Iron Monger Armor

"Impressive! You've upgraded your armor! I've made some upgrades of my own..." "Sir, it appears his suit can fly." "Duly noted."

- Iron Monger, J.A.R.V.I.S., and Iron Man

The Iron Monger Armor is the most common name used to refer to the armor developed and used by Obadiah Stane as a rival version of Tony Stark's newly created Iron Man armor. Unlike Stark, who viewed the Iron Man armor as a tool for peace, Stane only viewed the armor for its potential as powerful, revolutionary new weapon system that would alter the modern arms race, which is reflected in the Iron Monger suit's heavy-weapons focused design. The Iron Monger Armor was reverse engineered from studying Tony Stark's Mark I design.

History
Angered by Tony Stark's actions to shut down Stark Industries' weapons production after returning from captivity in Afghanistan, Obadiah Stane began to take more direct actions against Stark, going as far as making an attempt to shut him out of his own company. After gaining possession of Stark's Mark I armor from the Ten Rings, Stane, only seeing the armor's potential as a new step in weapons technology, orders a team of scientist under his supervision to reverse engineer the armor to make a much larger, militarized version of the suit.

However, because Stane's scientists are unable to fully grasp the technology that Stark had originally built into the suit, they are unable to create a power source that could adequately power the larger armor. This forced him to confront Stark, paralyzing him with his sonic taser in order to steal his advanced, miniaturized Arc Reactor, while leaving Stark to die.

After learning of Stane's recent actions against Tony Stark and discovering the designs for the Iron Monger armor, Pepper Potts, Phil Coulson, and several other agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. investigated Stane's private facilities at Stark Industries Headquarters for further evidence. While they found the Mark I Armor, along with several more blueprints and computer readouts detailing the suit and a storage area where the suit was being constructed, they found that the suit itself was missing. As the S.H.I.E.L.D agents fanned out to search the rest of the facility, Pepper stumbled upon the completed Iron Monger Armor with Stane piloting it. Since Stane heard their approach, he was able to ambush the S.H.I.E.L.D agents and take them out before turning his attention to Pepper.

As Obadiah made his way out of the facility and prepared to kill Pepper, Tony arrived in his own armor to stop him. Tony tackles the Iron Monger armor and the two engage in a battle that quickly moves into the nearby highway. Tony eventually begins using his suit's improved rocket thrusters to evade Obadiah, but this only leads Obadiah to reveal his own suit's flying capabilities before pursuing Tony hundreds of feet into the air. Obadiah manages to grab Tony, but the Iron Monger suit eventually freezes and shuts down as they go higher into the atmosphere. Stark uses this opportunity to scramble out of Obadiah's grasp and causing Obadiah to plummet hundreds of feet down to the surface. However, by this point Stark's suit had lost most of its power, and he tumbles back to earth as well.

Tony Stark lands back at Stark Headquarters near the skylight of the Arc Reactor. Obadiah soon follows, and they continue battling. Stark is caught in the Iron Monger's grasp once again, but is able to escape and rips out Obadiah's optical circuits. Obadiah removes his helmet and gloats that he has done what Tony could not: created the ultimate weapon. Stark continues confronting Obadiah while telling Pepper to charge up the building's Arc Reactor. While Iron Monger has the upper hand and moves closer to killing Tony, Pepper overloads the Arc Reactor, discharging an intense beam of energy into the night sky, shorting out the Iron Monger armor in the process. Obadiah is knocked unconscious by the huge blast and he and his suit tumble into the reactor, causing an explosion that kills him and destroys the armor.

Capabilities
Reverse engineered from Tony Stark's original Iron Man suit, the Iron Monger armor was a powerful, militarized suit created to be the perfect modern weapon, leading Obadiah Stane to boast that, when adequately powered, his suit was "superior in every way" to the Iron Man armor.

The Iron Monger armor is several times larger than the Iron Man suit from which it was derived. Instead of being worn like a traditional suit of armor, it is instead piloted from a small cockpit inside of the chest cavity, with at least the arms of the suit being controlled independently from within. The chest opens and the helmet swings back in order to allow it’s operator to enter. Most of the suit’s motion was assisted by a set of powerful, external drive pistons visible on the suit’s legs, arms, and across its shoulders.

The Iron Monger armor gave Obadiah superhuman strength, enabling him to lift at least 50 tons, making him slightly stronger than Tony’s Mark III armor (although Tony was wearing the Mark I Arc Reactor when he fought Obadiah). Omnium, a steel alloy of invincible strength, was developed in Stark Industries' Sector 16, specifically for use in the Iron Monger suit. The suit was rather agile for its size, able to quickly catch up to and physically attack an enemy, however it still had many of the lumbering motions expected of a suit its size.

Most of the armor's weaponry is exposed, except for the missile launcher in his shoulder, unlike Iron Man's, whose armor retracts or separates to reveal its weapons. The armor is equipped with a belt fed 23mm six-barreled gatling gun mounted to its right arm, a rotary grenade launcher mounted to its left arm, Stark S-category missiles, a laser-guided warhead, a stun device, and flight equipment. The Iron Monger's onboard computer had little navigational focus, as the suit was based on Tony's Mark I, which had no computer system. Obadiah made smart targeting the HUD's primary component.

Like Tony’s Iron Man armor, Obadiah upgraded the flight capabilities of the Iron Monger suit, giving it flight jets powerful enough to lift the massive suit. The flight jets can either be used during standard operation in short bursts to allow the suit to jump small distances, or the thrusters can reconfigure into a form of flight mode to allow sustained flight.

While boasted to be superior, the armor has at least two key weaknesses: it cannot function at the freezing temperatures of the upper atmosphere, as it will freeze over and suffer a complete shutdown, and it has partially exposed wiring in the neck area, something Tony Stark exploits to disable its targeting system.

Trivia

 * In the comics, Obadiah Stane built the Iron Monger Armor based around some design notes that Tony Stark accidentally left behind, instead of retro-engineering the Iron Man Armor: Mark I
 * When using the armor, Stane's voice is enhanced to have a deep, intimidating tone in order to protect his identity.
 * Like the Iron Man Armor: Mark II, the Iron Monger Armor is prone to freezing at high altitudes.