21 Interesting Facts About Iron Man

Iron Man is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. On May 2nd 2008, we saw the release of the first Iron Man, which marked the beginning of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In the comics Iron Man has been around for over 50 years, and there are 21 interesting facts you probably never knew about Iron Man.

Fact 1

Anthony Edward Stark debuted as Iron Man in Tales of Suspense #39 in 1963. The story was called Iron Man is Born. The tagline of Iron Man’s debut comic was “He lives! He walks! He conquers!” 

Fact 2

Tony is the son of the wealthy industrialist, Howard Stark. Tony inherited his parents’ vast fortune and company, Stark Industries, when they died in a car accident. Stark Industries is famous for building weapons. 

Fact 3

Many years ago, Tony went abroad to oversee a military demonstration of his technology. While he was in an active war zone, he activated a booby trap, which lodged shrapnel in his chest. A tyrant called Wong Chu captured Tony, forcing him to build a super weapon. Tony was imprisoned with a Nobel Prize winning physicist called Ho Yinsen. Yinsen built a magnetic plate on Tony’s chest to stop the shrapnel from reaching his heart. The two decided to build an armor powered by the magnet so they could escape. Although Tony escaped and defeated Wong Chu, Yinsen died. 

Fact 4

Tony’s first costume was a clunky grey armor. Tony didn’t wear his famous red-and-gold armor until Tales of Suspense #48 in 1963. Tony’s best friend is his chauffeur, Happy Hogan. He debuted in Tales of Suspense #45 in 1963. 

Fact 5

This was also the debut of Tony’s love interest, Virginia “Pepper” Potts. 

Fact 6

Happy Hogan is played by Jon Favreau in the Iron Man trilogy. Favreau is the director of the first two Iron Man films. 

Fact 7

Tony has contact lenses that magnify his vision. 

Invincible Iron Man #29 (2010) 

Fact 8

Iron Man set up a superteam called Force Works. The purpose of the team was not to just stop disasters but to prevent them. Force Works was composed of Iron Man, Century, Cybermancer, Moonraker, Scarlet Witch, USAgent, War Machine, Wonder Man, and Spider-Woman. 

Force Works #1-22 (1994-1996) 

Fact 9

Tony built a think-tank called StarkDynamics. It’s a group composed of the smartest people in the world. They are given a year to come up with an idea to make the world better. When the year is up, Tony will fund their idea and ensure it will come to be. 

Invincible Iron Man #2 (2008) 

Fact 10

Tony knew it was likely he would die while fighting a supervillain or stopping an alien invasion. As a failsafe, he created an Iron Man robot that had a digital imprint of Tony’s personality. This AI unit was activated shortly after Tony was corrupted by a magic spell. The robot believed that Tony lost his way so it had no choice but to replace Tony. Tony had incredible difficulty defeating this AI since it could upload its consciousness to multiple Iron Man suits at once. 

Superior Iron Man #7-10 (2015) 

Fact 11

He has quit as Iron Man from time to time. 

Iron Man #516-519 (2012) 

Fact 12

Sometimes, Iron Man brings several armored suits to a fight and switches from one to another to match the situation. He performs this action in the film, Iron Man 3. 

Iron Man #22 (2014) 

Fact 13

He has a black Iron Man suit known as the Stealth Armor, which doesn’t appear on radar. 

Iron Man #152 (1981) 

Fact 14

The suit he wears in Iron Man #300 is called the Modulator Armor. This design was used for the animated series, Iron Man, in 1994. 

Fact 15

He has a samurai armor in case he needs to fight a sword-wielding opponent. 

Invincible Iron Man #4 (2016) 

Fact 16

The first villain he faced in his red-and-gold armor was Mister Doll. 

Fact 17

He is played by Robert Downey Jr. in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Liev Schreiber provides the voice of Iron Man in the tv series, Robot Chicken. Tom Kenny provides the voice of Iron Man in Marvel Super Hero Squad: The Infinity Gauntlet. Kenny is best-known for playing the title character in SpongeBob SquarePants. 

Fact 18

His armor can reconfigure its size to fit anyone. Hypothetically, his regular armor could alter its appearance so it could perfectly fit a child. 

Invincible Iron Man #4 (2016) 

Fact 19

His debut comic was ranked #29 in the 100 Greatest Marvels of All Time. 

Fact 20

Tony built an AI to run Stark Industries while he is busy being Iron Man. 

Invincible Iron Man #9 (2016) 

Fact 21

There is a 2008 film called Iron Hero, which is a rip-off of Iron Man. According to IMDb (Internet Movie DataBase,) this is one of the worst films ever made and was obviously made solely to capitalize on the Iron Man film. So, you would assume the studio would make a sequel to capitalize on Iron Man 2, right? Nope. Instead, they released the SAME MOVIE with the new title; Metal Man. The only thing lazier than ripping-off two films is releasing the same rip-off twice.