Iron Man

"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 demi-god; 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."

- Iron Man

Anthony "Tony" Edward Stark on top of being an eccentric genius, a billionaire, a playboy and a philanthropist, is also the armored super hero known as Iron Man. Fresh off of defeating enemies the world over, Stark reluctantly agreed to serve as a consultant to Nick Fury's top-secret peacekeeping and intelligence agency known as S.H.I.E.L.D.. Now, with a global crisis on the horizon and the fate of the world in the balance, Stark must again power up his Iron Man armor to save the world, and become a full-fledged member of The Avengers.

Early life
Anthony "Tony" Edward Stark was born on Friday, May 29, 1970 to Howard and Maria Stark. When he was five years old he made his first Circut Board. When he was almost seven he built an engine. When Tony was seventeen he graduated MIT at the top of his class. At the age of twenty-one, both of his parents died in a car crash. Later, he inherited Stark Industries. At some time he met James Rhodes.

Afghanistan
During a business trip to Afghanistan to demonstrate Stark Industries' new weapon, the "Jericho" cluster missile, Tony's convoy is attacked. One of his own company's bombs lands near him and explodes. The blast causes him to lose consciousness and embeds several pieces of shrapnel in his chest, one fragment dangerously close to his heart. He wakes up some time later with an electromagnet attached to his chest. Hooked up to a car battery, the electromagnet keeps the shrapnel from entering his heart and killing him. Tony has been captured by the terrorist group Ten Rings, who order him to build a Jericho missile for them. Instead, he and fellow captive Dr. Ho Yinsen secretly build a crude but strong power armor fueled by a miniature "ARC Reactor", a smaller version of a power source previously invented by Tony. The arc reactor supplies energy to an electromagnet which prevents embedded shrapnel from reaching Tony's heart, which would kill him. Dr. Yinsen is killed in the ensuing escape attempt when he stalls the guards to buy Tony enough time to power up the suit. Using the suit, Tony kills several terrorists, destroys their weapons stockpile, and escapes, though his suit is destroyed as he crash lands in the desert. Upon being picked up by the Air Force and returning to the United States, Tony declares that his company will, for the time being, no longer manufacture weapons. His father's friend and business partner, Obadiah Stane, tells him that this move is blocked by the board members shortly after.

Mark II
Tony retreats from public view, focusing on the design of his new power suit, refining its size and flight capability. He asks Pepper Potts to help him take his old arc reactor out and to put in a new one. During his first public appearance since his return to the United States, he is accosted by Christine Everhart, who shows him pictures of Stark Industries weapons in the hands of terrorist groups, including the Jericho missiles he refused to build for them. He also discovers that Obadiah has been "dealing under the table", supplying weapons to both the U.S. troops and the terrorists, as well as being the one to shut Tony out of the board while he recovers. Faced with the realization of what his company has done, Tony dons the power suit and flies to Afghanistan, rescuing Yinsen's village from the Ten Rings. In destroying their weapon stockpiles, he accidentally draws the attention of the United States Air Force and his friend and company military liaison, Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes. Two F-22 Raptors are ordered to take out the unknown target, and during the confrontation one of the Raptors loses its left wing when it accidentally collides with Tony. The pilot ejects shortly afterwards, but his parachute jams. Realizing this, Tony dives down to help the pilot release his parachute before escaping.

Betrail
Determined to make amends for his mistakes, Tony sends Pepper to find the shipping records of Stark Industries, so he can track down the illicit shipments and destroy them. While hacking into the system, she discovers that it was Obadiah who hired the Ten Rings to kill Tony, but they had reneged on the deal when they realized who the target was. She also discovers that Obadiah has recovered the power suit prototype and has reverse engineered his own version. However, his team of scientists, not possessing Tony's genius, cannot engineer the miniature arc reactor to power the new suit.

I am Iron Man
Obadiah, upon realizing Pepper's discovery, steals Tony's own arc reactor from his chest to power his new suit, leaving Tony to die. Using his first reactor, which was not designed to power his latest armor, Tony battles with Obadiah atop Stark Industries and the surrounding streets, defeating him when the full-sized arc reactor that powers the lab is deliberately overloaded by Pepper. Afterwards, Tony's alter ego is dubbed "Iron Man" by the press. Tony holds a press conference where his S.H.I.E.L.D. contacts advise him to state that Iron Man is Tony's bodyguard. However, he instead announces that he actually is Iron Man.

Starting the Expo
Six months after revealing his identity to the world and has since then helped maintain world peace. Tony appears as Iron Man at the grand Opening of The Stark Expo in Flushing Meadows, New York City, continuing the Legacy his Father started. Unfortunately Tony's life isn't as good as it appears as he is faced with two threats. One in the form of his own heart, it seems the ARC Reactor palladium core is poisoning him causing him a slow pain full death due to over uses of the Iron Man armor.

Meeting with Senator Stern
The second threat is from a senate committee hearing, led by Senator Stern, demanding that Tony release the technology of the Iron Man armor for military application. Tony refuses believing that it's not in the best interested of the American people for the military to posses that they'll use as a weapon that could very well be used against America. Senator Stern tries to turn Tony's best friend Lt. Colonel James Rhodes against him in effort to force him. Competitor Justin Hammer tries to plead his case in the matter, Tony takes this opportunity to embarrassed both Justin and Stern with a collection of video footage of Justin and others around the world attempting to recreating the technology. Tony arrogantly states that it will be years before anyone will be able to successfully recreate the tech.

Making Pepper CEO
Tony returns to his home where he and J.A.R.V.I.S. try to find a solution in finding a new power source for the Arc Reactor. Uncertain of his outcome of survival Tony appoints his former personal assistant Pepper Potts (CEO of Stark Industries), replacing her with Natalie Rushman.

Tony meets Ivan
Growing increasingly despondent and thrill-seeking as a consequence of what he believes to be his impending death, Tony races at the Monaco Grand Prix, where Ivan Vanko who has constructed an arc reactor of his own, along with whip-like energy weapons attacks Tony. With the aid of Pepper and Happy Hogan who hands him his portable briefcase armor. Tony dons the Mark V armor and defeats Ivan. Afterward, Tony pays Ivan a visit in a French prison to find out how he acquired the technology, During the conversation Ivan reveals that he's 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 blames the Starks for his family's fate, and seeks revenge. Ivan also mentions he's fully aware of Tony's current heart poisoning, saying it's a bad way to die.

Tony's birthday party
Tony heads back home with Pepper to celebrate his upcoming birthday. On route home, Tony attempts to tell Pepper the truth behind his current series of reckless acts. Wanting to escape from all his current problems Tony tries to convince Pepper to take a detour in Italy. Unfortunately due to the media pressure of the recent incident in Monaco with Whiplash has everyone on edge demanding that Tony turn over the technology now. Ivan escapes prison thanks to Justin who intends to use Ivan's knowledge of Tony's technology to create his own army of armored warriors to discredit Iron Man. Tony throws what he believes will be his last birthday party and gets drunk while wearing the Iron Man armor and indulges in dangerous activities, forcing his friend, Rhodey, to intervene. Rhodey dons Tony's Mark II armor and after almost destroying Tony's house in the resulting fight, delivers the armor to the military.

Rediscovering the element
The next day, Nick Fury, director of S.H.I.E.L.D., approaches Tony, revealing Natalie as undercover agent Natasha Romanoff and that Howard was a S.H.I.E.L.D. founder. Fury gives Tony some of Howard's old material to aid in finding a cure for the palladium poisoning. A hidden message in the diorama of the 1974 Stark Expo proves to be a diagram of a new element's atomic structure. With the aid of his computer J.A.R.V.I.S., Tony synthesizes the new element and cures himself. Afterward, Ivan contacts Tony, revealing he is still alive and still set on revenge. Tony dons the Mark VI armor and files off to the Expo.

The finale battle with Whiplash
At the Expo, Justin unveils his new military drones, captained by Rhodey in a heavily weaponized version of the Mark II armor known as the War Machine armor. Tony as Iron Man arrives to warn Rhodey, but Ivan seizes control of both the drones and Rhodey's armor, setting them to attack Iron Man. Pepper has Hammer arrested while Tony's bodyguard Happy Hogan and Agent Romanoff race to Hammer's Queens facility. They find Ivan has already left, but Natasha is able to turn over control of the Mark II armor to Rhodey. Eliminating the remaining drones, Tony and Rhodey are confronted by Ivan in his new, more powerful suit of armor. He is defeated when Tony and Rhodey fire repulsor rays at each other, triggering an explosion beside Ivan. Too injured to continue the fight, Ivan ignites his and drones' self-destruct bombs, apparently killing himself in the process. Tony races to save Pepper amid a series of explosions. Pepper quits her position as CEO, and she and Tony kiss. Rhodey departs with the Mark II armor without serious objection from Tony.

Not a suitable candidate
At a debriefing, while showing news footage of another superhuman event, Fury informs Tony that while Iron Man is a suitable candidate for the "Avengers Initiative", Tony himself is not. S.H.I.E.L.D. wants Tony in a consultant position, to which Tony agrees on the condition that Senator Stern present himself and Rhodey with their medals for bravery.

The Consultant
One night, Tony arrives home and is greeted by a mysterious visitor standing by the window. He reveals himself as Nick Fury, Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., warns him that he is not the only 'super hero' in the world, and mentions Stark meets with a drunk General Ross. He tells him that a team is being made. He also mentions that the Super Soldier Serum was put on ice for a reason.

Initiation
"It's good to meet you, Dr. 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

After Loki infiltrates S.H.I.E.L.D. and steals the Tesseract, Nick Fury decides it's time to re-establish the Avengers Initiative. Agent Coulson travels to the newly built Stark Tower where Tony and Pepper are celebrating the successful creation of a new, clean energy source. Tony is informed of Coulson's presence at Stark Tower by J.A.R.V.I.S. to which he informs him that he has "reached the Life Model Decoy of Tony Stark" and refuses to see him. Coulson enters the building anyway and informs Tony that the Initiative is now active and they need him to come in, handing Stark several holographic screens containing information about Captain America, Thor, Bruce Banner and Loki.

Capturing Loki
Stark suits up in his Mark VI armor and travels to Germany where he finds his old acquaintance, Natasha Romanoff in a jet overlooking the newly unfrozen Captain America in the middle of a battle with the hostile god, Loki. Stark jets right in and blasts Loki with his repulsors and stands tall next to the Captain forcing Loki to surrender. After escorting Loki onto the Quinjet, the team head back to S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Helicarrier. Stark comments on Steve's fighting skills and subtly mocks him. The Quinjet is then surrounded by a storm and attacked by the Asgardian "God of Thunder", Thor who breaks in and promptly grabs Loki before he flies away. Stark immediately pursues them. While Thor threatens Loki atop a mountain, Tony blasts straight into him, hurling him onto the forest floor. Stark refuses to let Thor get close to Loki and the two began a fierce battle. During the fight, Thor summons lightning to his hammer,Mjolnir, and electrocutes Stark only for J.A.R.V.I.S. to inform him that his suit is at 400% capacity, allowing him blast Thor off his feet. The armor takes a beating during the battle as Thor easily begins to crush one of the gauntlets with his bare hands. The fight is broken up by Captain America who, after matching Mjolnir with his Shield, manages to stop Thor. They take Loki back to the Helicarrier where Tony meets Bruce Banner and discuss the Tesseract but not before Tony plants a hacking device and allows J.A.R.V.I.S. to begin searching S.H.I.E.L.D.'s database to find out their secrets. Tony and Bruce find out that S.H.I.E.L.D. were trying to harness the Tesseract's powers to create weapons of mass destruction, during a huge argument with Fury, Romanoff, Rogers, Banner and Thor, Loki's brainwashed troops cause an explosion on the Helicarrier in order to break Loki out. Stark suits up as Iron Man and begins to fix the ship from the outside with the aid of Steve.

Battle of New York
Upon fixing the ship and fighting off some of Loki's troops, the duo learn that Banner had transformed into the Hulk and escaped from the ship, as well as Thor being ejected from the Helicarrier by Loki who escaped and murdered Agent Coulson. Fury informs the two that the Avengers Initiative was so that the isolated individuals could become something more and that Coulson died still believing this. Stark takes his death hard and works out where Loki is planning his attack. Iron Man, Captain America, Natasha and Hawkeye (now free from Loki's mind control) travel to Stark Tower where Tony finds Loki has installed a device powered by the Tesseract.

Tony takes off his his armor and begins to "threaten" Loki, secretly putting on two metal bracelets moments before Loki throws him out of the window, as he falls he orders J.A.R.V.I.S. to deploy his new Mark VII suit which jet-packs out through the window after him and forms around him moments before he hits the ground. Stark flies back up to Loki and blasts him backwards in the name of Agent Coulson. Tony is however confronted by Loki's device which opens a portal into space where Loki's army of Chitauri fly into New York and begin their war against Earth. Iron Man is joined by his team mates as they begin to battle the alien menace. Tony begins to chase after a Leviathan, a giant alien serpent and the war ship to dozens of Chitauri. When he is notified of Banner's arrival on the field, Tony leads the serpent towards him so Bruce will transform into the Hulk and defeat it. Tony lands on the ground alongside his fellow heroes, Captain America, Thor, The Hulk, Hawkeye and Black Widow. The team are then confronted by hundreds of Chitauri who fly in through the portal as well as several more Leviathans. Rogers gives out orders and instructs Tony to take to the skies and take out more Chitauri. Tony even takes out a Leviathan by flying head first into it mouth and launching missiles from the inside. After a long battle, the team are still outnumbered and learn that Natasha has found a way to close the portal. Stark hinders this as Fury has instructed him that the World Security Council have sent a missile in to blow up Manhattan. Stark intercepts the missile and flies it up through the portal and blows up the Chitauri Mothership, losing power in the process and falling unconscious back through the portal just before it closes. As Stark falls back to earth, he is caught by the Hulk who lands with him back on the ground. Rogers and Thor run over to the lifeless Iron Man who appears to be dead, only for Hulk to scream in his face, waking him up. The team reform and make sure that Loki surrenders. The Avengers then make sure Loki is taken back to Asgard by Thor along with the Tesseract. The team disband and go their separate ways. Tony is later seen with Pepper Potts on Stark Tower ready to rebuild after the damage that was done. The Stark sign on the side displays only one remaining letter, "A".

Sometime later, Stark and the rest of the Avengers went to eat silently in a shawarma restaurant. When the team splits up, Tony leaves with Bruce Banner. Later, workmen begin to repair Stark Tower, while Tony and Pepper talk about the rebuilding of the tower.

Powers and Abilities
Iron Man (Tony Stark) does not possess any superhuman powers other than the Mini-Arc Reactor that keeps the remaining sharpnel in his heart from killing him. However, his power overall comes from his high-tech battle armor. It provides him with superhuman strength, endurance, durability, and possess an variety of onboard weapons. Combined with his extraordinary intelligence, it makes Tony Stark one of the most formidable superheroes on the planet and a force to be reckoned with.

Known Iron Man Armor
Tony uses an 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 utlizing 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 Levithan).
 * Mark I
 * Mark II
 * Mark III
 * Mark IV
 * Mark V
 * Mark VI
 * Mark VII
 * Mark VIII

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 time of The Avengers, the Mark VII armor's flight system was improved with additional boosters on the back. It enables the armor to quickly evade enemy attacks and go faster than ever. Also this gives Tony the ability to better able himself to shoot while in flight, due to the fact that he doesn't have to use his hands to keep him stabilized all the time now.
 * Superhuman Strength: When utilizing the armor, it increases his physical abilities to superhuman levels, chief among them is his strength. Tony, inside his armor, is capable of overpowering normal humans, punching them with sufficient force to launch them great distances. It also enables him to tear through most objects such stone walls and most metal objects with ease, lift most objects such as cars and other vehicles with ease. It has also enable him to tear through unmanned battle drones and alien ground troops. His strength can be increased when powered by a sufficient energy source. It is unknown how strong he is in the armor, but it has also enabled him to battle superhuman opponents like Thor or Loki. Most importantly, it can enable him to perform unique feats of strength such as pushing one of the Helicarrier's turbine fans.
 * Superhuman Reflexes: While not on order of someone with geninue superhuman physical abilities, particularly superhuman speed and reflexes, nonetheless, the armors have motors for movement. It is shown to be extremely fast and responsive in flight, and during combat.
 * Armor Systems: The armor have remote assistance from J.A.R.V.I.S. who manages the armor's systems at Stark's command, and the armor also have 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, included a loudspeaker. The armor is powered by a miniature arc reactor and has an on-board 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 also able to absorb and convert nearby or fare away energy sources, such as heat or kinetic energy or energy from the planet itself into electricity, or even drain energy directly into the batteries for recharge. In The Avengers, Thor strikes it with a full lightning strike from Mjolnir to Stark but Stark is amazed to find that all it did was charge up the suit to 400%, allowing him to use a powerful repulsor blast and increase his strength substiantially 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 shows to capable of operating underwater, but not designed for deep space travel.

Defensive Powers

 * Durability: The armor is made up of a strong light weight Titanium Alloy, with interlocked plates for the shell, and a chestplate protecting the arc reactor. It shows to withstanding 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 an F-22 Raptor with only minimal cosmetic damage. It was able to survive an full-on fight with an older generation suit throughout Stark's house. And most importantly, the fights with the Hammer Drones and Whiplash taking minor damage. Most of all, it protects the wearer from the effects of extreme g-forces. It even allows him to withstand some of Thor's attacks, although it was starting to take damage. Both he and Thor were striked in their heads with Captain America's shield to get their attention and stop them from fighting; there was no damage either. He was able to withstand the force of the turbine from the Helicarrier's engines when he got it to work again after removing the debris blocking it. It also able to withstand full-on assault from Chitauri forces ranging from their energy weapons to troops to their transports.

Offensive Powers

 * Repulsors: A particle beam weapon in the palm gauntlets. It can repel physical and energy-based attacks. Early repulsors needed time to recharge after use, but because of the new arc reactor they become able to fire at a moments notice. The repulsors shows to be strong enough to kill regular humans with one strike, destroy most objects with ease, and destroy unmanned battle drones. When the suit is charged with additional power, the repulsors are powerful enough to stun even an superhuman with sufficient durability like Thor. It also enabled him to stun Loki on two occasions and take down Chitauri foot soldiers and airships with ease.
 * 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.
 * Lasers: A powerful weapon in the gauntlets that can cut threw common metals with no apparent effort, it however is not strong enough to penetrate a Leviathan's shell. It shows to be very proficient against the Hammer Drones but for one-time use. It has been improved and has 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 moments notice. It's proved to be highly effective against unarmored foot soldiers.
 * Missiles: Among the most proficient of the armor's weapon system is carrying 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. Tony is able to destroy a Leviathan by flying into its mouth and launching them throughout its body from missiles locating in compartments in the knees.

Other Abilities

 * Industrial Genius/Expert Engineer: Quite apart from the powers granted him by the suit, Stark is an inventive mechanical engineering prodigy, constantly creating new technology and looking for ways to improve it. His intelligence is classed as above genius. He is one of the smartest people on Earth. Furthermore, this extends to his remarkable ingenuity dealing with difficult situations such as difficult foes and deathtraps where he is capable of using his available tools like his suit in unorthodox and effective ways such as creating the armor that would make him famous and escape from the Ten Rings. He also has the ability to learn something new like becoming an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics overnight. He is an excellent engineer and mechanic capable of fixing almost, if not all, machinery.
 * Expert Businessman: 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 the loyalty he commands from and returns to those who work for him, 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 Tactican: He is a brilliant tactician capable of quickly formulating strategies and new plans should the situation change.
 * Skilled Combatant: Stark was trained in unarmed combat by Happy Hogan and has become quite physically formidable on his own when the situation demands it. He is also a great melee fighter while in the armor as a single punch is as strong as a solid steel ball traveling at 3,500 ft./sec. Although nowhere skilled as the most skilled and trained members of the Avengers, nonetheless, Iron Man can battle Thor almost to a standstill, granting two things: one, Thor is an ancient superhuman god with extraordinary powers and two, Thor is one of the greatest warriors alive, an highly trained combatant with thousands of years of combat training and experience.
 * Indomitable Will: As evidenced by his serious bout with alcoholism and subsequent recovery, Stark is possessed of tremendous strength of will, never giving up and often emerging from defeat even stronger such his time in capturivity in Afganstian and his eventually escape. It is arguable that the true "Iron Man" is not the armor, but Stark himself.

Friends and Allies

 * Howard Stark - Father
 * Maria Stark - Mother
 * Pepper Potts - Lover
 * Christine Everhart - Former Love Interest
 * War Machine - Best Friend
 * Happy Hogan - Personal Driver and Friend
 * Ho Yinsen - Fellow Captive in Afghanistan and Friend
 * Captain America - Teammate and Former Rival
 * Thor - Teammate
 * Bruce Banner/The Hulk - Teammate
 * Black Widow - Former Assistant and Teammate
 * Hawkeye - Teammate
 * Nick Fury - Teammate
 * Phil Coulson - Teammate
 * Maya Hansen - Former Love Interest
 * Sal Kennedy - Friend

Enemies

 * Iron Monger - Business Partner turned Enemy
 * Whiplash
 * Justin Hammer
 * Loki
 * Raza
 * Ten Rings
 * Chitauri
 * Hammer Drones
 * Mandarin
 * Aldrich Killian
 * Eric Savin
 * Firepower

Behind The Scenes

 * Robert Downey Jr. was uncredited for his appearance in The Incredible Hulk.
 * Before Robert Downey Jr. was cast as Tony, Nicolas Cage and Tom Cruise 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, Clive Owen and Sam Rockwell are among the actors that were considered for Tony Stark during pre-production. Rockwell would get a part in Iron Man 2 (2010) as Stark's rival 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 Whedon to make Stark the lead revealing 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 is the theme, and everybody is just an arm of the octopus."

Trivia

 * Tony Stark's ringtone is the original Iron Man theme song from the 1966 TV series.