Tony Stark

Stark is initially depicted as an industrialist, genius inventor, and former playboy who is CEO of Stark Industries. Initially the chief weapons manufacturer for the U.S. military, he has a change of heart and redirects his technical knowledge into creating mechanized suits of armor, which he uses to defend Earth. Stark becomes a founding member and eventual leader of the Avengers. Anthony Edward Stark (Tony) was born on May 29, 1970, in Manhattan, New York to Howard Stark, a famous genius inventor and businessman, and Maria Stark, a socialite and philanthropist. Growing up under the eye of family butler Edwin Jarvis, his life was characterized by a cold and affectionless relationship with his father. Seeing that his son could achieve great things, Howard tried to inspire him with constant talks about his own role in the creation of Captain America. This instead embittered Stark, who felt that his father was taking more pride in his creations than in his family. A brilliant and unique child prodigy, Stark attended the prestigious Phillips Academy in Andover before entering MIT at age 14 and graduating summa cum laude at 17. On December 16, 1991, when Stark was 21, his parents went away to the Bahamas, but planned to stop at the Pentagon to deliver Super Soldier Serum Howard had redeveloped. Instead, both were killed in a car accident. As a result, Stark inherited his father's company, becoming CEO of Stark Industries. Over the years, he became well known as a weapons designer and inventor, and lived a playboy lifestyle. In 2010, Stark travels to war-torn Afghanistan with his friend and military liaison Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes to demonstrate Stark's new "Jericho" missile. After the demonstration, the convoy is ambushed and Stark is critically wounded and imprisoned by a terrorist group, the Ten Rings. Fellow captive Ho Yinsen, a doctor, implants an electromagnet into Stark's chest to keep shrapnel shards from reaching his heart and killing him.

Stark and Yinsen secretly build a small, powerful electric generator called an arc reactor to power Stark's electromagnet and a suit of powered armor. When the Ten Rings discover the pair's treachery, they attack the workshop and Yinsen sacrifices himself to buy time while the suit is powered. The armored Stark battles his way out of the cave and finds Yinsen, dying shortly thereafter. Engraged, Stark then destroys the Ten Rings' weapons and flies away, crashing in the desert some distance away. Rescued by Rhodes, Stark returns home to announce that his company will no longer manufacture weapons. In his home workshop, Stark builds a sleeker, more powerful version of his improvised armor suit as well as a more powerful arc reactor.

Stark learns that Obadiah Stane has been engaged in arms trafficking to criminals worldwide, and is staging a coup to replace him as Stark Industries' CEO. Stark, in his new armor, flies to Afghanistan and saves a group of villagers under siege by terrorists using Stark weapons. Stane ambushes Stark at his home and takes the arc reactor from his chest, revealing that he was responsible for Stark's captivity. Stark manages to get to his original reactor to replace it and defeats Stane, who had created his own armored suit using the remnants of Stark's first suit. The next day, The Chronicles dubs Tony's alter-ego "The Iron Man" on their newspaper headline, which he likes and takes the moniker, feeling it is catchy and sounded great when saying, evoking an aura of him being invincible despite the inaccuracy (the suit is made of titanium gold instead of iron). At a press conference, Stark publicly admits to his identity as Iron Man. Grew Up… as the son of the incredibly brilliant, incredibly rich founder of Stark Industries: Howard Stark. Tony is even smarter than the brilliant elder Stark, having entered MIT at the age of 15. Tony is perhaps the only person that could live up to his father’s lofty legacy.

Living… a life that everyone else can only dream of. Not only is Tony Stark a self-described “genius, billionaire, playboy philanthropist,” but now that he’s figured out how to create power armor, he gets to moonlight as the vigilante, Iron Man.

Profession… CEO of Stark Industries and secret superhero. For most of his life, Tony has been the CEO of his deceased father’s multibillion-dollar corporation, but a recent series of events has forced Tony’s life in a different direction. When Afghani terrorists kidnapped Tony and put him to work building a weapon, Tony instead built a suit of powered armor that allowed him to defeat his captors and escape. Once he was safely back in the United States, Tony leveraged his considerable resources to create a more advanced version of the suit, and Iron Man was born.

Interests… cocktails, beautiful women, particle physics and saving the world – it’s easy to be a Renaissance man when you’re smart enough to master applied thermodynamics in one night of reading. Tony Stark is equal parts jet-setting playboy and brilliant tinkerer. He’s comfortable at either a $10,000 per plate charity events or amidst the mechanical hum of his personal lab.

Relationship Status… single, but rarely lonely. Tony Stark’s wealth, power and natural charm allows him to get just about any woman he wants; it’s keeping them that’s the problem. While Tony’s playboy impulses have kept him out of committed relationships for most of his life, his near death experience in Afghanistan has forced him to reconsider his priorities. He’s attracted to his personal assistant Pepper Potts, possibly because she’s one of the only women he’s ever met who’s actually likely to reject his advances. But attraction is one thing and being in a committed relationship is another. It remains to be seen whether Tony’s new dedication to heroism can transform him into a man worth dating.

Challenge… contending with the forces that seek to use the Iron Man technology to nefarious ends. Ironically, it took Tony creating the most powerful weapon on Earth for him to realize that he no longer wanted to be providing deadly weapons to the world via Stark Industries. Tony trusts only himself to don the iron armor.

Personality… charming, brilliant, cocky. Tony Stark’s personality is a sprawling web of contradictory virtues and vices. On the surface, he is carefree and fun, a classic playboy, but beneath that lies guilt, fear and a debilitating self-destructive attitude.