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Anthony Edward Stark, the adopted son of wealthy
industrialist and head of Stark
Industries, Howard
Stark, and Maria
Stark, was born on Long
Island. A boy genius, he enters MIT at the age of 15 to
study electrical engineering and later receives
master's degrees in electrical engineering and physics. After
his parents are killed in a car accident, he inherits his
father's company.
Tony Stark is injured by a booby trap and captured
by enemy forces led by Wong-Chu.
Wong-Chu orders Stark to build weapons, but Stark's injuries are
dire and shrapnel is moving towards his heart. His fellow
prisoner, Ho
Yinsen, a Nobel
Prize-winningphysicist whose work Stark
had greatly admired during college, constructs a magnetic chest plate to keep
the shrapnel from reaching Stark's heart, keeping him alive. In
secret, Stark and Yinsen use the workshop to design and
construct a suit of powered armor, which
Stark uses to escape. But during the escape attempt, Yinsen
sacrifices his life to save Stark's by distracting the enemy as
Stark recharges. Stark takes revenge on his kidnappers and heads
back to rejoin the American forces, on his way meeting a wounded
American Marine fighter pilot, James
"Rhodey" Rhodes.
Back home, Stark discovers that the shrapnel
fragment lodged in his chest cannot be removed without killing
him, and he is forced to wear the armor's chestplate beneath his
clothes to act as a regulator for his heart. He must recharge
the chestplate every day or else risk the shrapnel killing him.
The cover
story that
Stark tells the news media and general public is that Iron Man
is his (presumably robotic) personal bodyguard,
and corporate mascot. To that end, Iron Man fights threats to
his company (e.g.,Communist opponents Black Widow,
the Crimson
Dynamo, and the Titanium
Man), as well as independent villains like theMandarin (who eventually
becomes his greatest enemy). No one suspects Stark of being Iron
Man, as he cultivates a strong public image of being merely a
rich playboy and industrialist. Two notable members of the
series' supporting cast, at this point, are his personal
chauffeur Harold "Happy" Hogan,
and secretary Virginia
"Pepper"
Potts—to both of whom he eventually reveals
his dual identity. Meanwhile, James Rhodes finds his own niche
as Stark's personal pilot, ultimately revealing himself to be a
man of extraordinary skill and daring, in his own right.
The series took an anti-Communist stance in its
early years, which was softened as public (and therefore,
presumably, reader) opposition rose to the Vietnam
War. This change evolved in a series of storylines
featuring Stark profoundly reconsidering his political opinions,
and the morality of manufacturing weapons for the U.S. military.
Stark shows himself to be occasionally arrogant, and willing to
act unethically in order to 'let the ends justify the means'. This leads to personal conflicts with the people
around him, both in his civilian and superhero identities. Stark
uses his vast personal fortune not only to outfit his own armor,
but also to develop weapons for S.H.I.E.L.D.;
other technologies (e.g., Quinjets used by the Avengers); and,
the image inducers used by theX-Men.
Eventually, Stark's heart condition is discovered by the public
and resolved with an artificial heart transplant.
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