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Description
Overview: A common theme that one soon starts to notice amongst the heroes of our world is that anyone, no matter who they are or what they did, can become a superhero, and few exemplify that message more than Antonio “Tony” Stark, or, as most know him, the invincible Iron Man! Formerly regarded as little more than a callous war profiteer, over the past few years Stark has become one of the most celebrated superheroes of them all, even being a founding member of the Avengers, Earth’s mightiest heroes. Though previously his guilt and trauma over his misdeeds have pushed him to the brink, with the help of his friends and loved ones Tony has managed to leave behind the shadows of his past, and is now an inspiration and an icon across the world.

History: Ten years ago, Tony Stark would never have been a man to be called selfless. Born with what many saw as the silver spoon of all silver spoons in his mouth after claiming the title of CEO of Stark enterprises from his parents (Hector and María Stark) at an early age, Stark used his title and wealth to invest in womanising, flashy cars, and buying out his opposition’s companies. With a cheesy grin and juvenile sense of humour, Stark sat himself in the lap of luxury whilst many innocents were slaughtered by the Stark tech weaponry he produced. His apathy made him an enemy of the public, culminating in Christine Everhart’s scathing report for the Daily Bugle dubbing him the ‘merchant of death’, a title he would laugh off with a joke about flatulence. It was a few months after this report than Stark would make a fairly routine visit to the small Middle Eastern nation of Sharzhad to showcase a new range of weapons to the US military, present due to their own interests in a rebellion against the Sharzhadi ruler Dagan Shah (a charismatic despot with links to Raza Hamidmi Al-Wazar, leader of the Sharzhadi branch of the mysterious and brutal Ten Rings). These criminals were responsible for the visit soon going in a very different direction to Stark’s usual booze-filled, hedonistic outings, with members of the terrorist group in the US military alerting Al-Wazar of Stark’s presence. This led to an ambush on Stark’s military convoy as he left the American encampment, the attack leaving a piece of shrapnel lodged in the billionaire’s heart (ironically from one of his own weapons that the Ten Rings had stolen). Stark was kept imprisoned in a cave, beaten frequently to produce weapons for the Sharzhadi government and their terrorist allies and forced to watch as they were used to torture and kill his fellow prisoners in order to test his creations' efficacy. One of these men remained for the duration of his confinement, however: Professor Ho Yinsen, a Vietnamese academic who, after trying to aid those caught in the crossfire of the civil war, was now forced to treat both the Ten Rings and the people they imprisoned. Together with the professor, Stark was able to use excess materials for the weapons to make what would become known as the “arc reactor”, a device allowing him to keep the metal from piercing his heart. After their success with the project, Stark became more ambitious, and began to construct what would be known as the “Mark I armour”, a hulking mass of metal giving its wearer protection and the ability to defend oneself. Three months after he was imprisoned, Tony and the Professor made an escape attempt with the armour, leading to a firefight which claimed the lives of numerous Ten Rings operatives, Al-Wazar, and, tragically, Professor Yinsen himself. After the battle, Stark led his fellow prisoners to safety and left Sharzhad soon after, with US soldier Jimmy Ramirez’s story of the “metal man” spreading across the country and becoming a symbol of hope and bravery for the rebel forces. Stark returned to the USA a changed man, and gave a revolutionary press conference where he announced both the scrapping of the Stark Industries weapons division, due to the damage he had seen them cause during his imprisonment, and revealed himself to be in fact the being that had become dubbed the "Iron Man of Sharzhad". Driven by his guilt and trauma, Stark threw both himself and his wealth into his newfound passion for justice, both investing around the world in social projects aiming to help those in need and spending most of the time he had outside of his Stark Industries commitments as Iron Man, utilising a new suit made from more high-tech materials unavailable to him in Sharzhad. However, due to his traumatic experiences in Sharzhad and him soon beginning to see the extent of the damage his weapons had inflicted on the world, Stark began to become wracked with guilt, turning to alcoholism and pushing himself away from social affairs except for the interactions necessary for his job. Fail-safes were in place within his growing number of suits to ensure he wouldn’t be caught drunk on the job, but any spare time was devoted to drink, detrimentally affecting Stark’s health.
Three years on from Tony taking on the mantle of Iron Man (the same year Peter Parker became Spider-man), Stark allied himself with four other superheroes, the Hulk, Thor, Ant-Man I and the Wasp, in a bid to defeat the insane supercriminal Graviton. Stark saw the opportunity to form an international peace-keeping force, made up of heroes like himself, and formed the team known as the Avengers with those who fought Graviton, reluctantly making himself leader despite seeing himself as a lesser hero to the rest of the group. Stark would go so far as to repurpose his parents’ old home as the new Avengers Mansion, which would serve as a base of operations for the team. Despite spearheading the group, Stark kept himself at a distance, out of fear his alcoholism would be discovered and due to his negative view of himself in comparison to his fellow heroes, but soon found himself bonding with his team mates. It’s around this time period that Stark began to find love, in his first proper romantic relationship with who he believed to be a secretary named Pepper Potts, but was in fact SHIELD agent Natasha Romanoff (better known as the Black Widow), who, whilst originally being sent to spy on Tony for her superiors before she had a change of heart, would help him through his trauma and allow himself to open up about his issues to the other team members after revealing her true identity to him. It would seem her efforts paid off, as Stark has now not only moved on from this dark chapter of his life and hasn’t even looked at a drop of alcohol in years, but has become one of the mightiest heroes the Earth has ever known, mixing philanthropy, superheroics and a heart of gold to spread peace across the globe.
Stark has continued to operate as Iron Man and help lead to the Avengers (he now shares the role of leader with Captain America) up to the present day, with Stark Industries’ various social and environmental programmes having worked with people across the globe to help make the world a better place. Currently, he is back in Sharzhad (now under the control of a democratic government installed by the rebels, who were successful in their attempt to depose Dagan Shah), helping to track down the few remaining members of the Ten Rings still operating in the country and working with local leaders to find ways Sharzhad can improve its agriculture. Though Tony has struggled with his inner demons for some time, he is now finally able to move forward in his life, and Iron Man has been celebrated across the globe for his heroic achievements.

Powers, abilities and weaknesses: Tony Stark’s greatest power is his intelligence, creativity and love for inventing, as the numerous Iron Man armours Stark has fashioned for himself over the years simply would not exist without this. Stark’s knowledge of engineering and eye for detail allowed him and Professor Yinsen to build the original Iron Man armour in a cave with a box of scraps, and since then he has built 85 different suits of armour (and presumably has even more on the way). These suits range from mere upgrades to the “main series” of Iron Man armours to make them more efficient or more powerful to more specialised suits designed for specific situations, such as the Stealth Armour (which can turn invisible with the trade-off of being rather weak and frail compared to most Iron Man suits) and the Starboost Armour (adapted to allow Stark to survive and operate as Iron Man in the depths of outer space). Some of these specialised armours (such as the water-adapted Hydro Armour) are designed to combine with the main series suits, effectively turning Iron Man into a matryoshka doll of different armours and allowing Stark to more easily adapt to changing conditions. Though some of Iron Man’s allies have expressed their concerns over the security of these various suits, Stark has special measures to ensure that only he can access his armours, the most prominent of these measures being that you have to wear a specialised nylon “under-armour” to synchronise with the suit and use it effectively and that almost all the suits are powered exclusively by the arc reactor. No matter what set of armour Tony’s wearing or the shiny new powers it grants him, the Iron Man suits all have a consistent set of abilities that all of them share, only differing between armours in terms of power and efficiency. Besides augmenting the user’s strength to the point where the current suit is capable of lifting a truck and being durable enough that Iron Man can shrug off bazooka rockets with little more than a scratch, each armour is also equipped with devices known as repulsor rays in the palms of its gauntlets and on the soles of its boots that produce concentrated beams of subatomic energy. These rays not only allow Iron Man to fly at absurd speeds but can also be used for combat purposes, designed to push away enemies with a violent concussive blast. The repulsors are probably the only aspect of the Iron Man armours that have weakened as Tony has built more and more suits: the original suit’s repulsor blasts were easily capable of breaking bones, and therefore the technology has been downgraded in subsequent suits so it can be used in non-lethal combat (Tony is very much relieved that he changed the technology before engaging any supercriminals). Additionally, each Iron Man suit has a circular spot made up of a variety of exotic glasses and plastics in the centre of its chestplate and beneath which lies the arc reactor. Subatomic particles from the repulsor rays can be redirected into the arc reactor and used to fire a potent, concentrated repulsor beam, usually only utilised as a last resort against particularly powerful opponents due to the risk of the armour running pit of power as a result. Tony has taken to adding two additional, “lesser” arc reactors to his most recent suits, giving his armours an even larger power supply and allowing him to produce additional repulsor beams without risking the armour shutting down. One of the world’s greatest engineers equipped with an extremely powerful suit of armour, Iron Man is easily able to go toe-to-toe with some of the Avengers’ most powerful foes alongside his comrades.

Though each Iron Man suit has its own set of flaws, the one consistent weakness that Tony has had to contend with (besides the destructive effects of his trauma and alcoholism, which he has, of course, finally quashed) is the suits’ sheer weight. Even the Stealth Armour, easily the lightest Iron Man armour, weighs 225 pounds, and though the power of the arc reactor prevents the wearer from feeling any sort of strain each suit’s tremendous mass slows it down significantly when not in flight. Though the armours’ unique power source and the various mechanisms Tony has installed within them prevents the Iron Man suits from getting too sluggish, it’s safe to say that none of them are particularly agile except when in the air, and Iron Man is notably less effective at fighting on the ground than he is at fighting in the sky. Nevertheless, this has not been too big a problem for Tony, and he has learned to work around these limitations in combat.

Personality: Though still a tad snarky and eager to toot his own horn, Tony Stark is a far cry from the obnoxious, egotistical war profiteer he was ten years ago. His experiences with the Avengers (and Black Widow in particular) have allowed Stark to open up to others and become a much more openly friendly and kind individual who is quick to support his friends when they’re having a hard time and is beloved around the world for his philanthropic efforts. Though he has stopped making the immature jokes he was once infamous for (Bruce Banner has refused to let Tony ever forget the time he mockingly referred to Edwin Cord (a corrupt businessman Iron Man helped bring to justice) as “Mr. Krabs”), Stark is still notorious for his quips, and amongst the Avengers he is the most likely to start off an escalating chain of wisecracks during battle. This is not a sign that Tony isn’t taking things seriously, however: during his early days as Iron Man, when the trauma from his time in Sharzhad was at its rawest, Stark used his wit as a coping mechanism during fights against supercriminals to prevent himself from breaking down in combat against them, and the habit has since stuck. Some of this trauma (alongside his guilt for his past actions, which motivates Iron Man even now) still persists even now, and, whilst Tony copes with it in far healthier ways and is less effected by it when performing superheroics, he still goes into panic attacks when in situations that particularly remind him of his imprisonment in the caves of Sharzhad and is willing to take drastic and borderline irresponsible action when he sees his technology in the wrong hands. None of this does anything to negate Stark’s exceptional intelligence and creativity: Tony is rightfully regarded as the Reed Richards of engineering, and even during his days as a weapons manufacturer he designed and tested many of his company’s products himself. He is always curious about what new things he can create to help the world and himself, and can often be found tinkering with various bits and pieces of technology at Stark Tower as he works towards his next big project. Though his snarkiness and tendency to get absorbed in creating new inventions makes Tony seem somewhat eccentric and rough around the edges when you first meet him, it’s soon hard to deny that, ironically, the tin man with the shrapnel in his chest may just have one of the biggest hearts of them all.

Relationships: Iron Man’s closest friends are easily the Avengers, and, as their leader and main financial backer, he has often personally vetted most of them for entry into the team. Though he has firm friendships with Captain America (the two may banter and bicker constantly but are always there to jump into action when the other is in danger) and Bruce Banner (both of them sharing a passion for science and dark pasts they have helped each other to escape from), Iron Man is closer to no other Avenger than his fiancée Black Widow, who, despite the unusual beginnings of their romance, has been a massive source of support for Tony over the years and vice versa. The two very much relate to their shared experiences of guilt and trauma, and count the other as one of the few people they feel ready to openly discuss these things with. Tony has only proposed to Natasha recently, but the two of them are already excitedly making preparations for their wedding, with most if not all of the superhero community being invited to the ceremony.

The closest thing Iron Man has to an arch-enemy is the Ten Rings, due to the dramatic effect they have had on Tony’s life since Sharzhad. Iron Man is dedicated to wiping the organisation out and has done a rather good job at doing so thus far, having helped put many of its leaders in SHIELD custody (though interrogating them has still revealed little of the Ten Rings’ motives besides their cultish beliefs) and crippling the terrorist group by breaking apart most of its larger branches. What was once a feared and reviled global terrorist network has been reduced to a few small, scattered factions on the run from SHIELD and other forms of law enforcement across the world, and most of this is thanks to Iron Man. The amoral industrialist Justin Hammer and Tony’s own envious half-brother Arno Stark have also proven themselves to be particularly personal enemies of Iron Man.

The public perception of Tony Stark is now essentially the complete inverse of what it was a decade ago, and even Christine Everhart is eager to sing Iron Man’s praises (the fact Tony publicly apologised to her about his reaction to her article and outright stated that the younger version of himself was a dickhead probably helped a lot in that regard). Due to Tony’s philanthropic efforts to improve the livelihoods and environments of millions of people in some of the world’s poorest countries and acts of heroism as Iron Man, his popularity has soared with the general public, and a man who was once the most hated human being in America is easily one of its most beloved figures. Conversely, Tony’s formerly positive relationship with the US government has taken a dramatic turn for the worse. Whilst Stark is hardly viewed as a criminal and the current administration is grudgingly willing to work alongside him to an extent, the US government has made it quite clear that they want Stark to create Iron Man suits for them, something Tony has constantly refused. Long before Iron Man joined the Avengers, one US Senator, Harrington Byrd, would even drag Tony into a senate hearing in an attempt to seize control of the Iron Man armour, though this was ultimately unsuccessful. Though the US government has long been forced to give up on acquiring the armour (especially thanks to the worldwide adoration for the Avengers and other superheroes and the legal expertise of Reserve Avenger Jennifer Walters, AKA She-Hulk), the relationship between them and Iron Man is still somewhat rocky, and whilst they cannot be completely obstructive to Stark and his allies they’re sure to constantly let him know that they’re unhappy with not having Iron Man in their possession.

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References: Ultimate Iron Man and my own imagination
Iron Man belongs to Marvel
Decided to do Iron Man next as since he's the most high-profile of my initial Avengers roster I thought he was probably the best to tackle first of that corner of the Marvel universe. I'm aware that this is a rather beefy Iron Man which may not be to you guys' tastes but I think I'm pretty pleased with him, he looks big, colourful and weirdly adorable lmao. I was expecting him to be much more of a pain in the arse to draw but he was surprisingly quick and fun to get done! I should also add that, as Ameroboto suggested for me a looooooooong time ago, this version of Tony is Latino (hence why his full name is Antonio like in the Ultimate universe) but obviously you guys wouldn't be able to see that lmao. I chose Sharzhad (a fictional Middle Eastern country that was introduced in the comics back in 2011) as the location where Iron Man's origin takes place as I felt using a real place would date Tony's origin far too much and I'd rather not incite any fiery political discussions thank-you very much lmao. Also I must thank a good IRL friend of mine for helping me write the history section which, due to how much stuff this Iron Man has going on, was rather difficult to get in lmao. He also suggested giving Iron Man the under-armour, which some of you may remember from the 90s Iron Man show. I hope you guys like this!
EDIT: Made some minor adjustments to this entry as I wasn’t happy with how little some parts (IE Black Widow, the Ten Rings) were explained.

Description
Overview: A common theme that one soon starts to notice amongst the heroes of our world is that anyone, no matter who they are or what they did, can become a superhero, and few exemplify that message more than Antonio “Tony” Stark, or, as most know him, the invincible Iron Man! Formerly regarded as little more than a callous war profiteer, over the past few years Stark has become one of the most celebrated superheroes of them all, even being a founding member of the Avengers, Earth’s mightiest heroes. Though previously his guilt and trauma over his misdeeds have pushed him to the brink, with the help of his friends and loved ones Tony has managed to leave behind the shadows of his past, and is now an inspiration and an icon across the world.

History: Ten years ago, Tony Stark would never have been a man to be called selfless. Born with what many saw as the silver spoon of all silver spoons in his mouth after claiming the title of CEO of Stark enterprises from his parents (Hector and María Stark) at an early age, Stark used his title and wealth to invest in womanising, flashy cars, and buying out his opposition’s companies. With a cheesy grin and juvenile sense of humour, Stark sat himself in the lap of luxury whilst many innocents were slaughtered by the Stark tech weaponry he produced. His apathy made him an enemy of the public, culminating in Christine Everhart’s scathing report for the Daily Bugle dubbing him the ‘merchant of death’, a title he would laugh off with a joke about flatulence. It was a few months after this report than Stark would make a fairly routine visit to the small Middle Eastern nation of Sharzhad to showcase a new range of weapons to the US military, present due to their own interests in a rebellion against the Sharzhadi ruler Dagan Shah (a charismatic despot with links to Raza Hamidmi Al-Wazar, leader of the Sharzhadi branch of the mysterious and brutal Ten Rings). These criminals were responsible for the visit soon going in a very different direction to Stark’s usual booze-filled, hedonistic outings, with members of the terrorist group in the US military alerting Al-Wazar of Stark’s presence. This led to an ambush on Stark’s military convoy as he left the American encampment, the attack leaving a piece of shrapnel lodged in the billionaire’s heart (ironically from one of his own weapons that the Ten Rings had stolen). Stark was kept imprisoned in a cave, beaten frequently to produce weapons for the Sharzhadi government and their terrorist allies and forced to watch as they were used to torture and kill his fellow prisoners in order to test his creations' efficacy. One of these men remained for the duration of his confinement, however: Professor Ho Yinsen, a Vietnamese academic who, after trying to aid those caught in the crossfire of the civil war, was now forced to treat both the Ten Rings and the people they imprisoned. Together with the professor, Stark was able to use excess materials for the weapons to make what would become known as the “arc reactor”, a device allowing him to keep the metal from piercing his heart. After their success with the project, Stark became more ambitious, and began to construct what would be known as the “Mark I armour”, a hulking mass of metal giving its wearer protection and the ability to defend oneself. Three months after he was imprisoned, Tony and the Professor made an escape attempt with the armour, leading to a firefight which claimed the lives of numerous Ten Rings operatives, Al-Wazar, and, tragically, Professor Yinsen himself. After the battle, Stark led his fellow prisoners to safety and left Sharzhad soon after, with US soldier Jimmy Ramirez’s story of the “metal man” spreading across the country and becoming a symbol of hope and bravery for the rebel forces. Stark returned to the USA a changed man, and gave a revolutionary press conference where he announced both the scrapping of the Stark Industries weapons division, due to the damage he had seen them cause during his imprisonment, and revealed himself to be in fact the being that had become dubbed the "Iron Man of Sharzhad". Driven by his guilt and trauma, Stark threw both himself and his wealth into his newfound passion for justice, both investing around the world in social projects aiming to help those in need and spending most of the time he had outside of his Stark Industries commitments as Iron Man, utilising a new suit made from more high-tech materials unavailable to him in Sharzhad. However, due to his traumatic experiences in Sharzhad and him soon beginning to see the extent of the damage his weapons had inflicted on the world, Stark began to become wracked with guilt, turning to alcoholism and pushing himself away from social affairs except for the interactions necessary for his job. Fail-safes were in place within his growing number of suits to ensure he wouldn’t be caught drunk on the job, but any spare time was devoted to drink, detrimentally affecting Stark’s health.
Three years on from Tony taking on the mantle of Iron Man (the same year Peter Parker became Spider-man), Stark allied himself with four other superheroes, the Hulk, Thor, Ant-Man I and the Wasp, in a bid to defeat the insane supercriminal Graviton. Stark saw the opportunity to form an international peace-keeping force, made up of heroes like himself, and formed the team known as the Avengers with those who fought Graviton, reluctantly making himself leader despite seeing himself as a lesser hero to the rest of the group. Stark would go so far as to repurpose his parents’ old home as the new Avengers Mansion, which would serve as a base of operations for the team. Despite spearheading the group, Stark kept himself at a distance, out of fear his alcoholism would be discovered and due to his negative view of himself in comparison to his fellow heroes, but soon found himself bonding with his team mates. It’s around this time period that Stark began to find love, in his first proper romantic relationship with who he believed to be a secretary named Pepper Potts, but was in fact SHIELD agent Natasha Romanoff (better known as the Black Widow), who, whilst originally being sent to spy on Tony for her superiors before she had a change of heart, would help him through his trauma and allow himself to open up about his issues to the other team members after revealing her true identity to him. It would seem her efforts paid off, as Stark has now not only moved on from this dark chapter of his life and hasn’t even looked at a drop of alcohol in years, but has become one of the mightiest heroes the Earth has ever known, mixing philanthropy, superheroics and a heart of gold to spread peace across the globe.
Stark has continued to operate as Iron Man and help lead to the Avengers (he now shares the role of leader with Captain America) up to the present day, with Stark Industries’ various social and environmental programmes having worked with people across the globe to help make the world a better place. Currently, he is back in Sharzhad (now under the control of a democratic government installed by the rebels, who were successful in their attempt to depose Dagan Shah), helping to track down the few remaining members of the Ten Rings still operating in the country and working with local leaders to find ways Sharzhad can improve its agriculture. Though Tony has struggled with his inner demons for some time, he is now finally able to move forward in his life, and Iron Man has been celebrated across the globe for his heroic achievements.

Powers, abilities and weaknesses: Tony Stark’s greatest power is his intelligence, creativity and love for inventing, as the numerous Iron Man armours Stark has fashioned for himself over the years simply would not exist without this. Stark’s knowledge of engineering and eye for detail allowed him and Professor Yinsen to build the original Iron Man armour in a cave with a box of scraps, and since then he has built 85 different suits of armour (and presumably has even more on the way). These suits range from mere upgrades to the “main series” of Iron Man armours to make them more efficient or more powerful to more specialised suits designed for specific situations, such as the Stealth Armour (which can turn invisible with the trade-off of being rather weak and frail compared to most Iron Man suits) and the Starboost Armour (adapted to allow Stark to survive and operate as Iron Man in the depths of outer space). Some of these specialised armours (such as the water-adapted Hydro Armour) are designed to combine with the main series suits, effectively turning Iron Man into a matryoshka doll of different armours and allowing Stark to more easily adapt to changing conditions. Though some of Iron Man’s allies have expressed their concerns over the security of these various suits, Stark has special measures to ensure that only he can access his armours, the most prominent of these measures being that you have to wear a specialised nylon “under-armour” to synchronise with the suit and use it effectively and that almost all the suits are powered exclusively by the arc reactor. No matter what set of armour Tony’s wearing or the shiny new powers it grants him, the Iron Man suits all have a consistent set of abilities that all of them share, only differing between armours in terms of power and efficiency. Besides augmenting the user’s strength to the point where the current suit is capable of lifting a truck and being durable enough that Iron Man can shrug off bazooka rockets with little more than a scratch, each armour is also equipped with devices known as repulsor rays in the palms of its gauntlets and on the soles of its boots that produce concentrated beams of subatomic energy. These rays not only allow Iron Man to fly at absurd speeds but can also be used for combat purposes, designed to push away enemies with a violent concussive blast. The repulsors are probably the only aspect of the Iron Man armours that have weakened as Tony has built more and more suits: the original suit’s repulsor blasts were easily capable of breaking bones, and therefore the technology has been downgraded in subsequent suits so it can be used in non-lethal combat (Tony is very much relieved that he changed the technology before engaging any supercriminals). Additionally, each Iron Man suit has a circular spot made up of a variety of exotic glasses and plastics in the centre of its chestplate and beneath which lies the arc reactor. Subatomic particles from the repulsor rays can be redirected into the arc reactor and used to fire a potent, concentrated repulsor beam, usually only utilised as a last resort against particularly powerful opponents due to the risk of the armour running pit of power as a result. Tony has taken to adding two additional, “lesser” arc reactors to his most recent suits, giving his armours an even larger power supply and allowing him to produce additional repulsor beams without risking the armour shutting down. One of the world’s greatest engineers equipped with an extremely powerful suit of armour, Iron Man is easily able to go toe-to-toe with some of the Avengers’ most powerful foes alongside his comrades.

Though each Iron Man suit has its own set of flaws, the one consistent weakness that Tony has had to contend with (besides the destructive effects of his trauma and alcoholism, which he has, of course, finally quashed) is the suits’ sheer weight. Even the Stealth Armour, easily the lightest Iron Man armour, weighs 225 pounds, and though the power of the arc reactor prevents the wearer from feeling any sort of strain each suit’s tremendous mass slows it down significantly when not in flight. Though the armours’ unique power source and the various mechanisms Tony has installed within them prevents the Iron Man suits from getting too sluggish, it’s safe to say that none of them are particularly agile except when in the air, and Iron Man is notably less effective at fighting on the ground than he is at fighting in the sky. Nevertheless, this has not been too big a problem for Tony, and he has learned to work around these limitations in combat.

Personality: Though still a tad snarky and eager to toot his own horn, Tony Stark is a far cry from the obnoxious, egotistical war profiteer he was ten years ago. His experiences with the Avengers (and Black Widow in particular) have allowed Stark to open up to others and become a much more openly friendly and kind individual who is quick to support his friends when they’re having a hard time and is beloved around the world for his philanthropic efforts. Though he has stopped making the immature jokes he was once infamous for (Bruce Banner has refused to let Tony ever forget the time he mockingly referred to Edwin Cord (a corrupt businessman Iron Man helped bring to justice) as “Mr. Krabs”), Stark is still notorious for his quips, and amongst the Avengers he is the most likely to start off an escalating chain of wisecracks during battle. This is not a sign that Tony isn’t taking things seriously, however: during his early days as Iron Man, when the trauma from his time in Sharzhad was at its rawest, Stark used his wit as a coping mechanism during fights against supercriminals to prevent himself from breaking down in combat against them, and the habit has since stuck. Some of this trauma (alongside his guilt for his past actions, which motivates Iron Man even now) still persists even now, and, whilst Tony copes with it in far healthier ways and is less effected by it when performing superheroics, he still goes into panic attacks when in situations that particularly remind him of his imprisonment in the caves of Sharzhad and is willing to take drastic and borderline irresponsible action when he sees his technology in the wrong hands. None of this does anything to negate Stark’s exceptional intelligence and creativity: Tony is rightfully regarded as the Reed Richards of engineering, and even during his days as a weapons manufacturer he designed and tested many of his company’s products himself. He is always curious about what new things he can create to help the world and himself, and can often be found tinkering with various bits and pieces of technology at Stark Tower as he works towards his next big project. Though his snarkiness and tendency to get absorbed in creating new inventions makes Tony seem somewhat eccentric and rough around the edges when you first meet him, it’s soon hard to deny that, ironically, the tin man with the shrapnel in his chest may just have one of the biggest hearts of them all.

Relationships: Iron Man’s closest friends are easily the Avengers, and, as their leader and main financial backer, he has often personally vetted most of them for entry into the team. Though he has firm friendships with Captain America (the two may banter and bicker constantly but are always there to jump into action when the other is in danger) and Bruce Banner (both of them sharing a passion for science and dark pasts they have helped each other to escape from), Iron Man is closer to no other Avenger than his fiancée Black Widow, who, despite the unusual beginnings of their romance, has been a massive source of support for Tony over the years and vice versa. The two very much relate to their shared experiences of guilt and trauma, and count the other as one of the few people they feel ready to openly discuss these things with. Tony has only proposed to Natasha recently, but the two of them are already excitedly making preparations for their wedding, with most if not all of the superhero community being invited to the ceremony.

The closest thing Iron Man has to an arch-enemy is the Ten Rings, due to the dramatic effect they have had on Tony’s life since Sharzhad. Iron Man is dedicated to wiping the organisation out and has done a rather good job at doing so thus far, having helped put many of its leaders in SHIELD custody (though interrogating them has still revealed little of the Ten Rings’ motives besides their cultish beliefs) and crippling the terrorist group by breaking apart most of its larger branches. What was once a feared and reviled global terrorist network has been reduced to a few small, scattered factions on the run from SHIELD and other forms of law enforcement across the world, and most of this is thanks to Iron Man. The amoral industrialist Justin Hammer and Tony’s own envious half-brother Arno Stark have also proven themselves to be particularly personal enemies of Iron Man.

The public perception of Tony Stark is now essentially the complete inverse of what it was a decade ago, and even Christine Everhart is eager to sing Iron Man’s praises (the fact Tony publicly apologised to her about his reaction to her article and outright stated that the younger version of himself was a dickhead probably helped a lot in that regard). Due to Tony’s philanthropic efforts to improve the livelihoods and environments of millions of people in some of the world’s poorest countries and acts of heroism as Iron Man, his popularity has soared with the general public, and a man who was once the most hated human being in America is easily one of its most beloved figures. Conversely, Tony’s formerly positive relationship with the US government has taken a dramatic turn for the worse. Whilst Stark is hardly viewed as a criminal and the current administration is grudgingly willing to work alongside him to an extent, the US government has made it quite clear that they want Stark to create Iron Man suits for them, something Tony has constantly refused. Long before Iron Man joined the Avengers, one US Senator, Harrington Byrd, would even drag Tony into a senate hearing in an attempt to seize control of the Iron Man armour, though this was ultimately unsuccessful. Though the US government has long been forced to give up on acquiring the armour (especially thanks to the worldwide adoration for the Avengers and other superheroes and the legal expertise of Reserve Avenger Jennifer Walters, AKA She-Hulk), the relationship between them and Iron Man is still somewhat rocky, and whilst they cannot be completely obstructive to Stark and his allies they’re sure to constantly let him know that they’re unhappy with not having Iron Man in their possession.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

References: Ultimate Iron Man and my own imagination
Iron Man belongs to Marvel
Decided to do Iron Man next as since he's the most high-profile of my initial Avengers roster I thought he was probably the best to tackle first of that corner of the Marvel universe. I'm aware that this is a rather beefy Iron Man which may not be to you guys' tastes but I think I'm pretty pleased with him, he looks big, colourful and weirdly adorable lmao. I was expecting him to be much more of a pain in the arse to draw but he was surprisingly quick and fun to get done! I should also add that, as Ameroboto suggested for me a looooooooong time ago, this version of Tony is Latino (hence why his full name is Antonio like in the Ultimate universe) but obviously you guys wouldn't be able to see that lmao. I chose Sharzhad (a fictional Middle Eastern country that was introduced in the comics back in 2011) as the location where Iron Man's origin takes place as I felt using a real place would date Tony's origin far too much and I'd rather not incite any fiery political discussions thank-you very much lmao. Also I must thank a good IRL friend of mine for helping me write the history section which, due to how much stuff this Iron Man has going on, was rather difficult to get in lmao. He also suggested giving Iron Man the under-armour, which some of you may remember from the 90s Iron Man show. I hope you guys like this!
EDIT: Made some minor adjustments to this entry as I wasn’t happy with how little some parts (IE Black Widow, the Ten Rings) were explained.