Despite his popularity, relatively few people know anything about the Marvel legend Iron Man! He's actually been in the Marvel Universe since 1963, along with his alter ego, Anthony Stark. Today we delve a little deeper into the background of the action figures you may have of Iron Man, the cool exec with the heart of steel!
Marvel Ratings
Marvel rates Iron Man's strongest qualities as his intelligence, his strength, his durability and energy projection. He rates 3 out of 7 for fighting skills … though presumably that 3 is on a superhero scale, that would still leave him able to wallop any ordinary person into the ground! Speed gets 5 out of 7, and the rest of his above mentioned characteristics rate 6 out of 7. Surprisingly, though he has advanced degrees in physics and electrical engineering, his intelligence only rates 6 out of 7 also.
The creation of Iron Man
Iron Man was created when Anthony Stark was kidnapped by Wong Chu, a warlord, and in the struggle was injured by exploding shrapnel. Stark and Ho Yinsen worked together to create weapons for Wong Chu, and also to make a suit of iron for Anthony Stark that would keep the shrapnel still in his body from making its way completely to his heart.
The two tried to escape together, but Yinsen was killed - in the escape Anthony Stark met Rhodes (War Machine!), his soon-to-be best friend and helicopter pilot.
Extra powers
Iron Man gained extra powers after he injected himself with a modified virus to save his own life. The virus fused Stark's armor to his body (otherwise every time he took it off, the piece of shrapnel would have worked its way closer to his heart). It also let him store it inside his own body controlling it by direct brain impulses. They have operations to get shrapnel out nowadays, and probably did back in the 60s as well … but c'est la vie in comics!
Battle with alcoholism
As it so often is in real life, the rich playboy lifestyle of Anthony Stark has led to a serious alcohol addiction. He became homeless at one stage due to his alcoholism, and handed over his Iron Man identity and tools to Rhodes, one of his best friends. However, he returned as Marvel legend Iron Man shortly afterwards, starting a new company at the same time.
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