Alternative versions of Iron Man
In addition to his mainstream incarnation, Iron Man has been depicted in other fictional universes.
Earth-616
- Anthony Edward "Tony" Stark - The first Iron Man, Tony Stark a wealthy industrialist and genius inventor creates the powered suit of armor to save his life after receiving a mortal wound by a devastating weapon.
- James Rupert "Rhodey" Rhodes - After Stark loses his fortune to Obadiah Stane and regresses into alcoholism, long-time friend, confidant, and pilot "Rhodey" Rhodes assumes the mantle of Iron Man. Rhodes relinquishes the role to Stark after being injured by Stane, but resumes the role of Iron Man after Stark's purported death.
- Doctor Victor von Doom - Following Tony Stark's incapacitation as a result of his battle with Captain Marvel in Civil War II, Victor von Doom, whose soul was redeemed by Reed Richards at the conclusion of Secret Wars, and who had since been attempting to make amends with Tony Stark, decided that his penance for his actions of the past would be to take up the mantle of Iron Man. He now uses his own version of Iron Man's armor.
- Iron Man's role has also been assumed by Happy Hogan and Eddie March at various times.
1602
With his Moorish associate, Rhodes, Lord Iron is assigned by King James to put an end to the traitors and witchbreed in the New World. Instead, he realizes he has let bitterness consume him, and makes his peace with Banner. He is last seen using his armor to power the colony's printing press.
1872
The Secret Wars War Zone tie-in 1872 reimagines Tony in the Wild West. Tony was once a respected inventor who lives in the town of Timely. When the Union army used his repeating rifle to slaughter a large group of Confederates rather let them surrender, Tony spirals into alcoholism. After Sheriff Steve Rogers is murdered by Mayor Wilson Fisk and his cohorts, Tony builds a large suit of armor resembling the original Iron Man suit to aid Red Wolf in bringing him down. After Fisk is defeated, Tony dedicates his time to aiding the people of Timely with his new invention.2020
2020 features Arno Stark as a mercenary in the employ of Sunset Bain. In 2012, Arno had traveled to the past in an effort to save his family from a madman's bomb. All he needs are the retinal patterns of the bomb maker, but he runs into the original Blizzard who mistakes him for the "real" Iron Man/Tony Stark. Not having time to deal with this threat, Arno kills Blizzard. While attempting to scan the retinal patterns of the young terrorist, Spider-Man snatches the scanner with his webbing and asks IM 2020 what he is doing. The two battle one another when suddenly Arno is pulled back to his time to discover the bomb had a design flaw and exploded prematurely. His wife, son, employees, and factory have all been destroyed.2093
Tony Stark and Doctor Doom are brought to the year 2093 by Merlin to stop a plot by a primarily robotic Doom and the Iron Man of 2093, Andros Stark. Andros is a psychotic madman and uses his grandfather Arno's armor. Tony defeats Andros while wielding the legendary sword Excalibur.Andros Stark/Iron Man 2099 voiced by Alessandro Juliani would later be adopted into the second season of with him being from the year 2099 and traveling back when Tony was a teenager before inventing a A.I. named "Vortex". Vortex dooms the entire human race with Andros donning a futuristic suit and the Extremis to kill Tony/Iron Man but goes to S.H.I.E.L.D. for assistance. Andros destroys Iron Man with his ultra-beam, afterward, Hawkeye managed to implant the virus on Andros's armor, and realized that all this is because Tony was trying to save himself by using the virus to stop Andros using his nano-virus which is actually the original seed for the Vortex virus. He travels back in time for a short moment to warn Iron Man that his nano-virus chips were actually the Vortex virus. He quickly destroys the last nano-virus arrow, saving Andros. As a result of this change in the timeline, the future was saved and because of this, Andros is erased from existence after saying his last words to his grandfather.
Secret Wars (2015) 2099
In the Marvel 2099 line, the new Iron Man of that era is a man named Sonny Frisco. Despite piloting a normal-sized suit of Iron Man armor, Frisco actually suffers from dwarfism. He is a member of the Alchemax corporation's team of Avengers, and secretly uses the help of Vision, a woman with precognitive abilities.3030
The Iron Man of 3030 is Tony Stark's biracial granddaughter, Rhodey Stark. She travels to the present in order to help the Avengers save Earth from a rogue planet that had been fired from the future, and departs after warning her grandfather that his life is in danger.''Adam Warlock''
In Adam Warlock #2, Peter Parker's counterpart on Counter-Earth mentions that "the heart of Tony Stark beats unscathed".Age of Apocalypse
In the Age of Apocalypse, Tony Stark is an agent of the Human High Council. The injury that compromised his heart is caused by the attack of a mutant.Age of X
Officially code named Iron Man, he prefers the name Steel Corpse. Iron Man was infected by a disease, thought to be of mutant origin, that bonded him permanently to his armor. Not only can he never remove the armor, the disease is causing the armor to slowly consume his flesh, meaning that one day Tony Stark will cease to exist and only the armor will be left. He works with this reality's version of the Avengers to exterminate all mutants, but eventually rebells against his purpose when a 'Trojan horse' in the armor nearly drives him to kill innocent mutant children, forcing his teammates to kill him.Avataars
In the sword and sorcery world of the miniseries, Iron Man's counterpart is Ironheart, one of the Champions of the Realm. A powerful warrior, he wears a huge suit of grey armor.Bullet Points
In Bullet Points, Iron Man is Steve Rogers, who, due to the assassination of Dr. Abraham Erskine occurring earlier than in the mainstream Marvel universe, never receives the Super-Soldier formula. Instead, he agrees to be bonded to the prototype 'Iron Man' armor despite the intense physical pain and discomfort this will cause. Rogers is later killed fighting an alternative version of the Hulk. Tony Stark, in this reality a member of S.H.I.E.L.D., expresses a desire to continue in Rogers' footsteps as Iron Man, but is rejected owing to a heart condition. He later disobeys this command and adopts the mantle upon the arrival of Galactus.Contest of Champions
The 2015 series has a version of Tony Stark that won Civil War with nearly everything working out in his favor. Five years later, Tony has donned the Iron Patriot armor and is the President of the United States. He and his Mighty Avengers team are kidnapped by Maestro and placed onto Battleworld, where Maestro alters their memories to believe the remaining heroes are unregistered and need to be taken in. Their fight is interrupted by that universe's Thunderbolts. In the next issue, the Mighty Avengers battle the Thunderbolts and Renegade Champions, during which Tony kills Steve and reveals that the reason the Civil War went completely in his favor was because he used the Reality Gem from the Infinity Gauntlet. When he tries to use it again on Battleworld, it doesn't work because he's in a different dimension, and he's killed by Maestro.''Earth X''
In the alternative reality of Earth X, Tony Stark builds a headquarters that protects himself from a plague that grants all humans superpowers. Afterwards, he builds the Iron Avengers. His headquarters is revealed to be a giant armor, based on the old Godzilla fighting mecha, the Red Ronin, which he uses to delay the Celestial attack until the coming of Galactus, sacrificing his life in the process. In Paradise X, he becomes part of the angelic Avenging Host of Marvel's "Paradise", with an Iron Man motif.Earth-691
In the continuity of Earth-691, Tony Stark is devastated by the horrors of the Martian invasion and jettisons his technology into space. It is found by a primitive alien race who use it to become an interstellar menace calling themselves the Stark, who subsequently clash with the Guardians of the Galaxy in the 31st century. "Standard" continuity Iron Man encountered his "creations" when a cadre of rational, scientific members of the Stark called the Programmers bring Tony Stark to the future to help them solve various planet-wide problems.Earth-2122
In the continuity of Earth-2122, the home of Crusader X, where the British won the American Revolution and still control North America, Anthony Stark is a member of a group called the Sons of Liberty. In this reality, Stark is willing to kill innocent people.Earth-3490
In the continuity of Earth-3490, Tony Stark was born a woman rather than a man; Stark's superhero alter-ego in this universe is Iron Woman. The Civil War between superheroes in Earth-3490 was averted due to the fact that Stark and Steve Rogers are romantically involved, and have since married.''Exiles''
- In Exiles, a villainous alternative Iron Man of Earth-2020 is a member of Weapon X, the more ruthless team of reality fixers. After ending up at the 'Crystal Palace' and fighting them there, he is eventually exposed and sent back to his own timeline where he is arrested by the Army for starting a world war.
- In one alternative reality Tony Stark has become the absolute ruler of the entire planet Earth, and kills many of that Earth's heroes and mutants. Weapon X arrives on this reality to help him conquer Attilan, though their true purpose is to cause his downfall. Tony is eventually killed by Susan Storm.
- In one alternative reality he is partners with both Mr. Fantastic and Doctor Octopus before he created the Iron Man suit.
- On an alternative world devastated by the Hulk's Annihilation Wave, Iron Man was one of those killed in the attack. When the Exiles arrange for the dead heroes to be replaced by alternatives, Iron Man's replacement is a version of Spitfire, on the grounds that they have never got along with any alternative Tony Starks.
- The Sons of Iron are a group of armor-wearing warriors from an Earth shared by humans and reptilian humanoids. Because they are completely concealed by the Iron Man armor, no-one can tell which they are.
''Fantastic Four: The End''
House of M
Born to Howard and Maria Stark, the heads of the powerful business conglomerate Stark Industries, Tony Stark grew to be an imaginative and brilliant inventor. He worked with his father from an early age, and surpassed his father's technical brilliance by the age of 16. Stark became the key supplier of hi-tech weaponry used to fight mutants, and was on the verge of a technological breakthrough when the Mutant-Human war came to an end. The suits are powered down to become part of a game called Robo Death Match, a television sport with giant robots fighting each other. Stark Industries scored its biggest victory when it secured the Sentinel production contracts, pushing major competitor, Jason Wyngarde, out of business. Erik Magnus and Sebastian Shaw awarded Tony the contract under the condition that he would hire Beast and Forge as observers. McCoy became a key contributor along with Doctor Pym on The Vision project. Tony secretly worked on a special project beneath Stark Industries: a brand new suit of hi-tech armor he planned to use as his new Robo Death Match suit.Iron Man: The End
In the one-shot Iron Man: The End, an aging Tony Stark works on his greatest creation, a space elevator called "Big Jump." Stark faces retirement due to age and the physical toll of an illness, no longer allowing him to run his business "Stark Universal" and continue to be Iron Man. This leads to the need to groom a replacement.Iron Maniac
Iron Maniac is an evil alternative universe version of Iron Man from Earth-5012. He first appeared in Marvel Team-Up #2, wearing armor that resembles that of Doctor Doom's. He comes from an alternative reality where most of the Avengers were killed when they encountered the vicious alien Titannus in space. While the team is rescued by the reserve Avengers five years later, it takes another five years to fight back the Trellions, the alien race that has brainwashed Titannus. During that time, a power-hungry Reed Richards turns his back on the surviving heroes. Scarred for life due to an attack from the Human Torch, Iron Man sets his own operation base in Latveria to "take over the world to save it from Richards." Richards somehow manages to banish him into Earth-616 Other differences between his world and Earth-616 include that there is no Spider-Man, and that Hank Pym is another version of the Hulk.After being transported to Earth-616, Iron Maniac fights the Fantastic Four and Doctor Strange, all of whom mistake him for their Doctor Doom. After unmasking himself, they learn his true identity, shortly before he manages to temporarily negate the FF's powers and escape, concluding that he has no reason to trust that they will not turn on him like the FF of his world did. Capturing a recently discovered mutant, the alternative Iron Man attempts to return to his home dimension by using the mutant as a power source, but is attacked by Spider-Man and X-23 as they investigate the situation. After the appearance of Captain America and Black Widow, he realizes that he is in an alternative world, but continues to fight the heroes, calling them all 'Richards' lackeys'. He is defeated thanks to Spider-Man and X-23's use of their own version of the fastball special to destroy his equipment, shortly after 'warning' the other heroes of the Titannus War.
While the alternative Tony Stark is kept locked up and drugged in the S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier, he is briefly visited by his counterpart in this universe, although he is unaware of the visit. Shortly after the alternative Stark is transferred to a conventional cell, Titannus soon arrives and fights the heroes, this time confronting a new group of Defenders assembled by Doctor Strange. When Titannus' comatose lover is revived, she tells him that she never loved him and that he was insane, causing Titannus to kill himself. The alternative Iron Man later discovers from Spider-Man and Wolverine that the Avengers were never massacred in space in this reality because the group had been disassembled, thus never encountering Titannus and averting the so-called 'Titannus War'.
He subsequently broke free from captivity, having immunized himself to the gas that was used to keep him sedated on board the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier. In the process, he gained the unwilling alliance of the LMD Diamondback. Having convinced her that he is the "real" Tony, the AU Tony Stark erased her memories, reshaping the former LMD into an advanced suit of armor. This armor, even more advanced than the pre-Extremis suit Iron Man wore at that time, was able to replicate any weapon from the wearer's memory. He subsequently battled Spider-Man, Wolverine, Captain America and Luke Cage, but was only defeated after the sacrifice of rookie hero Freedom Ring, who kept Iron Maniac occupied long enough for Captain America to knock him out with a shield thrown at the back of his neck.
The name Iron Maniac is what he calls himself, due to being the "sole survivor of a sane world living in a backwards, insane world".
Iron Maniac is known to be at least partially cyberized, with armor plating implanted in his chest. It is unknown whether the rest of his body is similarly armored or if he possesses other cybernetic enhancements.
He has been briefly mentioned as being held in a S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier recently in The Irredeemable Ant-Man.
Iron Man Noir
In Iron Man Noir, Tony Stark is an industrialist in the 1930s. He is also an adventurer, whose exploits are recorded in Marvels: A Magazine Of Men's Adventure. He is initially accompanied by his associate James Rhodes, his personal assistant Giulietta Nefaria and his biographer Vergil Munsey. When Nefaria is revealed as working with the Nazis and Vergil is killed, their role in the story is taken by Stark's new biographer Pepper Potts. His heart having been damaged on an earlier adventure, Stark keeps it going with repulsor technology installed and recharged by Stark Industries engineer Edwin Jarvis.While investigating a mysterious power source in the ruins of Atlantis, Pepper Potts gets kidnapped by the Nazis and taken to their stronghold in Norway. To rescue her, Stark and Rhodes don suits of bulky power armour built by Jarvis, but are shocked to discover that 'Baron Zemo' is actually Tony's missing father Howard Stark, brainwashed by a unique chemical compound to serve the Nazis. Despite his depleted power supply, Tony manages to destroy the various suits of armor that Zemo had built for the Nazis, concluding that his father had died long ago, before returning to the USA.
Inter-company crossovers
In Marvel and DC's Amalgam Comics, Stark is merged with the Green Lantern Hal Jordan into the Iron Lantern. "Hal Stark" wears a suit resembling a green Iron Man armor, powered by a Green Lantern battery.In the miniseries JLA/Avengers, Iron Man aids the Avengers in the battle against Starro the Conqueror. Afterwards, he creates a dimensional alarm in order to tell when invaders from another dimension come into their universe. After a brief scuffle with the JLA in the Savage Land, the Avengers are confronted by Metron, who gives Tony a Mother Box. Using this, Tony is able to get the Avengers to Metropolis, where the Avengers confront the JLA again. The Avengers escape, but Tony and Hawkeye manage to take Green Lantern's Power Battery before they leave, with Tony able to stop the Flash in his tracks. The two later take down Captain Atom and Green Arrow in order to collect the Casket of Ancient Winters. Tony then leaves and arrives to save Photon and Quasar from Wonder Woman and Green Lantern, allowing them to take the Spear of Destiny. After the battle in the Savage Land, Tony is one of the Avengers and is clueless as to the dimensional shifts that are happening around him. After Cap and Superman attack each other, Tony ends up in Metropolis. When the two worlds are briefly corrected by the Grandmaster, Tony is shown his true future with his alcoholism and his defeat by Obadiah Stane. Accepting this, he aids the JLA and the Avengers in the final battle and helped build the ship that took them to Krona's base. During the battle, he teams up with Kyle Rayner to create a weapon to use against their enemies and the two are shown to be impressed by one another, Kyle expressing his awe at Tony's engineering prowess and Tony asking Kyle where he could get a Green Lantern ring.
Mangaverse
In the Marvel Mangaverse reality, Tony Stark creates the original armor together with Dr. Ho Yinsen and acts as Iron Man for a time, but eventually vanishes after a battle with Namor, the Submariner. He is succeeded by Antoinette Stark, his twin sister, a former agent of SHIELD, who turns Iron Man into a massive operation - a veritable army of Iron Men in many forms, with herself as Iron Woman. After she dies in battle against the Hulk, Tony Stark reveals himself again; he has gone underground after spinal cancer reduced him to a disembodied head hooked up to a life support system. However, he has designed a new armor, and a body that he can integrate with.He also had designed four massive vehicles for the Avengers of his world to use, which could combine into a skyscraper-sized Iron Man-mecha. Unfortunately it was quickly destroyed by that world's Hulk. Apparently, however, it was rebuilt again by the time of the second volume, this time as a single robotic unit without transformation. This unit helped fight off the giant Galactus spores, but was later destroyed, along with most of the Avengers, single-handedly by the Mangaverse version of Dr. Doom.
Marvel Adventures
The Marvel Adventures Iron Man is very similar to the Earth-616 Iron Man, but with some changes. Instead of suffering damage to his heart due to a booby trap in Vietnam, Tony Stark's heart was damaged when an experimental plane he was flying was brought down by AIM. AIM wanted Stark to build weapons and devices for them. Dr. Gia-Bao Yinsen aided Tony in escaping AIM, but Yinsen died saving his country from AIM. Iron Man does not seem to have problems with alcoholism, since the Marvel Adventures is aimed at a younger demographic. Iron Man's armor resembles his Extremis armor although Iron Man has other armors that fit over his regular armor, as in the case of his underwater armor.Marvel Apes
The version of Iron Man appearing in the Marvel Apes mini-series is a mandrill, appropriately being named the Iron Mandrill. He is a member of the Apevengers. At one point, he is attacked by the zombified Wasp of the Marvel Zombies universe and infected, though he is later apparently cured when these events are undone via time travel.Marvel Cinematic Universe
In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, this version of Tony Stark / Iron Man is played by actor Robert Downey Jr..Marvel Zombies
The first series
In the Marvel Zombies universe, Tony Stark has been infected by the zombie virus. Alongside a horde of starving undead superhuman zombies, Iron Man attacks the Silver Surfer. The attack is successful, but one of the Surfer's energy bolts hits Iron Man's lower torso, cutting him in half. The zombie "survives" this wound and later gains cosmic powers by eating part of the Surfer's corpse. When Galactus arrives, Iron Man and the five other surviving zombies devour him. They are able to absorb Galactus' power, and call themselves "The Galacti".Marvel Zombies 2
He also appears in Marvel Zombies 2, one of the small group of super-powered zombies that have eaten their way across all known space. Here Stark has had his entire lost lower body replaced with cybernetics. He also appears to have forgotten he had some design in the machine which opened a link to the Ultimate Universe. He was shocked to see Forge, one of the surviving X-Men, wearing his Mark I armored suit. The zombified Hulk kills Iron Man when he stomps through the armor, forcing Tony Stark's flesh and blood through any openings left in the armor. However Iron Man had recently revived next issue, but only as a cameo, on Marvel Zombies 3.Marvel Zombies Return
In the final issue of Marvel Zombies 2, the remaining zombies are transported to another universe. At the point where the zombies reach this new reality, the period is nearly identical to the one where Tony Stark was an alcoholic. Zombie Giant Man infects Happy Hogan, Pepper Potts and a number of other people at Stark Industries. A drunken Tony Stark lacks the will power to become Iron Man despite Pepper Potts' requests, so James Rhodes dons the suit to save him. Crucial to fate of the multiverse are the nanites that Stark has accidentally created, which destroy damaged flesh and tissue as a cure for cancer, and prove to be a potent weapon against the zombies. This was grafted onto Flint Marko's body. He sacrifices himself to kill several zombies in Stark Tower, with Rhodes permanently succeeding him in the role of Iron Man. His nanites are then used by his successor, now a member of the New Avengers, years later to kill the remaining super-powered zombies and end the inter-dimensional zombie threat.MC2
In the alternative future of MC2, Tony Stark retires after the loss of many heroes in battle, but eventually creates the armored computer program Mainframe, which joins the next generation of Avengers.Mini Marvels
Iron Man is a recurring character in "Mini Marvels". He appears in story arcs like "The Armored Avengers" & "World War Hulk". He is portrayed as conceited and thinks himself the best of the team. He has a friendly rivalry with Hawkeye.''Newuniversal''
In the alternative world of newuniversal, Tony Stark is one of three humans altered by the Fireworks on April 26, 1953, gaining abilities associated with the Cipher glyph. Prior to the Fireworks, Stark is unexceptional, but he then becomes a technological genius. His discoveries revitalise his father's company, Stark Industries, and are "five years ahead of everything everyone else is working on". There are suggestions that he is capable of more, but is not making all of his discoveries public.Stark's transformation is noticed by the National Security Agency's Project Spitfire, which is discreetly monitoring the superhumans created by the Fireworks. In March 1959, Stark's plane crashes in North Vietnam and he is imprisoned. He escapes by constructing an Iron Man suit from "spare parts" and flying out of the country.
On April 4, 1959, when he returns to the US, the NSA takes Stark to a San Diego naval base, ostensibly to debrief him. Stark is then shot dead by Philip L. Voight, a Project Spitfire agent, to prevent him from making contact with the other superhumans.
The Iron Man suit is seized by Project Spitfire and reverse engineered by Doctor Joe Swann, eventually becoming the basis of the project's H.E.X suit, an exoskeleton designed for combat with superhumans.
''Ruins''
In the two issue Warren Ellis series Ruins, Tony Stark is a rich industrialist who supplied weapons for the US military in an attempt to win the Vietnam War. This version of Iron Man was injured while mediating between US forces and pro-secessionist Californians by a piece of shrapnel thrown by the National Guard. This embittered Stark who formed a revolutionary cell named the Avengers. This version of Iron Man was betrayed by Scarlet Witch who provided the United States military information to crush the Avengers. Tony Stark is presumably killed.''Spider-Verse''
In the Amazing Spider-Man comic's event Spider-Verse, Spider-Woman, Scarlet Spider and Spider-man meet and fight a clone of Tony Stark as Iron Man serving one of the Inheritors, Jennix.''Spider-Island''
In a Secret Wars Warzone version of Spider-Island, he is mutated into one of the Spider Queen's spider minions and battles Agent Venom and the now monstrous Avengers. Venom sprays Tony with Norman Osborn's Green Goblin formula, freeing Tony from the Queen, but slowly making him insane. He modifies Norman's armor and becomes the Iron Goblin to aid the resistance. When they are surrounded by a number of spider creatures with few means of escape, Tony sacrifices himself using the Black Knight's Ebony Blade so he can aid them and die before the Goblin formula completely takes him over.''Spider-Gwen''
In Spider-Gwen Tony Stark of Earth-65 is an arms dealer, the owner of global private military company WAR MACHINE, and owner of the coffee chain StarkBucks.''Spider-Man: Life Story''
In Spider-Man: Life Story, Tony Stark/Iron Man does not face a traumatizing experience that leads to stop weapons manufacturing as his Earth-616 counterpart did instead he continues to produce them and play a key role in the Vietnam War and a World War III-esque conflict known as "The Russian War" as well as participating in Secret Wars while on Battleworld. Iron Man also became Secretary of Defense in the United States government and was one of the two leaders alongside Captain America in the Superhuman Civil War.Squadron Supreme
In the Squadron Supreme series, the equivalent of Iron Man is Tucker Ford. Tucker was a very intelligent boy since his early years, however since being raised by his strong-willed mother along with never going to school with anyone his own age made Tucker to have difficulty to make any kind of meaningful personal relationship and because of this, he became very introverted.As he grew up, he had built an imaginative world where he was a superhero. When trying to explain his imaginations to his therapist, they turned around and mocked him before their colleagues, however being unaware that Tucker had them under electronic surveillance. This experience motivated him to follow his dream and become a real superhero.
As a young adult, he built a powerful, but unstable armour made from nanotechnology in order to achieve his dream, eventually meeting the head of S.H.I.E.L.D., Nick Fury and offered his intelligence and company to Nick Fury to help defend America.
He fails to gain the affection of Nick Fury and to get a kiss from the spider-powered superhuman, Nell Ruggles, also known as Arachnophilia.
He offers to build a S.H.I.E.L.D. Hellicarrier as a base for the organization and to be a member of the team in order to live out of his imagination. The only person that Tucker had the closest relationship with is Nell, expressing romantic feelings towards her.