earpiece which he used to take to and command Jarvis several feet away from him on the ground. Pepper then dodged a repulsor blast from the suit, which then flew back into an attack position. Pepper then ran at Stark, causing Stark to think that she was mad at him, though she actually ran past him and jumped off a beam to impale her arm into the suit's chest and removing and donning one of the suits arms. Stark watched as Pepper sent an attacking Killian flying backwards into the air with a swing of her now armored arm and removed an explosive missile and threw it into Killian and blew it up with a repulsor blast, finishing him off.

Stark apologized to Pepper and promised to find a cure for her. Tony, seeing Pepper worried about their future, ordered J.A.R.V.I.S. to destroy all his remaining armors in Operation: Clean Slate Protocol. Surrounded by the subtle, firework-like explosions in the sky, the two embraced.

A Step Further
Stark was able to use his vast resources to cure Potts of the Extremis, removing her powers as he promised; now there was no worry about her suffering an explosive end. Two days later, Stark underwent surgery from Doctor Wu to have the shrapnel removed from his heart. He used the pieces of shrapnel to make a necklace, which he gave to Potts; ironically, this would be "a gift from the heart." He went back to the wreckage of his mansion that same day, and threw his Arc Reactor into the ocean, vowing that no matter what, he was Iron Man even without the Arc Reactor and his suits. He also took the remains of his Dum-E robot to repair it. After this, Stark retired from the hero "business" for at least a year, but continued to work as a consultant for S.H.I.E.L.D. and run Stark Industries.

Helping S.H.I.E.L.D.
Since his house was destroyed, Stark now lived in Stark Tower, which he redesigned and renamed Avengers Tower. He soon began helping S.H.I.E.L.D. by making repulsor technology for their three new Helicarriers, to avoid the same issue that happened during the Attack on the Helicarrier.

Therapy Session with Doctor Banner
"Where did I lose you?" "Elevator in Switzerland." "So you heard none of it?"

- Tony Stark and Bruce Banner

Later, after his battle with Aldrich Killian, Stark retold the story to Bruce Banner in the Avengers Tower. Banner had fallen asleep during the tale, telling his friend that he was not that kind of doctor. Stark ignored this comment and began telling more stories of his life, much to the dismay of Banner, who went to sleep again.

Project Insight
Tony Stark was listed as a potential target of Project Insight by HYDRA. Luckily, Captain America was able to stop HYDRA in time to save all of HYDRA's intended victims.

After the defeat of Project Insight and the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D., Stark hired former S.H.I.E.L.D second-in-command Maria Hill, utilizing his army of lawyers to protect Hill from the numerous parties that would see her incarcerated, in order to help him fill the void left by S.H.I.E.L.D.'s absence by privatizing global security.

Fighting HYDRA
"Good talk." "No it wasn't."

- Tony Stark and a HYDRA Soldier

With the rising threat of HYDRA, the Avengers were officially reassembled, with Stark's financial backing. Using the Avengers Tower, as their headquarters, they embarked on several missions to ruin HYDRA's plans for world domination. Stark and the other Avengers attacked Baron Wolfgang von Strucker's research base. While the other Avengers fought the soldiers on the ground, Stark worked on destroying the base's shields to allow the team access. When Stark swore during the mission, Steve Rogers told him to watch his language, much to Stark's amusement. Stark soon managed to disable the shields and entered the base; once inside he killed Doctor List before making his way through the hallways. Stark located inside the base a giant Leviathan, which HYDRA had stolen after the Battle of New York, and the Scepter. While Stark was looking at the Scepter, Wanda Maximoff sneaked up behind him and caused him to have a vision of the future; in the vision, Stark saw the other Avengers lying dead after a mysterious battle. Shaken by what he had seen, Maximoff allowed Stark to retrieve the Sceptre, knowing its power would ultimately cause his downfall.

Creation of Ultron
"Peace in our time. Imagine that."

- Tony Stark to Bruce Banner

Continuing his mindset toward protecting humanity while realizing the void that the downfall of S.H.I.E.L.D. created, Tony Stark created an intelligence with the mandate to ensure global peace at any cost. The intelligence, Ultron, in turn took control on the Ultron Sentries to defend humanity as a sort of makeshift army. At a party celebrating the launch of Ultron, Stark and the Avengers decided to try to lift Mjølnir; Stark initially tried to lift it on his own, when that failed he called for James Rhodes' help to no avail. Upon his defeat, Stark looked for fingerprint recognition software in Thor's hammer. Ultron Sentries then attacked the party. After a brief battle, the lead Ultron robot was destroyed, although it claimed it would attack again. With the team gathered together, Stark began examining the robot to understand what caused it. He learned that it had destroyed J.A.R.V.I.S.' mainframe in a rage. Thor stormed in and grabbed Stark by the throat, accusing him of bringing destruction to the earth, Stark defended himself, however, claiming that he was coming up with a solution to end a war that would destroy the Earth. The team later learned that Ultron had built himself a new body and had killed Wolfgang von Strucker and was planning on stealing Vibranium from Ulysses Klaue.

Hunting Ultron
"Don't compare me with Stark! It's a thing with me. Stark is... he's a sickness!!" "Oh junior, you're gonna break your old man's heart."

- Ultron and Tony Stark

Stark led the team to South Africa where they found Ultron, along with Pietro and Wanda Maximoff, taking the Vibranium. They engaged in a fierce battle, with Stark taking on Ultron alone while the rest of the team fought the Ultron Sentries and the Maximoff twins. Eventually, Stark brought down Ultron and destroyed his body. Not long afterwards, however, he learned that the team had been mentally taken down by Wanda Maximoff, who had proceeded to cause Bruce Banner to transform into Hulk in the middle of South Africa and started to destroy everything he could.

Duel of Johannesburg
"Go to sleep, go to sleep, go to sleep..."

- Tony Stark to Hulk

Stark called for his Mark XLIV armor; he tried to contain Hulk in an enforced metal cage, but when this failed, the two began to fight. When Hulk damaged the armor, Stark called for extra parts and used its many capabilities to try to knock Hulk down or fly him from the city. Eventually, he resorted to dropping him through a building still going through construction; this seemingly calmed Hulk enough that Stark could knock him out with a final massive punch.

The Barton Home
"Isn't that the "why we fight," so we can end the fight, so we get to go home?!"

- Tony Stark to Steve Rogers

After the battle was over, the Avengers were on the Quinjet. Maria Hill told Stark and Clint Barton that there were negative criticisms against the Avengers' actions in South Africa and also voices that wanted Banner's arrest. Hill also suggested that they should go somewhere where the rest of the team could relax from their dreams until they could find Ultron. Barton said to Stark he should get some sleep because they would land in a few hours. Stark asked him where and Barton responded to "a safehouse". They landed in a countryside and entered into a small house. The team was surprised to learn that it was Barton's family home and that he has a wife and three children. Barton explained that the reason the team were unaware of his family was due to Nick Fury helping him to have this second peaceful life outside S.H.I.E.L.D. where his family could be safe. Stark and Steve Rogers went outside and chopped wood together. They discussed how Wanda Maximoff had been able to use her powers to pull the team apart. When the conversation moved to how Stark and Banner inadvertently created Ultron, they began to argue and debate whether or not Stark should have ever experimented on the Scepter. Stark explained his action by using the argument that the true reason they fight is only to end the fight and go home, and Ultron was supposed to replace them. Laura Barton then asked Stark if he could help to fix their tractor. As Stark examined the tractor, Nick Fury revealed himself; Stark realized that Maria Hill called him. Fury tried to convince Stark that Wanda Maximoff had just tricked him, but Stark said that the vision he had seen where all of his friends are dead would be the future, if Stark would not do everything he could to save them and humanity. Fury then showed himself to the rest of the team and started to discuss their next move. Fury said that his contact people in "NEXUS" in Oslo had informed him that Ultron had tried to get nuclear codes but someone changed the codes all the time. Bruce Banner then realized that Ultron wanted always to improved his body, so he needed Helen Cho and her Cradle device to create his ultimate body. Stark then made it clear to Rogers that if Ultron succeeded in uploading himself to the body, he might be stronger than any of them. Fury then told them that he will take Banner to the Avengers Tower and said to Stark that he needed Hill for "something dramatic".

Hacking the NEXUS
"A hacker who’s faster than Ultron? He could be anywhere. And as this is the center of everything, I’m just a guy looking for a needle in the world’s biggest haystack."

- Tony Stark

As Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanoff and Clint Barton flew to Seoul to retrieve the synthetic body, Stark was in the NEXUS base searching for the person who prevented Ultron from obtaining launch codes for nuclear missiles. As this master hacker was blocking those attempting to access nuclear codes, Stark did so himself to draw in this unknown ally against Ultron. In doing so, Stark was shocked to find out it was J.A.R.V.I.S., who erased his memory and scattered himself across the Internet to block Ultron. It turned out that Ultron was afraid of J.A.R.V.I.S. and of what he could do, so J.A.R.V.I.S. went underground and prevent from Ultron to get the codes. Restoring J.A.R.V.I.S.'s memory, Stark sent his programming back to Avengers Tower.

Birth of the Vision
"So, you want me to help you put J.A.R.V.I.S. into this thing?" "No, of course not! I want to help you put J.A.R.V.I.S. in this thing."

- Bruce Banner and Tony Stark

Stark went back to the Avengers Tower where Bruce Banner and Barton waited for him. Barton was with the Cradle with the synthetic body inside it. Barton informed Stark that Ultron had kidnapped Romanoff, so Barton began to search for her. Stark then told Banner everything he discovered and he asked for his help him upload J.A.R.V.I.S. to the synthetic body. Banner was against it, finding the situation to be a time-loop they were stuck in; however, Stark was able to convince him that the create the being Ultron was meant to be by giving it J.A.R.V.I.S. as a core persona, and thus prevent megalomania. As the two were almost finished, Rogers with Wanda and Pietro Maximoff came and ordered him to shut it down. After Stark and Banner refused, the two and Barton fight against the three, but suddenly Thor came in and revived the synthetic body with his lightning. The living body jumped out and briefly attacked Thor until he looked out over the city; the living body apologized and called itself the Vision and claimed to wish to assist them to fight Ultron. Thor explained that he had seen the Vision in his vision and the Mind Stone, one of the six Infinity Stones, that is in the Vision's forehead. At first, the team did not trust him, but as proof of his honor, Vision handed Thor Mjølnir. A shocked Stark was congratulated by Thor for creating a worthy ally.

Battle of Sokovia
"Come to confess your sins?" "I don't know, how much time you got?" "More than you."

- Ultron and Iron Man The Avengers tracked Ultron down in Sokovia, where Natasha Romanoff was held. Stark uploaded his artificial intelligent computer, F.R.I.D.A.Y., to his newest suit. The team flew there with Wanda and Pietro Maximoff and Vision. As the rest of the team helped to evacuate Novi Grad and Bruce Banner went to free Romanoff, Stark confronted Ultron in the city's church. Ultron had created a new body for himself and a drill that emerged from the center of the church, revealing a Vibranium detonator with a mechanism located underground. Vision then came and succeeded to disconnect Ultron from the internet. Ultron then activated the drill and a part from the city flew to the sky. F.R.I.D.A.Y. informed Stark that if the city would get high enough, the impact of its fall to the ground would cause a global extinction. While the Avengers fought against the Ultron Sentries and made sure the civilians were safe, Stark and F.R.I.D.A.Y. debated about a way to make sure the city would not hit the ground. He came to the idea that he and Thor can destroy the rock in the air. Eventually, Nick Fury and Maria Hill came with a Helicarrier and helped the Avengers with evacuating Novi Grad while War Machine helped with the battle. The Avengers guarded the vibranium drill from the Ultron Sentries to prevent the city from falling. However, one sentry caused the city to fall, but Stark and Thor succeeded in exploding it before it touched the ground.

Leaving the Avengers
"I will miss you, Tony." "Yeah? Well, it's time for me to tap out."

- Steve Rogers and Tony Stark New Avengers Facility was constructed in upstate New York; Stark informed the others about his resignation from the Avengers. Stark, Steve Rogers and Thor met at the facility where they discussed the Vision keeping the Mind Stone in his head; Thor insisted that he could as he had proven himself worthy by lifting Mjølnir, although Rogers questioned if this counted as Vision was a machine. Thor then returned to Asgard to learn more about the Infinity Stones. Rogers then said to Stark that he will miss him too, and Stark joked that he will build for Pepper Potts a house in the country, like Clint Barton. Stark then drove from there.

Stark was asked by the media about the incident involved Hulk. Stark responded that public concerns about Bruce Banner are "Baseless" and "Irresponsible".

Because all of his activities as Iron Man, Stark and Potts took a break from their relationship.

Facing the Consequences
"That was really sweet, what you did for the young people." "Oh, they deserve it. 'Causs it helps to ease my conscious."

- Miriam Sharpe and Tony Stark

Stark gave a guest lecture at his alma mater,. He demonstrated the students his latest device, B.A.R.F., which aimed to recreate and relive old memories and showed them his last meeting with his parents. Then he followed with a speech where he introduced a grant being awarded to all students, giving them all the proper funding to move forward with their own inventions and ideas. He then read the telepromter and was shocked to read that he should be presenting Pepper Potts to the stage. As he walked outside, he encountered a woman who complimented his funding. She reached to her purse and Stark, thinking she was about to pull a gun, grab her hand. But instead, she pulled a photo of her son and told him that he had died in Sokovia during the battle. She blamed Stark for his death.

Sokovia Accords
"We need to be put in check. Whatever form that takes, I'm game. If we can't accept limitations, we're bounderless, we're no better than the bad guys."

- Tony Stark Thaddeus Ross presented to Stark the Sokovia Accords, a document which required the Avengers to operate under the supervision of an United Nations panel. Stark, haunted by the massive damage he had caused by creating Ultron, agreed to sign the Accords. He and Ross went to the New Avengers Facility, where he tried to convince the Avengers to sign the Accords. Afterwards, they were briefed on the Accords by Ross, who explained that the Accords were created as a result of the catastrophic events in which they were involved. As the Avengers debated whether to sign it or not, Stark remained silent. Steve Rogers realized Stark had already chosen a side, which was pro Accords. Stark gave them the story of Charlie Spencer and how he had died in Sokovia. He pointed out that the group needed to be put in check or they were no better than the bad guys. However, Rogers saw the Accords as a block to keep the Avengers from where they needed to be. Stark and Rogers argued with each other and Stark even got surprising strengthening from Natasha Romanoff. The argument ended when Rogers left the room.

Fighting with a Friend
"Sometimes I wanna punch you in your perfect teeth. But I don't wanna see you gone."

- Tony Stark to Steve Rogers

Stark was in the Joint Counter Terrorist Centre in Berlin. He asked Vision to keep Wanda Maximoff in the New Avengers Facility in order to protect her, after her accident in Lagos. After Steve Rogers, Sam Wilson, Bucky Barnes and the prince of Wakanda, T'Challa, had been arrested, they were brought to the JCTC. There, Stark tried once again to convince Rogers to sign the Sokovia Accords. He told him about his breakup with Pepper Potts and that even though he was mad at him, he still needed Rogers. Stark assured him that Barnes would be taken into American custody for his involvement in the Bombing of the Vienna International Centre, if he signed. He also said that he had filed a motion to have Rogers and Maximoff reinstated. Rogers asked about her, so Stark explained that Vision kept her safe. Rogers was furious at the idea and Stark said that he was doing it to save them from something worse, but Rogers did not believe that and walked from the room. During Barnes' psychological assessment, a power failure occurred. Barnes freed himself and tried to escape; however, Tony Stark Natasha Romanoff and Sharon Carter engaged him. Stark used his gauntlet to fight him, but Barnes overcame him. Barnes escaped, but Stark knew Barnes was most likely with Rogers, who, along with Wilson, had also escaped custody. Thaddeus Ross informed him that a special force unit would deal with Rogers, but Stark convinced him to let him bring them in. He gave Stark 36 hours for it. Romanoff said to him that they were understaffed. He knew they had to recruit people who could help get to the fugitives in time. Romanoff approached T'Challa to ask for his help, while Stark flew to New York City.

Recruiting Peter Parker
"So you wanna look out for the little guy. You wanna do your part. Make the world a better place all that, right?" "Yeah. Yeah just looking out... for the little guy. That's-That's what it is."

- Tony Stark and Peter Parker

Having learned about the "Spider-Man" that was protecting New York City, Stark deduced his true identity as Peter Parker and visited him at home. He waited for him to return from school with his aunt, May. As Parker entered the apartment, he was surprised to see Stark. The two fooled May to believe that Stark was offering him a scholarship. Stark entered his room with Parker and was impressed how Parker used the technology he had retrieved from the trash. Stark showed Parker videos of him as Spider-Man saving civilians. Parker denied it but Stark founded his suit and equipment. Stark asked him if anyone knew who he was, but Parker said no one knew about him. He told him that if you had powers, you should use them for good. Stark was impressed with his attitude. He asked him if he wanted to go to Germany, but since it could be dangerous, he went to tell May, only to be tied up by Parker. Stark agreed not to tell May and also asked to let him go. He later built for him a new mechanic suit and flew with Parker back to Germany.

Clash of the Avengers
"I'm trying to keep you from tearing the Avengers apart." "You did that when you signed." "Alright, I'm done. You're gonna turn Barnes over and you're gonna come with us. Now! Because it's us! We're squaded JSOC, guys, with no compunction about being impolite."

- Tony Stark and Steve Rogers

Stark learned Steve Rogers's plan to use the Quinjet in Leipzig-Halle Airport, so he and his teammates evacuated the airport and waited for Rogers and his team. Rogers showed up and Stark, with his new armor, War Machine, Black Widow and Black Panther attempted reasoning with Rogers and to convince him to bring Winter Soldier in, but found that the negotiation was going nowhere. As a result, Stark called in Spider-Man to steal Captain America's Shield and to tie Rogers' hands. However, Hawkeye used an arrow to free Rogers and Ant-Man returned him his shield. Stark saw Hawkeye and Scarlet Witch running to the Quinjet, so Stark flew to their location. Spider-Man asked him what to do, so Stark reminded him that he would keep distance and web them up if necessary. Stark used missiles to stop the two. He said to Maximoff that she had hurt Vision's feeling as she escaped from the New Avengers Facility. Maximoff said that he locked her in there, but Stark explained it was to protect her. He then spoke with Barton, joking about Hawkeye coming out of retirement. Barton stated that he had played eighteen holes and got eighteen, implying that he could not miss, to which Stark said there was a first time for everything. However, it was revealed to be a distraction, as Scarlet Witch used her power to bury Stark under cars. F.R.I.D.A.Y. informed him that she had found multiple contusions, to which Stark answered that he had found too. Stark freed himself and helped Black Widow to stand up. She asked if fighting was part of his plan, and he responded that he had planned to go easy on them. The two teams regrouped and Vision came and joined Stark's team. Captain America's team did not surrender and ran towards Stark's team. Spider-Man said that Captain America's team were not stopping, so Stark answered that neither did they. Stark flew a few seconds and as the two teams clashed, Stark fought Captain America personally. As Stark attacked Falcon, Hawkeye then fired a arrow which broke apart into several, smaller arrows, but was destroyed by Stark repulsor blast. Stark continued firing at Hawkeye, but suddenly the suit was not active. He asked F.R.I.D.A.Y. what was the problem, as he suddenly heard Ant-Man who was inside the suit. F.R.I.D.A.Y. managed to cause Ant-Man to get out of the suit.

Ant-Man suddenly grew into a huge size. Falcon then attacked Stark and during their fight, Stark said that anyone on their side hiding a secret ability should use it. Falcon used his Redwing drone to stun Stark. With the help of War Machine and Spider-Man, they managed to knock down the giant Ant-Man. Stark hurried to check on Parker if he was alright and told the exhausted Parker that he was done and should go home threatening to call his aunt May if he did not. Parker desperately tried to convince Stark that he could still keep fighting, but soon reluctantly agreed whilst Stark flew away. Stark took off after the Quinjet, which had Captain America and Winter Soldier inside it, with War Machine, who was following Falcon. Stark asked Vision to damage Falcon's gear with a blast, so he would be forced to land. However, Vision accidentally missed Falcon and shot War Machine's Arc Reactor. As Rhodes fell toward earth, Stark changed direction and tried to save his friend. Rhodes crashed on the ground and Stark checked on him if he was alive. F.R.I.D.A.Y. told him he was alive. Wilson also landed and told Stark he was sorry, but Stark was so angry he knocked Wilson out.

The Raft
"Clearly, I made a mistake. Sam, I was wrong. That's a first. Cap is definitely off the reservation and he's about to need all the help he can get. We don't know each other very well. You don't have to..." "Hey. It's alright. Look, I will tell you. But you have to go alone and as a friend." "Easy."

- Tony Stark and Sam Wilson

Sending Peter Parker back to Queens, Stark, Natasha Romanoff and Vision were at the New Avengers Facility, checking on James Rhodes' current state. Stark asked how Vision could make a mistake like that and Vision admitted he was distracted, which neither he nor Stark had known could happen. He then approached Romanoff and said to her he was disappointed she had let Steve Rogers escape. He told her that T'Challa had told Thaddeus Ross about her betrayal, so the government most likely would come to arrest her. She said she was not the one who needed to watch her back and ran to go underground. In order to find Rogers, Stark went to visit the Raft, where Sam Wilson, Clint Barton, Wanda Maximoff and Scott Lang were imprisoned for working outside the law. On his way to the prison, F.R.I.D.A.Y. informed Stark that the therapist who was supposed to do Bucky Barnes' psychological evaluation in Berlin, had been killed and replaced by Helmut Zemo from Sokovia. She told him that Zemo had also framed Barnes for the Bombing of the Vienna International Centre. Although Ross did not believe Stark, he let him to speak to the prisoners. Barton taunted him and Lang said that Hank Pym had always told him never trust a Stark. As he approached Wilson, Stark asked him to tell him where Rogers had gone. Wilson did not want to do it, but Stark said he was wrong and he wanted to help Rogers. After Stark knocked out the audio feed, Wilson told him that Rogers was in the HYDRA Siberian Facility. Stark wore Mark XLVI and flew to Siberia.

Battle of the HYDRA Siberian Facility
"This isn't going to change what happened." "I don't care. He killed my mom."

- Steve Rogers and Tony Stark

Entering the HYDRA Siberian Facility, Stark saw Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes searching for Helmut Zemo. He agreed to put aside the arrest warrant for the two to help them find Zemo before he could use the Winter Soldiers. However, they soon discovered that Zemo actually killed them instead. Zemo revealed himself behind a bunker and explained that he successfully managed to bring him and Stark to the base, after a year of planning. Rogers realized that he was from Sokovia and wanted revenge because of the battle there. Blaming the Avengers for the loss of his family during the battle, he had orchestrated a plot to tear them apart from the inside. Zemo played a footage of the night that Stark's parents died, revealing that HYDRA used Winter Soldier to murder them to steal the Super Soldier Serum in their car trunk. Stark demanded Rogers to tell him if he had known that Barnes had killed his parents. Rogers revealed that he had known they were killed, but did not know Barnes had been the assassin. Blinded by vengeance after finding out the truth, Stark went to actively kill Barnes, whilst Rogers attempted to calm the situation, explaining that it was HYDRA's doing through brainwashing Barnes. Stark also attacked Rogers, as he refused to listen, saying Barnes had killed his mother. During the brutal fight between Stark, Rogers and Barnes, Stark destroyed the Winter Soldier's Prosthetic Arm. Rogers stormed at Stark, who blasted his repulsors at Rogers, who valiantly deflected them with his shield and then pinned him to the wall and punched him hardly. Stark asked F.R.I.D.A.Y. to track Rogers' movements and managed to block him and beat him. Stark gave Rogers a final warning to stand down, but Rogers said he could do this all day. Barnes grabbed Stark's foot and Rogers used the distraction to hurl him on the floor. After a few punches, Rogers destroyed the Arc Reactor with his shield. As Rogers lifted Barnes, Stark claimed he did not deserve his shield, since his father had made it. Rogers dropped his Vibranium shield and left the scene with Barnes, leaving Stark behind.

Picking Up The Pieces
"Tony, we have a problem." "Ah, please hold."

- Thaddeus Ross and Tony Stark

At the New Avengers Facility, Stark helped James Rhodes to walk again. He received a package from the mailman, who mistakenly misread Tony Stark's name as "Tony Stank". Upon opening it, he saw that the package contained a cell phone and a letter from Steve Rogers, apologizing for keeping the truth about Stark's parents from him, telling Stark if he would need Rogers' help in private, he and the rest of his team were just a phone call away. By this time, Rogers freed the imprisoned Avengers team from the Raft and Thaddeus Ross called Stark for help. Stark, having calmed down and thought things more thoroughly, put Ross on hold by pretending to be busy on something else, letting Rogers and his Avengers team escape successfully.

Personality
"You stood by my side all these years while I reaped the benefits of destruction. Now that I'm trying to protect the people I've put in harm's way, you're going to walk out?" "You're going to kill yourself, Tony. I'm not going to be a part of it." "I shouldn't be alive... unless it was for a reason. I'm not crazy, Pepper. I just finally know what I have to do. And I know in my heart that it's right."

- Tony Stark and Pepper Potts

Many people in the media think that Tony Stark is only just an egocentric playboy. But it is shown throughout the series that Tony does actually care for people, especially his friends. Although Tony causes trouble on occasion, he is more than willing to make up for his mistakes, which is also why he became a superhero. Charming, brilliant, and cocky, Tony is a classic playboy, with his wealth, power, and natural charm allowing him to get just about any woman he wants. But despite his rather carefree and overly confident personality, inside Tony's heart lies loneliness, as Ho Yinsen pointed out: "A man that has everything, but has nothing".

Even though he can appear to be self-obsessed, Tony can also be a great friend and occasionally shows affection toward his teammates. Hence, Tony was the only Avenger who encouraged Bruce Banner to embrace his identity of Hulk as a blessing rather than a curse, and trusted him to make good use of Hulk's powers. And when Tony was caught up by the terrifying vision of Scarlet Witch, he was possessed with great fear of losing all his friends on the Avengers team, and having to live after they had all been murdered. During battle, Tony tries his hardest to protect his allies, risking his own life if he has to, notably when he personally carried a nuclear missile through the Tesseract's portal.

Tony is also known for being exceptionally intelligent and innovative, having built an Arc Reactor from scratch in Afghanistan. His intellect has earned him the "Da Vinci of Our Time" nickname, and his inventions of Stark Industries have revolutionized technology for mankind. Due to a strained relationship with his father Howard Stark, Tony grew to have a deep disrespect for figures of authority.

Before his kidnapping, Tony was a self-centered, arrogant person who didn't care for many people. During the following years, however, Tony has matured, gradually becoming more of a team player and becoming somewhat less arrogant. He even began opening up and having a real relationship with Pepper Potts. Tony's exploits as Iron Man have lead him to reevaluate his life, thus Tony now strives to use his inventions in a more responsible and considerate way.

After the Battle of New York, Tony developed a strong fear, that in this new world of "gods" and "aliens", he would be unable to protect the ones he loves, which induced him to become paranoid and full of anxiety, which, in turn, influenced Tony to build first the Iron Legion, and then the Ultron artificial intelligence so the only threats against Earth were from Earth. Despite good intentions, Tony's plans to protect people tend to cause problems at times, most notably after his creation Ultron violently rebelled against humankind, requiring the combined might of Tony and his Avengers teammates to bring down. These events that resulted in the deaths of thousands of civillians which were in turn caused because of him, has caused Tony to become more of a responsible, serious and hardened individual, if not withstanding the same mischievous, wise-cracking nature.

But even after starting a new life as a superhero, Tony's showy personality has never fully changed - as shown in rendering the Iron Man suit with hot-rod red and gold, and in revealing his identity in public, despite being told not to. Tony has also shown a strong liking towards heavy metal and rock music groups like Black Sabbath, AC/DC, and Queen.

Despite having reconciled posthumously with the deceased Howard, Tony seemingly only cared that the Winter Soldier killed his mother. However, Tony had said to Rogers that his father made his Vibranium shield and he no longer deserved it due to him protecting his parents killer. Obtaining peace with his father has also brightened Tony's opinions on authority figures as he showed a willingness to align the Avengers with Thunderbolt Ross and the government by signing the Sokovia Accords.

Powers and Abilities
Tony Stark does not possess any innate powers, instead, he uses a miniature version of the Arc Reactor to charge his various suits that provide him with superhuman strength, endurance, durability, and a variety of weapons. His original technology combined with his extraordinary intelligence makes Tony Stark one of the most formidable superheroes and a force to be reckoned with.

Design
With the exception of the Mark I Iron Man armor, almost all of the Iron Man suits share a common design and capability set. The suit is a powered exoskeleton with armored plating, capable of enhancing the wearer's strength, speed, agility, and endurance. The suit is powered by a miniaturized Arc Reactor, either using the one surgically installed in Tony Stark's chest or else built into the chest-piece of the armor itself.

The original armor, Tony Stark created the Iron Man Mark I while in captivity in Afghanistan. As such, it is crudely designed and bulky, but still had the necessary capacity to help him escape his captors. It is bullet-proof, has two built-in flame-throwers, a rocket launcher, as well as rocket boosters for jumps, albeit the boosters were faulty and malfunctioned almost immediately after activation. Like all of Stark's armors, this suit enhanced Stark's physical strength beyond the capabilities of any human, allowing him to effortlessly overpower and kill humans, break stone, bend metal and both lift and press many tons. Durability, resilience, stamina and endurance is also raised to inhuman levels, allowing Stark to be unfazed by bullets, tank shots, explosions, and extreme amounts of impactive force, such as impact from falling at high altitudes. It is notable that this version of the armor, unlike the later Mark 2 and Mark 3 armors, does not have an onboard AI system or internal diagnostic display.

The helmet served only as a simple shield, and was not fully sealed. Stark refashioned the special iron-copper-magnesium alloy from disassembled Stark mortar cannons into the Mark I armor, rendering it especially bulletproof. To power the thruster boots, Stark reportedly siphoned the propellant fuel from four Stark S-class ballistic missiles into two Stark M-class mortars, creating two homemade fuel tanks, welded shut except for valves connecting fuel hoses that led down to the Mark I's legs.

The later model armors' helmet features a retractable visor that delivers a holographic, augmented-reality (AR) display to the wearer. The features of the helmet resemble a human face, with eyepieces and a mouth slit showing the point where the face plate meets the jaw.

The armor's primary weapon, as well as means of propulsion, are repulsors built into the hands and feet. The foot repulsors provide the majority of the propulsion force while the hand repulsors are used as flight stabilizers. Given the intense heat and concussive pressure produced by the repulsors, the ones built into the hands are often used as weapons. When need be, the unibeam repulsor built into the chest-piece can be charged to deliver a powerful, destructive blast.

The Mark II armor was built from basic titanium alloys, giving it a silver sheen. From the Mark III onward, he used a gold-titanium alloy to provide the necessary power-to-weight ratio coupled with the ability to resist icing at high altitudes. As the gold-colored suit seemed a bit ostentatious, Stark took to coloring certain parts of the armor hot-rod red to tone it down a bit without losing the flare he was known for. Later suits were colored a variety of colors, from blue to black to green and even yellow and purple.

Up through the design of the Mark XI, Stark stuck with a basic design and aesthetic, merely improving on the technology and increasing the capabilities. From the Mark XI onward, he began specializing the armor's capabilities, beginning with stealth systems. By the time he built the Mark XV, he began giving the armors individual names to better identify them among the ever-growing set and in terms of the armor's specialized armors abilities.

Iron Man Armors
Tony used his advanced high tech armor to become Iron Man. The armor allows him to fly and contains various weapons for battle. He frequently improves the armor, giving it upgrades for battles and to perfect the systems. Iron Man wears a sophisticated suit of body armor containing various offensive weaponry. He has a number of suits aside from the current model. Some are mission-specific or prototypes for testing, others are older models kept for nostalgia or for research. He has developed a special briefcase to carry his armor in. As the multi-billionaire head of a global corporation and a genius-level inventor, Stark can procure or develop additional technology as needed as possible. The Iron Man Armor is arguably one of the most powerful forms of weapons technology developed by Tony Stark on the planet. Alone, the Mark I was sufficient enough to allow him to go through armed terrorists in order to escape. The Mark II was sufficiently powerful enough to go toe to toe with a more advanced and updated version of the armor (the Mark IV). The Mark III was able to easily dispatch some of the Ten Rings terrorists with ease and battle the Iron Monger suit, however, with some difficulty (due to the fact that it was powered by the first generation mini-Arc Reactor and the Iron Monger was powered by the second Arc Reactor he made upon his return). The Mark V, while lacking additional weaponry and flight capabilities, was still able to take on Vanko while he was just utilizing just the Whiplash harness and Stark relying on his repulsors. The Marks VI and VII proved to be the most powerful generation suits used by Stark. They were powerful enough to battle hordes of Hammer drones, Vanko with his own advanced armor, survive and battle two Asgardian gods (Thor and Loki, respectively) and hordes of alien foot soldiers and large transports (the Leviathan) with ease. The Marks 8 through 42 proved to be equally powerful generation suits as they were able to battle nano tech-enhanced human soldiers who themselves had enough strength to match any of the armors.

Support Powers

 * Flight: One of the armor's most important features is its ability of flight. The armor can reach speeds as Mach 3 in moments. It also has variable control surfaces for active flight control by J.A.R.V.I.S. to automatically stabilize the armor in flight. The armor is able to fly at speeds more than 1500 miles per hour. However, the armor shows it can fly at supersonic speeds at the drop of a hat. By the time of the Battle of New York, the Mark VII armor's flight system was improved with additional boosters on the back. It enables the armor to quickly evade enemy attacks, go faster, and also the ability to better maneuver himself and shoot while in flight; due to the fact that he doesn't have to use his hands to keep himself stabilized all the time now. He was able to reach Tennessee from California in a matter of a few hours.
 * Superhuman Strength: When inside the armor, it amplifies the user's physical strength, allowing Iron Man to lift in excess of 100 tons. Most armors are strong enough to lift and bench press tanks, S.H.I.E.L.D. transporters, cars, or any other heavy objects. Iron Man was also able to fight Ultron's second robotic body, and, when his strength was temporarily boosted by Mjølnir's lightning (increasing his suit's power to over 400% capacity), Iron Man was able to hold his own against the mighty Asgardian Thor. A more unique feat of strength is Tony inside the Mark VI pushing one of the rotors of the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier.
 * Superhuman Reflexes: While not on par with that of someone with genuine superhuman speed and reflexes like Spider-Man, Iron Man's armors nonetheless have motors for movement, and they are shown to be extremely fast and responsive both in flight and during combat.
 * Armor Systems: The armor has remote assistance from J.A.R.V.I.S. who manages the armor's systems at Stark's command, and the armor also has a holographic HUD with heads-up displays for navigation, power level, armor status, weapons systems, vital signs with cellphone and computer connections in the helmet, and a built-in loudspeaker. The armor is powered by a miniature Arc Reactor and has an onboard generator for emergencies. The scanner systems are capable of scanning the environment, weather conditions, and equipment for information.
 * Energy Conversion Power Recharge: The armor is able to absorb and convert energy sources, such as heat, kinetic energy or energy from the planet itself into electricity, directly into the batteries for recharge. Thor struck it with a full lightning blast from Mjølnir, but Stark was amazed to find that all it did was charge up the suit to 475%, allowing him to use a powerful repulsor blast and increase his strength substantially enough to give Thor a decent fight.
 * Self-Contained Life-Support System and Environmental Protection: The armor can be completely sealed for operations in vacuums or underwater, providing its own life support. It is also shielded against radiation. The armor is shown to be capable of operating underwater, but not designed for deep space travel (However, Tony has a new specialized armor designed to help with that situation).
 * Heads Up Display (HUD): The Heads-Up display shows important things for the suit. The Head Up Display of the Iron Man suit is powered by JARVIS, Stark's Artificial Intelligence. The Suit also has Defensive and Offensive sections, able to switch around the sections, resorting to missiles and lasers. The HUD can also be talked to, and JARVIS will reply to it. The HUD can scan people, missile identifications, make calls, and give crucial suit credentials such as power. The HUD also has navigational (GPS) support. The suit also has radio capabilities, shown by Tony Stark talking to the Avengers as well as Nick Fury and Maria Hill at the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier.
 * Armor Summon: Thanks to the new repulsor flight system, as well as the magnetic implants embedded in Tony's forearms, individual pieces of the armor can self-assemble themselves on to Tony or others. Tony is able to remotely summon the Mark XLII to Pepper for her to wear after his home was attacked by the Mandarin's forces. Tony summons the Iron Legion to fight against Aldrich's Extremis solders at the oil drilling platform. Tony is forced into confronting Killian, whom he attempts to defeat by ordering the suit to assemble itself on Killian and then self-destruct. This fails to kill him. Pepper intervenes, using her new Extremis abilities, as well a repulsor shot from a captured Iron Man gauntlet to finish off Killian once and for all. He was also able to use this to summon the gauntlet of the Mark XLIII to pick up Loki's Scepter and also once more defend himself against Steve Rogers' attack in Age of Ultron.

Defensive Powers

 * Durability: The armor is made up of a strong light weight Titanium Alloy, with interlocked plates for the shell, and a chest plate protecting the Arc Reactor. It has been shown to withstand tremendous amounts of punishment. The armor can withstand tank shells exploded in close proximity to Stark, and a resulting fall from several thousand feet up, followed by hits by 20mm Vulcan shells and a high speed collision with a F-22 Raptor with only minimal cosmetic damage. It was able to survive a full-on fight with an older generation suit throughout Stark's house, the fights with the Hammer Drones and Whiplash, and having several cars collapsed upon him by Scarlet Witch, all of which resulted in taking relatively minor damage. Most of all, it protects the wearer from the effects of extreme g-force. It even allows him to withstand some of Thor's attacks, although Thor proved he could crush the suit's gauntlet frame with his strength. He was able to withstand the force of a turbine from the Helicarrier's engines when he got it to work again after removing the debris blocking it. It is also able to withstand a full-on assault from the Chitauri forces' energy weapons. The Mark 42 was able to take damage from having most of Tony's house collapse on him at the bottom of the ocean and being hit by a Mack truck (although, Tony was not in the armor and was remote controlling it).
 * Advanced Combat Analysis: the Mark MLVI armor and component artificial intelligence F.R.I.D.A.Y. have the ability to analyse people's specific fighting patterns, and in turn, find a counter to said fighting style. Hence, during the fight with Captain America, Stark was unable to beat Rogers in 1 on 1 combat, however once his fighting was analyzed, Stark was able to counter Rogers and fight back effectively. However, after being distracted by the Winter Soldier, he was still ultimately defeated and beaten to the ground.

Offensive Powers
"I think you should lead with that next time."
 * Repulsors: A particle weapon in the palm gauntlets that shoot beams or blasts of concussive and explosive force. It can repel physical and energy-based attacks. Early repulsors needed time to recharge after use, but, because of the new Arc Reactor, they are able to fire at a moment's notice. The repulsors show to be strong enough to kill regular humans with one strike, destroy most stone and metal objects with ease, and destroy unmanned battle drones. When the suit is charged with additional power, the repulsors are powerful enough to stun even a superhuman with sufficient durability like Thor. It also enabled him to stun Loki on two occasions and take down numerous Chitauri foot soldiers and airships with ease. His repulsors shot down two of the three attack helicopters that destroyed his house and took out Extermis-enhanced soldiers. The repulsors now can fire in the form of segmented bolts and blasts instead of just beams. Also, by the sixth armor, the repulsor's can become small laser like welding beams, which Stark used to install an Arc Reactor for Stark Tower.
 * Unibeam: A more powerful version of the repulsor beams. It is located in the chest. However, it requires more power from the Arc Reactor to use and cannot be used as often. He used a blast to kill Savin after the many times Savin had taken several shots from his repulsor blasts.

- War Machine


 * Lasers: A powerful weapon in the gauntlet wrists that can cut through any common metal. However, it is not strong enough to penetrate a Leviathan's shell. It has been shown to be very proficient against the Hammer Drones but Stark stated it only had a one-time use. It has been improved and has been used on several occasions in later models. They draw power from the Arc Reactor for more sustained operations, and can theoretically reduce the armor energy reserves to a drained state if operated indefinitely.
 * Smart Mini-guns: Small anti-personnel guns in the shoulders that can target individual targets at once and fire at a moment's notice. It's proved to be highly effective against unarmored foot soldiers.
 * Tank-Missile: Among the most proficient of the armor's weapon system is the missiles. The armor holds a multi-fire adhesive grenade launcher in the upper arm. It includes Anti-Tank, Armor-Piercing rounds. In later models, the armor has mini-rockets hidden in a secret compartment in the boosters on the back, that blew up numerous Chitauri ships. Stark was able to destroy a Leviathan by flying into its mouth and launching them throughout its body with missiles in compartments in his knees. He was able to use a missile hit by a repulsor to take down an attacker.

Former Powers
Direct Cybernetic Interface: Thanks to micro-repeaters injected into his left forearm, Tony can mentally and remotely control the Iron Man Mark XLII armor either as a whole or in pieces with a combination of gestures and thought. This is further augmented by a holographic headset, which allows Tony to see through the Mark XLII's primary camera and allowing for complete remote control of the armor as though he were wearing it. The system was still in the test phases when Tony was forced to use it during his campaign against Killian, and had a tendency to fail at random.
 * Armor Link: Tony can mentally command the armor with his thoughts even when he is fully unconscious. The Mark XLII almost attacked Pepper in bed when Tony was having a nightmare. Pepper's screams woke Tony in time to shut down the armor. He also can use a holographic headset that mimics the armors heads up display and allows him to remotely control the armor as if he were inside it. He used this headset to remotely pilot the Mark XLII while he was on a speed boat with Rhodey searching for Killian. He sent the armor aboard Air Force One to battle and kill Eric Savin and save its surviving occupants.

Abilities
"When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?" "Last night."

- Maria Hill and Tony Stark

"I'm trying to do the job you were meant to do."
 * Genius Level Intellect: At age four Stark built his first circuit board, at age six his first engine, and at seventeen he graduated summa cum laude from MIT. As a child, he built Dum-E and U., his personal lab assistants. Stark is one of the smartest humans in the world, rivaled only by fellow geniuses like Bruce Banner, Hank Pym and Helen Cho.
 * Master Engineer: Stark is a gifted engineer and has been able to make many complicated inventions at a young age. Even in a cave with very few resources, Stark and Ho Yinsen were able to make the Mark I armor and the first miniature Arc Reactor. Stark made his A.I. system, J.A.R.V.I.S., from scratch. He was also able to program his armors to fly to his body and the bodies of others. Stark was able to use simple supplies he got from a hardware store to build a home-made arsenal which he used to infiltrate the Mandarin's mansion. Stark was able to help Bruce Banner construct the Hulkbuster, create the Ultron AI, download J.A.R.V.I.S. into the Vision android, and help Peter Parker create new Web-Shooters and the Spider-Man Suit, capable of focusing Spider-Man's superhuman senses.
 * Master Scientist: Tony Stark is very resourceful and knowledgeable in many different fields of science, being able to attach an Arc Reactor to his chest in order to save his life, to synthesize a previously unknown element discovered by his father and to modify Maya Hansen's Extremis formula.
 * Expert Hacker: Tony is a highly skilled hacker, as he had managed to crack the Pentagon's firewall, while still in high school.

- Pepper Potts


 * Expert Businessman: At the age of twenty-one, Tony took over Stark Industries because both of his parents had died in a tragic car accident. Since then, Stark has helped the company grow, and get more business partners. Stark is extremely well-respected in the business world, able to command people's attentions when he speaks on economic matters by virtue of the fact that he is savvy enough to have, over the years, built up Stark Industries into the premier weapons supplier to the U.S. military for years. He is known for having his employees' loyalty, as well as his impeccable business ethics. However, upon his return, he now strives to be environmentally responsible in his businesses such as turning away from making weapons.
 * Expert Tactician: Stark has made many split-second decisions that have saved people's lives. Despite preferring to work on his own, when it's necessary, Stark has proven to be a skilled and tactful leader.
 * Skilled Hand-to-Hand Combatant & Skilled Martial Artist: Stark is trained in unarmed combat by Phil Coulson and Happy Hogan, and has become quite formidable on his own when the situation demands it. He was able to hold his own against James Rhodes, a Lieutenant Colonel Air Force Combat Pilot. He was also able to battle Thor almost to a standstill for a time while using the Mark VI armor. Tony further refined his hand-to-hand combat skills and became skilled in martial arts, being able to take down the guards at Aldrich Killian's Mansion with ease using a homemade arsenal, and holding his own to evade and confront the Extremis Soldiers and Aldrich Killian on the Norco. However, Tony's combat skills are still not on par with someone as formidable as the Winter Soldier, who overpowered and knocked out an unarmored Tony rather quickly. However, while he was in his Mark XLVI armor, he was able to take down Bucky with ease and had the upper hand, therefore being able to hold his own against Winter Soldier and Captain America. Tony notably had the assistance of F.R.I.D.A.Y.'s combat analysis in order to hold his own against Captain America's superior fighting skills, though Rogers was still ultimately able to defeat and beat Tony to the ground.
 * Marksman: Although he usually uses his armor, in some situations Stark is able to wield handguns with ease, using them to escape from A.I.M. operatives while not having access to his armor.
 * Skilled Pilot: Stark demonstrates a strong understanding of aerodynamics and aircrafts, allowing him to perform complex maneuvers while flying in the Iron Man armor. His aptitude also extends to ground-based vehicles, allowing him to efficiently drive in high-speed racing competitions such as the Monaco GP.
 * Multilingualism: Stark speaks his native English, as well as some French, along with a little Spanish, Italian, and Latin.

Family

 * Grandfather
 * Grandmother
 * Howard Stark † - Father
 * Maria Stark † - Mother

Allies

 * Stark Industries
 * Pepper Potts - Former Girlfriend and Former Assistant
 * Happy Hogan - Close Friend and Former Bodyguard
 * Maria Hill - Employee and Former S.H.I.E.L.D. Deputy Director
 * J.A.R.V.I.S. - Creation, Partner, Assistant and Close Friend
 * F.R.I.D.A.Y. - Creation, Partner and Assistant
 * Christine Everhart - One Night Stand
 * Ho Yinsen † - Fellow Captive and Friend
 * Edwin Jarvis † - Former Butler of the Stark Family
 * Avengers - Former Teammates
 * Iron Man's Team
 * Natasha Ramonoff/Black Widow - Former Assistant (as Natalie Rushman)  and Former Teammate
 * James Rhodes/War Machine - Best Friend and Military Liaison
 * Vision - Co-creator
 * Captain America's Team - Former Teammates and Temporary Enemies
 * Steve Rogers/Captain America - Former Team Leader, Close Friend and Rival
 * Clint Barton/Hawkeye
 * Sam Wilson/Falcon
 * Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch - Former Enemy and Enthraller Turned Former Teammate
 * Thor - Former Teammate
 * Bruce Banner/Hulk - Collaborator, Colleague and Close Friend
 * Pietro Maximoff/Quicksilver † - Former Enemy Turned Teammate
 * S.H.I.E.L.D. (First Incarnation)


 * Nick Fury - Former Director
 * Phil Coulson - Former Liaison and Friend
 * Jasper Sitwell † (former)
 * Oracle Corporation
 * Larry Ellison
 * Elon Musk
 * Maya Hansen † - Former Love Interest
 * Helen Cho - Friend
 * Harley Keener - Friend
 * Gary
 * Mrs. Davis
 * Erik Selvig
 * Matthew Ellis
 * Laura Barton - Hostess
 * Thaddeus Ross
 * Joint Counter Terrorist Centre
 * Everett Ross
 * Sharon Carter
 * T'Challa/Black Panther
 * Peter Parker/Spider-Man - Recruitment and Friend
 * May Parker - Guest

Video Game Only

 * Danny Rand/Iron Fist - Friend

Enemies

 * Obadiah Stane/Iron Monger † - Former Business Partner
 * Ten Rings
 * Raza †
 * Abu Bakar †
 * Omar †
 * Lina - Love Interest turned Enemy
 * Rodriguez - Ally turned Enemy
 * Hammer Industries
 * Justin Hammer
 * Hammer Drones
 * Ivan Vanko/Whiplash †
 * Loki
 * Chitauri
 * Leviathans
 * A.I.M.
 * Aldrich Killian † - Former Fan turned Enemy
 * Eric Savin † - Victim
 * Ellen Brandt † - Victim
 * Trevor Slattery
 * HYDRA
 * Wolfgang von Strucker †
 * List † - Victim
 * Senator Stern
 * Bruno Horgan/Melter
 * Ultron † - Creation
 * Ultron Sentries †
 * Ulysses Klaue- Former Acquaintance
 * Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier - Temporary Ally and Attempted Victim
 * Scott Lang/Ant-Man
 * Helmut Zemo

Video Games Only

 * Basil Sandhurst/Controller
 * Boris Bullski/Titanium Man
 * Kearson DeWitt † - Former Employee
 * Ultimo
 * Brendan Doyle/Mauler
 * Valentin Shatalov/Crimson Dynamo †
 * Aldrich Killian/M.O.D.O.K. †
 * Ezekiel Stane †
 * Arthur Parks/Living Laser
 * Maggia
 * Whitney Nefaria/Madame Masque † - Former Lover
 * Marc Scarlotti/Blacklash - Former Employee

Trivia

 * When Tony Stark calls Rhodes, the ringtone is the original Iron Man theme song from the.
 * He considers calling his autobiography "A Cheap Trick and a Cheesy One-Liner"
 * So far, every Marvel Cinematic Universe movie that Bruce Banner was in, Stark was in as well. That theme continues in any film they are mentioned. In Thor, Dr. Selvig mentions a "pioneer in Gamma radiation" and when the Destroyer arrives Agent Coulson questions if it is "Stark's". Vaguely relevant in Captain America: The First Avenger, Stark's father is involved in Project Rebirth, the same program that is recreated by Banner in The Incredible Hulk. During the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, both Stark and Banner are mentioned twice: Stark is mentioned as the engineer behind the turbine systems of Project Insight and "Iron Man" is part of the bargain Fury has with Pierce over delaying Project Insight, while Agent Sitwell lists "Bruce Banner" in his Zola Algorithm monologue and Fury mentions Banner as the mind behind Tetrodotoxin B.
 * The reason why Tony's arc reactor changes from an inverted pyramid back to a circular shape in The Avengers is because Director Joss Whedon personally disliked it, so most likely it was only kept in future films to honor continuity (although the inverted pyramid remains within the circular arc reactor if one simply looks close).
 * Some of the suits that Tony Stark wears do not seem to use Stark's Arc Reactor as a power source. Instead, the suits each have their own individual Arc Reactor as seen when Killian damages the one powering the Silver Centurion armor and Stark's remains unscathed.
 * Tony Stark bookends the Battle of New York. He was the first to shoot back when the Chitauri began streaming through the portal, and ended the battle by hitting the Chitauri Command Center with a nuclear missile.
 * Other than his cameo in The Incredible Hulk, Tony Stark has been grabbed by the throat in every film he appeared in.
 * Stark is prone to dramatic pauses followed by an unemotive "Son of a bitch" in the event of an epiphany, as demonstrated when he realized Loki was seeking to use Stark Tower to mount his assault on New York and the revelation Helmut Zemo had framed The Winter Soldier for murder.
 * Stark has a prototype shield of Captain America.
 * Stark's de-aged appearance in Captain America: Civil War is based on Robert Downey, Jr.'s appearance in the 1987 film .
 * Hawkeye mockingly calling Stark "The Futurist" is a reference to a studio album that Robert Downey, Jr. made in 2004.

Behind the Scenes

 * Robert Downey, Jr. was uncredited for his appearance in The Incredible Hulk.
 * Before Robert Downey, Jr. was cast as Tony, and  were interested in playing Iron Man. Cruise, in particular, was going to act in and produce the film. Cage played another Marvel superhero in Ghost Rider. According to Jon Favreau,  and Sam Rockwell are among the actors that were considered for Tony Stark during pre-production. Rockwell would appear in Iron Man 2 as Justin Hammer.
 * Favreau had planned to cast a newcomer in the role but ultimately chose Downey (a fan of the comic) because he felt the actor's past made him an appropriate choice for the part.
 * "The best and worst moments of Robert's life have been in the public eye," the director explained. "He had to find an inner balance to overcome obstacles that went far beyond his career. That's Tony Stark. Robert brings a depth that goes beyond a comic book character who is having trouble in high school, or can't get the girl." Favreau also felt Downey could make Stark a "likable asshole", but also depict an authentic emotional journey once he won over the audience. Downey had an office next to Favreau during pre-production, which allowed him greater involvement in the screenwriting process. He brought a deeper sense of humor to the film not present in previous drafts of the script.
 * Downey stated that he initially pushed Joss Whedon to make Stark the lead in The Avengers, "Well, I said, ‘I need to be in the opening sequence. I don’t know what you’re thinking, but Tony needs to drive this thing.’ He was like, ‘Okay, let’s try that.’ We tried it, and it didn’t work, because this is a different sort of thing, the story and the idea and, the theme are the theme, and everybody is just an arm of the octopus."
 * A recurring theme in the Iron Man films is birthdays. In Iron Man it is Pepper Potts' birthday; in Iron Man 2, it is Tony Stark's birthday, and in Iron Man 3, it is Christmas (Jesus Christ's birthday). It can even be said that in The Avengers it is the "birth" of The Avengers and in Avengers: Age of Ultron it's the "birth" of Ultron and Vision.
 * Throughout The Avengers, Tony is seen wearing a Black Sabbath t-shirt, a reference to the band's song "Iron Man". Despite the fact the song was created with no link to the Marvel comic, the Iron Man film series have often adapted the song to use in film and advertisements.