Biography for
Iron Man (Character)
from Iron Man (2008)

Iron Man, the armor clad tragic hero is Anthony Edward "Tony" Stark. Son of Howard Anthony Stark and Maria Collins Carbonell Stark, and heir to their high-tech weapons research and development company Stark Industries. A born genius, Tony entered the Massachusetts Institute of Technology undergraduate program at age 15 and graduated with a Masters in electrical engineering. By age 21 Tony gain control of his deceased parents company which had been held in trust for him by the chairman of Stark Industries, Obadiah Stane.

Much like other Marvel characters, Iron Man/Tony Stark is as human as they come. With a penchant for women, booze and partying, he lives the extravagant life of the billionaire playboy -- but only when he's not working on a new high-tech invention. Tony has little time for people; his only real friends are his assistant Virginia "Pepper" Potts and his military liaison, James "Rhody" Rhodes.

Original Back-story/Origin

One day, he was testing experimental weaponry when, after successfully demonstrating miniaturized mortars, he steps on a trip wire. With a piece of shrapnel lodged in his heart, Tony created armor in order to survive. After his injuries healed, he decided to use the armor to fight crime as Iron Man. His armor has an immense array of weapons and gadgets, and he uses them as a member of The Avengers, a superhero group.

Movie Back-story/Origin

While traveling through Afghanistan after an on-site demonstration of his company's latest weapons system for the U.S. military, Stark's convoy comes under attack and he is seriously injured. Stark awakes to find himself bandaged and lying in a furnished cave, where a terrorist group is holding him captive. Yinsen, a talented surgeon who had also been captured, had saved his life by implanting an electromagnet in Stark's chest to keep the shrapnel that could not be removed from making its way to his heart and killing him. Though grateful to be alive, Stark had little to celebrate since his captors expected him to provide them with the same weapons system that he had just demonstrated for the military. After some "persuasion", Stark agrees to build their weapons, but instead begins work on his Mark I armor so that he and Yinsen can escape.

After escaping and realizing that the very weapons he helped design were being used by extremist groups to terrorize innocent citizens, Stark decides to begin a one man crusade to save others from the horrors that his company had created. With that, he began work on the Mark II armor and his quest to save the innocent from those whom would do them harm.