Project P.R.O.T.E.A.N.

"Come on. I never totally fit in with the gang, anyway." The subject of this article is part of an MCU franchise story that has been officially deemed to be non-canonical to the primary continuity of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Its events instead occur in another reality within the Multiverse. This universe is designated by the Marvel Cinematic Universe Wiki as the "Ultimo Transformation Universe".

Project P.R.O.T.E.A.N.
Affiliation	Stark Industries A.I.M.
Project Leader	Tony Stark Kearson DeWitt †
Appearances
Game	Iron Man 2

""Picotech Regenerative Ordnance with a Tactically Evolving Adaptation Network." It means intelligent machines. On the scale of an atom. They regenerate or modify whatever they're built for. At the time I killed the programme, that meant weapons."

―Tony Stark^[src]

Project Picotech Regenerative Ordnance with a Tactically Evolving Adaptation Network, abbreviated as Project P.R.O.T.E.A.N., was a project developed by Stark Industries. The aim of the project was to create intelligent machines that could regenerate or modify whatever they were built for. It was shut down after being categorized as questionable and dangerous. After his dismissal from Stark Industries, Kearson DeWitt revived the project at A.I.M.

History

Early Days

Kearson DeWitt is fired from Stark Industries

Stark Industries developed Project P.R.O.T.E.A.N. with the intention of creating intelligent machines that could regenerate or modify whatever they were built for. At the time, this was weapons. However, the project was later deemed questionable and dangerous, and was shut down. Kearson DeWitt, who had worked in the Theoretical Weapons Division of Stark Industries and been one of the original engineers on the Arc Reactor prototype, continued to work on Project P.R.O.T.E.A.N. and refused to stop allocating resources to it. For this reason, he was fired by Tony Stark.

Revival

DeWitt was recruited by A.I.M., who tasked him to create their own Iron Man project. Using their resources, he revived Project P.R.O.T.E.A.N. and evolved it into Project Ultimo and Operation Daybreak. However, despite the overwhelming regenerative capabilities of P.R.O.T.E.A.N. Hybrids, even A.I.M. were not stupid enough not to build a kill switch. Stark and J.A.R.V.I.S., upon encountering and fleeing from a Hybrid, notice the base's pylon towers use the Shock Point energy and, if unified together, would output in excess of 50 petajoules; a pocket sun, capable of exceeding the P.R.O.T.E.A.N regeneration. Stark used the pylons to destroy the P.R.O.T.E.A.N. Hybrid, and ordered J.A.R.V.I.S to access his own files on Shock Point energy to upgrade their weaponry in order to handle Hybrids in the future.